Tsunami --RW\/OR ONLINE\n\n\n\n\n\nTsunami\nThe power of nature and the tragic failures of an outmoded system\n<\/p>
Revolutionary Worker #1264, 2005, posted at rwor.org<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Near daybreak on December 26, the earth shuddered on the eastern coast of the Indian Ocean. The collision of \ntwo massive plates of the earth had build up tremendous pressures, and the faultline <\/b>finally gave way along a \n750-mile boundary, The floor of the ocean suddenly lurched 60 feet underneath the land mass of Southeast \nAsia’s Burma plate—moving forward more in a few violent moments than it had in the last three \nhundred years. The whole volcanic Indonesian island of Sumatra moved a hundred feet south.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
This was one of the most powerful earthquakes recorded by human beings—and was followed by at least \na dozen secondary earthquakes, several of them massive in their own right. The energy released suddenly by this \nviolent slide was the equivalent of 32 billion tons of TNT. The quake unleashed 30% more energy than the whole U.S. \nconsumes in a year, or (to use a quirky illustration) enough energy to boil 2,600 gallons of water for every person on \nearth. A massive hurricane would have to rage for two full months to release as much energy as this earthquake \nunleashed in seconds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
And as that massive collision of rock slid and quivered, part of the coastal sea floor rose, suddenly displacing \nhundreds of cubic miles of ocean water along the sliding fault—and forming the massive tsunami <\/i>waves \nthat moved at jet-liner speed across the Indian Ocean—moving east and west toward densely inhabited \ncoasts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Within 15 minutes the first wave had crashed into Sumatra—forming a wall of water up to 40 feet high \nthat washed over fishing communities along hundreds of miles of coast. Whole towns were obliterated. At least \n100,000 people reportedly died in Sumatra’s Aceh region alone. People were swept away with their homes and \nvehicles, often pulled out to sea to return with the future tides. Boats were found three miles inland. The town of \nMeulaboh was obliterated, and at least half of its population of 40,000 are reportedly dead. Banda Aceh, the provincial \ncapital and home to 400,000 people, was completely devastated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
And then, hour by hour, the massive ripples of water, moving at 500 miles per hour over deep water, hit more \ndistant coasts of the Indian Ocean—pounding the western coast of Thailand, devastating Sri Lanka’s \neastern shores, hitting southern India, Myanmar, and Bangladesh, sweeping over the 200 low-lying islands of the \n<\/b>Maldives and then passing on to Africa’s Somalia, Tanzania, and Kenya. Tens of thousands more died. In \nSri Lanka a whole train with a thousand passengers was swept out to sea, and buses were later found floating far out in \nthe deep ocean. In the tourist resorts of western Thailand, thousands were snatched from beaches, raked over coral \nreefs while scuba diving, or drowned in the relentless flood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
In Mogadishu, Somalia—completely on the other side of this vast ocean—the tsunami waves were \ntwice the height of an adult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
The final number of human dead will never be precisely known. Uncounted thousands of inhabitants of these \ncoasts now lie in mass graves or at the bottom of the sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
As the sun set on that awful day, people all over the world ached in sympathy and grasped for ways to help and \nrebuild.<\/p>\n
*****<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
In an instant, this earthquake drove home to us all the tremendous dynamism of our planet—its turmoil, its \nconstant change, and its unpredictability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
But then hour after hour, day after day, a second profound truth has stood out starkly: This massive disruption of \nnature and human life revealed, starkly, how the present global capitalist social order stands as a complete obstacle \ntoward solving the most basic problems and challenges of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Human society has come a long way in many respects. In fact, in countless ways, the means exist <\/i>for \npreventing the massive loss of human life, and for rapidly rebuilding the damage left behind. Scientific researchers \nunderstand earthquakes and tsunamis in profound ways—it was possible to detect the earthquake around the \nworld within minutes, and within an hour specialists understood the great danger faced by people on the coasts. Our \nsociety has the means for instant communication to every point on the planet—with satellites, radio towers, \ninternet, and cell phone networks. There are massive resources accumulated by human labor that could be put into \nplay—bulldozers, evacuation ships, helicopters, floating hospitals. And there are countless people, all over the \nworld, eager to throw themselves into the rescue and rebuilding operation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Through most of human existence, massive natural events appeared out of nowhere, they overwhelmed isolated \nand unprepared communities, and then desperate survivors tried to carry on alone, without relief or supplies or anyone \neven knowing of their suffering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
None of that is necessary today. None of that need happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
