“Before
and after; that is the only division there is.
All our everyday waiting, somebody is late, all our anxiety.
What could have happened, and then it happens.
The giant wave arrives. All turns weightless, silent.
All that is left is the beggaring distance between before it
happened and when it has happened."
As over 10,500 participants – many survivors and relatives
of the dead and missing – had gathered on the sandy beach
of Bang Niang in the Phang-Nga province of Thailand to commemorate
the victims of the country's most destructive disaster, the
reflection of the Swedish poet Bodil Malmsten clearly mapped
out the burdensome road for those affected: the before and the
after.
Nonetheless, in this remembrance, one of many taking place along
the Andaman coast, death did not overshadow this day. Instead
it was marked by courage, generosity and love, as the beaches
were awash with candle lights and the sky lit up with over 5,000
floating lanterns - each one representing a loved one lost.
On Bang Niang Beach a commemoration service was held followed
by one minute's silence. Then, a poem of hope was read out by
Tilly Smith, an 11-year British schoolgirl who warned others
about the approaching tsunami, and Patiwat Komkla, also a young
survivor who clung to a coconut palm trunk more than a kilometre
off the coast for two days and one night without food or water,
before a navy rescue team spotted him from a helicopter.
Further up the beach, a private Swedish memorial service attended
by over 400 people had to be delayed due to heavy rain. However,
one by one, people decided to defy the elements and determinedly
took their places in front of the scene.
Lennart Koskinen, one of those speaking at the commemoration,
put into words the thoughts of many: “Even the sky shed
its tears today,” he said.
Staff from the Swedish Red Cross were on duty from early morning,
in case anybody needed a helping hand or someone to talk to,
a need which has become evident as the families are returning
to the disasters area. Altogether, 248 visits to the areas where
so many perished, sometimes with as many as have taken place
with the assistance from the Swedish Red Cross.
As remembering is a vital part of the tsunami commemoration,
so is learning for the future.
On the surface, 25 December was one of those ordinary beautiful
days on the sunny Patong Beach in Phuket, a perfect day for
a rest under the umbrellas.
All of the sudden, a boat capsizes out in the bay and within
seconds, the people on board find themselves in the deep water.
As they are screaming for help, a mobile sea rescue team quickly
mobilizes sets course for the scene of the accident.
One of the victims, an unconscious man, is hurried to shore
and given on-the-spot first aid as foreign tourists watch anxiously
from nearby.
“Excuse me, it is a drill, isn't?” asks one man.
Behind him, three women have gotten up from their chairs, ready
to offer assistance as another mobile team of rescuers hurries
by with more victims. “What is going on?” they wonder.
Even Dr Soottiporn Chittmittrapap from the Thai Red Cross can
sense the heightened awareness of the crowds on the beach.
“We have been informing people about this rescue drill,
but obviously not everybody has understood,” he says.
“After all, people are on holiday.”
Dr Chittmittrapap is responsible for what might look worrying,
but is essential for the sea rescuers: first aid training.
“Earlier, first aid has not been included in the training,
but on our initiative, it is now being introduced. When lives
are in danger, it is a race against time. Therefore, knowledge
of first aid is essential. In addition, training in first aid
is community based, which means that everybody can learn.”
In the near future, the Thai Red Cross will, with the support
of the Norwegian and Finnish Red Cross, take on the role of
introducing first aid in a national emergency preparedness programme.
Besides sea rescue and first aid, 30 early warning towers have
been placed along the Andaman coast line, while another 40 are
yet to be erected. Through these towers, which are run by the
National Disaster Warning Center, information about earthquakes,
tsunamis storms, floods, landslides, wildfires and pollution
can, step by step, be integrated with the satellite early warning
system which is monitored by 40 people around the clock.
As the Thai people continue to rebuild their lives, their grief
and loss still unite them with foreign visitors who come to
the area to commemorate their own lost loved ones. One Swedish
visitor calmly sits down on the beach and places her candle
in the sand, quietly contemplating the sea.
Further down the beach, she sees a Thai woman who is also placing
a candle in the sand, and silently looking at the sea. Unexpectedly,
the Thai woman glances back, then points at the candle in front
of her, then at the sea, then spreads her hands in front of
her as if to say: “I lost a loved one out there. What
happened to you?”
The visitor in turn points at her candle, then at the sea and
softly nods, to say: “Yes, me too. I have lost a loved
one out there.”
The Thai woman nods and turn towards the sea. They quietly sit
there, each of them wrapped in her sorrow and grief. Together
but alone.
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More
than 5,000 floating lanterns were glowing in the dark
evening sky as relatives honoured their dead and missing
in the tsunami in Thailand. (p13682)
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Alida,
11, Hanna, 12, and Felicia, 13, all from Sweden, pay tribute
to their loved ones by putting their names in a big heart
written in the sand. (p13681)
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From
left, Dr Soottiporn Chittmittrapap, Director of first
aid training, and Phrannatorn Chavoenkul, Project Manager
from the Thai Red Cross Society. (p13680)
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