Tsunami Impact
It's a gross understatement to say that the 29 September 2009 Tsunami in Samoa had a big impact. Having taken many guests through the affected areas, the universal response is one of awe. The Tsunami was a tragedy.
The impact I am talking about goes way deeper than just loss of life and broken houses. It has had a deep and ongoing physical, spiritual, financial and emotional impact on both Samoan AND Palagi.
A month after the tragedy, I took four leaders from a South Coast that was literally in walking distance to view the affected areas. These people lived within a short walking distance of four majorly affected resorts. One of their sons even worked at on of them, yet they had never seen the damage first-hand!
These people were so scared of the cultural taboos of visiting their neighbouring village that they dared not even visit and their entire knowledge of the Tsunami was from the local TV and TV3 News. Being an independent Palagi I was however free to take my guests around, and give them a detailed guided tour of where the wave came and where it missed; show them the restoration work and educate the uneducated, even though they were the "locals".
Throughout the tour, these Samoans would not stop talking - many times all four at once in the car - and the Matai would not eat that night after returning.
One of our Web Ambassadors who was knowledgeable of the Tsunami and Samoa explained their experience after travelling through the affected areas as "deeply unsettling". It is all of that.
A day or so after seeing the damaged areas and as the shock settled in another guest was in tears, as they processed the shock from seeing people with so little losing all.
Another guest has referred to being in "awe of the devastation", the power of the backwash sufficient to flip a 70ton digger 100m into the deep; buckle a reinforced 20mm steel plate barge leg, and demolish a massive brand new concrete wharf at Satitoa.
There are now many people without jobs. Many have relocated. Words fly back and forth over government corruption or incompetence, but the people and the country are slowly rebuilding. Many never will return to the coast. Many resorts will never reopen. Samoa as a tourism destination of safe pristine idyllic white sandy beaches will have been forever changed.
The impact of the Tsunami is stunning in its enormity on this nation, even perhaps the world.
Another aspect to the Tsunami's impact, is the negative impact of the Tsunami on the local people now enjoying a handout mentality.
Over the last couple of months we have been privileged to spend quality time with a prominent South Coast MP who has been showing us his land and introducing his village to us. This man has been entirely gracious but has been very cautious in all dealings and discussions with us. He would explain the extent of the damage and details of the Tsunami quite reservedly for weeks.
He really came alive however and was highly animated when talking about the negative impact of the Tsunami upon his constituency.
"The Tsunami was the worst thing for our people" he says. "It has put them into a hand-out mentality. They now even expect people to give them food!"
The context to this is that food is available in abundance in Samoa and for years the issue of Remittances (gifts from relatives off-shore) have been a thorny topic. Relatively rich family off-shore have sent back gifts to their relatively poorer family in Samoa, which is a perfectly natural thing to do, but encourages a poverty mentality, or a hand-out mentality in the Samoan people here. The leaders have condemned this but it makes up a large percentage of GDP and it continues basically unabated.
As one New Zealand based Samoan said to me, "What do you expect? How can I not help my grandmother when she has nothing [by comparison]? It's a perfectly natural thing to do!"
The problem that our MP sees so clearly is that except for the loss of life and the relocation further inland, the Tsunami has been a wind-fall for his people. Who would not milk the system and sit back and wait for another handout if they could? People have been known to deliberately exaggerate their plight in order to get construction materials, food, or other assistance.
There is undoubtedly much to do and much needed; new roading connecting plantations previously unconnected, but now required, power, water and other services. Many of this will take years to achieve and is all important, but the people are higly adept at "milking" the system and particularly any Palagi generosity.
The Tsunami has brought a lot of this to the surface, with a plethora of people wanting to give and to help.
Last year I blogged on how to give to Samoa effectively. A lot of it is still very true. The SWAP programme is designed to help people see and understand Samoa, hopefully with the result in increased tourism to Samoa. Tourism of people engaging with people, rather than people sitting on beaches.
It is definitely a gross understatement to say that the 2009 Tsunami had a big impact. The impact of the Tsunami is enormous and touches all of us remotely associated with Samoa in more ways than one.
Tagwords: samoa tsunami
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