Feeling Quite Pessimistic Currently


(Pictures: One of the saddest pictures I have seen recently)

It pains to follow the news about floods in Bihar and compare it with the relief operations that are underway for Hurricane Gustav. Disaster relief in India is unbelievably pathetic. After a recent train accident that affected me personally, I have become super sensitive to disasters and feel miserable about how unprepared we always are to handle calamities as a country.

First, we don't have good infrastructure in place to predict natural calamities (no matter how much the government says that we have sophisticated systems in place, I have not seen any major miracle until now). Could we have predicted the floods in Bihar? I somehow cannot accept an absolute no for an answer. The evacuation efforts are chaotic and not timely. Once a small part of the population is evacuated, the rest proceed to loot the houses of those who fled or went to the relief camps. For people in the relief camps, problems just start. While the danger of an epidemic breaking out looms large, there are food riots that broke out in the camps! How much more worse can things get?

I blame it all on our political system and the incompetent leaders it breeds who most of the times don't have either the intelligence or interest to think for the country. There are people dying for God's sake!