Three days now since last Sunday. Death toll media tolled by has passed 27,000. For first time last night, air view reporting was made possible by SCTV, which covered a small densely populated Meulaboh, a small island-village that had been literally swallowed by rising tides. Communication and transportation has been cut dead. Its population used to be about 50 thousands. Official figure of dead bodies found has been released by MOH of over 10,000.
Corpses pilling up have begun rotting. Imminence of disease outbreaks loom too deadly to ignore. Though government finally opened Aceh to foreign journalists, aid workers, bureacracy is enemy within. As Jakarta Post quoted secretary to coordinating minister for social welfare Sutedjo as saying: “Jakarta-based foreign journalists could go direct to Aceh after they had secured a pass from local military authorities.” Aid workers and journalists not based here are required to submit application letters, which may take two weeks to process! Such bureaucrat should be…! Not, complaining isn’t good policy either.
Idle Tears took words out of my mouth, and I cannot agree more: Parachuting tons of rice, noodles and blankets will not be enough. Tomorrow and days after should be considered and decided fast. Empathy wanes easily with today’s soul-blunting infotainment. (Precisely what I said to I. last night, after exhausting herself from mobilizing and transporting boxes of food, blankets and used clothing to Aid Posts at Metro TV in the morning and on Wijaya XIII at night. Tomorrow we will do it again. But how long before we both run out energy?)
“A catastrophe the scale of this latest disaster calls for more than this simplistic, myopic and haphazard attitude. Without careful coordination and long-term planning, we are only offering passionless, hopeless grief to these victims.”
