More than just food!!

In the last two years, a worrying global phenomenon has been emerging as reports of food scarcity, rising prices and the declining nutrition levels of vulnerable populations become commonplace. In 2007 images of sporadic rioting in about 25 countries worldwide including Egypt, Haiti and Ivory Coast as a result of rising food prices was telecast showing the global outreach of the problem.

The World Food Program (WFP) has described this phenomenon as a ‘ silent tsunami’ threatening to plunge more than 100 million people on every continent into hunger whilst the Asian Development Bank (ADB) estimated that one billion people in Asia could be seriously affected by the surging food prices.

The most severely affected will be the developing countries in Africa and Asia, whilst food exporting countries like those in the Middle East will be affected by the drop in supply and the increase in prices.

The first question to ask is how have the food prices increased so tremendously that it is now causing a global crisis? The second question to ask is what does this mean for people? The third question to ask is what should be done about it?

To a certain extent despite many warning signals, it is obvious that this problem has crept up on the world catching it unawares. In 2007 the food price index calculated by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) rose by nearly 40%, compared with 9% the year before which was replicated again in 2008. With the global recession taking effect in the first half of 2009, this trend is set to continue. Nearly every agricultural commodity has been part of this rising price trend. However, humanitarian organizations, governments and the other bodies seem unable to have forecasted it and powerless to prepare for the repercussions.

The increase in food prices is being driven by several factors such as:

• Income and population growth which has affected food demand and supply
• Climate change
• high energy prices
• subsidized bio fuel production
• globalization
• urbanization
• land and water constraints
• underinvestment in rural infrastructure and agricultural innovation
• lack of productivity

The combination of these new and ongoing forces has affected the prices of food commodities which in turn have caused changes in food availability, which have had crucial implications for the livelihoods of poor and food-insecure people.

At the national level, countries that are net food exporters could benefit from improved terms of trade, but some of them may miss out on this opportunity by banning exports to protect consumers. Net food importers, however, will struggle to meet domestic food demand. This means that for example, almost all countries in Africa are net importers of cereals, and will inevitably be hard hit by rising prices.

At the household level though, surging and volatile food prices will hit those who can afford it the least—the poor and food insecure. For example, rising food prices could lead to:

· deterioration of the nutritional status of pregnant and lactating women and of preschool children

· the withdrawal of children especially girls from school

· the distress sale of productive assets.

· Compromising the future ability of individuals and households to escape poverty.

Because of their economic circumstances, poor households are more responsive to changes in food prices than the wealthy, but there are variations across countries in the magnitude of this sensitivity. The food security and nutrition of the poor are at risk when they are not shielded from the price rises. At the household level, it is common for the poor in developing countries to spend 50 to 70% of their budget on food, and a large proportion of the food budget on staple foods. Further, the poor tend to have remarkably monotonous diets, getting the vast majority of their caloric intake from staple crops and consuming little in the way of animal-source foods, fruits, or vegetables, which are rich in essential micronutrients. The few poor households that are net sellers of food will benefit from higher prices, but households that are net buyers of food—which represent the large majority of the world’s poor—will be harmed.

The nutrition of the poor and the vulnerable (like children and the elderly) is also at risk when they are not shielded from the price rises. For example malnutrition that leads to stunting in preschool children directly affects their ability to learn in school and thus their ability to earn income as adults. Higher food prices will also lead poor people to limit their food consumption and shift to even less-balanced diets, with harmful effects on health in the short and long run.

Many countries have already taken steps to try to minimize the effects of higher prices on their populations. Countries such as Argentina, China, Egypt, India, Russia, Thailand, Ukraine, Venezuela, and Vietnam are among those that have taken the easy option of restricting food exports, setting limits on food prices, or both. China has banned rice and maize exports; India has banned milk powder exports; Bolivia has banned the export of soy oil to Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela; and Ethiopia has banned exports of major cereals. Other countries are reducing restrictions on imports: Morocco, for instance, cut tariffs on wheat imports from 130% to 2.5%; Nigeria cut its rice import tax from 100% to just 2.7%.

