Swept away: the epic disaster in Southeast Asia has taken many thousands of lives. As failures by the involved governments attest, the relief efforts are best left to the private sector.

On the morning of December 26, 2004, Americans Tong and Mary Vang boarded a speedboat at the pier in Phuket, Thailand, bound for the emerald green waters of the Raya Islands. The islands are known for their unspoiled beaches, waters teeming with fish, and reefs that make for outstanding snorkeling and diving.

When the speedboat arrived at the islands, it was apparent that something had gone horribly wrong. "When we got to our location [and] saw the washed-out island, we ... had no idea what had happened. Neither did our tour guide or speed boat driver," Mary Vang told THE NEW AMERICAN. Their destination in ruins, the speedboat and its passengers put back out to sea where they soon found themselves in grave danger. The ocean had become disturbed and angry, and a series of large waves threatened to overturn the boat. "The tour guide yelled out for all of us to get our life jackets on and sit tight," Vang recalled. "Suddenly, the driver of the boat sped away so we could bypass [a] wave. This wasn't a tsunami wave, but a few waves that were big enough to put us in danger."

The speedboat could not return to port. For two hours, the boat stayed at sea, its passengers struggling to remain calm while wondering what fate awaited them. "We just sat very still with our life jackets on," said Mary Vang. "Then some people started complaining about why we were out there for so long and why couldn't we go back to land. We were just told that we couldn't go back yet because the waves at the pier were too high." When finally they were able to return to port, the scene was one of devastation. "Boats were toppled on top of one another, boats were sinking, and the water was rising," said Vang. Quickly, the Vangs and others were evacuated to a safe location, to await word of the disaster.

No Warning

At 7:58 a.m. local time a massive earthquake of magnitude 9.0 on the Moment Magnitude scale occurred off the coast of Indonesia. The slipping of the Earth's crust displaced the waters of the Indian Ocean, sending a tremendous wave rushing toward the exposed shorelines of Southeast Asia. At sea, the wave of displaced water would have been unnoticeable, but as it approached shore, telltale signs of its imminent arrival became apparent to one vacationer.

At a beach at Phuket, 10-year-old British tourist Tilly Smith was enjoying the tropical sand with her parents when she noticed with alarm a drastic change in the character of the ocean. "I was on the beach and the water started to go funny," the young girl told a reporter. Weeks earlier, the girl had learned about tsunamis in school. Now, she put her knowledge to practical use. "There were bubbles and the tide went out all of a sudden. I recognised what was happening and had a feeling there was going to be a tsunami. I told mummy." Elsewhere along beaches in Southeast Asia, people rushed to the shore to view the spectacle created by the unusual behavior of the sea. At the beach where Tilly raised her warning, her mother and the staff of the hotel there were able to clear the beach minutes before the onrushing water engulfed the area. According to a Reuters report, her timely warning saved 100 other tourists.

Governments in the region, though, did not respond as quickly as Tilly. Though they had access to information pointing to the impending disaster, inefficiency and bureaucracy prevented any official warnings from reaching potential victims.

Indian military authorities were apprised in real time of the disaster as the waters of the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea swept over Car Nicobar Island. Personnel at an Indian military installation on the island were in contact with Indian officials on the subcontinent as the disaster struck. "At 7:30 a.m. we were informed ... about a massive earthquake near Andamans and Nicobar," Indian air force chief S. Krishnaswamy told reporters. Communications with the stricken island were soon disrupted by the disaster. "The last message from Car Nicobar base was that the island is sinking and there is water all over," said Krishnaswamy. Indeed, in the aftermath of the tsunami, whole islands had disappeared. Flying over the area three days after the quake, BBC reporter Amitabh Bhattasali saw nothing but ocean where tropical islands once beckoned. "We can't find the islands from the co-ordinates we have," one airman told Bhattasali. On Car Nicobar proper, the Indian airbase was entirely destroyed.

Despite being aware in real time of the devastation occurring on Car Nicobar, the Indian military didn't warn citizens. At 8:15 a.m., nearly 45 minutes after being alerted to the disaster unfolding at the Car Nicobar air base, the Indian air chief, Krishnaswamy, "asked an assistant to alert the defence ministry." Similarly, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP), the Indian Meteorological Department sent a warning message by fax to the former science minister--not to the current occupant of the post--but did so only at 8:54 a.m. Unaware of the mistake, the Meteorological Department "sent another fax to the Home Ministry's disaster control room...." This last fax was not sent until 9:41 a.m., more than two hours after Car Nicobar was destroyed. The control room informed the Indian cabinet secretariat at 10:30 a.m. By then, "thousands were already dead along India's devastated southeastern coastline," reported AFP. Thousands, maybe tens of thousands, could have been saved, but for the inefficient labyrinth of bureaucracy that is the Indian government.

