Cempaka Belanda: Five years later, tsunami victims are back on their feet

"A Summary" – Apr 2, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Religion, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Intelligent/Benevolent Design, EU, South America, 5 Currencies, Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Middle East, Internet, Israel, Dictators, Palestine, US, Japan (Quake/Tsunami Disasters , People, Society ...), Nuclear Power Revealed, Hydro Power, Geothermal Power, Moon, Financial Institutes (Recession, Realign integrity values ..) , China, North Korea, Global Unity,..... etc.) - (Text version)

"The Timing of the Great Shift" – Mar 21, 2009 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“ … Here is another one. A change in what Human nature will allow for government. "Careful, Kryon, don't talk about politics. You'll get in trouble." I won't get in trouble. I'm going to tell you to watch for leadership that cares about you. "You mean politics is going to change?" It already has. It's beginning. Watch for it. You're going to see a total phase-out of old energy dictatorships eventually. The potential is that you're going to see that before 2013.
They're going to fall over, you know, because the energy of the population will not sustain an old energy leader ..."

"Update on Current Events" – Jul 23, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: The Humanization of God, Gaia, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Benevolent Design, Financial Institutes (Recession, System to Change ...), Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Nuclear Power Revealed, Geothermal Power, Hydro Power, Drinking Water from Seawater, No need for Oil as Much, Middle East in Peace, Persia/Iran Uprising, Muhammad, Israel, DNA, Two Dictators to fall soon, Africa, China, (Old) Souls, Species to go, Whales to Humans, Global Unity,..... etc.)

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it), Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse), Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“… The Shift in Human Nature

You're starting to see integrity change. Awareness recalibrates integrity, and the Human Being who would sit there and take advantage of another Human Being in an old energy would never do it in a new energy. The reason? It will become intuitive, so this is a shift in Human Nature as well, for in the past you have assumed that people take advantage of people first and integrity comes later. That's just ordinary Human nature.

In the past, Human nature expressed within governments worked like this: If you were stronger than the other one, you simply conquered them. If you were strong, it was an invitation to conquer. If you were weak, it was an invitation to be conquered. No one even thought about it. It was the way of things. The bigger you could have your armies, the better they would do when you sent them out to conquer. That's not how you think today. Did you notice?

Any country that thinks this way today will not survive, for humanity has discovered that the world goes far better by putting things together instead of tearing them apart. The new energy puts the weak and strong together in ways that make sense and that have integrity. Take a look at what happened to some of the businesses in this great land (USA). Up to 30 years ago, when you started realizing some of them didn't have integrity, you eliminated them. What happened to the tobacco companies when you realized they were knowingly addicting your children? Today, they still sell their products to less-aware countries, but that will also change.

What did you do a few years ago when you realized that your bankers were actually selling you homes that they knew you couldn't pay for later? They were walking away, smiling greedily, not thinking about the heartbreak that was to follow when a life's dream would be lost. Dear American, you are in a recession. However, this is like when you prune a tree and cut back the branches. When the tree grows back, you've got control and the branches will grow bigger and stronger than they were before, without the greed factor. Then, if you don't like the way it grows back, you'll prune it again! I tell you this because awareness is now in control of big money. It's right before your eyes, what you're doing. But fear often rules. …”

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Five years later, tsunami victims are back on their feet

NRC International, by Elske Schouten in Banda Aceh: 24 December 2009 13:15

A combination photo shows bodies of tsunami victims floating in the water near the city port of Banda Aceh, December 29, 2004, and a view of the same area on December 3, 2009. (Photo Reuters)

Ezwar Zakaria lost his wife, his house and his job in the 2004 tsunami. Like most Banda Aceh residents, he has picked up the pieces and rebuilt his life.

The neatly raked memorial park for the victims of the tsunami was constructed on the former site of Ezwar Zakaria's house. Right next to it, three kilometres from the coast, sits a 63-metre long ship. It was carried there by the tidal wave that also dragged away Ezwar's wife. "For months my children roamed around the boat to look for their mother," he said.

On that fatal Sunday morning, Boxing Day 2004, Ezwar and his family were home, in Banda Aceh, the capital of the Indonesian Aceh province, the major city closest to the epicentre of the earthquake in the Indian Ocean. Ezwar demonstrated how his wife's hand slipped from his as three enormous waves washed over them. He found his four children, the youngest still a baby, when the water pulled back. They were all alive. But his wife's body was never recovered. It is probably in one of the many mass graves in Banda Aceh.

