Many times I refrained myself from posting, answering or going further in my comments on OT 'delicate topics', when in the General Arranger Forum. Lately, specifically in this thread about the tsunami: http://www.synthzone.com/ubbs/Forum37/HTML/009754.html

Well, now that we have 'The Bar' let me dive a little bit more in the subject. I know, this isn't light chat, but hey, that's my mood today, k? :-)

So my point was that the earthquake and the consequent tsunami was an unavoidable natural disaster, but that unfortunately there are other more serious and avoidable disasters to happen. I just found an article by one of my favourite writers, recently published in an english newspaper [The Guardian... well, it would be better to see it published in the Economist :-) ]: http://www.truthout.org/docs_05/010805G.shtml . It pretty well summarizes how I feel about this, and in a way that I wouldn't be able to express myself. I strongly recommend you this reading, even if you don't agree with the author.

About the tsunami. I found it curious that I heard nothing about the extremely delayed response from the Indonesian authorities in their Aceh territory after the disaster. Sure, the access to that area was difficult, but people in Aceh have really been abandoned for too long.

A decade ago, when I was actively involved in a human rights NGO (Amnesty International), I worked on the files of two 'indonesian' territories that were tenaciously fighting for their independance. One was a former portuguese colony, East Timor (now internationally recognized by ALL countries as an independant territory) and the other was Aceh. Both territories had horrible human rights problems... In Aceh, according to the latest AI reports, the human rights violations in Aceh have been happening again and again: http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGASA210422004?open&of=ENG-IDN . See where I want to come to?...

The bottom line is that while help in the form of money/donations is essencial, we can't 'go to sleep', feeling the relief in your consciences. Much of our help is misteriously desapeering or being deviated to other purposes, and many things are happening that need to be understood.

Ok, now that I've surely been labelled of "tree hugger" by some of you , and so that you don't accuse me of being completely OT, here's how a Stanford professor sings about one of our contemporary ecological problems - overfishing: http://www.stanford.edu/group/Palumbi/Lastfish.html
Enjoy!

-- José.


[This message has been edited by Route 66 (edited 01-11-2005).]