And yet…. and yet… in ways that drive the mind mad with frustration, at every point, the \nknowledge, the wealth, tools, the creative collective efforts of humanity were kept <\/i>from being \ndeployed—in timely, effective ways that actually saved and rescued those in danger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
At every hand, the \"modern\" social order stood in the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
This world capitalist order—divided into rich and poor, organized for private profit and military \nsupremacy, carved into oppressor and oppressed nations, governed by oppressive and corrupt nation-states, funding \nthose systems that serve the powerful, dedicated to keeping science the domain of a specialized few—at literally \nevery turn <\/i>of this human catastrophe, the workings of this complex global class society showed itself to be \nutterly outmoded and criminal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Much of this human suffering could <\/i>have been prevented. And the second wave of death, suffering and \ndesperate poverty now <\/i>facing the survivors could also be prevented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
And every look at the responses of the world’s governments, with all their crocodile tears and claims of \ncompassion, reveals over and over that these forces cannot claim to serve the needs of humanity—as they \nscramble like crabs in a barrel to turn this human disaster into an opening for their own advantage and control over \nhuman beings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nBottled-up Science\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\"The astounding tragedy in the Indian Ocean is not just a human disaster of unbearable \nmagnitude. Nor is it a matter of fate. It is the consequence of years of underinvestment in the scientific and technical \ninfrastructure needed to reduce the vulnerability of developing countries to natural and environmental \ncalamity.\"\n\n
—Los Angeles Times <\/i> <\/i>editorial, Dec. 30by geographer Robert Chen and \nseismologists Arthur Lerner-Lamand Leonardo Seeber<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
The most glaring and infuriating truth about this tsunami is that people got no warning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
One often cited estimate says that nine out of ten scientists who ever lived are alive today. The earth is under \nconstant surveillance—by seismic instruments and satellite. There are institutes full of people who have \ndedicated their lives to understanding earthquakes, to identifying possible tsunamis, to predicting how waves will \nspread and how they will hit. And yet all their research, their patient listening to the vibrations of our earth and their \nplanning were frustrated—when in very basic ways, their warnings simply were prevented from reaching people \nin time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
One spot in the Indian Ocean did get clear warning from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii. It was \nthe massive U.S. and British naval base at Diego Garcia—where the U.S. invasions of Iraq and the whole \nsurrounding region are prepared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Ironically, the waves never really hit Diego Garcia—but the message this military base got shows that \nwarnings and timely evacuation could <\/i>have saved tens of thousands of people as mountainous waves were \ncrossing the ocean toward Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
And why, as the greatest disaster of our times hit, couldn’t that scientific knowledge reach the people \nwho needed it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
One obvious reason is that the Indian Ocean is an impoverished, semicolonial region. It is dominated by the \n\"great powers\" of Europe and North America, but the well-being of people along those intensely populated \nshores is not their concern. Nike and the computer industry can build sweatshops in Indonesia, but no one bothers to set \naside a few million dollars to build an early warning system. There were simply no detection buoys in place to track a \ntsunami in the Indian Ocean—even though a handful of such buoys (costing $250,000 each) could have gathered \nvital information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
In a world where computer research is cheap and commonplace, there were not even models in place for \npredicting how a tsunami might spread across the Indian Ocean. There have been reports of how frantic scientists \nrushed to plug data on the Indian Ocean into their existing programs—at the very moments when the waves were \nalready overwhelming Sri Lanka’s coast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
In a world of rich and poor (and of imperialist countries and dominated countries) the warning systems have \nbeen built off the coasts of Japan and California, and not off the coast of Indonesia or Sri Lanka or Somalia—or \nBangladesh where many tens of millions of people live in very low-lying floodplains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
In the aftermath, authorities quickly argued that tsunamis \"are rare\" in the Indian Ocean, and so such \nwarning systems had not been considered necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
But the truth is that several severe tidal waves have happened there in the last century. And it is well known \namong scientists that the whole eastern coast of the Indian Ocean is a highly volatile zone of colliding \nplates—part of the \"ring of fire\" that produces the vast majority of the world’s tsunami \nwaves. In fact, since the December 26 disaster, it is becoming known that a few far-sighted scientists had been \nsounding the alarm about the Sumatra coast, but were unable to get a hearing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
