Clark University - Clark News spring 2005
Research hits close to home for Clark professor
(winter 2005)
IDCE Professor Jude Fernando helps his native Sri Lanka recover from the devastating tsunami of December 2004
By Angela Bazydlo
On Dec. 26, 2004, Jude Fernando was in his native Sri Lanka, in Colombo, visiting family.
"I saw people running toward the water to see the tidal wave," says Fernando, a professor in Clark's International Development Community and Environment (IDCE) Department. "They were excited, they wanted to see it." He would later learn about the massive tsunami that took 40,000 lives and displaced 600,000 in Sri Lanka alone. A total of 230,000 people from all affected countries were killed in the disaster.
"One of our friends there lost all nine of his family members," he says. Fernando lost 60 friends to the tsunami.
Compelled to help, Fernando contacted LEADS, a national relief organization. He was put on a convoy that went to eastern parts of the country, including rebel-controlled areas, to locate camps that were not receiving any relief. They delivered food, medicine and bottled water to victims and conducted a needs assessment. He approached his mission as a humanitarian and a researcher. Fernando studies the institutional dynamics of disaster relief and the impact of relief and rehabilitation work. He and Simon Batterbury M.A. '91, Ph.D. '97, who is teaching at Melbourne University, are working on a paper titled "Political Economy of Post-tsunami Governance in Sri Lanka and Indonesia."
"Minutes after the tsunami I saw the best and the worst in people. On one hand, people are very generous from all over the world," he says, referring to doctors who flocked to the area, people who sent money and goods. "On the other hand, I also witnessed the most repugnant behavior, including theft, corruption, stealing and violence. The challenge is not to let people's goodwill be hijacked by the unscrupulous."
International response
Fernando praises the international community for its response to the disaster and only wishes that the response to other humanitarian crises could be as strong. According to Fernando, the Sir Lankans welcomed and were grateful for assistance from the United States, despite criticism of the U.S. military presence. Clean-up and engineering projects carried out by the U.S. Marines were extremely efficient, he says, and appreciated.
Likewise, Fernando praises the many nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in the United States. He says other nonprofits and NGOs, while well-meaning, were very competitive and lacked coordination, which creates waste and duplication of effort.
Relief effort or political opportunity?
The actions of the Sri Lankan government did not impress Fernando. The President appointed three people with no experience in reconstruction to head the effort and ordered that funds be channeled through her and the government. Fernando believes the government also saw the tsunami as an opportunity to unite a war-torn nation. Officials described Sri Lanka as "one united nation" that should "forget its differences because the tsunami affected every ethnic group."
"These claims obscure how the political and economic realities can exploit relief and reconstruction efforts," Fernando says. "It is naïve to believe that the tsunami will radically change the politics and social structure of the country."
For example, Fernando says, the government accused the Tamils militants of not letting relief supplies into northern and eastern areas and recruiting child soldiers. When Fernando visited the rebel-controlled areas, however, he did not find evidence of the rebels stopping NGO activities, and the victims in these areas were in great need. Now, Fernando adds, there is utter confusion in the government about relief efforts and growing fear about wasting the billions of dollars that have been pledged to these efforts.
Responding to the victims
Fernando worries that in the absence of a well-coordinated plan, minorities, those in war-affected areas and politically powerless groups will not receive relief. He worries that special-interest groups will prevail and that assistance will be given to those who are more vocal and better connected. This is why Fernando studies disaster relief.
Humanitarian assistance is political, Fernando says, and in some cases, the way assistance is administered can make the victims' plight worse. He believes that peace negotiations should be an integral part of relief and reconstruction efforts, if they are to be sustainable, and that steps should be taken to stop governments and special-interest groups from exploiting natural disasters for their own gain. Here, Fernando believes, the international community has a role to play.
Back at Clark
"My work at Clark is ideal because most of the people in the international development program want to work in the development field," he says. "It makes me happy and gives me hope. Here is Clark's IDCE program training people to work in these kinds of settings."
While his students focus on what can be learned from the tsunami crisis, others ask what they can do to help the victims.
"I tell them to wait for two or three months," he says. "People are still doing the needs assessment. Later, you will know what people need, maybe a house, maybe a school building, maybe a computer lab. People will need assistance for many years to come."
For more information about Fernando, visit www.clarku.edu/academiccatalog/facultybio.cfm?id=473.
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