An Evening On Haiti

Malayalee presence in Haiti, India keeps help promise, Tharoor’s visit…and some questions


It was a decade ago that the 9/11 struck and changed the times and lives of all of us. Each one of us has been directly or indirectly affected by the worst terror strike so far. It split the world. It changed our habits and order of life.

Four years ago tsunami raged and swept away hundreds of thousands of lives. When waves were transformed into monstrous giants, man appeared helpless. Tsunami still lurks somewhere on the fringes of our mind—every time we drive by a beach or see the play of the waves on mossy rocks, we don’t fail to recollect the murderer in them.
Last month nature struck again—this time in the form of a vengeful earthquake. It is not anywhere near Trivandrum, nor is it going to change the pattern of daily life in this laidback city of ours. But the earthquake in Haiti that killed over 200,000 people and threw many more than that into the streets will surely disturb some of us.

If 9/11 attacks paved the way for debates and conferences to drive home the need for peace, tolerance and inter-religious dialogues and understanding, tsunamis and earthquakes ask questions of a different shade.

Are there any lessons that we have to learn from these expressions of nature’s fury? Are we encroaching into the nature? Or, how should we be prepared if such an earthquake splits the ground beneath our feet in this city?

Last week members of the Trivandrum-based foreign policy think tank Kerala International Centre (KIC) met at the YMCA Library Hall to discuss Haiti. It might appear an evening of no topical relevance. But it turned out to be quite the contrary.

Before we get into some sketchy thoughts about earthquakes and what we should be wary of, it would be of our clannish interest to know that there is a Malayalee presence in Haiti too. No, it is not just Dr Shashi Tharoor, the first Indian minister to visit this country, which is tucked in the fault line between the North American and Caribbean tectonic plates.

There are Malayalees running grocery shops and cafeteria and two nuns with Mother
Teresa’s organization. It is said that when the quake splintered the tiny country and people were thrown into the streets, the cafeterias and grocery shops were a blessing. These shops remained opened all through the nights providing food and drinks to the victims.

There are about 100 Indians in Haiti, and only one of them—an IT staff—has so far been reported killed in the quake, said Tharoor, who shared the experience of his visit to the country to the KIC audience.

The minister, who landed in the country in a chopper, said India is one of the first countries to keep the promise of help. He said India has handed over a cheque of $5 million to the Haiti government, which has identified between 217,000 and 230,000 people as dead, an estimated 300,000 injured, and an estimated 1,000,000 homeless.

The death toll is expected to rise since we know the official numbers will always be only an indicator. They have also estimated that 250,000 residences and 30,000 commercial buildings have collapsed or are severely damaged.
The UN has lost its most number of staff in the Haiti disaster. Tharoor said he had lost four friends, two of them long-time ones.

It is when a disaster or a calamity strikes that we come to know how vulnerable we are. Recently, we have realised how ill-prepared we are when a building collapsed in Thampanoor. We have realized that there are miles to go for us in rescue operations. Those who warn of our shortcomings are not problem-preachers. The better prepared we are, the safer.

India is not a stranger to earthquakes—Lathur images still linger is many of us.
Geographical statistics of India show that almost 54 per cent of the land is vulnerable to earthquakes. The major reason for the high frequency and intensity of the earthquakes is that India is driving into Asia at a rate of approximately 47 mm/year.

Concerns that the members of the KIC raised are: how many of our buildings can withstand a strong quake? Do we have a national mission on this? In Kerala, we witness a boom in real estate development. But is there anyone who is cutting corners? Is there anyone ignoring the rules and regulations? Whether the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s report linking natural disasters to global warming is a wee bit exaggerated or a goof-up or not, it is time we checked our greedy encroaches into nature.

Before winding up his heart-wrenching experience in the country, Tharoor explained how the president of the country was spared. When the Presidential Palace collapsed President Rene Preval was in his private home. That too collapsed, but the president was feeding his grandchild in the garden!

Independent think tank

KIC is an independent foreign affairs think tank, the first of its kind in Kerala. It seeks to build a centre of excellence in the state capital as a forum to provide inputs from Kerala to foreign policy formulation and implementation.

“People from Kerala have reached the farthest corners of the globe and made their mark. With major stakes in the success of Indian foreign policy, Kerala has taken the initial step to make a contribution to Indian foreign policy making and implementation by setting up the KIC as an independent foreign policy think tank," says Mr TP Sreenivasan, managing trustee and director general, KIC, and former Indian ambassador to the UN, in its website.
“We expect and hope that, in the years to come, it will be a centre of excellence. The objectives, activities and the structure of the Centre are outlined in the following pages.” The KIC expects more people to get involved in its activities and meetings.