Sakura
Published Saturday, May 13, 2006 by Rakesh.
This is a wallpaper from the anime series Cardcaptor Sakura
Test Post
Published Sunday, March 19, 2006 by Rakesh.
This is to test whether or not the performancing extension for firefox is working or not he he he
A Course in Disaster Management
Published Saturday, July 30, 2005 by Rakesh.
Picture New York's firemen racing into the World Trade Center's collapsing towers. Picture the rescue workers racing away with the wounded from London's bomb blast sites. Picture the immobility in Mumbai — of the city, its people and those entrusted with their safety. On Terrible Tuesday, the multi-crore disaster management plan was the city's best kept secret. The one for the state was nothing short of a for-your-eyes-only document.
No wonder then that beleaguered Mumbaikars — left without food, transport, communication, and hope — could hardly hide their disgust when told that there was not one, but two contingency plans drawn up in the 1990s. All the bureaucratic huddles and global junkets to this end weren't worth an upturned umbrella to the huddled masses bravely making their own way through waterlogged streets, or staring helplessly as their homes were washed away.
Officials did what they always do: look sombre, throw up their hands, and say, "The crisis was of an unprecedented and unimaginable scale." But, that Sirs, is exactly what disasters are expected to be.
If anyone, India should be seized of the imperative of disaster management. Calamity has become endemic to our existence. To the age-old pestilences of earthquake, epidemic and flood, have been added hi-tech terrorist attacks. Yet our sophisticated ‘disaster management' is really not that much more of a jump up from the primitive ‘relief' of trucks carrying donated grains and garments.
If grandiose emergency procedures exist in the Byzantine maze of babudom, their 'lab-to-land' transfer has not been in evidence in Bhuj or Mumbai, Delhi or the multiple venues of train accidents. If our response during the tsunami was held up as exemplary in Nagapattinam, it was because the wave hit a contained area; no one was handing us any medals in the Andaman and Nicobar islands.
Going by the record, the disaster management portfolio should be handed entirely to the private sector, for the heart-warming stories invariably come out of NGOs or unknown, unsung individuals conducting rescue and recovery with amazing courage and tenacity. Them, and the Army which has performed a role befitting the line about peace having its "victories no less renowned than war".
'Crash course' may not be a happy term in the circumstances, but that's what's needed at this moment into the basic principles of any DMP. It's not just size, but speed that's important, as dinosaurs and corporates have learnt to their cost. There has to be a consistency in not only the 'how', but even the 'when'. Standards and task forces must constantly be evaluated to deal with evolving and emerging disasters (diseases like bird flu included).
The approach has to be multisectoral, multidisciplinary and multiorganisational. It has to be simultaneous. It has to be collaborative between public agencies and NGOs and professional bodies attuned to innovative strategies and micro-finance. The drill has to be assessment, information and rescue.
Resources have to be swiftly matched with needs. The whole process has to be dynamic and continuous. Further deterioration must be prevented; Canute-like we cannot hold back the tide, but alert action can minimize impact. Disease control must come into play swiftly. And after it's over, a serious look at the lessons learnt, and an improvement in contingency planning for future disaster. Which can, and will, be worse.
Most most important is the ICE Age mantra: Information, Communication, Education. What hit Mumbaikars hardest was not the power shutdown, it was being left completely in the dark.
Source: Times of India
No wonder then that beleaguered Mumbaikars — left without food, transport, communication, and hope — could hardly hide their disgust when told that there was not one, but two contingency plans drawn up in the 1990s. All the bureaucratic huddles and global junkets to this end weren't worth an upturned umbrella to the huddled masses bravely making their own way through waterlogged streets, or staring helplessly as their homes were washed away.
Officials did what they always do: look sombre, throw up their hands, and say, "The crisis was of an unprecedented and unimaginable scale." But, that Sirs, is exactly what disasters are expected to be.
If anyone, India should be seized of the imperative of disaster management. Calamity has become endemic to our existence. To the age-old pestilences of earthquake, epidemic and flood, have been added hi-tech terrorist attacks. Yet our sophisticated ‘disaster management' is really not that much more of a jump up from the primitive ‘relief' of trucks carrying donated grains and garments.
If grandiose emergency procedures exist in the Byzantine maze of babudom, their 'lab-to-land' transfer has not been in evidence in Bhuj or Mumbai, Delhi or the multiple venues of train accidents. If our response during the tsunami was held up as exemplary in Nagapattinam, it was because the wave hit a contained area; no one was handing us any medals in the Andaman and Nicobar islands.
Going by the record, the disaster management portfolio should be handed entirely to the private sector, for the heart-warming stories invariably come out of NGOs or unknown, unsung individuals conducting rescue and recovery with amazing courage and tenacity. Them, and the Army which has performed a role befitting the line about peace having its "victories no less renowned than war".
'Crash course' may not be a happy term in the circumstances, but that's what's needed at this moment into the basic principles of any DMP. It's not just size, but speed that's important, as dinosaurs and corporates have learnt to their cost. There has to be a consistency in not only the 'how', but even the 'when'. Standards and task forces must constantly be evaluated to deal with evolving and emerging disasters (diseases like bird flu included).
The approach has to be multisectoral, multidisciplinary and multiorganisational. It has to be simultaneous. It has to be collaborative between public agencies and NGOs and professional bodies attuned to innovative strategies and micro-finance. The drill has to be assessment, information and rescue.
Resources have to be swiftly matched with needs. The whole process has to be dynamic and continuous. Further deterioration must be prevented; Canute-like we cannot hold back the tide, but alert action can minimize impact. Disease control must come into play swiftly. And after it's over, a serious look at the lessons learnt, and an improvement in contingency planning for future disaster. Which can, and will, be worse.
Most most important is the ICE Age mantra: Information, Communication, Education. What hit Mumbaikars hardest was not the power shutdown, it was being left completely in the dark.
Source: Times of India
First Post
Published by Rakesh.
Well this another one of my funny blog. This is purely meant for reading. Most of the articles will be collected from newspapers or magazines. I hope i get a decent amount of readers.
About me
- I'm Rakesh
- From Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
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