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Latest update: Tuesday
12 January 05
On this Wednesday 5 January 2005 the idea is taking shape :
thousands of boats will have to be built on the south-east coasts of India.
Therefore we are going to give individual help to the fishermen of
the neighbourhood by building boats and creating a school to enable the
others, those that are far away, to build their own themselves.
Down below is the logbook of the association.
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Monday 27/12/O4
At 9 o’clock, a few workmen turn up, they talk, and move away;
their fear is palpable.
Out of 75 workmen, only four are at work. We spend the day trying
to get news, to know if the others need help.
The future will reveal that, fortunately, all are alive and not too
affected. But people in work, in India, already belong to a privileged
class.
Tuesday 28/12/04
First contact by e-mail with Claude Celibert, from Lorient, who shares
our views. He came to visit us here recently; likewise Jean-Claude Breton,
who is setting up a Pondy/Britanny association, with a cultural outlook.
I put them into contact with Michel Seguy, the French Consul General.
Wednesday, 29/12/04.
E-mail from J-M Tabuteau , a maritime expert, who is coming to Pondy
about our boats. He is very direct. He makes a donation for the construction
of a few boats.
For us it is a revelation : it is as shipbuilders that we can be useful.
I get everyone into contact, including Hervé Coutand, a naval
architect, and a few friends and customers.
Thursday 30/12/04.
The workmen were beginning to come back. There is a false tsunami alert,
two-thirds of the present gang of workmen rush to the village, mad with
concern.
I receive the drawings of Hervé’s boat, it seems to meet the
local needs quite well; unfortunately there are incompatibilities concerning
the formats.
Until the end of the week, the two of us will fight it out to get suitable
equipment.
Friday 31/12/04
We are in the dark. We do not master the language, nor the Tamil customs.
Although we have the impression that we are integrated; it is only as “bosses”,
a caste among other castes.
We decide to ask for help. Tiago, a chum of our children’s who gave
a hand in rigging the “Merry”, joins us. He speaks English fairly well,
and is very enthusiastic.He is with us at present, full time, as an adviser
and investigator.
We have the blues when he talks about priorities: the boats, OK, but
having food to eat first, a roof, a rush-mat to sleep on. Martine, who
was thinking of helping me with regard to the first project, accepts to take
charge of this matter of urgency among priorities.
We feast the New Year in at Pierre’s; rather surrealistic, contemplative,
warm, a little ashamed too. But we needed this warmth.
Saturday 1/1/05
The Internet is working full blast: the family, the friends, all those
who are getting involved.
Claude has raised some hype in the media. Jean-Marc is laying the foundations
of a non-profit-making registered association; Noelle, my sister, proposes
to revive another : APRES, created for the reforestation of Corsica. I
bury myself in Hervé’s plan, which is at last more or less exploitable.
Sunday, 2/1/05
The Internet again : I am opening a group : http://fr.groups.yahoo.com/group/pondy-pecheurs.
You have to register to take part.
And this site : http://www.france.com/Pondy-pecheurs,
which is the alfa version of the future site.
Answering the e-mails, and very interesting discussion with Dimitri,
who is doing outstanding work with Martine Seguy, the Consul General’s wife.
Bad news : activating an association in India would take six months.
As it is now that they need the funds, they have opened an account.
We shall open an account tomorrow.
They use volunteers among students from the University of Pondy, which
is quite close to the area they have taken charge of, with the Dean’s permission.
We decide to do the same with the pupils of the Lycée Français.
If the headmaster agrees.
We receive a journalist from the France-Press Agency. We explain our
project to him.
Tiago returns with an outstandingly well-documented study : stricken
inhabitants, damage, village by village, supported by official documents
from the “panchaya”, local authorities, but with qualifications.
Unfortunately, he started with the northern area, and Dimitri and I
have decided that it would be better to share the zones among ourselves,
given the extent of the task. But we shall make them proceed. He will start
tomorrow with the southern area, including Cudallore, 25 kms away, which
has suffered much.
Even so, not living in Pondichery is not a flaw, is it?
Visiting villages with Martine; unfortunately, one does not know where
or how to SEE what the needs are, and how real the demands can be. It is
imperative to resort to a preliminary enquiry by a Tamil.
Monday 3/1/05.
The workmen are trickling back. Well, it is Monday, the day when there
are many absentees.
