USN Hospital ship USNS Mercy

From the US Navy's Newsstand:

USNS Mercy Makes Port Visit in Singapore
Release Date: 1/31/2005 10:35:00 AM
By Journalist 1st Class (SW) Joshua Smith,
USNS Mercy Public Affairs

SINGAPORE (NNS) -- The hospital ship USNS Mercy (T-AH 19) arrived in Singapore Jan. 29 to take on supplies and embark additional medical and support personnel in support of Operation Unified Assistance. The hospital ship, one of two in the Naval Fleet Auxiliary Force, deployed Jan. 5 as a part of the multinational disaster relief effort in the wake of the tsunami that struck Southeast Asia.

Mercy departed its homeport of San Diego on 48 hours notice with a skeleton crew comprised of Military Sealift Command mariners and Navy medical personnel that form the nucleus of the ship’s Medical Treatment Facility (MTF).

While in Singapore, 115 Navy medical personnel from San Diego, Pearl Harbor and Norfolk, Va., met the ship to augment the MTF. In addition, Mercy embarked 14 medical personnel from the National Public Health Service and 90 members of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) who will assist in providing medical care to disaster survivors.

"This ship will serve as a unique platform for both the ship medical staff and NGOs aboard, and we will use it in an innovative way to best serve those devastated by the disaster," said Capt. David M. Llewellyn, commanding officer of the MTF. The ship’s crew also onloaded more than 200 pallets of medical supplies and stores that will be needed to sustain the mission for as long as the ship is needed in the region.

Mercy is an extremely capable medical platform that is well-suited to the task of supporting disaster relief and humanitarian operations worldwide. The ship is one of the largest trauma facilities in the United States, and offers a full spectrum of surgical and medical services.

Actually, I'm a little surprised that the Newsstand was slow in getting this news released. CNA (Jan 29) has an earlier report on this:

SINGAPORE : A United States navy ship will set sail from Singapore to tsunami-hit areas to provide medical services for those in need.

The US navy ship Mercy was converted into a hospital ship in 1986 and is equipped with the latest medical technology, complete with tonnes of medical supplies. It is equipped with all the medical facilities needed by a hospital such as operating theatres, ICU units and a 250-bed ward, that can be expanded to take in 1,000 patients, if need be...

Captain David M Llewellyn, Commanding Officer, USNS Mercy Medical Treatment Facility, said: "A disaster of this magnitude is not static, it's ever changing and we are getting those information, we are now in the recovery mode, we are seeing things that we are not seeing at the beginning so we are getting the preparation and we modify our preparation."

Taking a tour of the facilities was US ambassador Franklin Lavin. Mr Lavin said: "I think medical care is more of an ongoing and permanent flow especially when you have this kind of disaster. Medical issues sometimes happen when you have a population dislocated, temporary camps and the initial infrastructure destroyed so better have medical professionals in and make sure you don't have follow on problems."

The hospital ship's facilities are also expected to be used by non-governmental organisations who are helping out in the tsunami-hit areas.

Jolyon Peter Caplin, Director, Mercy Relief, said: "Having seen what the ship can do and the facilities that is on the ship, what I can say is that if Mercy Relief has a need, if we have a need that is quite distant in Indonesia or Sri Lanka and say we've got here in far flung outposts where the team is at the moment and we really need a lot of help because of severe surgical problems, then we will request."

The ship is expected to set sail on Tuesday for Sumatra.

UPDATE: Also from the Newsstand: High Speed Vessel Two (HSV 2) Swift arrives in Singapore carrying humanitarian aid supplies, including medicine for Military Sealift Command hospital ship USNS Mercy (T-AH 19):

Introducing Olorin

From A Singapore Angle is now joined by one more blogger--call sign "Olorin" (profile). He is in the education business in Singapore; beyond that, I'll let him speak for himself. So, look out for Olorin's first posting.

Now that he has started it, I am very tempted to get a fancy screen name as well...

"It's home and I miss my chicken rice"

You will find the title line toward the end of this new article by Seah Chiang Nee (Sunday Star, Jan 30; via littlespeck). My sentiments exactly--except that (1) I expect to be back in Singapore once I'm done here, and (2) I already know how to make chicken rice (especially the rice...the chicken is more unpredictable). Now if I can just find some pandan leaves...

UPDATE: My wife says she misses Rojak. She also tells me to be honest--pandan leaves are readily available in Toronto's Chinatown. In fact, we have some in the fridge right now.

Random thoughts on Meritocracy

And doubtless if men differed from one another in the mere forms of their bodies as much as the statues of the Gods do from men, all would acknowledge that the inferior class should be slaves of the superior. And if this is true of the body, how much more just that a similar distinction should exist in the soul? but the beauty of the body is seen, whereas the beauty of the soul is not seen.

-Aristotle, Politics I.5

Was reading this piece on ST (Jan 30), "Meritocracy should be more than academic" and the above came to mind.

Most of us would probably not agree with the first sentence in the Aristotle quote: even if there exist people who are superlatively more beautiful (in their body) than the rest of us, why should that be a good reason for them to rule over us? On the other hand, we are at least half-minded about the thought implied by the second sentence: if there exist people who are superlatively superior to us in the quality of their soul--in less elevated talk, in their character, virtue, intelligence, etc.--it seems appropriate and right that they should call the shots and lead us. A version of this thought underlies our desire that our leaders be people of good character, perhaps even better character than us. This is the heart of any meritocratic system. Finally, we are most in tune with the third and last sentence--it is usually much easier to tell immediately that one person is more beautiful than another in body, then that one is more virtuous than another.

Ok, this is what the ST article says:

While meritocracy has served the country well over the past 40 years, the version practised here is based on an individual's academic ability or achievement - academic meritocracy...While this system has so far produced many outstanding individuals, it has been compromised by students pursuing paper qualifications at the cost of everything else - morals, ethics and national pride included.

I think the version of meritocracy that is practiced in Singapore (or we like to believe that we practice) is, in principle, based upon more than academic achievement. BUT, paper qualifications (not even academic achievement per se, but paper qualifications) is measurable. Morals, ethics, national pride are not. At least, not easily, and not in a way that would satisfy all concerned. (There is a nice story about this for the case of love in King Lear, Act 1, Scene i, but I'll let the Shakespeare afficionado figure that out for himself.)

I'm not sure if he realises it but the writer has raised a very difficult issue in political life; roughly, the epistemology of merit (or virtue, or character, etc.).

[Incidentally, there is an equivalent in Classical Chinese political thought: the question of how one can truly know a person (zhi ren); readers familiar with the story of Zhuge Liang and Ma Shu in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms would know what I am talking about; but its too long for the telling here.]

* * * * *

Ok, I'll be honest here: I don't think the The writer of the piece was thinking of anything this complicated. In fact, once you read the rest of the article, his main concern becomes clear: it's all about the selection criteria for scholarships--and, given the context, specifically the scholarships that gives the holder an entrance into the civil service. But, it doesn't mean that a full solution to the issues he raised would not require a more fundamental thinking through of what meritocracy involves and the intractable human realities against which it is set. But that's enough random thoughts for one night.

Polls closed; 72% turnout reported

From CNN (Jan 30)

"The news is freedom has won," Al-Lami [of the independent election commission] said. "We have conquered terrorism."

From Alaa, Iraqi author of the blog Mesopotamian:

I bow in respect and awe to the men and women of our people who, armed only with faith and hope are going to the polls under the very real threats of being blown to pieces. These are the real braves; not the miserable creatures of hate who are attacking one of the noblest things that has ever happened to us. Have you ever seen anything like this? Iraq will be O.K. with so many brave people, it will certainly O.K.; I can say no more just now; I am just filled with pride and moved beyond words. People are turning up not only under the present threat to polling stations but also under future threats to themselves and their families; yet they are coming, and keep coming. Behold the Iraqi people; now you know their true metal. We shall never forget the meanness of these bas…s. After this is over there will be no let up, they must be wiped out. It is our duty and the duty of every decent human to make sure this vermin is no more and that no more innocent decent people are victimized.

Natalie Morales of MSNBC via Jeff Jarvis commenting on the turnout:

"That's not an election, that's a revolution."

Chester compares the Iraqi elections to the civil rights movement in the US:

[H]ere's a final quote for you, from LBJ, before he signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965:

I speak tonight for the dignity of man and the destiny of democracy.

I urge every member of both parties -- Americans of all religions and of all colors -- to join me in that cause.

At times history and fate meet at a single time in a single place to shape a turning point in man's unending search for freedom. So it was at Lexington and Concord. So it was a century ago at Appomattox. So it was last week in Selma, Alabama.

So it is today in Baghdad.

Via Instapundit--Iraqi voters displaying their ink-stained finger (used to indicate that they have voted):

UPDATE: More photos, via Yahoo news:

An Iraqi woman cries tears of joy after casting her vote, outside a polling station in the holy city of Najaf, Jan. 30, 2005.

Iraqi Shi'ite women wait in line to cast their votes at a polling station in the holy city of Najaf, Jan. 30, 2005.

