Note For Basil
I was in a camp and there were like 500 people sleeping outside, in plain sight of like 100 empty tents. They were empty cause of some bureaucratic decision. Managing 300,000 people is no joke, but a lot of these problems can be solved with local civil administration. I personally think they should elect their own, but transfers of Tamil speakers would be fine. And people in the camps have to clean, cook, and generally work for themselves. They should be given jobs. Names, representatives, IDs, family, jobs and votes. This is my platform for Vavuniya Dog Catcher. Election is soon.
Names
Everything has to start with people having a name. And an identity. No list of names is publicly posted in the camps yet, though I hope the Ministry Of Defence and Basil do it as soon as possible. That’s a huge thing. Mainly cause families are separated.
Representatives
I don’t know the word in Tamil, but each camp needs a Grama Niladari. It’s basically a government agent. Or customer service. They certify documents, births, deaths, give NICs, employment info, interface with the government, whatever. You can just have a vote within the camp and pick a person.
That’s probably not going to happen, so you could transfer or create camp government agents (GAs). Just get Tamil speakers and there’s a bunch of government jobs for election time. This is basically the civil administration that the LTTE destroyed (among other things) and it has to be rebuilt.
Note: I also think priests are very important. Hindu, Christian, Buddhist, whatever. There’s a Buddhist monk giving robes and helping setup a Hindu temple in Zone 1. In times of trouble faith and religious leaders are very important. And helpful.
National ID
You cannot travel anywhere in Sri Lanka without a National Identity Card (NIC). I believe the Registration or whatever department is going around issuing these, so good. But is going to take a while. You simply cannot travel or access other government services without one.
Family Reunification
We can’t break up the family unit. It’s just not productive. Families take care of each other and they should be together. This can only happen after people are screened, but it makes the camps much more self-sufficient. It’s a cost to connect everyone and then put them on buses. I say give them all Facebook accounts.
Jobs
The worst thing about camps is sitting around all day. It’s so boring. The IDPs I’ve met are happy to talk cause they’re so bored. If you’ve ever been in government care – be it an office, hospital or jail – they waste so much time. People are literally waiting all day and it’s debilitating.
At the same time, garbage is piling up, milk powder needs to be mixed, food needs to be cooked, tea needs to be made, etc. We should just take the budgets that are floating around and pay people like Rs. 100 a day to make tea.
The problem with a lot of relief is that they take goods off a ship and hand them out the back of a truck. The money doesn’t touch the local economy. Our people need money like you or me, and they also need something to do.
More to the point, the garbage in Menik Farm Zone Four is attracting flies and that sucks. I swear to God, garbage is the biggest issue right now. It’s simply not going to work if people don’t pick up after themselves.
Votes
This is impossible for many political reasons, but they should be able to vote in the upcoming Vavuniya and Jaffna elections. They are of course not registered as residents, so fair enough, but they need some political representation. It is very difficult to get stuff done without some proximity to a politician, and these Sri Lankan citizens should have it.
This stuff is all well and good in a bleeding heart sense, but it also makes sense. Right now the garbage isn’t being picked up and there are literally 300,000 people doing nothing next to it. Taxpayers don’t have that much money and at some point the camps need to become more self-sufficient for Sri Lanka’s sake.
Today on the 
Janith has updated 
This is highly dubious. Miss Travel is a travel/social networking site that connects ‘Generous’ and ‘Attractive’ travelers. To, like, travel together, I guess. It all seems a bit like arranged prostitution and trafficking. This is part of a broader online trend to connect rich men to younger, attractive women. Sites like 
Sri Lankan domestics never say anything, they just stop coming. My maid just stopped coming and when I finally pressed her she said I needed to get a washing machine. I was hoping to ride this one out, but I’ve run out of underwear and I have no choice. I finally caved and bought a washing machine, from 
“We can’t break up the family unit. It’s just not productive. Families take care of each other and they should be together… I say give them all Facebook accounts”
??
easy on the ‘erbs buddy
i think indi was making a “let them eat cake” joke partly but the concept is sound–there needs to be a universally accessible, reliable and cheap way to let everyone know where their loved ones are and that it needs to be updated in a timely fashion.
After ’83, we lost track of quite a few family members because there simply was no such convenience. It’s no fun and exacerbates the feeling of having been singled out for punishment rather than resettlement.
