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Originally Posted by WarChild
It was far more devastating than the Hurricane that hit New Orleans.
Was rape, murder and looting of non essential items rampant in the poor countries hit? Not that was reported, anyway.
Last time such chaos broke out was what, Haiti? What's similiar between New Orleans and Haiti but not the same as Thai Land or Indonesia? You can do the math.
Ooops, now I'm a racist.
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WRONG
Tsunami 'a crushing blow to women'
Oxfam: 3 times more men survived, creating dangerous imbalance
LAMSENIA, Indonesia - The tsunami that overwhelmed Asia in December killed three times more women than men, and the resulting scarcity of female survivors has led to reports of forced marriages and rape, the British-based charity Oxfam International said Saturday.
Although official statistics do not provide the gender of victims, partial data indicates that many more women than men were among the 300,000 people killed or declared missing after the Dec. 26 tsunami devastated the coastlines of 11 countries around the Indian Ocean.
The impact on women was seen especially in Sri Lanka, Indonesia and India. Indonesia, the country hardest hit by the earthquake-generated tsunami, now has villages where men now outnumber women 10-to-1.
?The tsunami has dealt a crushing blow to women and men across the region. In some villages it now appears that up to 80 percent of those killed were women,? said Becky Buel, Oxfam?s policy director. ?This disproportionate impact will lead to problems for years to come unless everyone working on the aid effort addresses the issue now. We are already hearing about rapes, harassment and forced early marriages.?
The report concluded that women suffered disproportionately because they had a more difficult time outrunning the surging waters or the bad luck of being at home while the men were out at sea fishing or in the fields working.
Women vulnerable
As a result, men now far outnumber women in crowded camps and scattered settlements, and the women are vulnerable to a range of abuses, the report said. Sri Lankan women reportedly have been sexually assaulted in camp toilets and domestic violence is on the rise, the report found.
Indonesian women, according to Oxfam and women activists, are being sexually harassed in camps, forced or rushed into marrying much older men and victimized by abusive Indonesian soldiers, who reportedly have strip-searched them.
?We know of at least three marriages in which women married older widowers. What we don?t know is how forced it was,? said Ines Smyth, gender adviser for Oxfam.
?When we asked them, they say they have an obligation to their family and were frightened for the future. If you lost everything you had, including your family, it?s very difficult to refuse whatever is being offered, whether it?s protection or the possibility of a house.?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7301816/