Opened an account with UCO Bank; thanks to Nelly, the assistant Consul’s
wife, for having helped to ease the application. For this, she has been
catapulted to the post of treasurer…
Spent the afternoon at the police station …Being marched to the Superintendant’s
office by two policemen, brr…
The 70 “big” boats of the fishing harbour made a little 500-metre
trip within the river. The water 5 centimetres deep at high tide …
They do not know how to sail them out of there. I ended up with the
“BigBoss”, he must be something like a prefect.
Back to the yard, I find the representative of the Department of Fisheries
who has been kicking his heels for two hours for the same reasons. Talk
of co-ordination ???
We are going to explain to them how to take them out of there.
Contacted by a member of the Association of Industries of India (the
Indian equivalent of the CBI). They intend to sponsorise up to a thousand
fishing boats…. We’ll meet again on Wednesdy.
Hervé! You’ll never have seen so many boats built on your plans!
Tiago with us at home tonight, with a hellufa super work as usual.
He went toVeerapattinan, one of the very damaged sites.
5 dead, 500 boats destroyed, with the tackle…
Tuesday, 4/1/05
An Indian NGO came this morning. They are very interested by our project,
but there is so much to do! Ramesh, my yard foreman , has come back. According
to him, at the village, they are OK. We have begun the full-scale marking-out
of the boat, launching and trying-out on Sunday. Jérémie
has joinded us. He is a former crew member on the “Merry”, a photographer.
Thanks to him we will be able to have a better-documented site. At last,
we have our account number: Here is the procedure to send money in Euros
and in US$, (it’s not that simple)
Remit to "BNP PARIBAS", PARIS (SWIFT: BNPAFRPPXXX)
for Credit of UCO Bank, Calcutta Account No. 66407124 with them
SWIFT: UCBAINBB102.
Beneficiary account Nb 496375 of Nelly Blondel / Lionel Mallard
/ Martine Mallard
with UCO Banc, Pondicherry
Tiago comes late for his daily report. He was in Cudallore, 20
kms away to the south, and only managed to do a small part of the preliminary
study; he returns there tomorrow with Martine.
500 dead, the whole fishing fleet destroyed.
Say, Ramesh, we have been working together for 6 years, and you tell
me that everying is OK at the village ?
Pugaliandi, Govindan, Ellumalai, all of you who live there, why don’t
you tell anything?
This people’s sense of propriety, and their fatalism too, are disarming!
Wednesday 5/1/05
A quiet day. The more so as all the gang is far from being present.
Always their sense of propriety: Ramesh had told the Manufacturing Manager
that he would be a little late. Everything is all right at the village,
but all the same, he needed to repair his house…
Sent an e-mail of 400 addresses this morning: family, friends, customers,
prospects.
Good news, we can use the diplomatic bag for the donations, through Nelly,
the Assistant Consul’s wife and our treasurer.:
Madame Nelly Blondel, the French Consulate in Pondicherry,
128 bis rue de l’Université, 75351 Paris 07 SP.
Of course, the cheque must be made out with the three names,
Nelly Blondel/Lionel Mallard/Martine Mallard
The postage is the same as for a letter within France.
The boat is making progress, confirmation that the trials at sea will
take place on Sunday.
Received a super e-mail from Dominique and Jean-Luc, from Grenoble.
They work wholeheartedly for the project, and have set up a site :
http://grenoble.pondichery.free.fr/Le _tsunami.htm
Fabienne Marsaudon is campaigning wholeheartedly in Belle-Ile, and is
preparing a show whose profits will be sent to Pondy-Fishermen. With this
kind of public, there will undoubtedly be other fall-out...
APRES, Yves and my sister Noëlle’s association changes its name
to “Aid to Populations and Rehabilitation of Disaster Areas”
The statutes will be filed on Friday.
My brother is also setting something up in Choisy-le-Roi
Traditional meeting with Tiago, who came tonight with a chum.
There is such a lot of work to do in Cudallore that he did not summon
Martine, and they still have the whole day tomorrow to prepare her visit.
Thursday 7/1/05
The prototype of the boat is making good progress, although I
sense a certain wavering among my blokes. They are used to my westerner’s
antics, but just think, a boat that is sewn up…The inside is finished.
I spent part of the day setting up the outline of the next site, for,
what with what we have shot and what with what Jer is to bring me tonight,
we will have enough to fill it with pictures.
