BANGKOK, Dec 26 (TNA) – Public and private sectors held a tsunami remembrance ceremony to mark the third anniversary of the December 26 disaster that hit Thailand's six Andaman coastal provinces killing more than 5,000 persons three years ago today.

Phuket deputy governor Tri Akkaradecha presided at a ceremony marking the disaster and paid tribute to the victims of the giant tidal waves that hit the southern provinces on Boxing Day.

The ceremony was held at Loma Park of Patong Beach, Kratu district and families of the victims and tourists attended the rite.

At Mai Khao Cemetery in Thalang district, where unidentified bodies are being kept, religious ceremonies – Buddhist, Christian and Muslim -- were held.

Thailand's six Andaman coastal provinces -- Phang-nga, Krabi, Phuket, Ranong, Trang and Satun -- were hit by the unprecedented tsunami of Dec 26, 2004, with over 5,000 local residents as well as Thai and foreign holidaymakers losing their lives in the tidal waves.

During the evening, a "Light Up Phuket" activity will be held to let the victims relatives and general public to join the candle-lit ceremony to pay tribute to the dead and other victims.

Meanwhile, the ceremonies in Phang-nga were held in three locations in the morning: at the grounded police patrol vessel Tor 813 at Tambon Kikkak in Takua Pa district, in Ban Nam Khem Tsunami Memorial Park, and Bang Maruan Cemetery for the unidentified victims.

Wednesday evening, religious services will take place at Chong Fah Beach, Bang Niang in Takua Pa district and Princess Ubolratana Rajakanya will preside.

Prime Minister Gen. Surayud Chulanont and ambassadors accredited to Thailand were scheduled to join the ceremony.

An exhibition commemorating the life of Khun Poom Jensen, son of Princess Ubolratana, eldest daughter of King Bhumibol Adulyadej is also being held.

In addition to memorial services, Krabi and Phuket will present an exhibition to educate the public regarding the tsunami.

TNA

Survivor of the Tsunami Trisha Broadbridge held a fund raiser in Melbourne today

The Event

Centred on the number 3, to mark the third anniversary of the Boxing Day Tsunami, the event showcased 3 teams who raced up the Rialto building on Boxing Day, December 26 2007. The teams ran up the 55 floors in 33 minutes or less – that’s 36 seconds a floor all to raise funds for 2 tsunami projects

The Projects

IWDA’s project with Live and Learn Environmental Education – Rebuild women’s livelihoods in the Maldives after the Tsunami through an income generation project growing chillies

The Broadbridge Education Centre - Help to secure the future of the centre on Phi Phi Island by covering the teacher’s salary until 2010

For more info please visit the following website

http://www.iwda.org.au/

There is a special about the Tsunami on the 7 Network at 8.30pm AEST, ACST. The special is called, "Tsunami Wave of Disaster"

Tsunami aid spent on politics

THREE years after Australians donated $400 million to rebuild Asian lives devastated by the 2004 tsunami, aid groups are under attack for spending much of the money on social and political engineering.

A survey by The Australian of the contributions by non-government organisations to the relief effort found the donations had been spent on politically correct projects promoting left-wing Western values over traditional Asian culture.

The activities - listed as tsunami relief - include a "travelling Oxfam gender justice show" in Indonesia to change rural male attitudes towards women.

Another Oxfam project, reminiscent of the ACTU's Your Rights at Work campaign, instructs Thai workers in Australian-style industrial activism and encourages them to set up trade unions.

A World Vision tsunami relief project in the Indonesian province of Aceh includes a lobbying campaign to advance land reform to promote gender equity, as well as educating women in "democratic processes" and encouraging them to enter politics.

Also in Aceh, the Catholic aid group Caritas funds an Islamic learning centre to promote "the importance of the Koran".

This is seen as recognition of the importance of Islam in a province that has been the scene of a long-running and bloody independence struggle against the secular central Government.

The tsunami on December 26, 2004, created the most powerful earthquake in 40 years, killing about 230,000 people in 12 Indian Ocean nations, just under half of them in Aceh.

Critics say the aid agencies have exceeded the mandate provided to them by mum-and-dad donors from middle Australia who thought they were giving money to rebuild houses and lives shattered by the tsunami, rather than forcing the ideological views of the Australian left on traditional Asians.

One critic, Don D'Cruz, wrote at the outset of the relief operation that Indonesian claims of "foreign interference" through Australian NGOs were too often brushed aside.

Mr D'Cruz, then a research fellow with the right-wing think tank the Institute of Public Affairs, wrote "it would be a mistake to ignore the substance of these claims, especially when it comes to the activities of Western aid groups operating in Indonesia. The trend among aid organisations has been to become more involved in politics, although this activism has been largely masked."

Going beyond humanitarian and development aid, he wrote, risked alienating Asian governments, which could deny access.Looking through their websites, the aid groups ventured farbeyond standard aid and development.

The Oxfam website describes how $18,690 of its tsunami relief fund is being spent on a theatre production to "help change attitudes toward women in Acehnese society".

"In one scene, Apa Kaoy, who cannot cook, grumbles when his wife, exhausted from working in the rice field, has not prepared supper," Oxfam says of the play.

"In another, he disapproves of his daughter's ambition to study at university. Instead, holding a newspaper upside down because he cannot read, Apa Kaoy tells his daughter it is important that she learn to cook, clean, marry and have children.

"Eventually, though, his attitude towards women softens as other more enlightened men point out the error of his ways."

Oxfam Australia chief executive Andrew Hewett yesterday said his organisation initially concentrated on immediate humanitarian relief, including providing food, shelter and medicine to those affected by the tsunami.

It had since then turned to reconstruction, and rebuilding the ability of those affected to earn a living.

But Mr Hewett said Oxfam "did not shy away" from its concentration on those less well off and less empowered, including women, indigenous groups and the low caste, saying it was a practical issue of delivering aid for maximum effect.

"Women, like it or not, fare least well when it comes to resources and political power, including within a village community, and those who are disadvantaged often suffer most when disaster hits," he said.

News Limited

You can also see the Tsunami movie on the 9 network tonight at 8.30 pm