At a vigil in remembrance of the victims of the tsunami that struck Southeast Asia Dec. 26, 2004, an ordinary folding table covered with a plain white table cloth and laden with unlit candles, flowers, and a map of the Indian Ocean took center stage at Gifford Auditorium Jan. 21.

The vigil was both a memorial service for victims of the tsunami and a fundraising initiative for the American Red Cross through the Syracuse University Tsunami Disaster Relief Fund.

So far $54,097 has been donated to the fund, $2,044 of which was donated the day of the vigil, said Anuradha Mundkur, an international student from India and a graduate student at the School of Information Studies.

‘We students of SU hope to help in meeting this challenge by focusing our future efforts to supporting charities that work with children in these affected areas,’ Mundkur said.

Chancellor Nancy Cantor, international students and representatives of both Buddhism and Islam spoke at the vigil. Almost all of the speakers included a theme of global unity throughout their speeches.

‘Today in the snow and cold and the quiet, half a world away from those warm and terrible waters, we must remind ourselves that everything global is also local and we must hold onto our awareness of the world and sustain our solidarity with those who suffer and need our help,’ Cantor said.

Raed Sharif, an international student from Palestine and a graduate student in information science, incorporated his own message of unity in his speech.

‘All religious, ethnic, political, social and economic differences are set aside and the world is united to aid the victims of natural disaster,’ Sharif said.

Hours before the vigil was scheduled to take place it was moved from the steps of Hendricks Chapel to Gifford Auditorium due to cold temperatures. Around 150 people attended the vigil, said vigil organizer Cavinda Caldera, an international student from Sri Lanka and a graduate student at the School of Information Studies.

‘It was nice to get everybody here that cares about it,’ said Samantha Young, a freshman majoring in art photography at the College of Visual and Performing Arts. ‘I just wish there were more people here. It’s sad on a campus so big that we can’t even fill an auditorium full of people.’

Among those in attendance there were a number of department administrators and faculty members from across campus as well as some families from the community, said Patricia Burak, director of the international students office.

‘Being as cold a day as it is today and after changing the venue, the people who came along – I’m really impressed with the turnout,’ Caldera said. ‘It would have been nice if we were able to have candles and we were outdoors.’

During the religious portion of the vigil, Dr. Robert Strickland and Barbara Rauscher of the Zen Center of Syracuse led the auditorium in a chant and offered a Buddhist reflection on the tsunami.

‘Today we celebrate a sad day in the human family. But the very fact that we can gather for a sad day in our family is, in itself, a happy day, because we then recognize our connectedness,’ Strickland said. ‘That is always a happy day regardless of the particular occasion.’

The Muslim chaplain that was intended to speak at the vigil, Dr. Ahmed Nezar Kobeisy, canceled, so El-Java Abdul-Qadir, education director of the Muslim Student Association, and members of the Muslim Student Association spoke instead.

The vigil also included the speeches of international students from Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Palestine and Russia.

Hadi Lazuardi, an international student from Indonesia and a graduate student at the School of Information Studies, talked about the loss of Indonesian culture due to the tsunami.

‘It is painful to realize that the world is beginning to discover Indonesia in such a way as a result of the devastating horror of the tsunami when many of the traditions and places to discover have been destroyed,’ Lazuardi said.

Lazuardi spoke specifically of the Aceh province of Indonesia, the most heavily afflicted region of the country. Aceh once fought for independence from the Indonesian government, so, as a result of their opposition, there was little infrastructure even before the tsunami, Lazuardi said.

‘It is unsettling to know that people who already lived with little or no comfort in Aceh were brought more suffering,’ Lazuardi said. ‘The area needed help with or without the tsunami.’

Jasmine Obeyesekere, an international student from Sri Lanka and a graduate student in Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, shared a story of a little girl she knew that was orphaned by the tsunami.

‘When you pray, please remember the little girl who has lost her family,’ Obeyesekere said.

Caldera now plans to work with SU students and faculty members to look at the event and figure out how to prepare for future tragedies, he said.

‘It’s a university-wide effort to make a positive contribution from this incident,’ Caldera said. ‘This is just the starting point.’

Published on January 23, 2005 at 12:00 pm