Tiago and Maguey, who are now faithful, came to see us. They are still
busy assessing the needs in Cudallore. It’s not plain sailing : because aid
organisations exist : the government, the local authorities, some private
benefactors, the mosque, the protestant temple, the church. The outcasts have
to be identified, those who have no family or friends, the most deprived.
They found a village that was totally destroyed. The inhabitants had taken
refuge in a palm grove that was totally hidden. Eighty-four families.
Nelly and Martine are going there tomorrow.
First fit of rage : a parafin stove usually costs 150 rupees. The price
has risen to 250. We managed to haggle and settle for 190 while we are taking
100 stoves… And even so, we were lucky to find any.
Second fit of rage this evening : I look at the news, which rather get
under my skin, until Tiago and Maguey come in, and then, when they are gone,
I remain daydreaming in front of a show about the events. I see blokes with
their butts cosily ensconced in snug armchairs, holding forth : saying
that
aid is haphazard, and there is wastage, and there is no co-ordination,
and this and that…
Hey ! Come here, you blokes, muck in ! You’ve seen the tsunami on TV,
there was no risk of it getting the carpet wet !
You who are visiting the trick-cyclist when you have broken a returnable
bottle, who “start a mourning process” when your gold fish has died, come
and see those people that you watch in virtual pictures on your goggle-box,
well protected by the glass of the cathodic screen.
But, those people, they DO exist !
They eat, sleep, are in love, work, they have impulses, rages, cravings,
dreams !
Their children laugh, sing, jump about, cry and smile - how they do !
They are HUMAN beings !
Like you ! Like your neighbour on the same landing !
But, tell me, do you even know the name of your neighbour.
Excuse me, I sometimes get carried away !
Friday 8/1/05
In the evening, the prototype of the boat is finished. It is
Martine’s turn to speak today…
First day of distribution”for the emergency”
Nelly has taken charge of the supply of blankets and food, I have bought
the kitchen utensils and ordered the stoves, which finally arrive at 9.
There is a shortage , the prices rises enormously, it is infuriating.
Tiago and Maguey arrive, three friends have joined us to give a hand, the
vehicles are loaded to breaking point – the first time we apply the brakes,
we might get a whole clutter of stoves on our heads; but in India, you hoot
more than you brake, it should be all right.
We arrive at the grounds around Cuddalore Cathedral where one hundred people
or less are waiting for us, sitting in the shade in a plot where they can’t
be seen, so that the distribution should take place without the least disturbance.
The operation had been carefully prepared yesterday by ou two pilotfishes
who had identified a village of a hundred families or so, away from the
road and consequently not getting government handouts.
There is a name-roll, the procedure is precise, only one person per family
will come to the distribution point, on a plot a little removed from the
village. This morning, they preceded us to go and distribute numbered tokens.
We are slighly astonished that our friends insist so much for the distribution
to take place in quasi-military fashion. ; we shall understand why later.
The parish priest, who yesterday had given his consent to Maguey, kindly
comes to present himself; then he explains that those people have already
received what they should, that our action is premature, that it is a waste
of time and money to distribute directly equipment that they will probably
sell on later… (A wave of doubt assails our team at this moment), and that
we had better hand the money over to him directly, for him to handle the
aid himself. (All right ! we understand better, our spirits rise)
The villagers get up when they hear their name and they file along (yes,
an Indian file) to receive their package : two blankets, biscuits, bananas,
powdered milk, bread, palm oil, kitchen utensils and a parafin stove.
The operation is perfectly orchestrated, perhaps a bit slow, for other
villagers are coming, voices are raised, we are going to have a riot.
The hundred or so beneficiaries hurry away, our friends and the drivers
advise us to load quickly the tew pieces of equipment that are left while
they handle the crisis. No matter, our objective has been met.
It is important that the preparation should be effected by Tamil villagers
: they are aware of the reactions of the population and know exactly what
is to be done.
The budget of this first distribution : 500 rupees per package, that
is, less than 1 000 euros for about a hundred families.
Running expenses : nil. We used Nelly’s SUV; the bus was lent by the
Vijay Tours travel agency, we bought the supplies ourselves and the distribution
was carried out with a few friends.
Then we are going to visit the village. Obviously, some aid reaches the
end of the road, on the outskirts of the village, but the distributiion
is effected, indiscriminately, by the panchayat, at the edge of the village,
to a population that is more or less stricken.
