Home » Sri Lanka Maldives » The Trouble in Paradise

Our Indian Airlines flight from Kuala Lumpur landed in Chennai, a city of 5 million people in southern India, formerly known as Madras. The plane was still slowing down as nearly every Indian in the plane stood up, opened up their overhead compartments, took out their oversized hand luggage and then just stood there, crammed in the aisle, while the plane was taxiing to the gate! Patience must not be their strong point.

The Trouble in Paradise

Odv
2006-04-15 18:40:16

Displayed times (last time: )

Surprisingly one gets used to all the rubble.

Everybody had a tsunami story to tell. Like the man who ran with his wife and two children, they managed to save each other by holding each other, when they returned to what was left of their home they found that even the family dog had somehow managed to survive. Another taken by the wave, managed to swim to a first floor balcony of a hotel were two guests pulled him in. Others told us that as the water receded before the wave came some people were already laying claim to the newly appeared land!

A large part of the foreigners staying in Unawatuna were there on one of the many aid missions, and thankfully for the people and businesses of Unawatuna a few real tourists started to trickle in as well.

We heard many stories of aid abuse, such as one guy who was sitting outside of his home smoking a joint while foreign aid workers were busy rebuilding it. Aid workers told us they had great difficulties extending their visas, something which is easy to do for normal tourists. Or worse, apparently a fishing boat, fishing nets and medicine was donated by a European charity to the fishermen in the region only to be seized by the navy (which now uses the boat). The nets and medicines locked up awaiting payment of "import duties". Many such stories do the rounds in Unawatuna, it is just too sad.

Many people in Unawatuna do not know if they are allowed to rebuild their homes, as the government has decreed that no construction is allowed within 100 meters of a beach. Unfortunately the land they have is located within the given zone and if they rebuild they run the risk of the government tearing it down again! Some are taking the risk though. The rumor is that the government wants to appropriate the land to build a luxury resort in Unawatuna, because it has "the best" beach in Sri Lanka.

We found Unawatuna more pleasant than Kandy and the people to be much more friendly. In ...