After all car movements were prohibited, thousands of Iraqis make a trip on foot to the town of Al Alamara, Iraq, to place their votes Sunday, Jan. 30 2005.

Call for help: Dixon, son of Richard Fong

I've posted on the ill-fated land rover mission into Thailand earlier. As was then reported, one of the convoy leaders, Mr Richard Fong, died on the mission, leaving behind a 10-year old son Dixon. It was also then mentioned (see the third link from the post) that a friend--Mr. Cheong Him--started a fund to help provide for Dixon's education. I lost track of this story for a while but it looks like the collection is still on. From www.mrbrown.com:

Mr Cheong has already started the fund and contributions have begun. You can pledge your contributions by making out a cheque to an account set up for Dixon.

Please address the cheque to: "DIXON FONG YAN DA" and include your name, contact number, and email at the back of the cheque.

Post the cheque to:
BLK 3, BEDOK SOUTH AVE 1 #08-833, SINGAPORE 460003

If you need details, you can also email Mr Cheong at kccheong@magix.com.sg. Mr Cheong will be consolidating all the contributions made. He will create a list of contributors and contributions, and he will give a weekly update to all contributors via email.

Richard Fong died while on his way to help the less fortunate, doing whatever he could... wherever he would. Now, let's see what we can do to help his little boy.

The Prince and the People

Was thinking about what Dr Vivian Balakrishnan (ST, Jan 30) said in response to Warren Fernandez's piece on the casino debate (ST, Jan 29).

Fernandez point was that the Government's 'no decision has been made, let's hear the arguments' line was beginning to wear thin. He urged the Government to come out and make a fuller, positive case for the casino or or risk greater public cynicism over the consultation process.

Dr. Balakrishnan's reply:

'The reason I'll not come out at this point and sell or oversell any position is not because I am incompetent at selling but because this is a sincere process in which a decision really has not been made,' he said...

Describing the casino issue as 'the mother of all consultations', he acknowledged that given the potentially divisive and diverse opinions, whichever way the final decision went, almost half the population might be either angry or disappointed.

What is interesting to me is that both Fernandez and Dr. Balakrishnan appear to share one fundamental assumption. It is this: the preponderance of power is with the government--the government is the one that ultimately decides whether the casino would be built or not. This decision will be arrived at after consultation with the people; and the government seeks also to finally be able to present their decision (for or against) when it is made to the people, to persuade them. The pro- and anti-casino parties of the people are thus invited to the discussion primarily for them to present their case to the government, as opposed to each other...

To see the significance of this, let me illustrate from the contrasting practices of rhetoric or public persuasion in ancient Greece and ancient China (well, I do this sort of things for a living...so).

Ancient Greek rhetoric (especially as practiced in Athens and other democratic cities) tends to be directed at persuading the citizenry--the ones who hold the vote and thus ultimate power of decision making in the city. If a politician wants the city to undertake some policy, he makes his case to the demos through persuasive speech. In the process, he debates those who oppose him. The people--the voting citizenry--is the ultimate judge of whether his or his opponents' speech is the more persuasive, and therefore, whether the policy is to be implemented.

Ancient Chinese rhetoric (of the classical, i.e., pre-unification period; ca. 5th to 3rd century BC) is predominantly directed to the rulers and great ministers of the various warring states. If someone has a good idea about how taxes could be collected, or how the army can be made stronger, or the livelihood of the people improved, he presents the case in court to the prince. In the process, he likewise debates those opposed him. The prince is the ultimate judge of whether his or his opponents' speech is the more persuasive, and therefore, whether the policy is to be implemented.

Now it seems to me that in Singapore, the PAP-lead government (collectively) takes the role of the prince. The decision is ultimately theirs--direct all arguments and counter arguments to them. Likewise, they, when the decision is made, will run campaigns, etc., to persuade the people of the wisdom of the newly implemented policy.

This way of thinking is more pervasive than one might imagine at first sight. In commenting on this piece on the casino debate in Singapore Ink (quite well written, I must say), one of the group's bloggers left this comment:

The thing I like most about what you have written is that you have gone down to the fundamental consequence of the decision on the casino issue by being objective - there will be winners and losers but how will the gahment look after both groups of people!

So the issue is not how the 'losers' will live with the 'winners' or vice versa, but how the government will 'look after' either group.

By the way, I suspect that this phenomenon (of directing the arguments at the prince/government) is not unique to Singapore but can also be found in other parliamentary democracies. My point is not that the assumption underlying our practice is especially authoritarian or anything like that.

It is, however, a function of the fact that there is only one viable political party in Singapore. In democracies with more than one entrenched party, there is much more scope for the opposing parties to have a stake in presenting their case to the citizenry in order to win their vote on policy.

There are less than good consequences. To begin with, there is a tendency for the contrary points of view to talk pass each other in public debate. If the point is to convince the powers that be, there is much less of a need to engage and persuade one's opponents--and ultimately, to come to compromise with them. After all the government's job to sum up all the voices and arrive at a national consensus. And much like a student debate where the point is not to understand and persuade one's opponents but to persuade the judges, the necessary outcome is that there will be winners and losers. The opposing opinion segments of society thus view each other antagonistically and competitively, rather than as full partners--despite our deep differences--in one society.

I am not saying that the above is all there is to public debate in Singapore, but that these seem to be the tendencies, tendencies that have deep structural sources in the nature of Singapore politics. And my suspicion--purely as a layman's hunch--is that as the nature of our society continues to change and more points of view come into being and become vocal, our long term development as a mature democratic citizenry will require that we the citizens learn to engage each other, to seek to persuade our fellow citizens, though they do not share our points of view. By doing so, we express our respect for each other as full members of one society even if deep differences divide us. The point is not to embrace everything and anything, but to learn to live with differences and to learn to 'have our way' only by persuading others who disagree that there are good reasons accessible to them as well for the proposed action. [This is actually a much taller order than may appear at first sight...but another time.]

This seems to be the only viable long term way to ensure that whenever policy decision are made in a context of divisive and diverse opinions, it will not be the case that "almost half the population might be either angry or disappointed."

The Singapore Ink piece concludes thus:

In the past, we loved to talk about win-win situations. I’m not sure we can pretend that we can always find a win-win situation no matter how hard we try. Increasingly clear winners and clear losers are gonna emerge from every policy debate and societal wager we have. Singapore is gonna become more like a casino. Except that unlike in a casino, whatever the outcome, we have to take care of BOTH the winners AND the losers, cos’ with potentially more numerous and vocal losers, the top can no longer pretend them out of existence.

I would add: there is one more alternative to the win-win and win-lose situation. Once the conflicting points of view become sufficiently balanced in terms of strength (e.g., number of adherents), the next best thing to the "win-win", is actually the "win/lose-win/lose", that is, a compromise--arrived at via debate--that allows all or most parties to advance some of their goals, while having no party achieve all of its goals.

PS: The above hardly constitutes a comprehensive analysis--too much is left out. (For example, what is the ideal role of the government in all this?) But one can only do so much in a short span of time.

Does voting mean this much to you?

Photo originally from http://www.friendsofdemocracy.info/

Still continuing from here, Powerline has a touching photo of an elderly Iraqi expatriate voting in Michigan. He is weeping because his son--who lost his life in the 1991 uprising against Saddam--was not able to vote with him. Sure puts some perspective on ST (Jan 28), "Iraqis living abroad show little interest"--but it sure meant a lot to Mr. Mehsin Imgoter.

UPDATE: Forgot to mention: Friends Of Democracy--ground level election news from the people of Iraq is the place to follow the Iraq election. One interesting bit from the site relevant to the above:"Polarization and Apathy Co-Exist Side by Side" (Jan 28):

In many ways Iraq's pre-election season is like pre-election seasons everywhere else. Polarization co-exists right alongside apathy...

Everyone is talking about January 30th. Some want to participate to give legitimacy to the new government. However, a minority of citizens is not interested in elections or other daily concerns because they have a comfortable income. Few of them, who were dismissed from their jobs for political reasons, are indignant when they read in the dailies As Sabah or Al Zaman about new job appointments while they are left behind. Many truths will be revealed when elections are over and final results announced.

UPDATE 2: Another indirectly relevant story here:

As the Iraqis see the improvements made in their lives by working with the coalition forces, they become more willing to sacrifice their own personal safety for the welfare of the people they care for.As the Iraqis see the improvements made in their lives by working with the coalition forces, they become more willing to sacrifice their own personal safety for the welfare of the people they care for.

UPDATE 3: A list of the bloggers and other people covering the Iraq elections is complied by Jeff Jarvis

Singpore's NGOs stepping up to the plate

Continuing from this post, more about how our NGOs are taking over from where the SAF and SCDF left off. First, from this story (CNA, Jan 16), " Nature of relief work changes in Aceh as reconstruction phase begins":

The nature of relief work in Aceh is shifting as the reconstruction phase begins. Instead of supplying food and medical aid, some groups are teaching life skills to victims--like sewing and repair work--to help them restart their lives again...

