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Mr
Widharto Widharto is
Librarian of the SEAMEO BIOTROP (biological
sciences) library in Bogor,
Indonesia. He is a past winner of the SIG III International Paper Contest,
and his paper from the Contest was published in the Bulletin. He is not near
the zone of terrible devistation in Indonesia, but
gives us a view of the disaster from his country, and ideas on what
information professionals can do. You can reach him at widharto@biotrop.org
Some of us in Indonesia, especially
people of the Nanggroe Aceh
Darussalam (NAD), the most eastern part of Indonesia have
suffered a very powerful earth quake
that destroyed plenty of buildings and most infrastructures. This earthquake
then followed by the colossal tsunami wave, and has taken more than eighty thousand lives. The
death toll jumped again when Indonesian authorities reported an additional
14,000 dead, bringing the garbage and
ruins, as well as thousand of death bodies are still common in
this areas, and they have to be
cleaned up. Government officials, armies, foreign aid workers, were dispatched
to the areas to help clean and
evacuate the survivors the areas. From day to day, all TV stations broadcast
victims who desperately battling the destruction of the Indian Ocean tsunami, they are searching and
hoping. Some will find their missing members of their families.
You can follow current news about the disaster at the CNN or other
international broadcasters.
Indonesia is the biggest
archipelago in the world, and NAD in the most tsunami-stricken regions, is in
the most western part of the country. It is about three thousand KMs away from my hometown, Bogor.
However, as a nation,
we have to concern about what people in the other area of our country. People are hands in hands to help
the victims, some are collected relief funds and some donate their
clothes, and food stuff. Emergencies hospitals have been built to cure
the sick people. Though at the beginning their work were slow, but then they
are becoming more organized. With more armed forces, foreign and local
volunteers or aid workers making their
way to the capital, Banda Aceh, they are able to
intensify their works to identify and
recovering bodies still buried beneath tonness
of rubble, as well as to clean the debrises. If the dead bodies won't be taken out or recovered, then it's
going to be disaster for those people
living there and struggling for life. It probably take more one month to find all those
killed in Banda Aceh, and to city start to alive
again. Should you pray that God lays
His hands upon those who lost their loved ones, and He give comfort and
strength to overcome those burdens.
For us in Indonesia, the special evening of
New Year's Eve was
really cloudy as some of our country men are suffering the
disaster. Plenty of gala dinners or
costly special events to be organized in five stars hotels or other sophisticated
venue have been cancelled, instead
they have donated the allocated funds as relief funds for people in Aceh. The impact
of such situation, Bogor which is usually visited
by plenty of people
to spend their New Year's eve around the Bogor
Botanical Garden, was unusual at this time.
Well, as you understand that Indonesia's
strategy for long-term
economic development is founded on the principle of conserving natural resources, including the
sustainable management of natural
resources, therefore, the maintenance of ecosystem is very
important. Ensuring food and nutrition
security for more than two millions mouths for people in Aceh,
and other areas of NAD is a great challenge for Indonesia today. To be consistent with the US Government
commitment to help the countries devastated by the tsunami, you may
help us by helping to develop
information center in a specific field for Aceh.
I am sure both the SLA
and ASIS have plenty of resources to carry out such programs.
You could contact
the the US funding agencies to propose a program
for library development ofr areas hit by Tsunami, including us in Indonesia. I
will be more
than happy if I could share my knowlege with your
team.
Thank you very much for your attention and kind cooperation. I am
looking forward to hearing from you again. Happy New Year, all the best
for the 2005 for all of us.
Sincerly yours,
Widharto
Librarian SEAMEO BIOTROP
Jl. Raya tajur KM 6
P.O. Box 116
Bogor 16001,
Indonesia
tel. (62-251)-323848; fax (62-251)-326851
e-mail: widharto@biotro.org
http://www.biotrop.org
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