Tsunami Recovery in Sri Lanka Ethnic and Regional Dimensions
Edited by Dennis B. McGilvray, Michele R. Gamburd Published
March 9th 2010 by Routledge – 208 pages The Indian Ocean
Tsunami, which devastated 70 percent of Sri Lanka’s coastline
and killed an estimated 35,000 people, was remarkable both for
the magnitude of the disaster and for the unprecedented scale of
the relief and recovery operations mounted by national and
international agencies. The reconstruction process was soon
hampered by political patronage, by the competing efforts of
hundreds of foreign humanitarian organizations, and by the
ongoing civil war. The book is framed within this larger
political and social context, offering descriptions and
comparisons between two regions (southwest vs. eastern coast)
and four ethnic communities (Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, and
Burghers) to illustrate how disaster relief unfolded in a
culturally pluralistic political landscape. Approaching the
issue from four disciplinary perspectives - anthropology, demog