Nias Online

Saturday, April 09, 2005

JAKARTA: Vice President Jusuf Kalla told Nias and North Sumatra people to remain calm despite rumors that a tsunami was imminent in the area.

"Rumors are everywhere … in Nias, Padang and along the west coast of Sumatra. The government always advises the people not to panic," he said on Friday after attending a function at the Golkar Party head office.

Kalla, who also leads Golkar, was responding to a report that hundreds of Nias people had moved to higher ground or other locations due to fears of a tsunami and bigger earthquakes.

He suggested that people stay alert, but said the government could not stop them from abandoning their homes. — JP

Saturday, April 09, 2005 Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post/Teluk Dalam, Nias

Sorake beach in Southern Nias is like heaven for surfers due to its waves that characteristically break from right to left, creating a long tube.

However, since the March 28 earthquake, nobody but a few local boys has ridden the waves.

Most of the shacks dotted along the beach were wrecked by the quake.

Amid the destruction, Jafet Laia, 60, the owner of Yuni Losmen at Sorake, combed through the debris of his shake, finding only a mat and a pillow.

In the unforgiving heat of the day he unrolled the mat under a coconut tree, put the pillow on it and rested his head, staring at the white sand as it was swept up by the wind.

"There were about 20 foreign surfers staying here at the time of the quake. We all ran in time, so we were saved. We took refugee in a village uphill," Laia recalled.

He said the surfers abandoned the beach the following day.

"They won't come back here I guess. I think they must be afraid there will be more quakes," he added.

C.H.J. Gultom, the owner of Boraspati Express, a tours and travel agent specializing in extreme sports like surfing, said foreign surfers had been turned off by predictions of a string of quakes on the island.

"Of course the tourism sector will slow down. Cancellations up until the end of this month have reached 100 percent," he told The Jakarta Post.

However, he believes the surfers will come back. The temptation of perfect waves is not easy to turn down, he added.

"Moreover, surfers are different from other tourists. They are more adventurous," he said.

Gultom said that a T-shirt for surfers that reads "I've been surfing at tsunami point" has sold well.

"Besides, they love discovery. It's a glorious treasure for them if they can find a secret spot for surfing alone without having to take turns," he said.

Gultom said surfers were willing to travel far to remote places for "secret" spots.

His agency has taken many surfers to small islands around Nias to find surfing spots other than the 11 well-known points.

"I still have some reservations for May this year. They have not canceled them yet," he said.

Thomas Lafon, 25, a surfer from France, who was at Sorake when the quake hit the beach, said he would like to come back to Nias some day.

"But in the meantime, my family told me to go far away from Sumatra. I will probably continue surfing in the eastern part of Indonesia," he told the Post at Binaka Airport, where he was about to depart for Medan, 10 days after the quake.

Nias' famous surfing spots are scattered and not always easy to reach.

Some surfers set up camp on islands like Bawa and Asu. Surfers tend to stay for months in a surfing area, living modestly in shacks or even residents' houses.

They spend more money on necessities, like boats and boards.

"I get any job I can in France to save money to travel for months to surf," Lafon said.

"I've been to the Mentawai Islands and I loved it. I want to go back. Probably later," he said.

Saturday, April 09, 2005

Today, just under two weeks after a huge earthquake demolished their homes, burying hundreds of men, women and children in their sleep, the people of Nias are still struggling to rebuild their lives.

As of this weekend, many bodies were still under the rubble, unrecovered due to a lack of heavy earth moving equipment. School children, those who survived the March 28 killer quake and escaped uninjured, were compelled to attend their lessons in makeshift classrooms or in the open. Food, water and fuel were hard to come by.

Though smaller in scale than the catastropic destruction that was left in the wake of the Dec. 26 tsunami, which washed whole towns and villages off the map, the human suffering that the 8.7-scale earthquake has wrought on the once-idyllic island of Nias is felt no less intensely by the island's population.

Not that help from outside has been wanting. As was the case in the Aceh tsunami disaster, help has come in by the planeload and by sea, sent over by concerned citizens overseas and elsewhere across the country as soon as news of the disaster spread. And as was true in the wake of the Dec. 26 calamity too, friendly countries near and far have been prompt to extend a helping hand to ease the suffering of the populace.

If something good has come out of this latest disaster, it must be that it has strengthened the bond of solidarity and mutual understanding — both on the national and international front — that governmental mismanagement, oppression and discrimination have for so long buried and pushed into near oblivion.

All this, however, does not detract from the disturbing impression that the various natural disasters that have occurred over the past months have proven this country's capabilities to deal with natural disasters to be grossly inadequate. As regards the Dec. 26 tsunami and more recent Nias earthquake, it is easy and certainly tempting to lay the blame for the nation's inadequacy on the sheer scope and extent of the destruction.

Nevertheless, one cannot escape the impression that neighboring countries such as Malaysia, Thailand, India and Sri Lanka have shown themselves to be much more ready to act in the face of disaster. The very fact that international teams have often been first to offer help in some of the most remote of the disaster-stricken areas should give us plenty of reason to think about upgrading our own relief capabilities.

To be sure, this may not be as easy a task as it may seem. For one thing, money in sufficient amounts must be set aside to establish the organizational framework and set up the infrastructure and equipment necessary for such a task. In the face of such constraints, the government and the nation are well advised to make the best use of the international offers that have been made by governments and organizations abroad to come to our and to the region's help.

Above all, the local populace of our coastal regions must be made aware of the vital importance of keeping their protective coastal environments intact. This is particularly true given the inclination of Indonesians to dismiss or take lightly the possibility of disaster until it actually strikes. Hopefully, though, the devastation which the disasters of past weeks have wrought in the area can serve as a reminder that prevention is always better than the cure.