Dear Barry and Margaret. Thanks for your recent communications and news about your travels and website adventures – sounds really good. Also sorry for delay in replying. Not a lot to report as regards Aceh and reconstruction as virtually nothing has happened for months. They tell me it is similar in Sri Lanka. Reports are unfortunately conflicting and confusing, and co-ordination seems to be a word that doesn't exist in reality. Frustrations grow as the people watch the authorities hold meeting after meeting, and I suspect that an awful lot of money is being wasted on aid workers facilities, such as rented houses, expensive cars and wages.

When you speak to the Indonesians they often say that the expatriates are on a kind of holiday in Aceh, swimming daily in the ocean and saying what a wonderful country this is and what lovely people. How much of that is true is hard to gauge – but I have seen it in a number of places. I've done a letter to the Jakarta Post on this particular subject. For example, why very expensive Land Cruisers and such like vehicles are considered necessary in a region that hardly has any decent roads is beyond me – status and pomp have no real place in the city of the dead. That aside, the foot-dragging is the result of a number of factors.

We know and try to understand the rebel GAM problem which seems to hover over the area and won't go away. I actually feel a lot safer in Aceh today than I did before the war broke out, as in those times a lot of extremely unpleasant events were commonplace. The talks in Helsinki (and this depends on which report you read) seem to have reached a point that was more than predictable. They have covered the easier aspects, but now the thorny bits need to be discussed. Sorry to drag this political aspect into the tsunami report, but without peace, nothing will go forward. In the meantime, NGO's must be getting frustrated as they cannot perform with their plans until they get final approval from the Indonesians.

Many do not want to give the donated money to the Indonesian authorities as corruption is rampant and on-going and likely incurable. Some have gone ahead without such approval, and this (as one aid worker said to me) was better than doing nothing. That perhaps is debatable, as for example, one organization (maybe more than one) have financed the building of fishing boats, and these you can see being built along the roadside. Now the chief UN boat expert (he arrived in Sumatra this week – and why so late in the day) tells the high-level audience that the boats are being made by cowboys and will sink in no time. Now if he is right, then a lot of money has gone down the drain.

Another country sent hundreds of fibre-glass boats, but these also in heavy seas will flip over because they are of the wrong design and of the wrong material. A nice and kind gesture, but also a death trap. As a matter of interest, when the Kobi earthquake occurred, the Japanese government produced and implemented their rebuilding blue print in less than a week – in Aceh it is now nearly six months since the quake/tsunami, and still no positive action. Perhaps all this is trying to tell us that as human beings we are simply unable to cope with a disaster of this magnitude in an area that was already plagued with historic problems.

The same would apply to Sri Lanka, although very recently some kind of peace pact has occurred. Perhaps it would be easy to sit back and point fingers at the people who are obviously obstructing or abusing this situation, but that is of no use at all to the people who are still sitting and sleeping under canvas. Somebody somewhere needs to get their finger out.

Let me give you an example of inflated prices. In Medan, I pay Rp15 million per year for my rented house which has two bedrooms (one on-suite), two hot showers, a modern washing machine and is fully furnished. In Banda Aceh, one of the NGO's that put me up for two nights paid Rp240 million rent per year for their house. There are examples of houses that are costing three times this amount. Hotel rooms (if you can get one) cost about three times the going rate in far better hotels in Medan.

The thing is this:

1) Where is that money coming from?

2) Who is allowing local people to extort unbelievable amounts of money out of a truly tragic disaster – that is almost worse than criminal?

3) What are the total administrative costs of the people from aid and NGO concerns, and what have they got to show in the way of reconstruction that will in any way justify that expenditure?

My next trip is likely to be mid July.

I have just received your latest message and will send you some more details later. I have no problems with you sending out what I say, mainly because I do feel a lot of things need to dragged out into the open. I hope you will also appreciate that getting reliable facts and figures out of this fiasco - is not easy. People refuse to comment, and this mainly (I think) because of their obvious failure. There are obviously good guys - but try to tell that to the people in the tents!

Email 29 June 2005

Dear Barry and Margaret – a few more lines about Aceh. Every now and then we all need a jolt, but I hope such an awakening call does not come in the shape and form of another gigantic earthquake. The seismologists seem convinced there will be one under the islands just off the West Sumatran coast, and that could be close to 9 on the Richter scale. If they are right, then a tsunami is also likely about 10 to 15 minutes after the initial quake. The jolt I refer to is the one necessary to get this reconstruction on the move. I don't mind admitting that I am hugely critical to a state of anger as regards this point, as I believe some people associated with the rebuilding have either forgotten, fallen asleep, never saw the initial impact disaster, or have simply lost focus on the thousands of human tragedies that are scattered all the way down the Acehnese west coast.

I notice people ignoring me now as I'm likely to explode with the frustration. Not many of the readers of this report will know of a small place called Ulee Lheue that is only a few minutes away from Banda Aceh. Back in January this year I stood on the furthest land point and faced the Indian Ocean, and then turned around and stared at the land. What I saw was massive destruction that I found horrifying and almost unbelievable. Four kilometers of smashed houses that are now mostly foundations, tons of debris, and buried beneath must have been thousands of bodies.