Indi, yesterday somebody told ,the two bank branches in the camps have collected a considerable amount of deposits. Now that makes me think that the people in these camps are middle class people (of some standard) . Thus the situation is a bit different than we think. The facilities we think that they will percieve as luxuries might actually be necessities for them. Did you get this impression? How easy is it for a civilian group to get access to the IDP’s in the camps to provide assistance?
Hi,
I am writing an article for Huffington Post on Srilankan humanitarian crisis. I have few questions. Can you please email me at sarikamona1@gmail.com.Thanks
Indi, didn’t you once say things become ‘grey-er’ when you become part of the machine.. Recall reading it on this blog and laughing to myself sometime ago!
Noticed till then that your blog contents had loads of ideas that I thought were practically difiicult, which you may see cos you’re getting more involved now. Congrats for taking the effort. Understand this is your blog and a vehicle for you to rant and just express frustration, but IF you want to really make a change specially in places such as IDP camps where even basic neccesities are not met, you need to start really small. I mean really small and make sure it works before tackling the more complicated issues. You maybe surprised to see how even the simplest idea is difficult to get off the ground
But hopefully you already know this and were just expressing frustration in this post.. Keep up the great work
It is of the utmost importance for the authorities to reduce the numbers in the camps as quickly as possible – for all the obvious reasons. I’m not sure how the ‘screening process’ works, or even if it is happening right now, but the sooner the people are allowed to return to their properties (if mine-free, etc), the better for all concerned. However, there will have to be some sort of ‘welfare’ system in place until the folk who are allowed to return are able to fend for themselves. It appears that there are some systems in place to rehabilitate the orphans and displaced children, but there will be much to be done for the youth and young adults who, if not given some type of vocational training or employment, will understand for themselves (as opposed to being brainwashed) the futility of hoping for equality in Sri Lanka. The problems involving logistics is massive, and the sooner the authorities flash that they could (and should) use the assistance of experts, the easier it will be for everyone.
@Girigoris
I don’t think giving Sri Lankan citizens a National ID, civil administration and votes is especially radical or even difficult to implement. Right now it just comes down to taking a decision. The major issue is whether they get these things in the camps or at some point in the future when resettled.
I do a fair amount of work on the ground and I’d say basic necessities are met. I don’t think my tone is especially frustrated and most of this stuff is happening anyways, albeit slowly.
“I don’t think giving Sri Lankan citizens a National ID, civil administration and votes is especially radical or even difficult to implement. ”
- Oh but it is!
How can you give a National ID to a person if they have no birth certificate or any documents verifying who they are? Just handing out national IDs would mean that if I was in a IDP camp, I can assume any identity I wish to if the govt doesn’t ascertain who I am exactly.. This is what I meant that it seems simple but takes a lot of time. How can the govt ascertain the identity of so many people so fast? Without identity being established, you cannot even think of letting people vote, unless they develop a system to allow people to vote without properly establishing their identity. They will have to make provisions in public policy/ electoral law for this! This, as u may know WILL take time.
Establishing the identity of people & issuing them NIC cards WILL be a challenge. Otherwise, a wanted LTTEr pretending to be a civilian in an IDP camp can just say he/ she is Sunmail Arachchilage Don Ramanan Nallathambi, get a brand new NIC and walk away scot free!
What I gave is just an example.. There are so many implications for this that you would understand only if you IN the machine.
Don’t need to defensive about it :)
[...] but if you’re Tamil then perhaps you could answer the questions in the comments below, or email her directly to go under your real name (which I recommend). I’ve posted the questions below and my [...]
Indi, thank you for linking to the story about the monk.
I left SL fleeing the Tigers, and I’d always thought I’d be on the next plane back when they’d been defeated. The Government’s attitude these past few months made me wonder why I’d ever wanted to do that, and why I’d been forlonly clinging on to my SL passport these past eighteen years in exile. That story’s reminded me why. And made me start taking the first steps.
@Vadakathayan
It’s honestly kinda hairy right now, but give it a few months and see. I’d say don’t give up just yet.
hey, indi
what are u saying? i think BAsil is doing a great job at least feeding and giving necessary needs for these people. he had done a great job for EASTern people and soon we will see the same in North. All these tamil ppl suffered so much from LTTE and they decided to stay with them. so it’s not like the government has to give them everything right away. you should understand, basil and everyone is doing what they can. if u look at what happen in US after hurricane Katrina, Sri Lanka is doing a much better job. katrin victims are still in trailers and we have resettled eastern IDPs. I don’t even get what you’re saying to basil in your note. u should be appreciating what the government is doing given the capacity of our nation.