Price controls and changes in import and export policies undertaken by these countries may begin to address the problems of poor consumers, who find that they can no longer af­ford an adequate diet for a healthy life, in the short run, but in the long run, some of these policies are likely to backfire by making the international market smaller and more volatile. In addition price controls reduce the price that farmers receive for their agricultural products and thus reduce farmers’ incentives to produce more food. Hence specific policies are needed to deal with the causes and consequences of high food prices.

Although the current situation poses policy challenges on several fronts, there are effective and coherent actions that can be taken by countries to help the most vulnerable people in the short term while working to stabilize food prices by increasing agricultural production in the long term:

• First, in the short run, developing-country governments should expand their social protection programs (that is, programs like food or income transfers and nutrition programs focused on early childhood) for the poorest people—both urban and rural.
• Second, developed countries should eliminate domestic bio fuel subsidies and open their markets to bio fuel exporters like Brazil. Biofuel subsidies in the United States and ethanol and biodiesel subsidies in Europe have proven to be misguided policies that have distorted world food markets.Subsidies on bio fuel crops also act as an implicit tax on staple foods, on which the poor depend the most.
• Third, the developed countries should also take this opportunity to eliminate agricultural trade barriers. Although some progress has been made in reducing agricultural subsidies and other trade-distorting policies in developed countries, many remain, and poor countries cannot match them.
• Fourth, to achieve long-term agricultural growth, developing-country governments should increase their medium- and long-term investments in agricultural research and extension, rural infrastruc­ture, and market access for small farmers. Rural investments have been sorely neglected in recent decades, and now is the time to re­verse this trend. Farmers in many developing countries are operating in an environment of inadequate infrastructure like roads, electric­ity, and communications; poor soils; lack of storage and processing capacity; and little or no access to agricultural technologies that could increase their profits and improve their livelihoods. Recent unrest over food prices in a number of countries may tempt policy­makers to put the interests of urban consumers over those of rural people, including farmers, but this approach would be short-sighted and counterproductive.

Organizations like Muslim Aid are now developing Food Security Programs in order to deal with this crisis. Making use of traditional and seasonal programs such as Ramadan and Qurban is one way of working to address the issues of rising food insecurity. Working in the spirit of supplementary food provision, which is what these programs are designed to address, organizations can meet the rising need for nutrition and food security programs to be developed. In particular the following will need to be looked at:

• An emergency food package which can also incorporate aspects from Ramadan, Qurban, Fidya, Kaffara and Aqiqah. All of these programs means that there is a seasonal continuity of funds available to run these programs
• Child and mother nutrition
• Fast impact food production
• Financial services for small holders
• Advocacy and awareness programs

What is it that we as individuals can do?

Firstly it is to realise that there is a problem. The worrying part is how little concern there is about this issue which, more than any other, should be gripping people. The mere fact that some are going to bed hungry while others have plenty to eat is by all spiritual teachings a crime. There are still people wasting food when others can make use of them.

There are still weddings taking place in grand hotels and exclusive dinners held where food is thrown away without any concern for its value. There are still people who insist on eating rice three times a day, simply because they want to.

At times like this there is a need for dialogue and discussion on how people can respond collectively to this globally emerging crisis. People must plan how to address vulnerability in the short, medium and long terms.

Elsewhere, countries have set up food banks and are talking about improving agriculture and trade. Many people are considering a change in diet and lifestyle. People should be conscious about wasting food or overeating. People should be aware of their consumption habits. Where there is excess food, people should consider giving this away to those in need. Often it is the silent needy who are most vulnerable and these people need to be sought out.

We may still be a long way off from the food-related riots that have gripped other parts of the world, but we're soon likely to see the need for food aid distribution spread more widely among our people.

This originally appeared in Islamonline

New Challenges for relief in Sri Lanka

There is a standoff emerging in this political tennis match between the government and the NGO community that is manifesting itself in the local media.  Every day there seems to an article in the newspapers on the state of toilets (or lack of them) in the camps in Vavunia.

Ever since the rush of people at the end of April, agencies have been struggling to cope with the needs.  Coupled with the operational restrictions enforced by the authorities,  it has certainly been a challenging environment to work in.

The current stand off is now around the question of toilets.  Who is responsible for building them?  And more importantly what is their design?

