[chapter-delegates] The Drum Beat - 283 - Tsunami Communication Responses (fwd)

Tue Jan 25 23:54:26 PST 2005

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Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2005 21:14:43 -0800
From: The Drum Beat <drumbeat at comminit.com>

The Drum Beat - Issue 283 - Tsunami Communication Responses
January 24 2005

from The Communication Initiative...global forces...local
choices...critical voices...telling stories...

Partners: BBC World Service Trust, Bernard van Leer Foundation, CFSC
Consortium, The CHANGE Project, CIDA, DFID, Exchange, FAO, Ford
Foundation, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for
Communication Programs, OneWorld, The Panos Institute, PCI, The
Rockefeller Foundation, Soul City, The Synergy Project, UNAIDS, UNICEF,
USAID, WHO.

Chair of the Partners Group: Garth Japhet, Soul City
garthj at soulcity.org.za
Director: Warren Feek wfeek at comminit.com
http://www.comminit.com

Subscribe to The Drum Beat:
http://www.comminit.com/subscribe_drumbeat.html

***

On December 26 2004, an earthquake and a series of tsunamis wrecked 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 (see
 http://www.comminit.com/redirect.cgi?r=http://aric.adb.org/asiantsunami/numbers_casualties.asp). On January 20 2005, BBC News reported that the number of people known to have died in the disaster had reached 220,000 (see http://www.comminit.com/redirect.cgi?r=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4190375.stm).

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 at comminit.com

***

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."
http://www.comminit.com/strategicthinking/st2005/thinking-964.html

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.
http://www.comminit.com/strategicthinking/st2005/thinking-977.html

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.
http://www.comminit.com/strategicthinking/st2005/thinking-963.html

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'."
http://www.comminit.com/strategicthinking/st2005/thinking-966.html

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."
http://www.comminit.com/redirect.cgi?r=http://www.dares.nl/tsunami_disaster.htm

***

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 at internews.org OR visit
http://www.comminit.com/redirect.cgi?r=http://www.internews.org/prs/tsunami/tsunami_relief_050105.html

To make a donation:
http://www.comminit.com/redirect.cgi?r=http://www.internews.org/about/donations.htm

***

COMMUNICATION OPPORTUNITIES & DEFICIENCIES

5.  Helicopter Journalism: What's Missing in the Tsunami Coverage
by Danny Schechter - Mediachannel.org
This analysis piece critiques "helicopter journalism", which Schechter
describes 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."
http://www.comminit.com/strategicthinking/st2005/thinking-965.html

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.
http://www.comminit.com/strategicthinking/st2005/thinking-973.html

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.
http://www.comminit.com/strategicthinking/st2005/thinking-976.html

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)
http://www.comminit.com/redirect.cgi?r=http://www.unifem.org/pressreleases.php?f_page_pid=6&f_pritem_pid=185

***

ConunDRUMs
http://www.comminit.com/conundrums.html

NEW Feature!!

Tides of Hope?
http://www.comminit.com/conundrums/conundrums/conundrums-10.html

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.
http://www.comminit.com/conundrums/conundrums/conundrums-10.html

For other ConunDRUMs please go to
http://www.comminit.com/conundrums.html

If you would like to receive copies of ConunDRUMs by email as they are
released, please contact Deanna Brotherston dbrotherston at comminit.com and
specify "Please send me ConunDRUMs by email."

***

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.
http://www.comminit.com/links/linksngos/links-1552.html

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.
http://www.comminit.com/links/linksngos/links-1553.html

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."
http://www.comminit.com/experiences/pds2005/experiences-2890.html
Contact Peter Griffin zigzackly at gmail.com OR Dina Mehta explore at vsnl.com
OR Bala Pitchandi bala.pitchandi at 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.
http://www.comminit.com/discussionforums/discussionforums/dforums-215.html

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.
http://www.comminit.com/links/linksunmulti/links-1554.html

***

This issue was written by Kier Olsen DeVries.

***

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.

Please send material for The Drum Beat to the Editor - Deborah Heimann
dheimann at comminit.com

To reproduce any portion of The Drum Beat, see
http://www.comminit.com/help.html#copyright for our policy.

To subscribe, see http://www.comminit.com/subscribe_drumbeat.html

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