End Games

“End Games” is the fifth and penultimate book in the epic six-volume series “Tsunami Chronicles”. It reveals the politics of exhaustion that gripped the closing stages of Indonesia’s recovery from the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami as Aceh’s emergency reconstruction program raced relentlessly toward its four-year end. It is a story of immense political frustration and conflict where the urgency of emergency response and recovery collided with the intransigence of bureaucrats in distant places who believed they knew better but lacked the leadership to match the urgent pace required. This is the reality of emergency response, recovery and reconstruction where self-interest and self-importance rise from the shadows to reveal themselves in all their silliness. A story of ethical compromise and inadequate management the World Bank fought to suppress but the European Commission supported, it’s relevance lives on as further natural disasters, global warming and climate change ensure that disaster risk management remains high on the international agenda for the UN and humanitarian organisations like the Red Cross.