Pustaka Ilmiah Universitas Padjadjaran

Abstrak

Tsunami And The True Face Of Globalization:What Have We Learned?

Tsunami came as a blow to Indonesia. It has paralyzed the country within seconds, while the government and its people had no idea how to best deal with its consequences. Throughout three consecutive days, the province of Aceh was totally isolated from the outside world, and was not reachable by sea, air, and land. Its prolongation have taught the Indonesians two things. One, the international community was able to provide immediate humanitarian assistances. Two, Indonesia was not able to work at the same par with its foreign counterparts in the disaster recovery management. This paper will argue that despite its humanitarian motivations, the international efforts were motivated by other reasons, ranging from strategic to economic beliefs. The idea can be traced back to their intrinsic national interests, their domestic agendas and their links to the global issues. To be specific, their possession of wealth, diplomacy, military and technology have affected their level of responses to the crisis in terms of aid, grant and man power. This is clear if we examine the commitments made by countries like the USA, Australia, Japan, and the European Union.