As it stands at the moment, according to the government, it is the UN and its humanitarian agency partners who are responsible for building the toilets.  Leave aside the issue that many agencies are complaining about access restrictions, what is now becoming a potentially divisive issue is the design and quality of the toilets.

For reasons that since the tsunami I myself am coming to grips with understanding, most of the humanitarian agencies led by the UN have this process by which they respond.  That is that they go through the initial response to a disaster by providing ‘temporary shelters and toilets’.  The next phase is the ‘transitional shelters and toilets (often called the semi permanent toilets) ’ and then you get to the ‘permanent shelter and toilets’.  The argument is that temporary means that those displaced will not be encouraged to stay in the place that they have been displaced to.  Rather there should be an encouragement for them to return.  There are political connotations in the right to return, but the key element is that displaced people should return to their places of origin.   Anything that is built that is of a semi permanent nature, in the eyes of the agencies, is tantamount to encouraging people not to return. 

In the eyes of critics, the flaw here is that agencies then end up spending almost double for the same shelter.  In the case of post tsunami reconstruction, the cost of transitional shelters sometimes exceeded the repairs to the damaged houses of the people. 

The argument does fall a little bit flat when it comes to toilets and sanitation.  In displacements such as this with the huge concentration of people, sanitation is often the weakest link and people end up falling sick.  A vicious cycle is perpetuated.  Hence whatever the nature or the duration of the emergency, one issue that is of utmost importance is the need to ensure basic human dignity with regards sanitation.

The current standoff is now on the fact that the designs for the temporary toilets are not really conducive to ensuring this basic dignity.  The government on the other hand has been advocating for slightly better designed toilets taking into consideration local cultural values.  However in the eyes of the UN, the nature of these designs are deemed to be ‘transitional or semi permanent’ which might ‘encourage’ the current displaced to remain and thus should not be followed through. 

This is the confusion for me.  Surely building a good toilet will ensure less disease?  At the end of the day I am sure people given the choice will not stay because their toilet facilities were better!! 

These displaced deserve the best that they can get.  This means that there should not be any compromise on basic things like their toilets, even if they have to return after 1 month.

The problem then arises that if you attend the cluster meetings and rely on these agencies for funds, you are also compelled to follow the same line which means temporary toilets are built which perhaps does not adequately address the sheer need for proper sanitation.

 

Compounding the sanitation problem is that of the mounting  garbage.  Waste management or lack of it is now a growing problem with the number of flies increasing.  As one of my colleagues answered wryly as he returned from a visit there last week  on how the situation is in the camps, ‘Flies! Flies! Flies!’. 

This is a worry.  I have already had three of my staff ill with fever and food poisoning after being in the camps.  The mounting garbage problem is not sustainable and coupled with the lack of adequate sanitation could make things worse than they already are.

The issues have become politicised.  Most agencies are quietly saying that there should not be anything done of a semi-permanent nature because this would be feeding into the government’s agenda of not resettling the people and keeping them in these camps.  Arguments apart,   it is interesting to note that many of these same agencies that are now protesting the need for these displaced to return have not considered the many hundreds of thousands that were also displaced over the last 20 years of this conflict, in particular, the 100,000 plus who were displaced to Puttalum living in refugee camps with basic toilets and houses. 

The key challenge now is for all stakeholders to work together to ensure that the displaced get the best. 

