Feb 28, 2005 - CIO Opinion: "Technology in the Wake of a Tragedy
'Public calamity is a mighty leveller' -- Edmund Burke
By Sanjana Hattotuwa
On Boxing Day 2004, a tsunami hit my country. In a matter of hours, over 30,000 were dead, thousands more missing and 1 percent of the population displaced. We had never seen devastation on this scale—the human cost of Sri Lanka’s civil war was itself made trivial in comparison, a “mere” 65,000 in 25 years of conflict.
Recovering from a late-night office party the night before, I was at home when I first heard the news. The full scale of the devastation only dawned later in the week, when the body count kept rising by thousands each day, and the dead had to be unceremoniously buried for fear of disease. Beyond the gaze of the global media, this is a tragedy that hits the soul of a country. Its poorest communities account for the majority of the dead or missing. Many who survived wish they had not—entire communities, villages, livelihoods have been lost.
It is impossible to articulate fully the scale of that disaster, or the breadth of its destruction. It is likewise impossible to map or quantify the toll the tsunami took on the communities it affected, or the heavy burden it will for many years to come for those who are now trying to move on as best they can.
Sri Lanka does not need more trauma or grief. It has had more than enough of both. And yet, can a tsunami also be an act of cleansing? Can it, if we creatively imagine ways to grapple with our loss, be a catalyst to engender trust at a time when, in the peace process, trust was severely eroded? Can the same water that took away so much also act as a giver—a giver of renewed hope for creating and nurturing links between human beings bound by a tragedy that saw no ethnic or geographic boundaries?
The Japanese word for crisis is made up of two parts: danger and opportunity. But opportunity must not be confused with opportunism, of which, even in a time of national crisis, we have seen plenty. The present crisis, however, holds within it a unique historical opportunity that can, in ways hitherto unimaginable, bring communities together and create inclusive, holistic and sustainable processes by which we can re-shape our collective destiny as a nation. The tsunami can be symbolic of more than a destructive force; it can be a force that binds all who experienced its power and lived through it, revealing the greater humanity that resides within us all and that crosses barriers of ethnicity, color, race or religion.
What then is the role of technology at this time?
To many, that is a simple question to answer. There is no role, because the needs on the ground require physical interventions, not virtual promises. Because PCs and modems can’t help those suffering from post traumatic stress disorder or, worse, gangrene. Because the Internet is useless as a purveyor of information to places that are no longer on the map, let alone in the umbrella of mobile telephony.
I question the validity of these assumptions. I submit that without technology, it will never be possible to mold aid and relief interventions that resonate with the real needs on the ground in a timely and, more importantly, sustainable manner.
On a personal note, from the night of Boxing Day to date, I have spent more hours in front of an overworked and underpowered laptop than I ever have before, trying to provide information to local and international organizations based in Colombo, to help them with the immediate needs of aid and relief coordination.
And yet, we need to think beyond immediate needs. After the zenith of global media attention to sudden human suffering on a grand scale is passed, and global leaders are awakened to a moral duty to help those less fortunate, adequate money will flow in to meet the needs of the field operations for the immediate future. Medium to long term needs are another matter, but critically, they are where the lasting impact of the tsunami will be strongest. Ignoring medium to long term needs is dangerous. An over-emphasis on immediate needs can lead to the creation of ineffective mechanisms for such things as aid delivery and relief operations. Worse than being ineffective, they may inadvertently sow the seeds for future conflict and structural inequality.
The sensitive and creative use of technology can help develop processes that lead to more peaceful and sustainable futures and avoid the pitfalls of partisan aid and relief operations. How so? Here are just some of the immediate possibilities:
Providing for mobile telephony that gives remote communities access to constantly updated weather and geological information
Helping create home-grown early warning systems employing local knowledge
Using telecenters to serve as repositories of information on emergency procedures and evacuation guidelines
Coordinating the work of aid agencies on the ground, ensuring the delivery of aid and relief to all communities
Monitoring aid flow and evaluating delivery
Creating effective mechanisms for the coordination of reconstruction and relief efforts
Creating avenues for effective communication between field operations and warehouses based in urban centers
Creating secure virtual collaborative workspaces that bring together individuals and organizations without ethnic, geographic or religious boundaries
Enabling centralized data centers that gather information from the field and distribute it to relevant stakeholders
In the longer term, it is imperative to use the trust from relationships that developed first in virtual domains to nourish the larger dialogs in the peace process. Effective cooperation through secure and reliable virtual communities can produce champions within identity groups who, in liaison with like-minded individuals and organizations from elsewhere, create bulwarks against future regression into parochial and zero-sum negotiations that don’t acknowledge the shared trauma and suffering of disparate communities.
