Natural disasters create natural attention deterrents. People watch the news in horror and the journalists try to make a name for themselves by sticking their neck out into the danger zones and running around among the demolished homes and standing in gusts of wind while reporting live. People are intrigued by watching the aftermath of disasters and sit in their living rooms in awe of the destruction, thanking whoever or whatever they want to thank for not being in that situation. If people like listening and watching such stories, the mass media gives it to them. But the true stories, the truly dangerous ones where reporters and journalists could get killed without anyone knowing about it, is behind the scenes.

When a government donates money to a disaster relief fund created by, in this case, Indonesian government the funds are directed to rebuilding. But not rebuilding of houses of the impoverished or infrastructure in rural areas. They are directed to rebuilding of American and European hotels and factories that sustain our thirst for consumption. The funds go into getting companies’ operations up and running as quickly as possible. A company is in big trouble if all of a sudden its supply of goods is interrupted. This needs to be quickly fixed and more than likely the company does not want to call in their insurance for fear of raised rates. Best way? Fix it yourself with others’ money.

And what better money is there than developed countries’ taxpayer money and aggregate donation funds? Nothing. The EU, US, and taxpayers of other countries each month donate a part of their pay check to such operations. That money is sweet, for that money is free and made out of thin air. If a corporate head needs to make a trip to Samoa urgently, then that executive cannot stay at a sub-par hotel. There needs to be running water (hot and cold), room service and a clean bedroom. It cannot be your average Best Western either. It has to be a luxurious hotel with pools, bars, clubs, spas, and all other “necessities” that a modern day executive may desire.

NGOs are one of the best ways to extract funds left over back into the company because there are always “leftovers”. NGOs, by definition have nothing to do with government or their operations in terms of funding. But the prize is large and their cut is not small by any stretch of the imagination. Non-Governmental Organizations have the perfect alibi to get out of scandals that may erupt. They can easily say that the funds are directed to helping the poor people get back to a normal way of life. Their lives are not the greatest as it is, and the meager sums of money directed towards keeping Samoans fed just enough so they don’t die is nothing to be proud of. There is more than enough money available to be able to improve the living conditions and build prospering communities, except disasters create room for more construction and big projects that the impoverished populace cannot pay for. The big corporations can and developers are right on the scene in Samoa as I type this to build bigger and better hotels and facilities.

A natural disaster in a state is just like a person getting sick. The body is frail and as such allows for different viruses and bacteria to easily make their way in and take advantage of the weakened immune system. It is embarrassing to acknowledge such abuse, but it will go unnoticed, as usual, for to get to it journalists need to dig deep and face true dangers (death threats, bribes, etc). Such operations can jeopardize the credibility of a lot of important people and this is not something that a lot of other important people want to happen, at all costs.