After deprivation, Sri Lanka's displaced nurture hopes of going home

In the last week, some sort of order seems to be coming to the camps here in northeastern Sri Lanka. The task is momentous as the numbers of displaced people are continuously increasing. The camps are expanding, but despite all the preparations, the sheer volume means the early weeks have been chaotic.
It seems those who've been displaced to Trincomalee will also end up coming to Vavuniya. That could be a good move in terms of facilitating the aid process and easing logistical difficulties.
The authorities are quietly making an effort to put the camps in order. In practice, this means providing electricity and water, clearing land for more camps, and ensuring the displaced get the best help possible. Credit should be given where it's due, and in the face of such huge challenges, it's been remarkable to see the government at work.
Forests are being cleared at a terrific pace, tents are being put up (according to one rumour, 12,000 were erected in a day) and within two days, pylons and wires had been rigged up with the expectation power would flow 24 hours later. As a colleague wryly remarked, "If only they could be this efficient in Colombo!"
One thing that isn't so efficient are the queues. Driving up to Vavuniya, you arrive at Medavichia, about 35km to the south and regarded by some as the last point between the "north" and the rest of the country. If you're lucky, you spend only an hour at this checkpoint. If not, you can count on two to three hours, and no one is spared.
Everyone is searched and then let through. Previously, vehicles weren't allowed to go past this checkpoint without a defence ministry pass. So a lot of agencies have ended up driving to Medavichia and then changing over into vehicles coming from Vavuniya. Either way your car is put on a ramp and checked. This is certainly a hassle, but imagine what it's like for those using public transport.
The day we went in, there were about 40 vehicles parked in front of us waiting for clearance. Many were from corporates sending in relief items. There was also a fleet of around 10 fire and rescue vehicles and trucks from various municipal councils.
We all got the same treatment. The police officer who checked us was very polite but unapologetic. "Sorry sir, we have a duty to check to ensure security and safety." They went through the car with a fine tooth comb, but at least we didn't have to unload items from a truck and then put them all back.
Before you enter Menik Farm - the site of the largest camp holding the most displaced people (around 170,000) - you queue while the military police check your access pass and go through the vehicle. All precautionary security measures, as people are inevitably nervous.

'I CAN'T BE A REFUGEE'

It's only once you're in that you see the real queues. People line up for water, food and other relief supplies, as well as to use the bathroom. "It has been quite orderly," remarked one aid worker. "But when we first started, there were mini riots as people surged to get things. It was as if they had not seen these things before."
This is what strikes you about the current situation. The people are so desperate and have been deprived of so much for so long that anything is now a luxury.
Many of the mothers who've been coming to our mobile hospital are suffering from malnutrition - not just because they've been hungry for the last couple of months but because they've been deprived of essential food and nutrients for the last three years or so.
There have been allegations in the state media that some government food aid sent to areas controlled by the rebels ended up in Tamil Tiger bunkers or warehouses owned by their leadership, without going to the people. From what we're seeing on the ground, it's becoming hard to dispute such allegations.
Most of the displaced have reached a psychological point of desperation, with many having been continuously uprooted since 2006. A few have expressed relief simply at the fact that they can now sleep in some degree of comfort without the threat and noise of shelling.
Talk to them and you get a sense of how fruitless their lives have been, just moving from place to place, caught up in a battle of which they knew nothing and didn't want to be a part. Many speak of family members who were forcibly conscripted to fight.
Yet in the midst of all this pain and suffering, there doesn't seem to be much sorrow. It's as if they've lost the capacity for sadness. Most, though, are hopeful for the future. One person told me: "I just want to go back to my place and restart my livelihood. I don't care how long that will take. I can't be a refugee."
This is a sentiment you hear quite often. There's no feeling of grievance or anger against the government or the army. Many of the displaced have spoken of their surprise at the gentle way they've been treated by the perceived "other side". The main desire is to go home and start their lives again.
It's a message that even the government seems to have heard. Yesterday the president convened a meeting with heads of agencies where they were told: "We need to work together to help our people return back to safety and normality. This is our responsibility, our duty and our plan." A powerful promise that now needs to be put into action.

this originally appeared here

A New beginning

If you are in the business of selling fire crackers or the Sri Lankan national flag, then over the last two days, business has been very good.  As the President of Sri Lanka returned yesterday from the G11 summit in Jordan to a rapturous welcome given by his ministers and religious leaders, on the streets of Colombo, people lit fire crackers and with lighting efficiency, flags were flown where all parts of the city, on buildings, lamp posts and from cars.

Today’s news of the death of the LTTE leader has further lightened the mood and there has been no letting up of the fire crackers. There are some who have been privately voicing a concern as to whether this public show of celebration could further inflame the situation and hurt an already ‘wounded’ Tamil population. 

‘This is not about a Sinhalese victory over the Tamils. It is about the victory of the Sri Lankan nation over the forces of terrorism’, remarked one trishaw driver as he drove his flag laden vehicle around town.   Whatever the intentions behind the celebrations, it is hard not to get caught up in the atmosphere here in Colombo, which has seen the brunt of many suicide attacks over the last 26 years. The mood was reflected by the gesture of the President kneeling on the ground with his hands raised in worship and appreciation as he got off the plane.