Meanwhile, medical relief groups are seeing a shift in their patient profiles. Singapore-based City Harvest group is seeing fewer patients with tsunami-related wounds. Kenneth Sim, City Harvest Community Services, said, "We are seeing quite a lot of volunteer workers because they have got wounds while working, so we treat them like military men, police.."

As relief work progresses to the next stage many groups are also coming forward to help rehabilitate victims' psycho social mental health as well. Counselling sessions, support groups and reading centres are being set up in relief camps--all with the hope of helping people mend their broken lives and start afresh once more.

Next, from this story (also CNA, Jan 26), "Singapore NGOs fill up gaps left by SAF, SCDF personnel as reconstruction work continues":

The Singapore military and civil defence forces were the first in Aceh and Meulaboh. They may have returned home, but non-governmental relief groups are already filling the vacuum, armed with more than US$40 million raised for tsunami victims.

Many projects are in the pipeline to help those in the disaster areas rebuild the lives. Just two weeks ago, Dr N Kumar, 28, was in Aceh helping Singapore Civil Defence Force officers on the ground...

Now the spotlight is on reconstruction and moving on.

Singapore's non-governmental organisations have also been involved in relief efforts from the start, providing immediate aid such as supplies and medical relief. Reconstruction projects are also in the pipeline, including building a pier for Meulaboh, schools, and even schemes to teach local communities new skills.

The US$40 million refers to the Singapore Red Cross's S$65 million "Tidal Waves Asia Fund" (see this).

One good sign that our NGOs are stepping up to the plate is the fact that they are coordinating closely with one another. The SRC's exacting guidelines for how the funds will be spent does put some discipline into the action. From this CNA (Jan 28) story, "Relief groups team up for joint tsunami reconstruction proposals":

Non-governmental and voluntary welfare organisations are working closely with one another on joint proposals before submitting them to the tsunami reconstruction facilitation committee for funding. But there is also a call to cut bureaucratic red-tape, so proposals can be translated into reality sooner...

On the cards is a new all-in-one centre for internally displaced people, to give them a proper roof over their heads, instead of the makeshift shelters now.

Mercy Relief is also planning for educational and recreational activities for residents. Said Zulkifli Baharudin, chairman of Mercy Relief, "It's quite a comprehensive centre, to cater to 10,000 to 40,000 people, so we are bringing in our expertise from Singapore to help and see how to proceed with it. As Singaporeans, we don't want to just add value to the hardware but software too -- that will be really adding meaning to the lives of the people." Mercy Relief has also adopted Muhammadiyah Secondary School and its 400 students, with plans to rebuild facilities there.

The relief groups have to submit concrete proposals outlining plans for a six-month period in order to receive funding.

Said Mr Zulkifli, "We would rather want to see something cohesive so at the end of the day there is some consistency, so the greater impact of our contribution can be seen and felt."

Relief groups are already working on joint projects; the Singapore Red Cross and Mercy Relief's liaison offices in Medan and Meulaboh will be set up soon. Such collaborations look set to increase with more partnerships -- all in the name of relief for those in tsunami-hit areas.

And finally, like many other things in life, relief effort coordination is going online. From this CNA (Jan 28) story, "Relief agencies use online database to optimise use of resources":

As tsunami relief efforts enter the reconstruction phase, a virtual community has sprung up in Singapore. At its heart is an online database that matches the ongoing needs of relief agencies with existing resources.



In the early days of the tsunami relief effort, duplication of efforts became a problem as many wanted to help but were not sure how to go about it. This led to the setting up of a database which is the brainchild of the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports and the National Volunteer and Philantrophy Centre.

The database which works like an electronic whiteboard, lists information about what relief agencies are doing in the affected countries, their needs as well as resources offered by various corporations.

Tan Chee Koon, CEO, National Volunteer and Philantrophy Centre, said: "Two things we hope to see come out of this. One is that agencies will be able to see possibilities for linkages, partnerships and collaborations especially when they have shared interests. Second objective is to match the needs of relief agencies going to to the field with the resources available with the partners in this network."

Currently 70 organisations are on it. One regular user is Yong Teck Meng, who is the chairman of Habitat for Humanity, an aid organisation that will be building homes in affected areas. He says the online portal helps him reach out to other NGOs who may have lots of volunteers as well as for others to locate him.

Mr Yong said: "Just yesterday, I had lunch with a corporation head. He knew through the website that we are interested in housing so he has some ideas on other materials and other methods and how his company can help."

And he says the system is a far cry from the early days when co-ordination had to be done manually.

But while a white board in the operations room still provides a list of the latest and most urgent needs and resources, it is the website that NGOs go to when they want a more comprehensive picture of the tsunami relief effort.

UPDATE: The Red Cross website has a detailed media release on the new liaison office for coordinating Singapore NGO reconstruction projects (here).

Glance at upcoming Iraq elections

After this, this and this (previous posts), I'm just happy to read this (www.timesonline.co.uk, Jan 28):

Voting fever takes hold of a people finally free to choose
There is a palpable sense that the country is entering a new era
From Richard Beeston in Baghdad

FOR decades, voting in Iraq meant taking part in a national exercise of state-enforced adulation, as 99 per cent of the electorate would dutifully turn out to tick the box beside the name Saddam Hussein.

Yesterday the contrast could not have been starker, as the campaign for Sunday’s elections picked up pace and voters were presented with a dizzying selection of dozens of candidates and parties.

Notwithstanding insurgent terror aimed at wrecking the polls, there is finally a palpable sense in Baghdad, and other Iraqi cities, that the country is entering a new era.

Skip to some of my favorite part:

While voters may be confused by the experiment in democracy, they cannot complain about a lack of choice. There is a Communist Party, with the message of a “free country and a happy people”, a monarchist movement pledging the restoration of the Hashemite dynasty, and even a party under the banner of Abdul Karim al-Qassim, the former brigadier-general who seized power in a military coup.

Voters from the Sunni population, many of whom may boycott the vote, will find themselves well represented should they visit the polling stations. Ghazi al-Yawer, the President, Adnan Pachachi, Iraq’s elder statesman, and even the Islamic Iraq Party, which has officially pulled out of the vote, will present party lists on polling day.

And this one is the best:

Political pundits agree that three of the coalition lists will dominate Sunday’s polls. The United Iraqi Alliance, a loose collection of more than 100 parties supported by Ayatollah al-Sistani, is expected to win as much as 40 per cent of the vote, drawing on the support of the majority Shia population in central and southern Iraq and Sadr City, in Baghdad. Not only do Shias believe that they will finally win power after centuries as second-class citizens, they have also been told that voting is a religious duty.

In spite of the strong religious backing, the party has been at pains to emphasise that it supports secular politics and rejects any notion of an Iranian-style theocracy. To make the point that it is not bound to Islamic doctrine, it put up posters of a beautiful girl with long, flowing black hair that looked more like an advertisement for shampoo.

And of course, the Iraqis have discovered the boisterous side to democracy:

Elsewhere street urchins were discovering that democracy can pay. They have been hired en masse to put up posters and billboards on every wall space available and probably paid a little extra to tear down the slogans of rival politicians.

Some of the campaigning methods are fairly crude. One boy said that the police had given him a stack of posters of the Prime Minister and ordered him to put them up around his neighbourhood. The Iraqi Electoral Commission has received complaints that some parties have warned voters that they would “go to Hell” unless they supported their candidates. Others have used photographs of influential religious leaders, such as Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, in their campaign posters even though the Shia cleric is not running in the elections.

Well, there's still a long way to go...(read the whole article)

* * * * *

The part about the great variety of choice in parties the Iraqis can vote for reminds me of something brought up in this ST (Jan 28) article:

At 50, [the PAP] has stayed in good shape and Singaporeans have just witnessed the second peaceful and orderly transfer of power, a luxury most post-'65ers probably take for granted.

Yet, who can be absolutely certain the future will remain so?

If the party's selection process somehow fouls up, and a power struggle within the party emerges, who can rescue it from internal collapse?

Unimaginable it may seem, but if Singapore should descend into madness because of a PAP meltdown, do we have another set of capable people, ready to step in to prevent the tragedy from becoming what Mr Bao calls 'a prolonged crisis that afflicts the whole nation'?

I do not have the answers.

Fair enough--I don't either; but at least the writer did not give the usual: "we need more opposition in parliament" (or even better: "PAP, give us more opposition") meme. The reply there is: since when is it the ruling party's job to foister any opposition parties? Can you imagine asking Labor to help cultivate the political prospects of the Tories in the UK, or the Republicans that of the Democrats in the US?

Activism schlechtivism

Scathing critique of political activism (both left and right) as it is practiced today, from the windsofchange.net:

Al Qaeda may not be the only ones out there with a fantasy ideology (pace, Lee Harris), and another version of same may explain quite a bit about modern American politics and the decline of the Democratic Party. If you see activism as the default mode of politics, goes this thesis, you shouldn't be surprised when it leads to anti-intellectualism, tolerance of extremists, retreat into fantasy, and a self-defeating kind of partisanship designed to make people feel better about themselves rather than produce meaningful change.

