2016 May 29
by Anuki Premachandra
The torrential rains poured down upon us about a week ago. For the past few weeks, those along the banks of the Kelani river, whose homes were swallowed by the floods or, those whose homes have been buried when the great mountains came crashing down taking the lives and homes of whoever who was on its way with it, cried for help. The daily routine of watching news every night became a dreaded task. Feelings of anxiousness and worry overtook those at home, on their couches, watching live updates of what is happening around them, in their neighbourhoods, their childhood villages, as the lady reading the news kept them informed about the lives and communities the great rains forcefully took away. What’s surprising to me is the uncertainty of the course of actions that took place in just a short amount of time. We went from recording the highest temperatures ever recorded in the island, to monsoon rains that gave way to floods and landslides causing great unsettlement in the country.
This could be said to have a lesson for us all. We learnt that at the end of the day, even the proudest of men would have to bend down for help. We learnt that money, can quite simply be washed away or eroded into a pool of rubble. We learnt that nature is unpredictable, it gave us a reminder of the tragedy that overtook the island in 2004, the great tsunami; a reminder that human lives can be taken away in the blink of an eye.
This isn’t a recap of what happened around the island the past few weeks, a news article of some sort. This is an article reading in between the lines of the events that overtook the past two weeks. What did the rains teach us? Keep reading to find out…
- We’ve all got still humanity left in us
Government reports stated that at least 200,000 or more people were displaced by the floods. Many injuries, casualties and missing persons reported. I read a status that one of my friend’s, who was affected by the flood put up a few days ago, she spoke of how at the end of the day it wasn’t the politicians or the elites that made promises during the elections that came to their rescue, but it was the forces and ‘normal’ people who came to help them move their furniture, evacuated them from their houses immediately and took care of them while they were in refugee camps.
The amount of aid and donations that were guided towards these victims were beyond expectation. Here at Derana, under their CSR project, Manusath Derana, they began to start collecting rice packets and dry rations to distribute in the areas of those affected. Walking in to office, I was overwhelmed to see every spare space available of the floor, be covered in boxes of dry rations, clothes and food. This was not only at Derana, so many places around Colombo began instantly collecting rations and other supplied for donations. A taxi service in the country, PickMe must be credited for the services they offered those few weeks, they had both a donation collecting campaign, and a SOS help campaign with the Sri Lankan Navy.
Those abroad started their own awareness projects in the Sri Lankan communities and networks they had. From guiding others towards online donation windows like the ones provided by RedCross, to a number of other programmes whipped up in just a matter of ours. We showed the world, that no matter where we are, whether in the country we call home our home or not, if our motherland needs our help, we wouldn’t hesitate for a second.
People acted fast. So many youth networks that I know of started campaigns to collect donations and projects to visit areas affected and help those in need. The only thing our newsfeeds showed were posts with the hashtag #prayforsrilanka followed by more donations and campaigns for help.
Humanity showed. It was the knight that made the lives of those affected, better. We were reminded that we were one nation, one that together can win it all.
- Ekema Le triumphs Sinha Le
So what happened to all the sinhale stickers on tuks and cars and vans on the road? What happened to the ideology that Sri Lankans are pure ‘sinhala’ blood and nothing else? If you, like me was wondering what these stickers on the windows of tuks are cars were, allow me to explain it to you. So a minority of people, started to paste these ‘sinhale’ stickers to identify them as Sinhalese and to also promote that above described pathetic ideology. To those of you considering yourself to be pure Sinhalese, aka a sinhale supporter, where did you ego go huh? When your houses were literally submerged in water, way up to your first slab, I don’t think you made an issue that the guy in the rescue boat, a muslim, was helping you evacuate. I don’t think you made a big deal that your daily meals you had the next few days were cooked by a tamil family.
You didn’t. You accepted the fact that sometimes you need to keep your ego aside and accept people for who they are, and not a religion or ethnicity they are born into. For all of those sinhale supporters, shame on you. Those men that saved you from being trapped and drowned in your houses, they didn’t let ethnic rivalries or ideologies get in their way. And neither did you.
We’re all Sri Lankan, and only that. Our ethnicities should only define our cultures and beliefs. But it should never be what separates us from one another. We’re a family of one blood, at least the rain and floods reminded us of it.
- We need better disaster management strategies
Following the situation of the landslides in the district of Kegalle, watching a news segment on this tragedy, I heard a women tell a news reporter this. “It sounded like a helicopter, but the minute we looked out of our window, we saw the mountain pour down through a cloud of smoke. It was hard to realise what was happening, because the dust and smoke covered the whole area. But once we did realise that the mountain was eroding and that it would take away us with it, my mom and I quickly ran to a nearby cave. We were lucky to be alive. Most of the villagers are missing, the whole area is unidentifiable. It looks like an ordinary mountain plain, not like one that housed a civilization”.
Hearing her say this, I realised that our disaster management strategies need a lot of work. Even the people by the banks of the Kelani river had to say the same thing. They said it was “unexpected” and they didn’t know what to do. Seems like the country’s government better allocate their resources towards efficient disaster management strategies to prevent greater causalities and destruction, in future in the event something tragic were to occur.
