Divorce: The Tsunami’s Ripple Effect
Three years ago, Indonesia was hit by a devastating tsunami. Since then, a strange ripple effect has continued to work its way through the country as more women than men have begun filing for divorce.
Three-to-one, as a matter of fact, and both divorce lawyers and jurists alike are hard-pressed to explain it. One clerk attributes it to the number of quickie marriages that occurred in the tsunami’s wake.
“After the tsunami we had many newcomers in Aceh. Some married local women but then decided to return to their places of origin and a divorce is needed,” she said.
“Also, some couples tried to get their spouses to their hometown, but there were also problems there and so they had to end their marriage.”
Other reasons cited in the increased filings include men failing to support their families following the tragedy and, of course, polygamy. Oddly enough, though, the women filing for divorce come from all walks of life, from highly educated to the illiterate poor.
All of which makes me wonder if the post-tsunami divorce rates aren’t an Indonesian version of the advertising campaign thought up by a group of female divorce lawyers in Chicago which sparked outrage with their billboard ad reading “Life is short. Get a divorce.”
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As always, I’m very impressed with your ability to make a very readable, interesting story out of what just might be a paid post.
The reasons given for the tsunami-divorce connections are very sad. Dislocated people trying to start over, then having to start over. Seems like it should be easier to move and mover your new spouse than to get a divorce. I guess I just don’t understand the geographic or political borders in that area of the world. We have a friend who can’t get his wife here (to the US) from another country so he has to visit her there.
Wonder why more women than men are filing?
Thanks, Anne. I see no reason why such a post shouldn’t still serve to inform and/or entertain.
I have to plead cultural ignorance when it comes to Indonesia, but I imagine that the reasons cited by that clerk certainly come into play. Being separated from one’s spouse and unable to rejoin them, needing to move on with one’s life or finding out that one’s spouse already has done so would all probably lead to divorce.
There was quite the brew-ha-ha (or is that brewhaha ??) over the divorce lawyers sign in the City of Big Shoulders. And I love the comment under the linked photo above, by the attorney(s) who take offense to said sign.
With the ease in which one can file for divorce these days, isn’t that kind of a moot point?
As for the divorce rate/ratio in Indonesia, the clerks reasoning seems as sound as any.
Does seem like a moot point. Besides, isn’t that the mindset of most people who file for it?
If I ran a church, I’d have pulled out all the stops to put a billboard next to that one which read: “Eternity is forever. Why be damned?”
Now that’s a thought. Or perhaps something in the style of one of those billboards which were popping up here and there a few years back … add “Signed (or better yet) Love,
God”
The live for the moment crowed would go ape seeing that *grin*.
The pastor of the church just across the street from my neighborhood always puts up the wittiest signs. A while back it read:
“Sonscreen prevents burning.”
It took me three or four trips past the sign, reading it and scratching my head each time, before I got it. Then I chuckled so hard I nearly crashed my car.