Read the whole thing.

For the moment, this is not exactly something that Singapore has to worry about--if conventional wisdom means anything, we seem to have the reverse problem of apathy...

UPDATE: Hmm...perhaps relevant to this instead.

Singapore relief efforts highlights (Jan 26-27) UPDATED

Now that the SAF and SCDF are out, the bulk of Singapore's effort will be by the NGOs. From ST (Jan 27):

LIAISON offices will be set up in Indonesia to help coordinate Singapore relief efforts in the tsunami-battered country. The offices in Meulaboh and Medan in Sumatra will serve as the contact point between Singapore's help organisations and the local authorities.

They can also help coordinate the logistics and transport of volunteers and relief supplies, said the Singapore committee overseeing the tsunami relief efforts of non-government organisations (NGOs) and voluntary welfare organisations (VWOs). The Tsunami Reconstruction Facilitation Committee also asked the NGOs and VWOs in Medan, Meulaboh and Banda Aceh to register with the liaison offices.

There is also an update on various ongoing projects:

The Singapore Red Cross will supply medical personnel and volunteers to help manage logistics in camps for displaced people in Aceh. In Meulaboh, Mercy Relief and other Singapore NGOs will help furnish the Muhammadiyah Secondary School as well as provide its 400 students with stationery, books and uniforms.

Mercy Relief is also helping to set up the emergency and general administration departments of the Meulaboh General Hospital. It will provide 100 generator sets and two ambulances and will work with other NGOs to strengthen their medical teams.

In Aceh, medical relief teams from Ren Ci Hospital and Medicare Centre, Touch Community Services and City Harvest Community Services Association will help support relief efforts.

In Sri Lanka, YMCA Singapore is helping efforts in Ampara in the east while Ren Ci plans to build low-cost housing, schools and other community facilities in the southern town of Matara. The Singapore Red Cross has also sent a medical team to Trincomalee on the east coast.

In the meantime, a collection of a different sort is being carried out by MediaCorp. From CNA (Jan 27):

Singaporeans have responded overwhelmingly to MediaCorp Radio's call for donations of radio sets for the tsunami victims. The total number collected so far increased from 1,300 sets last week to 6,200, and most of them are in good working condition. Over 30,000 batteries have also been collected, 20,000 donated by GP Batteries.

"We are very surprised that many of them have donated batteries as well with the sets and in total, generally most of them spend an average of 100 dollars plus for the donations." said Jeanette Seah, the Promotions Manager at MediaCorp Radio.

The influx of radios have also been keeping volunteers from MediaCorp and Mercy Relief busy. They have to test the sets to see if they work before distributing them.

UPDATE

From CNA (Jan 27): An 8-month-old baby boy from Meulaboh escaped the Boxing Day tsunami but got accidentally burnt while living at a refugee camp.

Heru suffered smoke inhalation and burns to nearly half of his body. He is now in critical condition and getting urgent medical treatment in Singapore.

Accompanied by his parents, Little Heru arrived at Singapore General Hospital straight off his flight from Medan all wrapped in bandages. Heru was brought here after the Singapore Red Cross learnt about his condition from their Indonesian counterparts.

The UN continues to get on the Diplomad's nerves

Both the UN (here and here) and the Diplomad (here) are very much in character, of course.

Naval aviator disputes with disgrunted sailor

Remember the disgrunted USN officer from the USS Lincoln (posted here)? One of his comrades (a naval aviator aboard the same carrier) replies:

The Indonesian government (rightly so) is in charge of the overall relief effort underway on the western coast of Sumatra. Last time I checked, it is their country. Simply put, we are here to aid them with their recovery. We are merely one part of what could end up as the largest relief effort in history. The resources and personnel of the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group are working in concert with the people of Indonesia, other nations, militaries, and a host of non-governmental relief agencies including US AID, Red Cross & Red Crescent Society, WHO, UNICEF, Doctors without Borders, and the WFP...

Read the whole thing (from Blackfive, via Instapundit.)

Singapore hits exceeds American ones

For the first time since the blog began, I have more hits coming from Singapore IP addresses (38.65%) than from American ones (37.45%; see this). Considering that most of the US hits came by way of Chester in the early days of the blog (see this), I expect the numbers for Singapore to continue rising.

Aceh Highlights (Jan 26, 27)

Some news highlights for today: first, one month after the disaster, the Japanese military has arrived to help (AP, Jan 27):

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia - Awe-struck villagers watched as two hovercraft landed on a beach Thursday in tsunami-devastated Aceh province, carrying Japanese troops in their largest overseas relief effort. The Japanese troops will try to fill the gap left when U.S. forces scale back their relief operations...

The two Japanese military hovercraft landed in the region hardest-hit by the Dec. 26 disaster that killed between 145,000 and 178,000 people and left tens of thousands of others missing across southern Asia. The vessels, which float on cushions of air, brought a water purification plant and medical supplies.

"I've never seen anything like it," said curious villager Muhamad Yunus, 53.

Japan, which has committed nearly 1,000 troops, joins such nations as France, Germany, Australia and Malaysia who plan to keep providing relief and assistance even as the United States military plans to pull back. Aid organizations said they were optimistic that the needs would be met...

As is well known by now, Singapore's forces have also left Indonesia. It is thus nice to read that our NGOs are filling up the gaps left by the SAF and SCDF (CNA, Jan 26).

Talking about the foreign military forces pulling back, the Washington Post (Jan 27) is under the impression that the people of Aceh are not happy with that development (see also this and this previous posts):

"The foreigners are the only ones who gave us anything. We haven't gotten anything from the Indonesian government," said Ali, 43, a sad-eyed man with curly hair and a scraggly beard. "If the foreign soldiers leave Aceh, the Acehnese people will starve to death."

A heated debate over how long U.S. and other foreign troops should be allowed to remain in Indonesia has been dominated by political and military leaders based in Jakarta, the capital.

The country's welfare minister, for example, told reporters Sunday that it was "only logical" that foreign forces begin pulling out. "The emergency phase is almost behind us, so the military will no longer give their contribution," said Alwi Shihab, referring to U.S., Singaporean and other foreign troops.

But in more than two dozen interviews in Aceh, Indonesia's westernmost province, residents unanimously said that foreign forces should remain for at least several years. Acehnese, from homeless rice farmers to professors and local officials, said the troops should help with reconstruction and serve as a check on Indonesian security forces, widely feared in the province because of their heavy-handed campaign against separatist rebels, known as the Free Aceh Movement. The rebels have been fighting for autonomy for decades.

I believe there is something to the Acehnese sentiments expressed, but one must be careful not to fall tread carefully in the quicksand of Acehnese politics. Kirsten E Schulze, who has been studying the Free Aceh Movement for a number of years, has this to say (ST, Jan 26):

In the eyes of GAM [Free Aceh Movement], the humanitarian disaster provides an unprecedented opportunity. Never before have so many foreigners been on the ground in Aceh and never before has Aceh had such world attention...

Since the tsunami, GAM has issued statement after statement condemning Indonesian relief efforts, accusing the Indonesian government of deliberately delaying aid and the Indonesian military (TNI) of hindering its distribution. It has called for the withdrawal of Indonesian forces and international intervention.

GAM guerillas on the ground have also become more active. During the first week after the tsunami, they intercepted an aid convoy trying to make its way to Meulaboh. The guerillas emptied the trucks of all their goods. Over the last week, there have been reports of clashes between GAM and the Indonesian security forces. Aid agencies now fear for the safety of their workers.

While GAM has no interest in attacking foreigners in Aceh, the separatists are trying to provoke the TNI into an overreaction in order to draw further international attention to their struggle for independence. They are also exploiting the fact that two-thirds of the Indonesian troops deployed across Aceh are now focused on the relief efforts and that the security forces in Meulaboh and Banda Aceh were badly hit.

In addition, GAM rebels have used the general confusion around the disaster-stricken areas to come down from the mountains into which they had been pushed over the previous year of counter-insurgency operations. Guerillas have seized the chance to replenish their depleted weapons with guns taken from the dead bodies of police and soldiers as well as from damaged arsenals.

Not surprisingly, in light of its strategy of internationalisation, GAM has started to mingle with the displaced persons, trying to gain the ear of the numerous international NGOs. This poses the greatest risk to the relief efforts as international NGOs could be drawn into a dangerous political game. Already, international human rights organisations have started echoing GAM's condemnations of the Indonesian government and military. It would be nothing but disastrous if well-intended international NGOs on the ground in Aceh followed suit...

The international community should beware of falling into GAM's trap. GAM does not represent all of the Acehnese and it certainly does not represent most of the people hit by the tsunami.

Concerning the human rights issue:

Although one often gets the impression from media reports that only the Indonesian army has committed human rights violations in Aceh, since 1976 GAM has been responsible for the burning of schools, killing of teachers, destruction of local government offices and clinics, kidnapping of civil servants, murder of judges, attacks on the energy infrastructure, ethnic cleansing of Javanese migrants and wholesale extortion and intimidation of the Acehnese people.

