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Thursday, Jan 20, 2005

Opinion

Opinion - Leader Page Articles

Saying no to aid

By Vaiju Naravane

Many in the West were offended by India turning down offers of aid immediately after the tsunami. Is this a carryover of the colonial mentality?

THE INDIAN Government's decision to refuse international help for immediate disaster relief in the immediate aftermath of the tsunami was greeted with incomprehension and stupor by the French press and public. There was a thread of irritation running through most media reports. India was accused of hubris, of wanting to play big power politics at a time when her people were enduring great suffering.

Could a country as poor as India really afford to turn down aid so generously and sincerely offered by the French who had opened their hearts and their purses at the sight of so much suffering and wanton desolation? Was New Delhi's desire to sit at the donors' table not based on misguided pride, even arrogance?

Three days after New Delhi announced its decision, my telephone rang. A woman who wished to identify herself only by her first name said that as a regular visitor to Pondicherry and the region, she felt concerned and wished to help. The Indian Government's decision, she said, was a slap in the face to people like her who held India in their hearts.

"I know your country and that strip of coast. The people are poor and have been made poorer still. It is cruel to deprive them of our help, modest though it might be. I have already telephoned your Embassy to express my concern and disappointment. Please let your Government know that ordinary French people do not understand this decision. We think it is cruel and selfish since it is not the Government that is affected but some of the poorest sections of the population that no one cares about."

There were other calls, all in more or less the same vein. Associations, individuals wishing to be of "concrete help" upset at being "turned away."

I tried to explain that they could always donate money to the Prime Minister's relief fund or send money to reliable local NGOs doing sterling work on the ground. To which the reply most times was that they did not know of any local NGOs, and that they suspected donations to the PM's fund would land up in the pockets of corrupt government officials.

It would be fair to say that the incomprehension was mutual. Indians in Paris too reacted badly to French accusations of high handedness and over reach. K. Anantham, a shop owner who comes from Pondicherry, told The Hindu : "The French should be happy that for once a poor nation is prepared to stand on its feet and take care of its people. The French want it both ways. When poor countries ask for aid they whine and grumble about how they have to cough up in order to help people who won't help themselves. But now that they have reacted so emotionally to this disaster and a poor nation is saying, `Thanks, no thanks, we have enough,' they feel insulted and rebuffed."

Rony Braumann, former president of Medecins sans Frontiers (Doctors without Borders), analysed the phenomenon of mass charity witnessed during this disaster. "There were several factors involved. Firstly, there were many white faces amongst the dead and it is a well-known fact that the closer the tragedy to a person, the greater the emotional reaction. This time round, it was not just poor Indians or Bangladeshis but several thousand white bodies that were washed up on the shore or lost at sea.

"Secondly, the disaster happened just after Christmas, a time of year when people tend to be both loving and giving. Thirdly, the victims were `pure.' By that I mean this disaster could be seen as an act of God as opposed to man-made disasters. Refugees in the Sudan or the Congo do not move donors the same way because somewhere there is the presumption that they are in some way responsible for the wars or pestilence that affect them. Not so in this case. And finally, the disaster had a huge visual impact. Without the television pictures bringing the tragedy straight into our homes at a time like Christmas, I doubt whether the impact would have been so strong. The reason why AIDS charities have to fight hard to get funding is because the ravages of the disease cannot be seen in this collective way and because people feel the victims have brought it upon themselves."

In many ways, feels Mr. Braumann, charity is an extension of the old colonial paternalism. Which is why being rebuffed causes such indignation among the donors. "What would the French have said if the Indians had come proposing their help during the killer heat wave that claimed over 15,000 lives in France two years ago and for which we were clearly unprepared," he asks.

When questioned about the adverse reaction in the French press to the Indian Government's decision, French Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said the comments were a reflection of the lack of knowledge about India's economical, technological and financial progress. Although the media in France have now begun to talk about India as the next Asian giant to watch, deeply held perceptions of India as a submissive, colonised and poor nation have changed little. For most French people India remains the land of starving millions, not a country with a reservoir of qualified teachers, doctors and other medical and disaster relief professionals capable of managing a crisis of this magnitude.

When interviewing a cross-section of French people about India and China, the response invariably was that the Chinese, a proud people, would never have accepted help. "Somehow, if there were a huge earthquake in China tomorrow, I'm not sure my first reaction would be to send aid. Because for one thing I know the Chinese would not like it or accept it and secondly because I feel the government would be able to resolve the problem with efficiency and organisation," said Simone, a banking executive.

And therein lies the nub of the problem. Most white people see India and other developing countries as being inefficient, disorganised, incapable of getting their act together during a crisis such as this one. "They need us at a time like this. We have well-trained teams who can help remove the debris, extract the bodies, clear the rubble in no time. I am not sure your governments have trained personnel and the equipment required. So you should not be refusing help," Simone said.

It did not help to explain that Indian ships were the first to reach the harbours of Galle and Trincomalee. That India had given $22 million to Sri Lanka and substantial aid to the Maldives. That Indian ships were working alongside the Americans in Indonesia, that a similar sum had been made available to the Sri Lankan Government in 2003 to combat severe monsoon flooding.

Many of the media reports dwelt on how relief work was going badly in Nagapattinam but failed to comment on the total chaos in Aceh where the marines were trying to distribute food aid. It was hinted that the Indian Government had made fabulous promises to the victims which corrupt government officials were already in the process of breaking. The message that came across was that the people were being deprived further by corrupt officials.

"It is very difficult to change pre-conceived notions such as these. The white nations had substituted colonial power with economic power and although our dreams of empire are now more or less abandoned, we continue to cling on to old notions of superiority.

"Deep down within themselves, most Europeans are convinced they are superior — intellectually, technologically, financially and in terms of efficiency and organisation to people from former colonies or the developing world. This kind of thinking gives them a sense of power. India saying no, we do not need you, we are doing quite nicely, thank you, deprives them of this imaginary power. It's a breaking down of the old colonial relationship and it is a painful process," concludes psychologist Anne Nahoum.

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