And on a whole other level, ordinary people are kept from scientific knowledge that they can use to analyze their \nsurroundings and save themselves. Before the waves hit, the oceans withdrew from the beach, in some cases exposing \nalmost two miles of sea floor. It was extremely unusual and an unmistakable warning of a tsunami. But thousands of \npeople watched this and did not know what it meant. In many places, children ran into the exposed areas to capture \nfish—while the killer wave rushed down upon them. They just didn’t know!<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
These were communities where people made their living on the water—and yet, these millions of people \nhad been deprived, kept away, from basic scientific knowledge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
In our world, in modern capitalist class society, science remains the domain of the few—and all kinds of \nreligious and superstitious thinking is promoted among the people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nGovernment Men with Guns\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
As thousands of bodies washed up along the tidewaters, and as millions stood desperate and homeless in \nthe ruins of their coastal towns, surrounded by fields destroyed by saltwater—the local governments of these \nregions revealed themselves (once again!) to be profoundly corrupt and brutally oppressive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
In all of the major regions hit by the tidal wave, the national governments have been involved in internal wars \naimed at suppressing the aspirations of their people. In northern Sumatra, the Indonesian army has carried out a decade \nof fascist suppression among the Aceh people. In Sri Lanka, the government quickly announced that they refused to \nallow supplies to be delivered into the hands of the rebel Tigers (LTTP), even though large parts of the devastated coast \nare under the control of these rebel forces. In India, the government, police and army have savagely suppressed \nresistance of many kinds, including revolutionary communist forces among the people. And in southern Thailand, the \npeople have lived through brutal government suppression in which 500 people were killed last year—and 78 \narrested demonstrators were suffocated to death by police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
The reporting on the tsunami there has put tremendous attention on the backwardness of these coasts, the \npoverty of the people, and the lack of transportation. But the truth is that great funds have been spent on the military \nsuppression of the people—and on enforcing their poverty <\/i>as wealth is extracted from them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
In the Aceh region of Sumatra, for example, where the waves hit hardest, it is estimated that ExxonMobil has \nextracted $40 billion from liquid natural gas facilities—in other words from the labor of the people and from the \nresources of their land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
And yet almost none of this wealth has flowed to the people—or to create infrastructure (roads, airports, \nrail lines, modern ports, storage facilities, hospital systems) that could now be used for rescue and rebuilding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
However, great wealth has gone to building up the Indonesian military (and their killer squads) in this Aceh \nregion. The International Labor Rights Fund wrote: \" There have been credible reports dating back several \nyears that Exxon Mobil Corporation, along with its predecessor companies, Mobil Oil Corporation and Mobil Oil \nIndonesia, hired military units of the Indonesian national army to provide ‘security’ for their gas \nextraction and liquification project in Aceh, Indonesia. Members of these military units regularly have perpetrated \nongoing and severe human rights abuses against local villagers, including murder, rape, torture, destruction of \nproperty, and other acts of terror.\"<\/i> ( Village Voice,December 30)<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
When a human rights group tried to sue Exxon Mobil over this, the U.S. State Department urged the presiding \nfederal judge to throw the case out, saying in 2002 that such a lawsuit \"would in fact risk a potentially serious \nadverse impact on significant interests of the United States, including interests related directly to the ongoing struggle \nagainst international terrorism.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
When the tsunami disaster happened, the Indonesian military viewed the whole population as its enemy. Its \nvehicles, bases, and helicopters were not deployed in rescue, but stood guard in fear that they would face armed attacks \nfrom the population. The military had forbidden journalists from entering the province and was highly suspicious of \nany outsider who wandered outside the coastal tourist resorts. And in crucial early hours after the tsunami, the \nIndonesian military refused to allow in airlifts of emergency supplies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
In short, the wealth and labor of this region are exploited. The government of Indonesia, one of the largest \ncountries in the world, had 50,000 troops to send into Aceh to terrorize the people, but they had nothing in place to \nrescue those people. The U.S. corporations had funneled money to death squads while little went to roads or phone \nsystems. And when disaster hit, the organized apparatus of the state was poised for war and repression—but \nnothing and no one was in place to serve the people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe Callous Emperor and the Pressures of Rivalry\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\"We’re a very generous, kindhearted nation.\"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<\/i>