As we advance, on foot, towards the coast, destructions are more and
more important. We arrive in a totally deserted area, where the government’s
mechanical shovels are finishing to clear up.There remain only small heaps
of wood, the remnants of some houses made of palm-leaves and filao.
The inhabitants have found a refuge in a grove 500 metres away from the
sea : they take shelter under plastic sheets that were distributed on the
very first days, sorts of makeshift tents under which there is absolutely
NOTHING.
The children are playing; a few adults come and meet us, a contact is
established.
Let us hope that this morning’s distribution will enable them to recreate
the first elements of a home.
Saturday 9/1/05
9 o’clock, we get the sanction : Tamitz, our accountant, presents
the Excel table of expenses for the boat :
9 805 rupees for manpower and the cost of the materials. It’s going to
be on a knife’s edge : neither the running costs nor the matrix are included
in this amount. But it is only a prototype, and it was made by the best-paid
workers.
A three-hour meeting with a fishermen’s committee to adjust the details
in view of tomorrow’s trial.
Quite astounding : although they are illiterate, they have understood everything.
What a waste to see so much acumen and intelligence restricted by lack of
education.
In the afternoon, Pugaliandi and his team correct the points that have
been raised, which do not call the general structure into question. We shall
be ready for tomorrow’s trial.
The team of volunteers is expanding : we have the agreement of the headmaster
of the French Lycée to make use of those who are willing among the
5th and 6th form pupils.
There will be a meeting on Monday with all the form delegates.
Christine had asked us what she can do to help; he presto – she is now
in charge of answering the e-mails.
Solange joins the emergency relief team. Bruno, her husband, takes charge
of the internet site.
At half past 5, meeting at their home, with Pierre. They have already
done superb work. I feel that my mind is not quite clear; stupidly, I sit
down. I feel that the time has come for me to go to bed.
My mind is at rest: the torch has been taken up.
Sunday 09/1/05
First trials of the boat. A bad start : they have brought a 65
kg engine instead of the 35 kg that had been specified. Two of them start
off. The riding across the rollers is impressive. They move far away, then
come back. There is surf over 60 metres on moving in to the beach. The boat
is practically dry, then a wave sweeps in and washes 100 litres inside. Difficult
to drag all this over the dry sand… The weight of the engine, plus 100 litres
of water, plus the boat. We pull, push, scraping over the sand.
First observation : a chafing block is needed under the keel to protect
the fiberglass and a rudimentary emptying valve at the stern. We discuss :
it is satisfactory, but some revision is necessary.
Second start, still more of a headlong flight. I suppose I pull a damn
long face !
In the offing, trials using oars. Then back, still over the surf. The beaching
is satisfactory this time. But there is no getting conclusions : 20 whites
on a beach where none is ever to be seen, it draws a lot of people along !
Meeting planned with the fishermen’s committee and Tiago tomorrow at 10.30
at the yard, for general debriefing.
Monday 10/1/05
Francis, a pal who has a hotel chain in India, comes to request
special help.
He is an engaging bloke, enamoured with India to the point of having taken
Indian nationality.
He has set up a hotel near Karikal, and asks how to have polyester boats
built to help the local fishermen. It is not possible locally : the workshops
are destroyed or overstretched
This confirms how difficult it is to reconstitute the fleet.
Since he crisscrossed India, he is going to see if it is possible to work
with the states that have not been affected by the tsunami. Moreover, he has
closelocal contacts in the Karikal area, and he is going to see if it is
possible to set up a production unit there.
Meeting with the “Boats” committee : Ramesh, Prithi, Maguey, Tiago, and
all the fishermen who did not participate in the trial of the prototype. Pierre,
who has three trips round the world under his belt,
gives knowledgeable advice. We go over everything point by point so as
to send the lot to Jean Marc and Hervé.
In the afternoon, one more specific request : Patrick, a colleague of
Martine’s, who also makes furniture, comes with a fisherman who has lost
everything.
I get Patrick; who was trained as a joiner but is also a marine carpenter,
in touch with Dimitri : they are going to try out the prototype once more,
and perhaps set up another production unit in the north of Pondy
This diary has now reached its end : there is no longer any point in this
link between us.
Over there, ordinary people, charities, businesses, local authorities
are taking action.
From now on the Internet site www.pondy-pecheurs.org
is on the Web.
I shall be able to return to the workshop.
All together now, we shall have to plough on. No matter if the furrow is
not perfectly straight, the main thing is that it should be deep.
Thanks everyone,
Lionel
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