Technology can assist knowledge transfer from the diaspora to directly influence developmental processes on the ground, if necessary bypassing third parties to directly empower communities. Telecenters can be repositories of alternative livelihoods in areas where it is now impossible to carry on traditional modes of living. Using cheaply available self-powered digital radios with broadband downlinks, it is possible to empower even the remotest communities with information that they can translate into knowledge to help them rebuild lives and create connections with others who have suffered the same plight. Online dispute resolution can use local knowledge frameworks with creative and modern dispute resolution mechanisms to effectively address the problems that individuals and communities will face on the ground with limited access to resources. Beyond the mere provision of computers, a pragmatic approach to the use of technology in post-disaster situations can nourish and empower those who have been working for peace.
It is unlikely that a single tsunami will wipe out identities that many have died to protect and generations have fought to keep alive. However, we are confronted now with a unique historical event that can change the contours of what was a floundering peace process and re-energize it with dialogue that crosses partisan boundaries and explores, through suffering common to all communities, ways in which sustainable futures for all can be built.
This then is our burden: To consider Boxing Day 2004 not only as a tragedy, but as an opportunity that allowed leaders and communities to come together to rebuild lives and shattered dreams. For through the cacophony of voices vying for attention in Sri Lanka lies dormant the silence of a larger dream—the aspiration of communities to live in peace.
Let us, in 2005, give life to this silent prayer.
Sanjana Hattotuwa is the strategic manager of Info-Share, an Information Communications Technology (ICT) initiative created to bridge gaps in communication between the main stakeholders in the Sri Lankan peace process and enable greater public participation, accountability and transparency in processes of peacebuilding. He can be reached at sanjana@info-share.org. "
'Public calamity is a mighty leveller' -- Edmund Burke
By Sanjana Hattotuwa
On Boxing Day 2004, a tsunami hit my country. In a matter of hours, over 30,000 were dead, thousands more missing and 1 percent of the population displaced. We had never seen devastation on this scale—the human cost of Sri Lanka’s civil war was itself made trivial in comparison, a “mere” 65,000 in 25 years of conflict.
Recovering from a late-night office party the night before, I was at home when I first heard the news. The full scale of the devastation only dawned later in the week, when the body count kept rising by thousands each day, and the dead had to be unceremoniously buried for fear of disease. Beyond the gaze of the global media, this is a tragedy that hits the soul of a country. Its poorest communities account for the majority of the dead or missing. Many who survived wish they had not—entire communities, villages, livelihoods have been lost.
It is impossible to articulate fully the scale of that disaster, or the breadth of its destruction. It is likewise impossible to map or quantify the toll the tsunami took on the communities it affected, or the heavy burden it will for many years to come for those who are now trying to move on as best they can.
Sri Lanka does not need more trauma or grief. It has had more than enough of both. And yet, can a tsunami also be an act of cleansing? Can it, if we creatively imagine ways to grapple with our loss, be a catalyst to engender trust at a time when, in the peace process, trust was severely eroded? Can the same water that took away so much also act as a giver—a giver of renewed hope for creating and nurturing links between human beings bound by a tragedy that saw no ethnic or geographic boundaries?
The Japanese word for crisis is made up of two parts: danger and opportunity. But opportunity must not be confused with opportunism, of which, even in a time of national crisis, we have seen plenty. The present crisis, however, holds within it a unique historical opportunity that can, in ways hitherto unimaginable, bring communities together and create inclusive, holistic and sustainable processes by which we can re-shape our collective destiny as a nation. The tsunami can be symbolic of more than a destructive force; it can be a force that binds all who experienced its power and lived through it, revealing the greater humanity that resides within us all and that crosses barriers of ethnicity, color, race or religion.
What then is the role of technology at this time?