—President George W. Bush, offering $35 million in relieffour days \nafter the distaster<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
So much power and wealth flows through the fingers of the U.S. superpower that the eyes of the \nworld went to Washington DC to see how the White House would react. And for days there was silence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
The White House finally promised $15 million in relief. And the whole world gasped. A UN spokesman \nsputtered in dismay about a \"stingy\" response. And with that a political firestorm broke out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
When Bush finally swaggered into the public eye, he threatened: \"Well, I felt like the person who made \nthat statement was very misguided and ill-informed.\" He offered a new promise of aid: $35 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Official spokespeople went on a rampage insisting that no country on the planet is \"more generous\" \nthan the U.S. And apparently this is a widely held myth—polls showed that most people in the U.S. believe that \n15 to 20 percent of the U.S. federal budget goes to \"foreign aid.\" In fact it is less than a quarter of 1 \npercent, and much of that is spent for highly sinister purposes of propping up pro-U.S. regimes or helping to extract \nwealth. (For example, a huge chunk of U.S. \"disaster relief\" in the last years went to the zones of \nAfghanistan and Iraq—where U.S. bombing had created the disasters.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Pressure mounted. The other global powers, in Europe and Japan, took advantage of this moment to upstage the \nU.S.—and promise vastly larger <\/i>contributions to the relief effort. Critics of Bush within the U.S. political \nestablishment complained that he had missed a major opportunity to extend U.S. influence and repair damage to U.S. \nprestige—especially in Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim nation. (One major liberal magazine \nactually called on its readers to \"Join the call for the U.S. to show more aggressive leadership.\" Is that what \nthis world needs? More <\/i>aggressiveness from the White House?!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Under pressure, the retiring U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell announced that the U.S. would, in fact, spend \nmuch more in relief—and then said the relief efforts were becoming like \"some kind of an auction house \nwhere every day somebody has to top someone else.\" And meanwhile, day after day, the U.S. government \nscrambled to up their bid. Two days after Bush’s first announcement, their next promises of relief jumped ten \ntimes—to $350 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
In other words, when potential rivals <\/i>stepped in, when other <\/i>imperialist powers started to \nintervene in the Indian Ocean, then <\/i>the U.S. government was forced to act—if there is going to be an \ninternational operation of any kind they demand to lead it. If anyone is going to gain influence and respect from this \ndisaster, they insist it must be them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
And in all this too, the oppressive nature of this world system revealed itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nA Criminal Lopsidedness\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Commentators noted that only the U.S. military could possibly mobilize enough ships and aircraft to \ndeliver supplies to the affected areas. And why is that? Why, in the world today, is all this wealth invested in the \nmilitary capabilities of the main superpower? Why is all this capability concentrated <\/i>in delivering threats and \nweapons anywhere in the world?<\/i>Why are the efforts of tens of thousands of trained people focused on \n\"force projection\" into the Indian Ocean, and not a second’s thought goes into warning systems for \nthe most populated coasts on the planet!?<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
This is itself just a glimpse of the extreme lopsidedness of this world order—where extreme wealth \nconcentrates at one pole, and extreme poverty concentrates at the other. The shores of the Indian Ocean include several \nof the world’s most impoverished regions. When their fishing boats are ruined, when their coastal fresh water \nand fields are soaked in salt, when their few fragile roads and rail lines are washed away—the people of these \nregions have nothing. Millennia of feudal class society, centuries of \"modern\" colonialism, decades of \ncorrupt and ruthless \"independent\" states (often funded from Washington or other world \"great \npowers\")—have all produced this situation where over a billion people on the planet live permanently in \nthe shadow of starvation and desperation while the means finally exist for ending such starvation and desperation \nforever!<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<\/i>\n