Speaking to some of my Sri Lankan friends and colleagues, there is not only a sense of a relief that things might be over, but what is striking is this sense of feeling surreal.  It is kind of hard to imagine or remember a time when the LTTE did not occupy part of the psyche of the Sri Lankan thought process.  No one really knows how to properly react.  ‘It is like this mole on your face that you knew was there and it really annoyed you.  Now it isn’t there any more yet you still half expect it to be still around’ is how one person described her feelings to me today upon hearing the news. 

The LTTE and its leader have occupied the lives of most if not all Sri Lankans, that it will feel strange that this is no longer the case.  The question though that is popping up immediately now is: What next? Already people are asking whether the security checks will be removed from the streets and what will happen to the army.  These are perhaps premature questions because though the conflict may be over, the peace will still need to be won.  As the Governor of the Central Bank said firmly today in a meeting on financial inclusion held in Colombo ‘We have to win the peace and ensure that people are returned to their houses in the north to restart their shattered lives’.  Analysts are talking about a political solution to ensure grievances do not give rise to future conflicts.  Whatever the case, it is important to talk about the future prospects of the country.

In the midst of all the celebrations, it should not be forgotten at what cost this has been borne.  The numbers of lives lost of men, women and children has been staggering especially over the last 6 months and no more than ever there is a need to repair the cracks that have been developed and to heal the wounds that have been caused by a 26 year old conflict.  The trust will need to be rebuilt in order to decrease suspicion. It will be important for people to realise that not all Tamils are from the LTTE and that not all Sinhalese are Tamil haters.   This is the role that the civil society and in particular the religious leaders will need to play in order to bring out about reconciliation that entails infusing human values with an understanding of the need to move away from apportioning blame for deceit and destruction.   Rebuilding trust will mean honouring unity and celebrating diversity, working towards equity and justice and ensuring the eradication of social prejudices. 

Special attention will need to be provided to the most vulnerable who are mainly the women and children.  The displaced have gone through a harrowing and traumatic experience and will need special support in order to address their physical, psychosocial and emotional needs.  For the children in particular, who have endured months (if not years) of conflict, there will need to be special feeding programs to combat the long term malnutrition as well as creative programs looking at education and health.  This will be absolutely vital to ensure a return to normalcy.

People will need to be returned back to their original land and homes as quickly as possible.  This is not only the 250,000 that are currently displaced, but the 100,000 who were displaced in 1990 from the north and who are currently living in refugee camps in Puttalum and the 100,000+ who are currently in India.  Each and every one of these people will need to restart their livelihoods and get back to normalcy.  There is a huge task that is involved in de-mining, infrastructure rebuilding and so on.

Last but not least, it must be seen as a new beginning for the country and a time to ‘Build Back Better’.  Thus all stakeholders, the private and public sector, the humanitarian agencies and donors, the individual and the collective will need to work together to ensure return, recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction.  People will need to rise above their politics of association and thought to work together on the single platform of building the nation for a better tomorrow so that the next generation of children have something better to aspire to.  As a humanitarian colleague said very eloquently, ‘We have already lost the futures of two generations of children to nearly three decades of war. This must not be allowed to continue.’

Frustration and anger

Thank you Channel 4 news for your daring news ‘expose’ on the ‘situation in the camps’.  It is a pity that you were not able to get more feedback from other humanitarian agencies working on the ground or that some of the footage was in fact rather questionable, but nevertheless, sneaking a ‘hidden’ camera into a camp trying to get some dirt on the authorities.  Master stroke!! Of course, they possibly didn’t realise that by doing such an ‘intelligent’ thing, they would just be making things difficult for those of us who have to remain and work in this setting.  As news broke out of the deportation of these journalists at the beginning of the week, the clampdown as expected took place.  Cameras are now prohibited in the camps and security has been tightened. So our circle of influence which we were initially enjoying has now shrunk and we now have to regain that trust and acceptance.

I really don’t understand how this current scenario is being played out internationally.  On the one hand, you have stories on the media about the plight of IDPs in camps in Pakistan and the concern for access for agencies, yet no one is pin pointing the government of Pakistan.  Yet in the same breath, the same scenario is happening here in Sri Lanka, but it is the fault of the government.  Not that I am excusing the Sri Lankan government by all means.  Everyone will have to answer for whatever action they have taken.

