The Drum Beat 283 - Tsunami Communication Responses

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On December 26 2004, an earthquake and a series of tsunamis wreaked havoc in the Indian Oceans' coastal communities. Numbers do little to communicate the extent of the tragedy and the gravity of the situation, but as of January 14 2005, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported 157,464 persons dead, 27,303 persons missing, and 1,167,006 persons displaced in South Asia, South East Asia, and East Africa. On January 20 2005, BBC News reported that the number of people known to have died in the disaster had reached 220,000 (click here).

This issue of the Drum Beat explores some of the roles that communication has played in the aftermath of this particular natural disaster, and highlights some of the strategic ways that communication might be drawn upon to respond to or prevent such devastation in the future.

Please send contributions for The Communication Initiative website and The Drum Beat to the Editor, Deborah Heimann dheimann@comminit.com

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COMMUNICATION AS AN AID

1.Phone Call Saved Scores of Indian Villagers from Tsunami

by Chin Saik Yoon - Digital Review of Asia Pacific

This article relates the role of Vijayakumar Gunasekaran, the son of a fisherman from Nallavadu village (Pondicherry, India) who works in Singapore. "As the seriousness of the disaster in Aceh sank in he began to worry about the safety of his family living along the Indian coastline facing Aceh. He decided to phone home...[H]is sister answered the phone. She told him that seawater was seeping into their home when he asked what was happening in Nallavadu...He asked his sister to quickly leave their home and to also warn other villagers to evacuate the village. 'Run out and shout the warning to others' he urged his sister...The warning from Vijayakumar, collaborated at this time by a second overseas telephone call from Gopu, another villager working abroad, was broadcast across the village using the loud-speaker system. The village's siren was sounded immediately afterwards for the people to evacuate. No one was killed in this village as a result of the timely warnings."

2.South Asian Tsunami Relief

NetHope and its partners have devised a system for making portable Internet technology available to those in even the most remote coastal communities affected by the catastrophe. Still in a prototype stage, NetReliefKits (NRKs) are rugged, suitcase-sized, wireless-based voice and data communications devices with access to the Internet via a mobile satellite station. According to this report, the device "can be made operable within hours of a disaster striking. The NRK may be powered by mains as well as car battery." The purpose of the tool is to provide an easy-to-set up and operate communications hub for disaster management. NetHope is shipping a total of 5 NRKs to the region; one will be installed in a mobile van.

3.Internews Assists the Sole Radio Station Back on the Air in Aceh

Internews responded to the tsunamis by providing a radio station in the Indonesian city of Banda Aceh with a suitcase radio transmitter and computer equipment. "Suara Aceh" (Voice of Aceh) thereby became an emergency radio station through its broadcasts of health and relief aid information. Internews plans to install a second suitcase radio station in Meulaboh and to set up small radio stations in the International Displaced Persons camps in Aceh; inexpensive radio transistor sets are being donated to the camps' inhabitants. Internews is also helping build an emergency media centre in Aceh. A team is meeting with radio, print, and television journalists from local media outlets and with the local branch of the new broadcasting commission to devise short- and long-term needs for reconstructing the media there.

4.Early Warning? Ask Nicobar's Stone-agers

by Ranjit Devraj - Inter Press Service (IPS)

"Stone-age tribes living on India's remote Andaman and Nicobar Islands not only survived the devastating December 26 tsunami...but may actually have a few lessons in reading natural early-warning systems for their less perceptive Asian neighbors, say scientists....[T]he Onges, Jarawas, Sentinalese and Great Andamanese who live in the archipelago escaped unscathed because they took to the forests and higher ground well in time. 'These tribes live close to nature and are known to heed biological warning signs like changes in the cries of birds and the behavior patterns of land and marine animals'."

SEE ALSO:

* Dutch Amateur Radio Emergency Service (DARES) Foundation

Because the Indonesian Government does not allow foreign radio amateurs or foreign radio equipment to enter Indonesian territory, this organisation "will focus on a long-term plan to sponsor a Winlink2000-station in Asia in order to help regional hams to prepare their ARES-system on future disasters and give them the opportunity to establish worldwide email-contact even without internet access not only when disaster strikes but also under normal circumstances."

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Internews has launched an urgent appeal to support local journalists in the tsunami-ravaged areas of Asia. Local independent media in these areas are vital in assuring that important public health and relief information reaches the most vulnerable in their communities; rehabilitating their capacity (by, for instance, getting local radio stations back up and running) is critical to the humanitarian response, says Internews.

For more information on how to help, contact JoAnne Sullivan, Internews Director of Development at (202) 833-5740 ext. 208 or jsullivan@internews.org

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COMMUNICATION OPPORTUNITIES & DEFICIENCIES

5.Helicopter Journalism: What's Missing in the Tsunami Coverage

by Danny Schechter - Mediachannel.org

This analysis piece critiques "helicopter journalism", described by Schechter as "distanced 'outside-in' reporting that accesses few if any sources in the country itself, does not speak the language, and does not explain much about what is going on. It's like the foreign correspondent who flies into a conflict zone for an afternoon and gets most of his information from a taxi driver." Reflecting on media reports from the tsunami disaster, Schechter raises a number of questions about the media's strategy for sharing information in, and raising awareness about, emergencies. His conclusion: "As the crisis deepens, the journalism has not."