She has a lot more to say about that last point in this earlier article from Asia Times (Jul 22, 2003):

GAM's struggle for independence has been cast as a fight for the noble ideal of liberty while Indonesia's efforts to protect its sovereignty and territorial integrity have been widely condemned. But does GAM really warrant such romanticization? A closer look at GAM's ideology, its attitude toward the peace process, and its activities during the recent cessation of hostilities may suggest otherwise.

GAM was established in 1976 and has since been struggling for the liberation of Aceh from what it sees as Indonesian neo-colonial occupation. Yet while GAM leaders in exile have attempted to rewrite Acehnese history in pursuit of independence, the driving force on the ground is somewhat different. GAM guerrillas are motivated by parochial ethnic hatred. For them the war is about killing Javanese. As a result GAM forces have not only attacked the Indonesian security forces but have also systemically targeted, killed or forced out Javanese transmigrants.

Ethnic chauvinism is also evident in GAM's construction of Acehnese nationalism. While Indonesian identity is a civic nationalism which is inclusive, multi-religious, multi-ethnic, and multi-tribal, Acehnese nationalism is ethnic and exclusive. It is based upon the imposition of the identity of the Aceh tribe upon the other eight tribes in the region in order to create the Acehnese nation. This nation is defined by blood ties, tribalism, and Islam.

Read the whole thing. She has a book on the suject too: The Free Aceh Movement (GAM): Anatomy of a Separatist Organization (Washington, D.C.: East-West Center, 2004) (click on the link to read the abstract).

SRC guidelines for using the funds collected

Having collected S$65 million in the "Tidal Waves Asia Fund", the Singapore Red Cross is putting out a set of guidelines on how it is to be spent for any NGO that wishes to apply--"to ensure that the Fund is used in the most effective and impactful way."

These guidelines are intended to facilitate and encourage agencies to propose projects that will both meet immediate and long-term needs, such as those of equipping locals with knowledge and skills to continue the work when the agencies leave.

The two principles underlying the guidelines are also clearly spelt out:

a) Projects to be considered by the Committee shall be projects to be carried out in the areas directly affected by the Indian Ocean Earthquake/Tsunami that would help restore normalcy to the affected areas and their populations.

b) Priority shall be accorded to meeting needs for community facilities destroyed or damaged by the earthquake/tsunami.

The SRC is requiring a fairly detailed write up for any proposal to use the funds: detailed budget, clear objectives and deliverables, implementation plan and time line (up to 6 months), exit plan. I like the emphasis on a need to illustrate the viability of the project in terms of a clear plan with feasible outcomes and deliverables, sustainability, exit strategy, and "favourable consideration to joint projects between Singapore agencies and responsible agencies of the affected country" (read the whole thing).

Like many things in Singapore, the plan is fairly well thought out--it has the right ideas. Let's just hope that things don't mess up in the execution.

Also from their website (Jan 25), the SRC teams in Meulaboh and Sri Lanka have returned. The press releases also contain details about their work in the disaster areas:

(from this):

Under the overall banner of the Singapore Red Cross (SRC), 65 volunteers from various VWOs and NGOs set sail on the Republic of Singapore Navy LST RSS Endeavour for Singapore on Saturday, 22 January 2005. They arrived today at the Changi Naval Base at 12 noon...

In Meulaboh, the team which included logisticians, medical personnel, as well as emergency behavioural counsellors from SRC, Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA), Mercy Relief, Touch Community Services and the National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre (NVPC) worked closely with the Indonesian Red Cross Society and the medical facilities established by the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF). The members were split into 3 teams to assist in food distributions and onsite relief support, work with the medical teams in the hospitals and provision of other logistical support. Additionally, the teams also brought along over 100 tonnes of medical supplies, water, emergency packs, batteries, face masks, blankets, field tents as well as two lorries for the affected victims in Meulaboh.

The Singapore Red Cross coordinated this volunteer relief mission with the SAF, the Ministry of Community Development, Youth & Sports (MCYS) and the NVPC.

(from this):

The second Singapore Red Cross (SRC) medical relief team has just returned from Trincomalee, Sri Lanka today.

Comprising of doctors and nurses from the two hospital clusters - National Healthcare Group and SingHealth - as well as SRC volunteers, all 14 members departed from Colombo at 1.30 a.m. Sri Lanka time on flight SQ 401, and arrived in Singapore at 7.30 a.m. this morning. Following on the footsteps of the first team who came back on 16 January, they continued to provide immediate outpatient care to the tsunami victims in the mobile clinic.

This medical mission was organised with close collaboration with the Sri Lankan Red Cross and the Rotary Club of Trincomalee.

Economic impact of external aid, incompetent aid agencies

I've already mentioned the problem of how large scale external relief improperly applied can result in undesirable economic consequences for the survivors here, here and here); but the report from USA Today (Jan 26) is beginning to confirm some of my worst fears:

With the immediate tsunami crisis past, and commerce slowly resuming, Indonesians are confronting a new reality in which the giant wave has bestowed riches upon some while leaving others desperately poor.

Just as the surf killed capriciously, its financial consequences are equally arbitrary. Those who speak English can earn $100 a day translating for aid groups or journalists. Those who can't confront soaring food prices - a 500-rupiah (about 5 cents) egg before the tsunami now fetches twice that amount.

To be fair, not all of the disparate impact is due to the influx of foreign aid workers. Some of is due to the sheer chance of being the only supplier for some goods or service to survive:

Impatient customers are stacked nine deep outside Bahry Ban's tire shop. A blur of motion, the lithe man deftly patches the flat tires that are bedeviling drivers all over this city, among the hardest hit by the Asian tsunami

Huge swaths of the wave-battered city center are vast debris fields, replete with nails, screws and broken glass that are shredding the tires of Indonesians and foreign aid workers alike. "My business is booming since the tsunami," says a sweat-streaked Ban, 32, racing to repair yet another flat...

Starkly put, for some businesses, the ferocious wave - despite its horrors - eliminated much of the competition. Many tire shops in the city center are gone, leaving Ban the only repairman with a special hand tool that quickly installs leak-sealing rubber plugs. He charges per hole repaired, and he also sells refurbished tires. His daily revenue surged to 15 million rupiah ($1,642) from 4 million ($438) before the tsunami.

Business is so good, he's put his rail-thin wife Erni, 22, to work pumping tires while their 4-month-old sleeps in a pale blue swing suspended from the shop's crossbeam. Soon, Ban, who's putting in 17-hour workdays, plans to move to a larger shop.

Standing beneath a leafy siron tree, Ban seems to recognize the awkwardness of his windfall: "I didn't actually ask for the tsunami."

Let's just hope that Mr. Ban will not be forgetting his less lucky neighbors, such as this one:

The same wave that showered Ban with new business has left Mahdan, 55, destitute. The veteran fisherman, who, like many Indonesians, uses only one name, has no idea what became of his 30-foot vessel. "It's gone," he says, sitting in a makeshift refugee camp on the hillside above the village.

Before the tsunami, he made about 10 million rupiah ($1,095) every month. Hugging the north Sumatran coast, he and his six-man crew pulled in tuna and a local fish known as teri on nocturnal expeditions that stretched from 5 p.m. until 7 a.m. the next day.

Now, they're all jobless, subsisting on donations from international aid groups. Four weeks after the tsunami hit, Mahdan spends his days searching for the bodies of his 18-year-old and 3-year-old children. His mother and brother-in-law also died in the raging waters, which were powerful enough to uproot a pair of mammoth oil tanks stationed along the coast. Although the loss of the simple fishing boats will not affect the larger Indonesian economy, it is devastating for the fishermen themselves. Mahdan says he'd need 25 million rupiah ($2,737) to replace his old boat, an impossible sum. "If I can't afford a new boat, I must go to the mountains and grow something," shrugs Mahdan, who's never farmed.

Not being a liberal, I have no problem with income inequality that results from the normal operations of the market, all things being equal. The problem is not that some are becoming richer; the worry is that the hardship of some is being unnecessarily compounded by unequal access to the economic injection brought by the influx of massive aid. Put it this way: Mr. Ban did the rational thing and capitalized on his tire shop business. Given the circumstances, he hardly has to charge exorbitantly in order to make a big profit. Nothing wrong with that--yet. But suppose someone like Mr. Mahdan now has to have his tires changed (or buy food, or whatever)--not only does he have to compete for the limited resources with other Indonesians who were luckier than he, but also a wave of aid workers flush with foreign cash. His life, already made difficult by natural disaster, has just became harder.

Some help is on the way:

To help people such as this stunned fisherman, the U.S. Agency for International Development (AID) will unveil this week a job-creating "cash-for-work" initiative. "We help put cash in people's hands to keep the market going and let the natural rhythm of life come back," says Peter Morris, team leader for the agency's Disaster Assistance Response Team.

Among the first projects: a $63,000 grant to Muhammadiyah, a moderate Muslim group that will employ 1,500 refugees to clean up schools in Banda Aceh. But with an estimated 500,000 people displaced by the tsunami, and markets destroyed or disrupted, the need for economic help is enormous.