The world is so concerned about what is happening in the No Fire Zone.  I am not here to explain or criticise what is happening in the No Fire Zone or who is shelling who.  This is out of my circle of influence and the majority of the other humanitarian agencies.  What we can do is to actually respond to the growing emergency needs of those that have been displaced.  This is our mandate.

This is why I can’t understand why some of the agencies are not responding to the crisis and how some of my colleagues are willing to hold the lives of many of the displaced people at bay, for political gain.  A lot of them seem to take the line of Non Governmental as being anti government.  So whatever the government says, we have to object.  Not in the line of  ‘let us see where the gaps are and fill them in because this is our mandate’. 

 Sure there are difficulties in access and clearance, but this is the system.  Like in most countries around the world, you get into the system and effect change. You can’t be on the outside and effect change.

 This is what many of my colleagues are unfortunately doing and I am getting annoyed because it is at the expense of the lives of these IDPs.  More than once I have heard the comment ‘we will have to do an assessment and see the requirements’.  I don’t understand that!!! What is there to check?  You have 170,000 people who have been displaced and who need the basic: water, shelter, food, sanitation.  It’s common sense.  The government has the responsibility to do something and should be accountable, but then again so do we because that is what we are there for.   We are not there to drive around in our 4x4s with our flags flying and just doing assessments.  The sad thing is that we should not be doing assessments because we were expecting this. 

 How many times, have we assured the government that we are ready for this situation?  We have prepared stockpiles and set aside funds.  Yet nothing seems to have happened.  These are the serious questions that we need to ask ourselves before we are asked.  We were supposed to be prepared for this.  This is not unexpected like Pakistan.  What happened?

The coordination meetings are happening though!! I remember getting the minutes of one meeting, where it was stated that no more doctors were needed since the needs had been met.  Hence anyone applying for support from donors in bringing in doctors would be rejected.  I then looked at the daily update that had come from my team on the field. ‘We have a shortage of doctors’.  Somewhere there is a disconnect!

‘We want to pressurise the government to return these people back as soon as possible ,’ one head of mission told me as he politely refused my request to support some of my operational costs. ‘So do we’, I replied, ‘but this doesn’t mean I should not do anything now.’  Unfortunately, there are many who are taking the line that the government created this mess and they should clean up but this argument falls apart when it is a group of civilians who have no means of support and help.

Standards need to be met and procedures need to be followed is always the cry of the agencies.  We need to ensure that the need is met.  I remember a couple of years ago, a government agent saying ‘What standards?  I just need one toilet to be built for this camp.  Just one out of a need of at least twenty and you bring standards and quality into this!’

I think there is something fundamentally wrong in the way that we as a humanitarian community are approaching this crisis (and the same goes for others around the world).  We seem to have forgotten that this is not a job but a calling.  A calling to serve those most in need! No time does this calling become more apparent than during an emergency, when we have to do the most efficient and effective response possible to meet those in need.  Lives can not be compromised.

I am in no doubt now that we will not receive the support from the bigger humanitarian organisations and donors because of what I have written.  You see much of the donor support is like being in an old boys club.  You rub my back and I rub yours.  I don’t think I fit in or want to fit into such a club.  Yet the sad thing is that there are a few agencies like ours that are genuinely trying to work and we are now looking at pulling out after three months, because we do not have the funds to carry out the operations.  This is the saddest irony of this whole situation.  

Meeting the Challenges of displacement

What a difference a week makes.  In the last week, there seems to be some sort of order coming to the camps.  The task is momentous as the numbers of people are continuously increasing in parallel to the expansion of the camps, so to some extent things are happening simultaneously.  Despite all the preparations, the sheer volume has meant that the first week was always chaotic.   

