Banda Aceh impressions of tsunami aftermaths

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Arrived in Banda all very organised with the Taxis set price 90,000Rp fixed from the airport all set up for all the NGO people the number of which are now dwindling. Banda seems OK.

First impressions of the Tsunami aftermaths personally I can’t just go to such a place and pretend nothing has happened.
We talked to many people about the tragedy people who experienced it, people who were there already and the first outsiders in, people from NGOs who had been working there and how it all went afterwards.

The Military were some of the best with the right equipment and organisation to sort things the quickest. I was working in Thailand at the time and travelling offshore through Utapao airport. This is the old B52 bomber base they used as one of the places to bomb Vietnam and Cambodia and the reason that Pattaya is as it is today, its a huge airport it went very quickly from being a sleepy hollow with a couple of flights a day, back to being a busy US base though this time flying aid in from the states and back out to Banda Aceh as quick as they could. Instead of doing the same thing to Cambodia and Vietnam but with bombs. A very good operation this time until the Indonesians asked the military to go. The Australians were in there as well. The military must be the people with the best first response for this kind of disaster.

There are areas of damage still, many new houses I can’t comment on how successful the rebuilding has all been, people wanted to expose the wastage of funds the huge number of large SUVs on the road that were not there before. No traffic jams in Ache before the Tsunami plenty now. There are a lot of houses but how they have been distributed, are they spread around the area out of the view of transiting tourists I don’t know. The documentaries about the wastage didn’t get made; the people asked to participate didn’t want to stop the 20% of cash that was benefitting local people from being donated and getting through.

Many people volunteered but mostly the people got the work through the NGOs as they controlled it. It’s said they have their own branches of Starbucks etc. Which follow them disaster to disaster.

There were many instances of rent a body, you take an unemployed painter and decorator get them on pay and make them a project leader in charge of the construction of 200 houses and start claiming their expenses and wages from the pot. They can’t build houses worth shit but they get the cash rolling in the tick box is complete. Just because charities don’t make profits does not mean that people in them do not get paid sometimes well, often very well. Then there are perks days off deemed necessary to cope with the stress legitimate just depends to what extent it all happens.

It seems that when charities quote the small amount of money that goes on administration to make donors think the cash is getting through they do not mention the running costs, this is the money for all the SUVs, Good Hotel rooms, Wages of all the various bodies and there living expenses etc. It’s much higher than the admin costs. Local expenses that generally do not greatly benefit the communities the cash was donated to help.

It’s not an easy call, so many people mean well, so many want to get their hands on the cash; disorganisation is inevitable under the terrible circumstances people found themselves dealing with. Doing nothing is not an option. But many people who were there anyway were not to happy about the way it panned out.

Myself I donated but did not help.
There are mountains of disturbing rubbish in Banda Ache it looks like minced houses which of course is what it is, kids toys bits of fridges smashed TV sets furniture dirt and building materials all rolled together it has the feel of the terrible devastation about it even now so long after the event.

People talk of the peace deal and say it was convenient for both sides all the mass graves from the war and the disaster are indistinguishable now. It is good that the opportunity to end this was taken regardless.

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