(I shall leave you to read the rest on your own.)

On a different but related note, Oxfam takes incompetent aid agencies to task (AFP, Jan 26):

The [Oxfam] report stresses that while aid efforts have helped many thousands of people, and that some communities are "already well on the way to physical recovery", serious difficulties remain.

Inexperience and a lack of consultation with local people meant that some aid was not appropriate, such as the construction of housing is Sri Lanka which was too close together, causing sanitation problems, the charity noted.

In particular, authorities coordinating aid efforts must ensure that humanitarian agencies working in the disaster zone were "appropriate to the task", Oxfam said. "In some cases, the influx of money has meant that there are too many organisations working without the appropriate experience, competencies and skills," it said, highlighting south India as a place where coordinating agencies was "a significant problem".

Once again, I am not optimistic about the proposed solution--more bureaucracy:

"National governments with the support of the United Nations need to implement processes immediately to accredit international agencies and ensure their work is suited to their experience," Oxfam said.

* * * * *

Probably the best commentary on the law of unintended consequences is one of the stories in this book; but unfortunately, my copy in back home in Singapore. (I'll see if I can get my hands on a copy here.)

The sound of wind, rain...and reading*

Heartening to read that a month after the earthquake and tsunami, schools are reopening in Sri Lanka and Aceh, Indonesia. But the toll is visible. From (Reuters, Jan 26):

At the SMR8 secondary school in Banda Aceh, the provincial capital, students sat on a cleared basketball court where they prayed and recited from the Koran. Some girls cried and held their heads in their hands and others stared blankly.

Only 300 of nearly 900 enrolled students turned up for class. Authorities in Aceh say the tsunami killed 45,000 school children and more than 2,300 teachers and administrators.

"For us teachers, it's hard because so many lost families and homes. But we have to put this aside and think of our students," school principal Syarifuddin Ibrahim, 50, told Reuters.

Cries of anguish rose from the crowd as he read out the names of nine teachers killed by the tsunami.

(See also this AP, Jan 26 report)

The rebuilding is much more than providing for the physical well being of the survivors. Longer term considerations--such as education--are important as well. It is thus disheartening to read about teachers (for example) and being drawn to service the aid workers for a better pay (I blogged on this earlierhere and here):

In countries that have seen large-scale aid missions, the scramble for labor between international organizations has driven some trained professionals, civil servants, teachers, and others with higher education to make more money as drivers, translators, and NGO administrators. (CSM, Jan 19)

These people are hardly immoral--they are only being economically rational. It goes to show that large scale relief that is not properly thought through often results in unintended and undesirable consequences.

From the same Reuters report above (relevant to this previous post), this bit does not bode well for the chance of the central government and TNI gaining popularity in Aceh:

Hundreds of Acehnese marched in the streets of Jakarta on Wednesday to protest a government timetable for U.S. and other foreign troops to leave the sensitive province by the end of March. "U.S. army, my family, not out. We love peace," a banner read.

"We demand that the U.N. and other countries that sent military to Aceh stay there until Aceh has completely recovered," protester Faisal Ridha said.

The prognostication of the International Crisis Group way early on (see this earlier post) is apposite:

[The] longer term impact of disaster as yet unclear, with much depending on how relief and reconstruction effort handled: if well, central government stands to win major new support, but if poor coordination continues, or serious corruption takes place, GAM independence movement will be major beneficiary.

That said, the spirit of the people of Aceh deserves a hat tip:

Banda Aceh school headmaster Amirudin, 52, urged his students to have hope. "We don't have bags, books and pencils, but that's OK. Everything will come," he said. "Do you see those helicopters flying above, they belong to the Americans and other countries. So you know what it means? Everyone is helping us. And Allah will help us."

* * * * *

The title alludes to the first line of a poem penned by a disaffected scholar of the Ming Dynasty (if you read Chinese: here):

风声雨声读书声，声声入耳

Roughly: the sound of the wind, the rain, and of reading (i.e., studying), I hear them all. It is not surprising that these are the sounds that the poet hears--he was one of the disaffect scholar officials connected with the "Dongling Academy (东林书院)", a dissident intellectual group based in Wuxi. [Yes, I'm not joking: a dissident intellectual group involving thousands of scholars at times in Imperial China.]

* * * * *

USN sailors helped repair RSN landing craft

Bonhomme Richard Sailors Lend Hand to Coalition Partners
Release Date: 1/20/2005 9:22:00 AM
By Journalist 3rd Class Ryan Valverde,
USS Bonhomme Richard Public Affairs

ABOARD USS BONHOMME RICHARD, At Sea (NNS) -- Five Sailors from USS Bonhomme Richard (BHR) (LHD 6) embarked Singaporean Armed Forces ship RSS Endurance (L 207) (LST) Jan. 13 to repair the ship’s landing craft unit (LCU).

The helicopter landing ship Endurance, similar to a U.S. Navy amphibious transport dock (LPD) ship such as USS Duluth (LPD 6), was operating off the coast off Indonesia in support of Operation Unified Assistance.

While using their LCUs to offload humanitarian relief supplies to shore during well deck operations, one of the LCUs hulls was damaged.

The Revolutionary Gator volunteered the expertise of three hull maintenance technicians (HT), an electrician's mate and an aviation structural mechanic to assess and repair the casualty to the damaged LCU’s engine room.

Aviation Structural Mechanic (AW) 2nd Class Andrew Morris, the aircraft intermediate maintenance department’s hydraulic work center supervisor, a certified aircraft welder, said he made two trips to Endurance.

"The first day, we went over there for a couple of hours to access the damage and give it the okay if we could do it," said Morris, an Aiea, Hawaii, native. "The next day we stayed overnight, working through the night to get it repaired."

"It's keeping good relations with a coalition naval partner," said Ensign Christopher Vann, BHR’s Repair Division officer. "We had the skills and they had the need. Just trying to help them out."

Hull Maintenance Technician 1st Class (SW) Jason Curry, HT shop’s leading petty officer, and Hull Technician 2nd Class (SW) Aaron L. Toney, HT work center supervisor, together with Morris, spent more than 18 hours repairing the hull of the LCU. The Sailors removed the damaged portion of the LCU, rebuilt the angle iron bracing and re-plated the ship.

"HT1 [hull technician 1st class] is probably one of the most experienced welders on board. He brings a lot of welding experience from his former command, ACU 5 [Assault Craft Unit 5]. He is just a wizard with metal," said Vann, a Hot Springs, Ark., native.

"Same with HT2 [hull technician 2nd class] Toney. They work really well together. Those guys are the subject matter experts,"

The Sailors’ work allowed the LCU to continue to operate and provide humanitarian assistance.

Curry and Toney both have multiple welding qualifications and have worked with Landing Craft Air Cushions (LCACs) and LCUs.

"Petty Officer Toney and I have prior experience," said Curry, a Freemont, Iowa, native. “They didn’t have the capabilities of doing a self repair. There was no way the craft was going to be operable."

Toney said he was happy to lend a hand.

"Their captain was really satisfied with our work," said Toney, a Philadelphia native. “We were treated very well, ate very good food and the crew was very friendly. It is a great Navy and a good ship."

Bonhomme Richard and her coalition partner Endurance are currently steaming off the coast of Indonesia in support of Operation Unified Assistance.

(Hat tip: Pirate on the Military Nuts forum) For more Yankee ingenuity, see also this story:

American Ingenuity Key to Restoring Banda Aceh Hospital
Release Date: 1/23/2005 1:29:00 AM
By Journalist 1st Class (SW) Joaquin Juatai,
USS Abraham Lincoln Public Affairs

Indonesian responses to foreign assistance

In view of what I said in this recent post, the question arises as to just what is the Indonesian reaction to the presence of foreign military (carrying out relief operations) in their country. This piece: "Jakarta's dilemma: How to say no to needed foreign help" (Jan 26) by Derwin Pereira, Straits Times' Indonesia Bureau Chief proposes some answer. Some highlights:

The national media has fallen in line behind the aid flow, but in Indonesia, things are almost always not what they seem. There are elements in the country which worry about the foreign help - these voices are coming from the political and intellectual elite, Indonesian armed forces (TNI) and Islamic extremist groups.

They might be small but are of significance. And they have brought to the fore an acute dilemma within the Indonesian psyche when it comes to dealing with the outside world. Indonesians want to be masters of their own fate, but are forced by circumstances time and again to seek help.

The episode has also pointed to splits within President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's government, even as it added to pressures for fast results.

The bottom line is this: The outpouring of generosity has done little to change the views of many Indonesians, who remain wary of foreigners.

Derwin Pereira's piece identifies two groups that are particularly suspicious of the foreign military forces--especially that of the US and Australis--on relief missions in Indonesia. First, the TNI (or BIN, the state intelligence agency), which suspects that these forces "would take advantage of the situation to gather intelligence for national security purposes". Second, Muslim hardliners, who "view Western aid as nothing more than a bid to convert vulnerable victims." In fact, it was in order to "mollify such groups" that provoked the whole deadline fracas.

