The Tsunami Mongers of Ceylon

On December 26, 2004, tsunamis swept across the Indian Ocean, spawned by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake off the coast of Sumatra. Aside from Indonesia, Sri Lanka likely suffered the most casualties. The death toll for Sri Lanka standing at 30,825. Still 5,806 people are missing, and another 100,000 families have been displaced.
The once golden sandy shores of Sri Lanka are nothing but poignant graveyards which in time will be washed away by the currents to be forgotten by time forever. The transcending somber ignited by the screams still haunt the battered beeches .
For the first time in centuries people united under one banner to help those who had suffered. Songs of pride were sung, artists painted a thousand pictures with their unending palette of hues, even actresses chipped their nails off. (The politics behind this scenario is another tale altogether) This story is about the professionals who sacrificed everything that that had and everything that they will ever have.

In Sri Lanka from the instance that a child is entered into the education system(maybe even before) he/she/it is pressurized into becoming a professional. The most popular choices amongst parents still remain Doctors and Engineers. If all the kids who had been pressurized to become a doctor or engineer did indeed succeed in fulfilling not theirs but their parents dreams the country would have enough doctors and engineers to send to Saturn and even some to distant galaxies.
(However there isn’t much enthusiasm amongst parent to push their child into the architecture cesspit. Maybe this is due to the fact that architecture is the one profession you really never learn anything out from. And also maybe the firkin seven years which demoralizes, depresses, and totally destroys everything you have and hold dear to your heart and creates the monstrosity which “MODERN” architects are today have something to do with it…just maybe.)

Getting back to the story at hand… So the professionals got together with their own comrades and decided to lend a helping hand in “RE-BUILDING” the nation.
Doctors rallied around their stethoscope, going to remote areas and providing medical assistance as well as medical care free of charge. They were hailed as earth bound gods by the people! They had to stay in the same tsunami camps and provide their professional guidance to these unfortunate souls. Without calling meeting and without making personal agendas they did this without haste. (These are facts have been presented through the media as well as from my personal experience.)

Engineers who had a stake hold in the tsunami issue were the civil engineers. They made a big impact in clearing up roads rebuilding bridges so that rations could be taken out to the populace who were stranded amongst the debris scattered land. The government owes them a debt of gratitude for their effort where the major role should have been played by the government whose ministers were still inside the Air conditioned rooms still undecided as to go out into the open. (This again is another story altogether)

In a broad physical point of view there were two casualties of the tsunami disaster (Now don’t give me some Freudian crap about the causalities of the tsunami because it doesn’t apply here)

Human Life
Property

People who can be saved were saved by doctors but what of all the property that they owned once they survived this tragedy what would they go home back to? Will there be a home? who would give their homes back? THE ARCHITECTS! Yeepeeeee for the Architects!!!! Maybe like the doctors who provided them with valuable medicine and their valuable medical guidance the architects also will provide them with their counseling. After all they just have to draw some houses and photo copy it. That doesn’t cost much does it???? Most of the houses they give are copied from magazines anyway.

To be continued (The eternal struggle continues)