Earthquake jolts Pakistan – The depth serves as a savior

An earthquake measuring 7.2 at the Richter scale jolted south-western Pakistan, in a desert area bordering Iran and Afghanistan last night at around 1:23 AM. The quake had its epicenter some 55 km (34 miles) west of Dalbandin in the Balochistan province, at a depth of 84km (52 miles). In an initial report the depth of the epicenter was calculated as 10 kilometers, but later corrected to 84 kilometres. God forbids if the depth was as shallow as 10 km, this could have been another major disaster for Pakistan, which is still recovering from the after effects of the deadly flash floods that swept away million of houses last year in July.

It may be recalled that an earlier in October 2005, an earthquake of 7.6-magnitude hit northern areas of Pakistan which left some 73,000 people dead and a large number incapacitated/injured, beside causing major destruction and damage to communication infrastructure, buildings and roads.

Besides across all over Pakistan, the quake was also felt as far away as Delhi, India, and the Gulf emirates of Dubai and Qatar. In Pakistan, the ttremors lasted for some 20. People in the remote area of Balochistan resorted to aerial firing to wake up people asleep at almost midnight.

No major damage has been reported so far. However a friend of mine in Karachi who lives in a high rise apartment told me on telephone that he felt as if the entire building was swaying when the quake occurred.

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Total lunar eclipse just before Christmas

The night 20-21 December 2010 is witnessing a total lunar eclipse in some parts of the world just before the Christmas. The moon will pass through the darkest part of the Earth's shadow, and for the first time in 372 years, the spectacle will take place during the winter solstice. It will be visible after midnight Eastern Standard Time on December 21 in North and South America. The beginning of the total eclipse can be seen from northern Europe just before sunrise. The moon will be located nearly overhead during the peak of the eclipse for North American observers.The end of the total eclipse will be visible rising at sunset for Japan and northeastern Asia. A partial eclipse will also be visible in the Philippines just after sunset.

However, unlike the total solar eclipse when the sun becomes a complete black disc, the moon doesn't become completely dark. Light from the sun filters and bends through the Earth's atmosphere and can shine on the moon. Since there are many bodies that refract the sun light, like the clouds and the dust, the moon glows a coppery-red during a lunar eclipse. How much the moon glows thus depends on the amount of clouds and dust in the atmosphere.

Earlier this year, right on the first day of the year 2010, we had a partial lunar eclipse, followed by partial solar eclipse on 15th January. And that time, in a post I wrote, “And having lunar eclipse right minutes after the New Year eve shudders me. May be it is a Divine warning or an indicator of something. I hope and pray it to be a positive indicator – an indicator of good days ahead, God willing for every one of us, who have seen some very bad days in 2009. We really need peace and love for we have had enough of bad days.” Well these two eclipses were an indicator of a natural calamity that was to occur some six months later when flash floods devastated Pakistan, affecting some 20 million people.

Now this lunar eclipse just before the year ends and days before Christmas once again makes me sit in fear as these natural obscures aren’t without any meaning. Rather these are indicators of something good or bad. I pray, like I did at the beginning of the year, for the wellbeing of everyone of us around the globe. May Allah be our protector. Ameen.

Related Reading: The Lunar Eclipse – And the year 2010 (JahoJalal)

PS: Fianlly the eclipse appeared starting at 7:41 GMT. Despite being in shadow, the moon did not become invisible as there was still residual light deflected by atmosphere. Most of the refracted light was in the red spectrum and thus made the moon turn reddish, coppery or orange, sometimes even brownish. Since it was a full moon, the sight of it being changing colours was awesome, dazzling and a memorable event for the skygazers. The Icelanders were lucky to see the full glowing moon in its varying shades during the eclipse.

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Our leaders need to learn from the Venezuelan President

Recently, Venezuela was hit by torrential rains and devastating floods that rendered over 100,000 people homeless and killing some 30. Moved by the miseries of his people, the Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has ordered to erect a Bedouin tent for him, gifted to him by the Libyan president Gaddafi. In the gardens of his presidential palace, while allowing the homeless to move into the presidential palace till arrangements are made for the their shelter. As per a news report, already 25 families have been shifted into the presidential palace. He has even asked his staff to put beds in his office to make more space.

Now compare the devastation by flood in Venezuela and Pakistan. In our case the flash floods affected some 20 million across the entire length and breadth of the country. The homeless still shiver in the cold weather under the sky in tents, which cannot stop the chilly winds from penetrating inside and making the life of the homeless miserable and pathetic. Has their plight has any effect on our leaders? Did anyone made the gesture of vacating his official residence for the flood hit people? Except for few photo sessions during the flood days, the people of the water seem to have been totally forgotten. The showy motorcycle appearances and sitting on ground with the poor in creaseless and well pressed clothes have long been gone. The palatial living by the kings and ministers continues with no disregard at all for the people suffering for want of food, warm clothing and shelter.