The ST piece cites the an editorial titled "Xenophobia Thicker Than Humanity" (Jan 13) from the Jakarta Post as summing up the mood:

It has become all too evident that there is a growing feeling of xenophobia here, at least in certain parts of society. We accept the foreigners' relief, but...we are suspicious of them and do not appreciate what they have done.'

Ok, som much for the ST piece, for now. Thanks to the wonders of the internet, I found the US State Department's summary of major media reactions to the restrictions and deadlines imposed by Indonesia concerning the foreign aid workers and military forces (globalsecurity.org, Jan 19). There is a whole bunch of stuff from the Indonesian media and they make for a fascinating picture--but in sum, they are fairly evenly divided between those who say the foreigners must go as soon as possible, and those who are unhappy with the restrictions and deadline. The Jakarta Post piece (cited by ST) managed to straddle the middle, mostly, and is worth reading in full (via www.e-sinchew-i.com):

On Wednesday morning, a major radio station in Jakarta invited its listeners to comment on the Indonesian Military's (TNI) decision to restrict the movements of international aid workers and foreign military personnel while in Aceh.

The answers given by the listeners have likely upset the government, especially the TNI's top brass, because most listeners were not only opposed to the TNI's decision, but also questioned the real motives of the TNI.

Such a reaction reflects the high suspicion that remains toward the military, who for decades were a tool of oppression.

"We should not be paranoid about the foreigners, who are very sincere in helping people in Aceh," one listener from Central Jakarta said.

It is obviously a good move by the TNI Chief Gen Endriartono Sutarto to say he wants to ensure the safety of some 2,000 foreign civilians, who are now working on the humanitarian mission in the tsunami-devastated province.

As a host, Indonesia is responsible for the security and protection of the humanitarian workers. Indonesia could not have handled this unprecedented disaster on its own. The nation needs international assistance.

Although it seems restrictive, the general's decision to require the volunteers to be escorted by TNI soldiers during trips outside of Banda Aceh actually makes sense because there is still a war going on. With seemingly little fear of the many risks inherent, the volunteers have come here out of a strong sense of compassion for the suffering victims and have been motivated to help the Acehnese build a totally new life.

Foreign military ships and planes are also required to have military liaison officers accompany them and get clearance from the TNI for all movements. Meanwhile, the government has indicated that the foreign presence would not last more than three months.

But, as reflected in the radio talk show, many people doubt that the restrictive measures are merely aimed at protecting the foreign volunteers.

TNI generals have admitted they would not have enough resources to handle the relief and rehabilitation alone, and thus need the foreign help.

So, why then did Gen. Endriartono make such a controversial decision, while thousands of guests are now in Aceh to help us? Most of them likely realise the dangers during their humanitarian mission, but still they have come. Why? Because of a sense of humanity; that is the only answer for their readiness to take a risk. A risk that may be in the form of armed gunmen, another earthquake aftershock or malaria.

We should thank the hard-working guests because without their help, the suffering of the victims of the natural disaster would be much worse.

Despite the radio listeners responses, it has become all too evident from local media reports that there is a growing feeling of xenophobia here, at least in certain parts of society.

We accept the foreigners' relief, but at the same time we are suspicious of them and do not appreciate what they have done.

From television reports, it has become abundantly clear that the Acehnese have welcomed the foreigners, including American soldiers. People who live far away from these appreciative victims still question the foreign presence, while for victims, they are saviours.

Perhaps it is ridiculous to say that such behaviour also proves that many of us have no compassion for our brothers and sisters in Aceh, not just when they were oppressed by the government, but even now as they struggle to survive amidst such a horrible calamity.

Many Indonesians are very firm in their opinion that the government must do everything possible to ensure the integrity of the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia (NKRI), therefore, they also feel that any rebellious acts in Aceh must be harshly punished to ensure that the soil of that province remains part of the nation state.

Of course, we also hope the foreign guests realise that they are guests in Aceh, regardless of how much we need their help. Guests are expected to adapt to the conditions of their hosts.

We do hope that the negative statements, xenophobia and a lack of appreciation shown by some members of society, will not discourage our Samaritan friends. We also hope they realise that the nation needs and truly appreciates their help.

The silver lining in all this is that if the US and Australia are not trusted, at least Singapore and Malaysia are viewed with friendlier feelings (con't from the ST piece):

But Singapore and Malaysia are viewed differently. There is a higher comfort level given historical links and common Asean membership.

Said Mr Syamsir: 'Our neighbours come here as friends. They are sincere. Singapore, for example, has played a big role in this crisis. It is a small country but very important for Indonesia because they have this ability to get the big powers to listen to them. The tsunami summit happened because of the initiative of the Singapore leadership.'

This is further reinforced in another Jakarta Post piece (Jan 21), "Helping the 'Asian way'" (via littlespeck.com).

Moxie's help; and online archives

Readers who have seen this earlier post would know that, because the Blog started only on Jan 8, many of the relevant ST articles have already become inaccessible to the public online. Answering my call for help, a denizen of www.sgforums.com, call-sign "Moxie", took time to go through his stash of saved old papers and emailed a whole bunch to me in two word files.

Moxie's first collation (mostly ST articles) was received on Jan 16 and made possible my post: "The Response of the Public Dec 27-31, 2004" (dated Jan 17). His second collation (mostly TODAY articles, plus others) was received on Jan 22 and unfortunately, I will not have the time (for now) to go through them so as to complete my intended overview of the earlier public response.

Rather than simply hog the material, I'm putting them online as .html files (first collation, second collation) in case they might be useful to anyone in the near future.

Also, rather than keep to their usual 7-day archival practice, Channel News Asia has been maintaining an index of all of their articles relating to the earthquake and tsunami, and subsequent relief efforts since Dec 26. You can access all of these articles here (Dec 04) and here (Jan 05). I do not know how much longer do they intend to do this though (my preference: as long as possible...it's not as if storage is expensive). Don't even get me started about Straits Times' archival policies.

English and Englishes

Reading about the "good English debate" on Singapore Ink, I can't help but recall this bit of Monty Python:

Customer: Good Morning.
Owner: Good morning, Sir. Welcome to the National Cheese Emporium!
C: Ah, thank you, my good man.
O: What can I do for you, Sir?
C: Well, I was, uh, sitting in the public library on Thurmon Street just now, skimming through "Rogue Herrys" by Hugh Walpole, and I suddenly came over all peckish.
O: Peckish, sir?
C: Esuriant.
O: Eh?
C: 'Ee, Ah wor 'ungry-loike!
O: Ah, hungry!
C: In a nutshell. And I thought to myself, "a little fermented curd will do the trick," so, I curtailed my Walpoling activites, sallied forth, and infiltrated your place of purveyance to negotiate the vending of some cheesy comestibles!
O: Come again?
C: I want to buy some cheese.

(You can hear it here; UPDATE: taken offlinedue to bandwidth constraints) Anyway, Ink's surely right in saying:

Heh, so there is one American culture, one American language, & one American accent? Look at Hollywood: it exports a pretty culturally & linguistically homogenised product to the point that people say it’s actually doing a disservice to American film-making (i.e. the kind about Americans for Americans, rather than catering to the global market) - yet have they managed to make every American speak with the same accent? Some American is probably going to have to write in to refute these lazy assertions.

You hardly need an American to do that, just anyone who has encountered a variety of native English speakers from different parts of North America. Do you know that some people from Kansas actually sound like Singaporeans in their intonation? Or that Canadians have a tendency to pronounce "aboot" for "about". Or that "I'm going to make a move now" (i.e., going to leave now) draws a blank stare in San Francisco? All from personal experience.

UPDATE: From Tech Central Station (Jan 21), "FEER and the Unknown":

As the international economic centre of gravity keeps shifting to Asia, it has been widely presumed by Westerners that because their management skills are being drawn into this process, and because globalisation has been confused with Americanisation, then somehow Western culture will also keep marching ahead inside Asia.

But evidence is emerging that something different, something unanticipated, is happening. You can see signs in Hong Kong, where FEER [Far Eastern Economic Review] was edited throughout its 58 years. The middle-aged generation of Hong Kongers for the most part speak better English than today's generation in their teens and 20s.

Because the Asian elite, with characteristic Asian application, learn to speak English impressively in order to do business with foreigners, this does not mean that they choose English for information or recreation.

Read the whole thing.

Classical music used to fight crime

I'm not sure whether this would be applicable in Singapore--but since "low crime does not mean no crime", I'm sure it's worth a look--"Going off the rails" (Jan 20) by Norman Lebrecht (via Arts and Letters Daily):

An appalling, all-too-familiar CCTV picture appeared last week in many newspapers. It showed a man being chased by two thugs onto a live London Underground line, from which he miraculousy leaped to safety.

Scenes like these have prompted the authorities to take remedial action, and the weapon they have chosen is classical music. The approaches to three stations on the eastern edge of the District Line were subjected for six months to bursts of Mozart, Vivaldi, Handel and Mussorgsky. The result was a one-third reduction in the number of robberies and a general diminution of other anti-social incidents.