6.Tsunami Disaster: A Failure in Science Communication

by David Dickson - SciDev.net

"At the heart of the devastation caused by the Indian Ocean tsunamis lies a failure to communicate scientific information adequately to either decision-makers or the community." Based on this assessment, David Dickson urges that any future plans include provisions for developing and making use of the professional skills of journalists in general, and science journalists in particular. These skills, Dickson explains, involve the capacity not merely to spew facts, but the more complex ability to "identify and make comprehensible the potential impact of such information on the lives of readers, listeners or viewers." Along with communication's power during times of crisis comes what Dickson describes as a weighty responsibility among journalists to ensure the accuracy of the information they are communicating; the Internet can be a useful tool here, he suggests.

7.Gender and Natural Disasters: Why We Should Be Focusing on a Gender Perspective of the Tsunami Disaster

by Rochelle Jones - Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID)

Jones argues that, in the aftermath of such catastrophes as the tsunami, disaster management plans and humanitarian assistance must be linked with gender dynamics in order to "precipitate a greater understanding of what is needed to ensure that women's unique circumstances during natural disasters are not only recognized, but acted upon." That is, while the physical aspects of natural disasters are fixed, "the social and economic aspects are not. They can be reshaped, used and sometimes abused." In the best cases, she suggests, natural disasters can even become a platform for social change: Using such communication tools as the media and such strategies as community mobilisation, women can voice their vulnerabilities, reduce their invisibility, and restructure misguided gendered conceptions that limit them - during disasters and beyond.

SEE ALSO:

* 2004 Tsunami Disaster - Scholarly and Factual Analyses

Offered by the Asian Studies WWW Virtual Library (The Australian National University, Canberra), this document catalogues web links to online analyses and discussions of the demographic, economic, political, and security implications of the disaster.

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Pulse Opinions

Explicit attention to culture - both of the implementers and the stakeholders - is crucial to the success of all development projects.

Do you agree or disagree?

[For context, please see The Drum Beat 281]

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COMMUNICATION AS A PREVENTIVE TO DISASTER

8.Wave of Change: How to Build a Global Internet Tsunami Warning System

by Robert X. Cringely - Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)

In lieu of a time-consuming, expensive, global cooperation effort, Cringely claims, it is various localised, community-based processes that will be the key to preventing a tsunami catastrophe from happening again. In short, his idea is "what we care about here is not global tsunami warning but LOCAL tsunami warning (Is it going to hit MY beach?)." In this commentary, he lays out such a framework, arguing that "You don't even need broadband. The data is available, processing power is abundant and cheap. With local effort, there is no reason why every populated beach on earth can't have a practical tsunami warning system up and running a month from now."

9.Text Messages Aid Disaster Recovery

by Clark Boyd - BBC News

"Text messaging technology was a valuable communication tool in the aftermath of the tsunami disaster in Asia. The messages can get through even when the cell phone signal is too weak to sustain a spoken conversation. Now some are studying how the technology behind SMS [Short Message Service] could be better used during an emergency....The idea is to use open-source software - software can be used by anyone without commercial restraint - and a far-flung network of talent to create a system that links those in need with those who can help..."

10.National Society for Earthquake Technology (NSET) - Nepal

The Kathmandu-based NSET is a non-government, non-profit organisation using communication in an effort to help Nepalese communities become earthquake-safe. NSET uses low-tech innovations, interpersonal channels, and the media to mobilise community members of all ages to be aware of their vulnerabilities to earthquakes, and to develop and implement organised approaches to manage and minimise earthquake risks within the buildings in which they live, learn, and work. Participation is at the forefront in such activities as the shake table demonstration, Earthquake Safety Day (ESD) activities, and the Environmental Mapping Programme.

Contact nset@nset.org.np

SEE ALSO:

* "Responding to the Tsunami Tragedy: Women Must be at the Heart of Rebuilding Shattered Communities" - Statement by Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Director, United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM).

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ConunDRUMs

NEW Feature!!

Tides of Hope?

Warren Feek suggests some overall communication strategies for the longer term redevelopment process in communities and countries affected by the earthquake and tsunami. He argues that the necessary culture of short term relief and care should not extend to the long term. All agencies need to ensure that solid development communication principles guide the longer term interventions. 6 specific strategies are proposed.

Click here to access "Tides of Hope?"

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ONLINE RESOURCES

11. South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami Blog

This interactive, participatory website provides news and information about resources, aid, donations, and volunteer efforts.

12. Family Links

This ICRC website is meant to help those separated by conflict or disaster in a number of regions around the world to find information about their loved ones in order to restore contact.

13.Indian Ocean Disaster Relief Portal (Tsunamihelp) - Global

This web portal project is an effort to share information and resources with victims of the disaster through voluntary, participatory citizen journalist reporting. Maintained by Wikinews creators, including the creators of The South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami Blog (SEA-EAT), the Indian Ocean Disaster Relief Portal (Tsunamihelp) organises information into an interactive online emergency database that shares resources in the form of news and images, as well as support and relief. The specific type of technology being used is Wiki, which is a website (or other hypertext documents collection) allowing users to add or edit content freely. Wikinews' mission is "to create a diverse community where anyone can independently report the news on a wide variety of current events."

Contact Peter Griffin zigzackly@gmail.com OR Dina Mehta explore@vsnl.com OR Bala Pitchandi bala.pitchandi@gmail.com

14. Voices and Actions of Youth on the Tsunami

Coordinated by Voices of Youth (UNICEF), this online discussion forum is designed to enable youth to talk about the tsunami and what they can do to help.

15. Asia Regional Information Center (ARIC)'s Asian Tsunami subsite

Launched by the Asia Regional Information Center (ARIC) of the Asian Development Bank to provide updates on the disaster, this subsite includes updated casualty figures, links to news reports, country and international responses, and impact assessments.

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This issue was written by Kier Olsen DeVries.

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The Drum Beat seeks to cover the full range of communication for development activities. Inclusion of an item does not imply endorsement or support by The Partners.


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