The Indian government was not the only government to fail in warning citizens of the impending disaster. The response of officials with the government of Thailand was far worse. The Associated Press reported on December 28: "Thailand's Meteorological Department may have delayed sounding a tidal wave warning for fear it could damage the country's lucrative tourism industry"--a "fear" that obviously did not trouble, much less paralyze, 10-year-old Tilly. Elsewhere, scientists with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) knew a tsunami was likely following the earthquake. "We put out a bulletin within 20 minutes, technically as fast as we could do it," said Jeff LaDouce of the NOAA. Recipients of the NOAA warning e-mails included Indonesian governmental authorities, but LaDouce couldn't say what had happened to the warnings after they were sent.

Other U.S. scientists faced similar difficulties. According to the Honolulu Advertiser, "on the afternoon of Christmas Day in Honolulu, the 'Ewa Beach [Pacific Tsunami Warning] center issued a Pacific wide e-mail tsunami bulletin 18 minutes after the quake hit ...,'" but most of those in danger were not part of the warning network. Knowing this, "we started thinking about who we could call," said Barry Hirshorn, one of the scientists on duty that day. Frantically, Hirshorn and two other scientists, Stuart Weinstein and Charles McGreery, began working the phones. "We spoke to people in the foreign ministries, and everywhere we could think of. We were collecting phone numbers, e-mail addresses--whatever contact information we could," said Weinstein. Some of their warnings did reach affected areas in time. According to an AFP report, for instance, the Ewa center warnings reached Thailand "about one hour before the waves struck...."

Government and Private Aid

If governments were slow to react to the danger presented by the quakes, they have been similarly ill-equipped to provide initial relief to those affected by the disaster. The lethargic Indian bureaucracy has been sharply criticized for its inability to help its citizens. The Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission has charged that Indian officials have done little to facilitate relief efforts in some of the most heavily damaged areas. According to Australia's Financial Review, the commission "leveled a host of allegations including a lack of coordination between various agencies, aid mismanagement, caste discrimination in distribution of supplies, early shutting down of relief centres and a 'meagre' quantity of relief being doled out to the thousands of survivors."

This mismanagement on the part of India's socialistic government is tragic--but it is not surprising. Centralized national governments are typically rife with layers of bureaucratic complexity that hinder the allocation of resources. Just as they are inefficient when attempting to replace the free market with economic planning agencies, they are inefficient when attempting to cope with natural disasters of epic proportions. On the other hand, private relief efforts often respond quickly when aid and assistance are required. This was the case on the devastated island of Car Nicobar. "Lots of relief material has come but we have got very little," Partha Debnath, a teacher, told the BBC. "Voluntary groups and not the government are feeding us."

Similarly, an Indonesian company, ASI Pudjiastuti, was among the first organizations to begin relief operations along that country's heavily damaged west coast. According to the Christian Science Monitor, the company's owners, Susi Pudjiastuti and her husband Christian yon Strombeck, have been bucking regulations to fly badly needed supplies to victims. "You've got to be crazy to get things done in this country," Pudjiastuti told reporters. The couple is funding their relief operation themselves as a way to avoid government interference in their efforts. When government officials offered funding, the duo turned it down. "I don't want to be controlled," she told reporter Tom McCawley. Indeed, the pair's efforts have been singularly effective when compared to governmental efforts. "Watching police helicopters stand idle nearby," notes the Christian Science Monitor, "she says the relief effort is poorly coordinated and too bureaucratic. 'Where's the computer system, where's the management?' she says."

A Question of Freedom

The outcry for aid since the catastrophe, however, has been directed to the world's governing authorities. Most of these have responded by pledging many millions of their citizens' dollars toward the relief effort. Yet much criticism has been leveled at government aid efforts so far.

In a statement that was widely viewed as an attack on the U.S. government, UN aid czar Jan Egeland described the wealthy nations of the world as "stingy" when it comes to foreign aid. In particular, Egeland argued "Politicians do not understand their own populations because all the populations in the United States, in the European Union, in Norway, which is No. 1 [in foreign aid] in the world, want to give more as voters, as taxpayers. People say we should give what we give now or more. Politicians and pundits believe that they are really burdening the taxpayers too much, and the taxpayers want to give less. It's not true. They want to give more." Egeland thinks, like any good socialist bureaucrat, that taxpayers should be taxed more, especially in the name of charity.

But is this really charity? Can government make charity compulsory? In the United States, it cannot. The U.S. Constitution, the governing law of the republic, grants no authority to the federal apparatus to appropriate citizens' property and distribute it to the needy. This was an issue that was raised early in the halls of Congress. In 1826, Davy Crockett, the great frontiersman and hero, was elected to the House of Representatives. According to a witness, author Edward S. Ellis, a bill appropriating funds to the widow of a distinguished naval officer was one day brought up for consideration. The bill apparently had the universal approval of the representatives. Then, Davy Crockett rose to oppose the measure. According to Ellis, Crockett argued:

   I have as much respect for the memory
   of the deceased, and as much sympathy
   for the sufferings of the living,
   if suffering there be, as any man in
   this House, but we must not
   permit our respect for the
   dead or our sympathy for a
   part of the living to lead us
   into an act of injustice to the
   balance of the living. I will
   not go into an argument to
   prove that Congress has no
   power to appropriate this
   money as an act of charity.
   Every member upon this
   floor knows it. We have
   the right, as individuals, to
   give away as much of our
   own money as we please in
   charity; but as members of
   Congress we have no right
   so to appropriate a dollar of
   the public money.