<\/i>The wealth of this planet is relentlessly focused where it can make more profit for the very \nfew—that is the law of capitalism, of the \"free market\" that is supposedly so \"efficient.\" \nBut what has been efficient is the way the natural resources and labor of places like Indonesia have been sucked up by \nhuge imperialist corporations trading in timber, arms and natural gas. Or the systematic way a generation of young \nwomen throughout this region have been forced into sex slavery in places like Bangkok or the tourist resort of \nPhuket along Thailand’s western coast that was recently devastated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Or think of it like this:<\/b> Tsunami tidal waves may be rare—but massive flooding is not. \nBangladesh and other coastal areas of the Indian Ocean are hit by massive flooding and monsoons that often endanger \nmillions of people. Why are there no rapid response forces in this region that could be rushed to Sumatra? Why are \nthere no massive floating water tankers, no designated bases filled with supplies and equipment, no international air \nflotillas for relief and rescue?<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Because such intense human needs (especially in the poorer regions of the world) are simply not on the drawing \nboards whenever the plans and priorities of the powerful are drawn up. This system has mobilized unimaginable \n<\/i>resources to invade, occupy and suppress the Persian Gulf oil region and to give the U.S. superpower the ability to \nliterally threaten any country on earth. All this is done in the strategic (read: imperialist) interests of the U.S. ruling \nclass. But nothing similar is done (or even considered!) for the real threats people face from everyday starvation, from \nthe extremes of natural disasters and the growing dangers like global warming (which will slowly flood large parts of \nthe world the way the recent tsunami did for a few hours)!<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
A disaster hits on the Burmese plate—but because of the most basic structures of imperialism, the only \n\"practical\" plan for ad-hoc disaster relief relies on convincing a military superpower a half world away \n<\/i>to send a few of their ships and bombers. What kind of a system is that?!<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
And what happens now, in those places where the fate of peoples is at the tender mercy of these imperialists, \ntheir military and their \"charity\"? Where Colin Powell and Jeb Bush tour like envoys from the Emperor, \nvisiting the provinces and directing operations?<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
A natural disaster becomes a way for these imperialists to tighten their grip, to make their rule seem more \npalatable to desperate populations and a way to grease the palms of favored corporations and governments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
It did not take long for such practical changes to emerge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
One American in Aceh pointed out: \"In normal times, Indonesia’s worst nightmare was having \nAmerican marines arrive on the Banda Aceh tarmac. Yet here we are in the middle of this operation, and we have \nmarines here.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
A \"senior American diplomat in Asia\" complained that the U.S. no longer had its massive naval base \nat Subic Bay in the Philippines, and added that the world is \"paying the price\" for this American loss. After \nall, according to this imperialist logic, the only way people can be safe from the ocean waves is if U.S. marines can \neasily and quickly invade absolutely any <\/i>corner of the planet at will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n What would it take?\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\"It is like 9\/11 but so different. There is no one to blame.\"\n\n\n
—Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\"What one’s faith gives you is the capacity to respond to a disaster, not \nnecessarily to explain it.\"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
—Prof. Diana Eck, Harvard Divinity School Chicago Tribune, \n<\/i> <\/i>December 31<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\"It is a natural event. We cannot do anything about it. Hold onto the feet of the lord. He \nwill give you the strength to go through what you have to go through.\"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
—Krishna Rajan,Hindu Temple of Greater Chicago Chicago \nTribune, <\/i> <\/i>December 31<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\"When the waves washed over India’s coastal villages Sunday, thousands of \npilgrims to a Marian shrine were washed away as they attended mass. Bodies were buried in the sand, and the shrine \nsuddenly became a morgue. University of Chicago divinity student Kristin Bloomer, in the region to study Indian \ndevotion to Mary, said she watched one man shout: ‘There is nothing! There is nothing! Where is God? What \nis God?’\"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
—Chicago Tribune <\/i>, December 31<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
The earth shook, and an awful ripple tore through the dense fabric of human life. The scope of \nsuffering is hard to contemplate—both the immediate deaths and then the long extended suffering from \ndislocation and destruction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
What would it take for a different outcome?<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Sincere people are making lists of changes that are needed—a system of buoys in the Indian Ocean, some \nway of emailing warnings to Sri Lanka, some increase in budgets, some new international institutions….. the list \ngoes on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
But clearly none of these changes will really <\/i>affect the outcome next time—unless radical and \nfundamental change sweeps away imperialism and the profound divisions of class society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
And meanwhile, in countless ways, people are told this was all just fate, or inexplicable tragedy, or the \nmysterious hand of an all-knowing god.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