It seems that those that have been displaced to Trincomalee, will eventually also be placed in Vavunia.  In hindsight, it may be a good move in order to facilitate the aid process, otherwise it does make things logistically difficult to handle especially for emergency relief.  As the dust settles, the authorities are quietly getting along with the business of getting the camps in order.  That business consists of getting in electricity, sorting out water supply, clearing land for more camps and ensuring that the beneficiaries are getting the best of what they can.  Credit needs to be given where it is due and in the face of such huge challenges it has been remarkable to see the authorities at work.  The forests are being cleared at a terrific pace, the tents are being put up (there was a rumor that about 12,000 tents were put up in one day) and it has been fascinating to watch the electricity being put in.  Within two days, the pylons were up and the wires being set up with the intention of electricity being given within a day.  When things need to get done, it appears that  it is being done.  As a colleague wryly remarked ‘If only they could be this efficient in Colombo!’

One image that seems to be associated with this current situation is queues.  As you drive up to Vavunia, you arrive at Medavichia (about 35km drive south of Vavunia).  This is seen in some circles as the last point between the ‘north’  and the rest of the country.   If you are lucky you can only spend an hour at this checkpoint, otherwise on average, it is about 2 – 3 hours and no one is spared.  Everyone is expected to be searched and then let through.  In previous times, vehicles were not allowed to go past this checkpoint without a Ministry of Defence pass.  Hence what a lot of agencies have ended up doing is to drive up to Medavachia and then swap vehicles with ones coming from Vavunia.  In any case, whatever happens, the vehicle also inevitably is put on a ramp and checked. A hassle, nevertheless but what about those who are in public transport?

The day we entered, there were about 40 vehicles parked in front of us waiting for clearance.  Many of them were from corporates sending in relief items.  There was a fleet of about 10 fire and rescue ambulances and trucks from various municipal councils.  They were getting the same treatment.  The police officer who checked us was very polite but unapologetic ‘Sorry sir, we have a duty to check to ensure security and safety’.  You can’t argue with that.  They check all your luggage and go through the car with a fine tooth comb.  I just pity those who have to unload items from a truck and then put it back.

Before you enter Manic Farm, which is the site of the largest camp holding the most number of displaced people (around 170,000), there is a queue whilst the Military Police check your access pass and go through the vehicle.  All precautionary security measures.  People are inevitably nervous.

Once you enter the camp though, then you see the real queues.  People are queuing for water, food, to use the bathroom, to get some relief item and so on.  ‘It has been quite orderly.  When we first started, there were mini riots as people surged to get things.  It was as if they had not seen these things before’, remarked one NGO worker.

This is what strikes you about the current situation.  The people are so desperate and have been deprived of so much that anything for them now is a luxury.  This is not just because of the current situation but one can see the effect of long term deprivation.  Many of the mothers who have been coming to our mobile hospital are suffering from malnutrition, not because they have been hungry for the last couple of months, but because easily for the last 3 years or so, they have been deprived of essential food and nutrients.  So there must be some truth to the photographs that were shown on state media purportedly of how government food aid that was sent to the LTTE control areas ended up in LTTE bunkers or in the warehouses owned by the LTTE leadership.  From what we are seeing on the ground, it certainly did not necessarily go to the people. 

Most of these displaced people have been mentally brought to a point of desperation with many of them being continuously displaced since 2006.  A few have just expressed relief for the fact that they are able to sleep in some aspect of comfort without the threat and sound of shells.  Talk to them and you get a sense of how fruitless their lives must have been, just moving from place to place, being caught up in a battle that they knew nothing of or did not want to be a part of.  Many of them speak of family members who were forcibly conscripted to fight.  Yet in the midst of all this pain and suffering, there doesn’t seem to be much sorrow.  It is as if they have lost the capacity for sorrow . Most of them are though hopeful for the future.  As one IDP told me ‘I just want to go back to my place and restart my livelihood.  I don’t care how long that will take.  I cant be a refugee’.

This seems to be the message that one is consistently hearing.  There is no sense of grievance or anger against the government or the army.  Many IDPs have spoken of their surprise at the gentle way they have been treated by the army and the government, the ‘perceived’ other side.  The message is one of going back and restarting their livelihood.

This is a message that even the government seems to have heard.  Yesterday the President convened a meeting with heads of agencies and the message that came across was very simple. ‘We need to work together to help our people return back to safety and normalcy.  This is our  responsibility, duty and our plan’  Powerful words coming directly from the Head of State.  The hope is that this message is consistently played to all stakeholders and sectors of society and that this is the way the future is played out.