Cheap, clean and classy, the method is now being broached at a further 35 stations. It works as a deterrent effect rather than a corrective one. Hooligans are not reformed by Mozart, so much as driven away by a noise that is as alien and hostile to their world as whale song to a camel herd...

And of course the experts have something to say about this:

Psychologists, jumping onto a moving carriage, hypothesise that symphonic music leaves youths feeling 'uncool', disoriented and at risk of ridicule. Train managers on Tyneside in northeast England report that it eliminated low-level nuisances such as swearing, spitting and smoking. The second Rachmaninov piano concerto in C minor had the highest success rate (odd that this Brief Encounter soundtrack should still cling to the railways like lichen).

Actually, I'll settle for just plain no music in our coffee joints...

The aid situation in Aceh; with a side glance at pirates

From the Washington Post (Jan 23), "Tsunami Relief Effort Still Disorganized":

Aid workers "do what they think is best, and sometimes a particular country or a particular agency may well send materials or equipment that may not be what is required at that stage," Rob Holden, worldwide operations manager for the World Health Organization, said in an interview in Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, on Saturday. "Or it may be that they haven't asked the wider question -- Is someone else sending that, do I need to send something else?"

The lack of overall coordination--leading to reduplication and uneven aid is a problem; but the proposed solution does not sound promising:

The report said that local and international aid groups needed to plan their efforts jointly. "If agencies . . . decide to set up an operation in a certain location, and you know nothing about it, it's very difficult to get coordinated," Holden said. The United Nations needs to send more personnel to areas with major concentrations of survivors, he said.

How exactly does having more bureaucrats on the ground help? It's not as if Aceh is not already overcrowded with aid workers (see below).

Ironically, Rob Holden actually pointed to what I think is the real source of the problem: the aid agencies are doing "what they think is best". The approach of Seacology I blogged earlier is so much more sensible.

Talking about overcrowding--from the Los Angeles Times (Jan 24), "In Aceh, Ambivalent Over Aid; Locals in the Indonesian province find it hard adjusting to the influx of foreigners. Though grateful for the help, some are still wary":

Until three weeks ago, this sleepy provincial capital was about as far off the beaten track as it got. Then the tsunami waves that swept away half of Banda Aceh washed in unprecedented numbers of foreigners — aid workers, soldiers, journalists, diplomats, psychiatrists, missionaries, environmentalists and just plain curiosity-seekers...

Today this city is in danger of being smothered by a surfeit of foreign attention and sympathy. One of the regions most ravaged by the tsunami, it has become the destination of choice for much of the world's humanitarian aid community. Dignitaries ranging from U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to U.S. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell have posed for photographs at Banda Aceh's single-runway airport. A former sultan's palace has become a temporary encampment for an international media corps numbering in the hundreds...

But with all the aid money come aid workers, bringing helicopters, trucks, satellite telephones, rising prices and congestion...

And it's not even as if all of them are there to help:

"A lot of these people who come to Aceh are just voyeurs. They are taking photos and coming to look, using up food and gasoline, but they're not really helping," complained Andi Basrul, 45, who lost his wife and 11-year-old daughter in the tsunami.

For another report about the influx of aid workers causing inflation in the local economy, see the report cited in this earlier post. This may not be a problem if most of the locals stand to benefit. But clearly not all are in a position to (Still from the LA Times article):

With so many people dead and so much relief money floating around, some survivors stand to profit from the huge demand for labor, especially for interpreters, drivers, mechanics and construction workers.

"I feel so guilty, but I have to feed my family too," said Yusuf, 40, an English teacher who has temporarily given up his $170-a-month job in the public school system for a position with the World Food Program that pays more than three times as much.

Amazingly, Channel News Asia actually managed to put a positive spin on this turn of events (CNA, Jan 24):

And though the grim task of retrieving bodies isn't over just yet, the town is once again buzzing with life. Small eateries and even electrical appliance shops are reopening for business again. And entrepreneurial locals are even cashing in on the huge international presence here.

37-year-old Shabri Salam is making big money by renting his car to aid workers. He said, "Before the tsunami, I rented my car for 300,000 rupiah a day. After the tsunami I charged 1.3 million rupiah a day. I'm not cheating because there is more demand now and the customer is willing to pay."

Meanwhile driver Maskuri said, "Before the tsunami, oil and operating costs were quite cheap. Before it cost 300,000 rupiah for us drivers to rent a car from the company, now it's about 700,000 per day."

And with the hotel industry in disrepair, renting houses to foreigners is big business. Locals charge between US$100 to US$180 per house per night.

By all means milk the foreign aid workers...but the question is whether the same thing is causing unnecessary hardship to the other Indonesians who are not in a position to capitalise, or depleting other important services (remember the public school teacher above) of talent. Secondly, what happens when the aid workers leave? This is not a sustainable injection into the local economy.

I blogged earlier on my thoughts concerning why the SAF seems to be able to help effectively in Meulaboh. To summarise: (1) not because Singaporeans are especially smart; rather, a keen consciousness of the limitations of our resources acts as that great necessity that compels inventiveness. It forces us to get the best bang for the buck. (2) Coming from a very small country, we are much less tempted to think that somehow, we are indispensible to the Indonesians, or that we are their moral superior for coming to their rescue. (The same spirit underlies the case of Seacology.)

I am not particularly optimistic that large agencies--the UN, WHO, etc., types especially--with their sorts of budgets and mindsets, would be able to do this.

On a completely differen note--From The Globe and Main (Jan 25), "Did tsunamis ruin pirates of Sumatra?":

BANDA ACEH, INDONESIA -- Pirates are traditionally the scourge of the high seas, but last month's tall waves appear to have gotten the best of the buccaneers plying the waters off the east coast of Sumatra.

With assault rifles replacing the cutlass and night-vision goggles taking over from the spyglass, the maritime piracy industry was a growing problem in Southeast Asia -- especially off the Indonesian province of Aceh, on Sumatra's northern tip. But analysts say the raids have stopped, at least for now.

"It is still one of our piracy hot spots, but since the Dec. 26 tsunami, we have not recorded a single attack on shipping in the Malacca Strait," said Noel Choong, head of the London-based International Maritime Bureau's piracy watch centre in Kuala Lumpur.

"One reason may be that the physical assets they use -- the boats and the weapons -- were destroyed in the tsunami, and of course another possibility is that they themselves may have died."...

Hmm...I Just recalled that Myrick blogged about this earlier.

UPDATE: spoken too early after all. The ICC-CCS (International Chamber of Commerce - Commercial Crime Service) Piracy Report reports:

23.01.2005 at 0340 LT at Panjang port, Indonesia. Three robbers armed with long knives boarded a tanker at berth. D/O raised alarm and crew mustered. Robbers jumped overboard and escaped empty handed in a speedboat.

(Hat tip: EagleSpeak)

Final Red Cross Tally: US$40 million

CNA, Jan 24: One month after they started, the Singapore Red Cross Society's "Tidal Waves Asia Fund" collects a total of S$65 million (just under US$40 million). That's about US$9.25 per capita (Singapore's population is 4.3 million). Apparently, the number may still increase as "as collections from other NGOs have yet to be tallied."

To put it in perspective: Germany (population 82.4 million) would have collected US$762 million and the United States (population 293 million) US$2.7 billion at the same rate.

For the past two weeks or so, I was under the impression that most of the donations after the first week of collection were corporate givings. It turned out that I was mistaken: private individuals gave some S$46 million (69%) while the remaining S$20 million (31%) came from corporations and civic/religious organizations.

And this Red Cross volunteer reminds us of a group of unsung heroes in this story (ST Forum, Jan 24):

...They were the ones who stayed back to continue working through the night when the volunteers had called it a day. They were also the ones who were at Red Cross House the next morning before many of the volunteers arrived. They were the ones who had to fix the mess that over-zealous volunteers created in the first few hectic days. And while the volunteers would just walk away from the mess, this group would not leave until the work was done.

These wonderful people are the staff at Red Cross. While some may say that they are 'paid to do the job', from what I had seen while helping out there, the staff had to endure more than what anyone would be paid for.

From incessant calls by over-anxious donors asking for receipts, to accusations that donations were rejected (just because the donors' cheques had yet to be processed), to preposterous requests (like demanding receipts for donations that could not even pay for the postage), the staff had to answer in the nicest way possible to the concerned, the ignorant, and even the downright unreasonable.

Until you have helped out in processing the tens of thousands of cheques that arrived at Red Cross House for the Tidal Waves Asia Fund, you can never truly appreciate the enormity of the task that the Red Cross staff faced in getting to the stage of sending out official receipts.

This was on top of issuing thousands of receipts for cash donations, and dealing with the numerous cheques that bounced.

As a volunteer, I did not have to bother about the public's queries. I could even walk away from the unreasonable minority. But the staff at Red Cross could not. They were urged to 'look at the bigger picture'. They had to get the job done, not for the sake of the donors, but for the sake of the tsunami victims.

For that, Singaporeans owe them a big Thank You.

Tee Wei In

Amen!