Workers removing a body of a tsunami victim from the compound of the Grand Mosque in Banda Aceh, December 29, 2004.

Ezwar took a picture of his wife from his wallet. It is one of the few things he could save from the ruins of his old house. He now has a new home, he remarried and has another 3-year-old daughter. He rebuilt his life in the past five years.

Some families still in refugee camp

Little in Banda Aceh reminds of the havoc the tsunami wreaked. New buildings have shot up everywhere, making the city look neat and clean. Roads are better than in other Indonesian provincial capitals. Thanks to aid money, almost all the 500,000 people who became homeless in the Aceh province have new homes with little front yards. Mostly better than the ones they lived in before the tsunami struck.

Schools have also been rebuilt. Although there are fewer now than before. There are not enough children left to fill them.

Most aid agencies left Aceh last year. Their job was done. The reconstruction was completed and hailed as a success in Indonesia and abroad.

About one hundred families still reside in a refugee camp, where little kids ran around naked, while women hand washed clothes at one of the few watertaps in the camp. Many of them used to live in rental housing, and said rents had become too high for them. Some had married since the tsunami and, unlike their parents, weren't eligible for a new home. Rumour has it the camp will be demolished in April, the women said.

Ineligible for new housing

Ezwar and his children slept on the ship that stranded near their house the first night after the disaster, along with hundreds of others. They then moved in with his parents, who lived far enough from the sea.

After three months Ezwar moved back to his old place. Aid workers had cleared the rubble and he and his children could live in the one room that was still standing. He opened a small store for boat tourists. Relatives offered to take care of his children, between 1 and 12 years old at the time. But they preferred to stay with their father.

Ezwar said he had seen little of the 6.7 billion US dollars that were donated for victims of the tsunami. But he is not complaining. He was ineligible for a new house, because his pre-tsunami home was a rental. He had made money driving people back and forth to Medan, the capital of North Sumatra, in a minivan. But his van was washed away by the waters and not insured. On his own, he picked up the pieces and moved forward. He found another house within a year and rented a stall where he sold coffee and nasi goreng (fried rice).

An Acehnese worker sweeping the grasson the compound of the Grand Mosque in Banda Aceh, December 3, 2009

Now he spends his afternoons looking out over the sea as he roasts corn and sells bami noodles to day-trippers in the harbour. He has just moved his family to a new rental home, one bigger than their old house, he said with pride. He showed his house, made of concrete floors and walls. The kitchen was no more than a pile of pots and pans and a gas burner in a corner of the living room. His new wife was sleeping on the floor.

Peace breakthrough

"Making money has become a lot easier," said Ezwar. Not so much because of the tsunami itself, but because of the political changes it brought about. The disaster caused a breakthrough in peace negotiations between the government and the Free Aceh Movement. The separatists had fought the Indonesian army for three decades: a war that cost 15,000 lives. Six months after the tsunami, the fighting parties signed a peace agreement.

Ezwar recalled how people would stay inside after the 6 o'clock evening prayer. He himself always planned his trips to Medan so that he would cross the most dangerous places during the day-time. He tells about the many roadblocks, his fear of army raids and questionings. Now he is still out and about selling corn at 10 p.m. "The biggest difference with the old days is that it is safe now," Ezwar said.

Memories surface during memorials

Yet Ezwar said, his income had diminished. His stall makes no more than 2 million rupees (150 euros) a month. His minibus business made him 3 million. But his current job makes him happier. "I can see my children grow up. I have three sons, this way I can see who they hang out with," Ezwar said. He just wished he had the money to buy a real shop. When it rains, he is unable to work his stall.

His daughter, a baby when the tsunami hit, is now a shy six-year old girl. His eldest son is graduating from high school this year and hopes to get accepted into the training programme for government officials. The family is doing well, said Ezwar.

The tsunami is not on his mind much. But memories surface during memorials, like this one now. Or when there is another earthquake, like in Pandang earlier this year. And during holidays, like the end of Ramadan Eid al-Fitr, when his family visits a mass grave to pray for their mother.

Tsunami death toll
According to a United Nations report, 229,866 people were either killed by or went missing during the tsunami. Most of the victims, 167.000, lived in Indonesia and Aceh was the hardest hit.

Elske Schouten is NRC South-East Asia correspondent

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