Crockett was not against aid to the widow in principle; he was against the public appropriation of funds for her benefit. His opposition stemmed from the founding philosophy of the nation, that governments are instituted as a compact among free men to protect the life, liberty, and property of those citizens party to the compact. Assuming no individual has the right to take his neighbor's property and give it to another, it follows that individuals acting collectively as a government do not have the right to take property from citizens and give it to others, no matter how desperate their need may be.

On this basis, Crockett concluded that private giving was the solution to helping the afflicted widow. "We have not the semblance of authority to appropriate [this money] as a charity," Crockett said. "Mr. Speaker, I have said we have the right to give as much of our own money as we please. I am the poorest man on this floor. I cannot vote for this bill, but I will give one week's pay to the object, and if every member of Congress will do the same, it will amount to more than the bill asks."

Indeed, as Davy Crockett suggested and as has been demonstrated repeatedly since, U.S. citizens are the most generous in the world, giving millions and millions in aid each year to those in need around the world. While the Bush administration has pledged $350 million in taxpayer dollars for the relief of those afflicted by the tsunami tragedy, private aid has nearly equaled that amount and may soon surpass it. According to a January 8 report in the Washington Times, "U.S. charities have raised more than $337 million in emergency aid for nations devastated by the South Asian tsunami." To put this number in perspective, an earlier dispatch by the Associated Press reported, "One charity said online pledges were coming in at the rate of $100,000 an hour."

Unlike private philanthropy, which is genuine charity, government "humanitarian" aid is an instrument of state policy and is often used to enrich politically favored constituencies. Regrettably, this was clearly evident in aftermath of the Asian tsunami. Organizations involved in tsunami relief "have calculated that as much as 75 percent of foreign aid is directly tied to trade access or other political strategies," reported Asia Times correspondent Alan Boyd on January 17. "Some comes with so many strings attached, including preferential tendering on contracts and the hiring of consultants, that only 30-40 percent of dollar value is ever realized." Genuinely private charities, as opposed to politically connected foreign aid subcontractors, have much lower overhead and deliver a far higher percentage of collected funds to those who need the aid.

And private charities would undoubtedly raise even more money--not just for the tsunami victims but for myriad other worthwhile projects both home and abroad--if government was to phase out its social-welfare programs. By interjecting itself into "welfare," government has not only introduced bureaucratic inefficiencies but has effectively relieved private citizens of the responsibility of providing true charity to their fellow man. After all, one might ask, if government is providing the needed relief, why do I need to become involved? That so many Americans would contribute money to help the tsunami victims despite what the U.S. government is also doing is a great testament to the generosity and goodness of the American people.

The areas in Southeast Asia devastated by the earthquake and tsunami badly need assistance in order to bring peace and comfort, as much as possible, to the victims who must, somehow, rebuild their lives. And government does have an important role to play in this effort.

First of all, government must ensure that law and order is maintained. Looting and crime are a further affliction not needed by those who have already suffered enough. Government should also work to prevent pestilence, a frequent occurrence following any natural disaster. Since the area struck is a tropic region, government ought to relax any laws against the spraying of DDT, the most effective means of preventing a malarial outbreak. Additionally, by removing regulations and bureaucratic roadblocks, government can let heroes like Susi Pudjiastuti and Christian von Strombeck bring supplies and aid to affected regions without undue interference.

Finally, particularly in the U.S. and other parts of the developed world, government ought to get out of the business of taking money from its citizens in order to distribute it to others. If the scale of U.S. giving is as great as it currently is while being crowded out by government activity, just imagine how much more individuals and corporations could give if they were freed from the reins of oppressive taxation and regulation.

Tsunami casualties

The government of Indonesia, the country worst hit by December's tsunami, now says that more than 200,000 people there died or are missing and likely to have died.

Estinated toll

As of Jan. 12

Indonesia: 78,395 confirmed dead; 131,479 missing

Sri Lanka: 30,882 dead; more than 6,000 missing

India: 10,151 dead; 5,628 missing

Thailand: 5,291 dead; 3,345 missing

Somalia: 298 dead

Myanmar: 90 dead

Maldives: 82 dead

Malaysia: 68 dead

Tanzania: 10 dead

Bangladsh: 2 dead

Kenya: 1 dead

Tsunami warning system

The Indian Ocean lacks the international system of tsunami sensors and communication centers operating in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.

1 Bottom pressure recorder

Sense pressure change as a tsunami as small as 0.4 in. (1 cm) passes

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2 Communication buoy

Receives data from sensor; sends radio signal to satellite. Also sends data from weather instruments on buoy

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3 GOES weather satellite to ground station

Relays radio signal; computers at ground station calculate tsunami's starting point, speed and arrival times; real-time warning sent to areas in danger.

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