The Islanders and the Scientists: Post-tsunami Aid in the Nicobars
This sustainable development case focuses on the unintended consequences of disaster and development aid on indigenous societies, and raises for discussion whether a better model exists. In December 2004, a killer tsunami swept across the Indian Ocean, devastating among others the Nicobar Islands, a remote outpost of India. The indigenous Nicobarese had a coconut-based economy; the tsunami not only killed 25 percent of the islanders but felled the trees on which they depended. Aid—from food and water to cellphones, motorcycles, TVs and candy—poured in to the islands. To his dismay, longtime Nicobars anthropologist Simron Singh soon perceived that the islanders were losing initiative and self-reliance.
Case number:
CCC-14-0005.0
Category:
Sustainable Development Cases
Topics:
sustainable development, nonprofit management, scientific ethics, international aid
Teaching resources:
Epilogue,
Teaching note