Comments on: We wish to believe http://lirneasia.net/2006/12/we-wish-to-believe/ a regional ICT policy and regulation think tank active across the Asia Pacific Wed, 17 Mar 2010 07:35:33 +0000 hourly 1 By: Sanjana Hattotuwa http://lirneasia.net/2006/12/we-wish-to-believe/comment-page-1/#comment-29422 Sanjana Hattotuwa Mon, 28 Dec 2009 15:09:45 +0000 http://www.lirneasia.net/2006/12/we-wish-to-believe/#comment-29422 Has there been any verifiable progress made on these 5 counts? Has there been any verifiable progress made on these 5 counts?

]]> By: samarajiva http://lirneasia.net/2006/12/we-wish-to-believe/comment-page-1/#comment-7877 samarajiva Thu, 28 Dec 2006 18:20:13 +0000 http://www.lirneasia.net/2006/12/we-wish-to-believe/#comment-7877 Posting the same irrelevant comment on multiple threads is spamming. Using the name of a LIRNEasia team member to make this post is worse than spamming; it's stupid. Cease and desist. We will block anyone who engages in this type of unacceptable behavior from the website. Posting the same irrelevant comment on multiple threads is spamming. Using the name of a LIRNEasia team member to make this post is worse than spamming; it’s stupid.

Cease and desist. We will block anyone who engages in this type of unacceptable behavior from the website.

]]> By: Divakar Goswami http://lirneasia.net/2006/12/we-wish-to-believe/comment-page-1/#comment-7876 Divakar Goswami Tue, 26 Dec 2006 19:57:46 +0000 http://www.lirneasia.net/2006/12/we-wish-to-believe/#comment-7876 The greatest tribute that could have been paid to the tsunami victims of the Dec 26, 2004, is to have a working and tested early warning system deployed in all the affected countries that may have saved the lives of thousands if it were in place in 2004. But instead we got a giant Buddha statue unveiled in Peraliya, Sri Lanka by the President to remember the dead (<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6209413.stm" rel="nofollow">http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6209413.stm</a>) and a cemetery for the unidentified dead. In Bali at least they held a mock tsunami drill. After all this chatter about a disaster management center and after attending innumerable international conferences, the government has found it prudent to leave the safety of its citizens in the hands of god. It is a far more cost-effective solution. No need to develop protocols for disseminating hazard warnings, deploy last-mile alerting technologies, build structures to mitigate disaster effects, train vulnerable villages, hold mock drills...Imagine how much of your tax-payers money is being saved by the government's prudent action. Some of you may read the BBC and the Independent and complain about the govt's wasteful expenditure on warning towers. Let me set the record straight on this. The 100 invisible towers built in Hikkaduwa reported by the BBC, have been erected using cutting-edge, zero-cost, dematerialized pre-fab material. The govt hasn't spent a single penny of your hard earned income. So not to worry! The greatest tribute that could have been paid to the tsunami victims of the Dec 26, 2004, is to have a working and tested early warning system deployed in all the affected countries that may have saved the lives of thousands if it were in place in 2004. But instead we got a giant Buddha statue unveiled in Peraliya, Sri Lanka by the President to remember the dead (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6209413.stm) and a cemetery for the unidentified dead. In Bali at least they held a mock tsunami drill.

After all this chatter about a disaster management center and after attending innumerable international conferences, the government has found it prudent to leave the safety of its citizens in the hands of god. It is a far more cost-effective solution. No need to develop protocols for disseminating hazard warnings, deploy last-mile alerting technologies, build structures to mitigate disaster effects, train vulnerable villages, hold mock drills…Imagine how much of your tax-payers money is being saved by the government’s prudent action.

Some of you may read the BBC and the Independent and complain about the govt’s wasteful expenditure on warning towers. Let me set the record straight on this. The 100 invisible towers built in Hikkaduwa reported by the BBC, have been erected using cutting-edge, zero-cost, dematerialized pre-fab material. The govt hasn’t spent a single penny of your hard earned income. So not to worry!

]]> By: Nuwan Perera http://lirneasia.net/2006/12/we-wish-to-believe/comment-page-1/#comment-7875 Nuwan Perera Tue, 26 Dec 2006 04:36:50 +0000 http://www.lirneasia.net/2006/12/we-wish-to-believe/#comment-7875 I fully agree with Prof Smarajiva ,in sense that the article on Independent is quite ill-informed.The fact is those warning systems only exist in the books. I think the minimum that Sri Lanka could have done during past 2 years to face such an emergency would be to upgrade the telecommunications infrastructure. So that one can simply make a phone call during an emergency! I think we have failed in that aspect as well. I fully agree with Prof Smarajiva ,in sense that the article on Independent is quite ill-informed.The fact is those warning systems only exist in the books. I think the minimum that Sri Lanka could have done during past 2 years to face such an emergency would be to upgrade the telecommunications infrastructure. So that one can simply make a phone call during an emergency! I think we have failed in that aspect as well.

]]> By: Global Voices Online » Blog Archive » Sri Lanka: Preparing for the Tsunami http://lirneasia.net/2006/12/we-wish-to-believe/comment-page-1/#comment-7874 Global Voices Online » Blog Archive » Sri Lanka: Preparing for the Tsunami Tue, 26 Dec 2006 02:19:42 +0000 http://www.lirneasia.net/2006/12/we-wish-to-believe/#comment-7874 [...] LIRNEasia is apprehensive about a report in the UK press which claims that Sri Lanka is prepared well if a tsunami strikes. “The best-prepared country is Sri Lanka, one of those worst hit two years ago, which has a system of transmitting warnings through its police stations.” Neha Viswanathan [...] [...] LIRNEasia is apprehensive about a report in the UK press which claims that Sri Lanka is prepared well if a tsunami strikes. “The best-prepared country is Sri Lanka, one of those worst hit two years ago, which has a system of transmitting warnings through its police stations.” Neha Viswanathan [...]

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