What happen to the Tsunami relief fund? No one can forget the weeping faces of the fishing families and other victims like them in Thailand, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka, on December 26th, 2004. Governments were SLOW to respond, but the private sector was swift with their donations, which came from school children’s bake sales, bottle drives, musicians concerts, religious groups and so forth. These ordinary citizens then demanded their governments match their generosity with official aid. As a result, in 6 months, $13 BILLION was raised – a world record.

Sri Lanka’s president, Chandrika Kumaratunga, interpreted the tsunami as divine punishment for failing to sell off Sri Lanka’s beaches and forests, as proposed by USAID, the World Bank and the Asian Development bank, just 2 years earlier. These groups saw Sri Lanka as a high-end tourist destination. There was one major problem though. Millions of people would have to leave traditional villages to free up the beaches and the land for resorts and highways. Then, along came the tsunami that changed everything. Sri Lanka, thanks to years of warfare, had driven itself deep into debt buying weapons. It was not in the position to deal with the devastating disaster. It was forced to turn to the likes of the IMF, the World Bank and the US Treasury. This aid of course, came at a price; a price you cannot put a $dollar value to. In exchange for financial aid, Sri Lanka was forced to auction off much of their “state” (public) owned land to FOREIGN multinational corporations.

To make a very long story as short as possible, OUR (mine and your) donations were used to construct foreign owned tourist facilities on the beach front that used to be occupied by local fishermen for hundreds of years.

We can no longer rely on our organizations to deliver our well meant relief dollars to the rightful victims. Corporate greed stands in the way.

Source: The Shock Doctrine, The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by journalist, Naomi Klein