To many, that is a simple question to answer. There is no role, because the needs on the ground require physical interventions, not virtual promises. Because PCs and modems can’t help those suffering from post traumatic stress disorder or, worse, gangrene. Because the Internet is useless as a purveyor of information to places that are no longer on the map, let alone in the umbrella of mobile telephony.
I question the validity of these assumptions. I submit that without technology, it will never be possible to mold aid and relief interventions that resonate with the real needs on the ground in a timely and, more importantly, sustainable manner.
On a personal note, from the night of Boxing Day to date, I have spent more hours in front of an overworked and underpowered laptop than I ever have before, trying to provide information to local and international organizations based in Colombo, to help them with the immediate needs of aid and relief coordination.
And yet, we need to think beyond immediate needs. After the zenith of global media attention to sudden human suffering on a grand scale is passed, and global leaders are awakened to a moral duty to help those less fortunate, adequate money will flow in to meet the needs of the field operations for the immediate future. Medium to long term needs are another matter, but critically, they are where the lasting impact of the tsunami will be strongest. Ignoring medium to long term needs is dangerous. An over-emphasis on immediate needs can lead to the creation of ineffective mechanisms for such things as aid delivery and relief operations. Worse than being ineffective, they may inadvertently sow the seeds for future conflict and structural inequality.
The sensitive and creative use of technology can help develop processes that lead to more peaceful and sustainable futures and avoid the pitfalls of partisan aid and relief operations. How so? Here are just some of the immediate possibilities:
Providing for mobile telephony that gives remote communities access to constantly updated weather and geological information
Helping create home-grown early warning systems employing local knowledge
Using telecenters to serve as repositories of information on emergency procedures and evacuation guidelines
Coordinating the work of aid agencies on the ground, ensuring the delivery of aid and relief to all communities
Monitoring aid flow and evaluating delivery
Creating effective mechanisms for the coordination of reconstruction and relief efforts
Creating avenues for effective communication between field operations and warehouses based in urban centers
Creating secure virtual collaborative workspaces that bring together individuals and organizations without ethnic, geographic or religious boundaries
Enabling centralized data centers that gather information from the field and distribute it to relevant stakeholders
In the longer term, it is imperative to use the trust from relationships that developed first in virtual domains to nourish the larger dialogs in the peace process. Effective cooperation through secure and reliable virtual communities can produce champions within identity groups who, in liaison with like-minded individuals and organizations from elsewhere, create bulwarks against future regression into parochial and zero-sum negotiations that don’t acknowledge the shared trauma and suffering of disparate communities.
Technology can assist knowledge transfer from the diaspora to directly influence developmental processes on the ground, if necessary bypassing third parties to directly empower communities. Telecenters can be repositories of alternative livelihoods in areas where it is now impossible to carry on traditional modes of living. Using cheaply available self-powered digital radios with broadband downlinks, it is possible to empower even the remotest communities with information that they can translate into knowledge to help them rebuild lives and create connections with others who have suffered the same plight. Online dispute resolution can use local knowledge frameworks with creative and modern dispute resolution mechanisms to effectively address the problems that individuals and communities will face on the ground with limited access to resources. Beyond the mere provision of computers, a pragmatic approach to the use of technology in post-disaster situations can nourish and empower those who have been working for peace.
It is unlikely that a single tsunami will wipe out identities that many have died to protect and generations have fought to keep alive. However, we are confronted now with a unique historical event that can change the contours of what was a floundering peace process and re-energize it with dialogue that crosses partisan boundaries and explores, through suffering common to all communities, ways in which sustainable futures for all can be built.
This then is our burden: To consider Boxing Day 2004 not only as a tragedy, but as an opportunity that allowed leaders and communities to come together to rebuild lives and shattered dreams. For through the cacophony of voices vying for attention in Sri Lanka lies dormant the silence of a larger dream—the aspiration of communities to live in peace.
Let us, in 2005, give life to this silent prayer.
Sanjana Hattotuwa is the strategic manager of Info-Share, an Information Communications Technology (ICT) initiative created to bridge gaps in communication between the main stakeholders in the Sri Lankan peace process and enable greater public participation, accountability and transparency in processes of peacebuilding. He can be reached at sanjana@info-share.org. "