That scene is no different today nearly six months on. I will admit that such devastation is mind-boggling if you were to be faced with the responsibility for clearance and rebuilding, plus the fact that the whole area is open to the sea and to another tsunami. Perhaps there lies the dilemma. The realities may be that Ulee Lheue will be no more, and the whole area will be turned into an uninhabited landscaped buffer zone. That may also apply to some of the many villages that once thrived along the west coast – and I can see the logic and thinking behind that.

There was one village that disappeared in its entirety. The wave left the area absolutely clean as if there had never been anyone there in the first place – needless to say that survivors were few and far between. I do feel that many of these aid workers who are still here today should visit Ulee Lheue once a week as a reminder of what this tragedy is all about. There are many of them in Medan where I live and the hotels are doing very nicely – thank you tsunami. That is no doubt unavoidable, but the Traders restaurant (not cheap) has become known by the locals as the UN restaurant as it is often frequented by the various aid workers. Now they drink and eat pretty well, and that bill may well be paid by the individuals out of their own pockets, but their wages (that puts the money in their pockets in the first place) comes out of the donated money.

Rumours and bar talk around the city says very little good about many of these foreigners – perhaps this is another example of how the rich are getter richer (hotel and restaurant owners) and the poor stay in the tents. One of the difficulties is trying to keep track of what is happening and what is not – and why. To do that, you would have to research the various websites for 24 hours a day, and for every day until the end of time. People do not have that time, or for that matter the inclination, and so like most of us we look for tangible improvements – and currently that is stagnation and frustrations.

There is also little doubt that most people involved with the reconstruction could stand up and argue their case as regards to the lack of progress. Blaming others would probably top the list, and bureaucracy would come a close second. People like myself who scratch around at the grass roots trying to do something with zero resources and finance, look in amazement at the much publicized list of country/organization donors. Now you could be awfully cynical when reviewing such a list if you were to relate the obvious generosity into hard political facts.

There are images to improve, hidden agendas to feed and a whole host of other factors that do not have a huge bearing on the Acehnese people under canvas. If you want such a list then one exists that is called the 'stingy' list on http//blog.simmins.org There are others on an official basis if you have time to investigate. You can of course look at figures in a number of ways, most people thinking that the Americans with US$857 million from its government and US$1, 480 million from private donators are by far the most generous. But, if you put the aid on a per-capita basis then the Norwegians gave the most, with combined governmental and private donations amounting to USD59 per head. This was seven times more than the Americans and ten times more than the Japanese. But then comes the crunch as regards to the quality of the aid – in other words the percentage of the amount that will be focused on the victims as opposed to the percentage focused on donor interests.

Sort that one out and then you begin to see a truer picture of what's behind all the figures. In this respect, the head of Aid Watch in Australia said that most of Canberra's $A738.9 million will flow back to Australian companies and contractors – not sure he's right on that but some no doubt will. I read one report that said the Americans had taken back $US400 million out of their $US857 million to cover the costs of US Mercy and other rescue/medical facilities/equipment that had already been a part of the initial humanitarian phase. Japan wants a permanent seat on the Security Council and the Americans desperately want to show the world they are not just six-gun, shoot from the hip merchants. To me, one the strangest set of figures belongs to China. Their government donated $US83 million and the people (private) just over one million dollars. The private figure is so low it is hardly believable for a country with over 1.4 billion people. Nevertheless, with nearly $US7 billion from all the various governments and 4.4 billion from the private sector, not much in real terms has reached the tent dwellers.

It would help people to understand what life is like in Aceh if they visited a camp site, or the next stage up which are the wooden barrack-type accommodations. For this, you need to look pre-tsunami at how people lived before the wave. Many were unemployed and lived in fairly squalid conditions – but okay and an accepted way of life if you are poor. Accommodation was mainly flimsy which is why the wave destroyed everything.

When they moved into tents, for some this was better than before, but privacy and toilet facilities are not good. Even so, there is a sense of community and living among them I find a happy environment that is fed and surviving. The wooden barracks, which are meant to be an improvement on tents, are a rather debatable subject. For example, 60 Acehnese are squeezed into a single barrack with about three families living in one room. They are of course a temporary affair, but with reconstruction virtually at a standstill, morale has become low. If I had a choice then I would live in the tent, especially as the surrounding is more tranquil and privacy a little bit better.

Boredom sets in pretty quickly as something like 70 per cent of industry (jobs) went with the tsunami. There are far more men survivors than women and so the whole community is unbalanced and thus vulnerable to incidents. Some get jobs within the aid agencies, but these only go to the educated ones – not the poor. Food is on ration and consists of rice, instant noodles and canned sardines – hardly the best of nutrition – but okay. The vegetable markets are up and running and have been for months but you need to barter the price down. There are no diseases, which is a credit to the World Health Organization and the cleanliness of the Acehnese.

The vast majority of people have come to terms with the situation and their earlier tsunami traumas, but a few are understandably struggling. Children are going to school and the attitude/behaviour of the kids is refreshing and brilliant. There is electricity now and so electric fans can be used – I did see one fridge which was a donation. All in all it is okay and livable – but then the Acehnese are well accustomed to a hard way of life and expect very little from it. For me the biggest problem is where to build the new houses, as another tsunami is forecast. The grass roots mentality is so understandable and yet relocation so sensible. When you watch women sweeping their foundation of the house that was, your heart goes out to them, and yet the ocean is staring right at you.