One Muslim imam from Aceh was quoted saying: \"Be patient. Surrender to god, for this, too, can be a \nvaluable experience. Faith is all we have.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Todd Strandberg (founder of Raptureready.com) was quoted in the press saying that the tsunami was a sign of \nthe \"end times\" where Jesus returns to a sinful world—fulfilling a prophesy made in Luke 21:25-26 \nthat, in the last days of earth, \"There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the \nearth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and \nfor looking after those things which are coming on the earth.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Such lunacy would simply be ridiculous if fundamentalist Christian forces did not have great power and \ninitiative at the heights of this empire, and if the mainstream U.S. media hadn’t constantly spewed out religious \nmetaphysics in its news coverage of the disaster (announcing as news the \"need for prayer\" or declaring \nthat nothing could explain the sources or reasons for such suffering).<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Take a moment, and think through what it would really take for human beings to be prepared to consciously and \ncollectively prepare themselves for such massive events. We would need a society where the wealth created by human \nlabor was allocated by human need. Where scientific knowledge had become the property of all, and where people \ndeeply understood how the real world worked, and how they could organize themselves to change it. Where the huge, \ninfuriating divisions between nations and regions had been overcome—and where a global human community \nworked together to identify problems and develop common solutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
We would need a world where the ruthless and relentless laws of capitalism had been overthrown—where \nthe accumulation of more and more profit was no longer the guide to investment or intervention. Where the vast and \ncriminal lopsidedness of the world—a legacy of colonialism and imperialism—had been consciously \novercome. Where the means of life were available to all. Where the powerful tools humans have created were no longer \nfocused on war, or the reinforcement of unjust power, but could be deployed for the protection and welfare of the \npeople.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
On one hand, such a communist world—of cooperation and abundance, operating beyond class and \nnational divisions—seems so far away today that it may appear to be an idle or utopian dream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
But in the most practical and real way, the conditions for such a world are here, at hand, today <\/i>. For the \nfirst time in human history, the means exist to actually abolish the enslavement of one human to another, and end the \npowerlessness humans have felt before nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
No force on earth could have prevented the earthquake of December 26. No change in human society would \nprevent massive and unexpected natural events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
But an earthquake disaster on the shores of the Indian Ocean does not need to leave a shoreline of corpses, or \nmillions of people facing a desperate future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
We live in a time filled with reasons to make revolution, and to fight for a communist world. The world-shaking \nearthquake of December 26 revealed how much human suffering today flows from the criminally outmoded capitalist \nsystem. On many levels, this world order literally prevented <\/i>the warning, rescue and recovery of people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
It squandered the life-work, resource and dedication of scientists. It left millions of people stripped of resources, \ninfrastructure, and communications. It kept basic scientific facts about the earth and the oceans from being known to \nthe masses of people—while it propped up and promoted countless forms of religion, fatalism and superstition. It \nforged a society where people found themselves isolated and disorganized—even as millions all over the world \nstrained to find ways to help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
And then, this system placed the whole recovery process in the hands of the most brutal war-makers and empire-\nbuilders this world has ever seen, as they typically turned the whole effort into just a new arena to press for sinister \ninfluence and advantage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Our times are filled with reasons to make revolution. The man-made horrors of this Indian Ocean tsunami have \nadded still more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
<\/p>
This article is posted in English and Spanish on Revolutionary Worker \nOnline
http:\/\/rwor.org
\nWrite: Box 3486, Merchandise Mart, Chicago, IL 60654
\nPhone: 773-227-4066 Fax: 773-227-4497<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n\n","contact":"","link":"www.rwor.org","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/html","summary":"Hour after hour, day after day, a profound truth has stood out starkly: This massive disruption of nature and human life revealed, starkly, how the present global capitalist social order stands as a complete obstacle toward solving the most basic problems and challenges of humanity.","numcomment":0,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/2005\/01\/tsunami_--rw-or_online.htm","filesize":"31.9 kibibytes","article_url":"\/news\/2005\/01\/120926.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[]}