A few days back I wrote “Have we forgotten the flood victims?” and aired my feelings. But the recent news and humanitarian gesture shown by the Venezuelan President makes me appeal yet again to all and sundry not to forget the flood victims and continue to help them as long as they don’t get back to their homes. But it seems they would never find any home for them unless they beg or borrow to make a shelter for them.

The world still remembers Haiti flood victims, but no one seems to be caring for Pakistani flood victims as they feel that since their own government and people have abandoned them, why should they extend a helping hand. The credibility issue of the government made many not to open their coffers for the fears of its getting squandered and embezzled. In the end, the people and victims of the worst floods in the history of Pakistan are suffering. I wish Hugo Chavez was our president.

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Have we forgotten the flood victims?

Well the plain and painful answer is a big YES. When the floods came, the whole nation got united as we did in 2005 earthquake. A large scale relief effort was undertaken in every street and corner of the country. Truckloads were dispatched by ordinary people and NGOs while the government sat and watched. Had it not been for the massive relief operation undertaken by the army, the death toll would have been colossal.

After establishing the camps and sheltering them temporarily, everyone started to step back. Even the media that had raced to reach the flood hit areas before the other channel, has also new stories to make. Slowly and gradually the sympathies and concern for those poor 20 million people has subsided. Now everyone is worried about Wikileaks rather than those wretched people facing the severe winter cold right out there in the open, HELPLESSLY.

Although the NGOs and people of the country contributed more than the government and the governments, they can and should do more now when people are battling the general winter (as from Napoleonic age). The media also needs to play its part more effectively and bring to forth the sufferings of the people in the open rather than forgetting about the issue as we have forgotten the earthquake victims.

On the internet, we still find appeals for the donation of Haiti flood victims as they have not been forgotten. But we definitely seem to have forgotten these people. And perhaps we have also forgotten that of the 20 million affectees, six million are children. They need our help more than the elders.

Unfortunately due to the credibility issue of the present government, a general awareness in the donor countries could not be created about the sufferings and plight of the people. That is why except for initial immediately needed relief and help, the world too has forgotten these people. Nor the government, nor the media followed the donors and those who could help. The news channels after securing points on other channels by running EXCLUSIVE sliders, have found new stories to take advantage from.

I remember that during the times when Afghan refugees were here in Pakistan, although they are still here in numbers, the Saudi government sent plane loads of meat sacrificed at the Hajj for the Afghan refugees. This time there was no such gesture. The mood of the Saudi government after the release of Wikileaks could be the obvious reason.

It seems we have failed in our cause and pledge to help these poor people. We need to reinvigorate our efforts to help them as long as they are in tents and open. Instead of making model villages which will cost lot of money, we simply need to make houses for them rather than wasting money of building community centres and other facilities as money spent on these can be used for making more houses, which is the priority one. WE NEED TO DO MUCH MORE than mere slogans and hollow reassurances. Let us just help them.

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Floods 2010 in retrospect

Although it is too early to review the recent flash floods that devastated the entire length of Pakistan astride River Indus, let me do it lest we forget that horrific calamity. We were caught off guard courtesy the Metrological Department which other than predicting heavy rains, failed to “analyze” the impact of those unprecedented rains and raise alarm as if hell was to let lose – which in fact finally did.

OK, I take their naivety for the reason that in their entire career, none of the officials would have ever encountered such heavy rains, so the rested well after issuing the onset of heavy rains like any routine news and information on various TV channels. Next comes our Disaster Management Authority, which was specially created after the 2005 Earthquake to deal with natural calamities and disasters of very high magnitude. The NDMA was all high and dry to deal with the situation. It the Chairman of NDMA awhile to confess on state TV that NDMA was only a monitoring authority and did not have any wherewithal to deal with any kind of calamity or disaster physically. It could at best monitor the scale of disaster after gathering reports from other agencies.

Both Met Department and NDMA absolved them of any discredit and “came out clean” of any blame game. As for the provincial governments, to start with the Khyber Pakhtunkwa (KPK), they were caught off guard and were baffled with the magnitude of the calamity as they did when earthquake hit the northern areas of Pakistan and KPK just five years ago. There were no tents, packed food, clothes, rations and other essentials for immediate dispatch to the flood hot areas.

So who could do it? Who to turn to when such calamities hit us? Army, who else!! So everyone sat back and let the army handle the rescue and relief operation. The entire local government machinery, government departments seemed paralyzed, rather perplexed. The so called public representatives of both national and provincial assemblies found refuge in their comfortable abodes, and even days after the muddy onslaught, hardly a few out of hundreds ever surfaced to come forward and render a helping hand. Those who did vanished after photo sessions or made headlines while riding on motorbikes.

After Army, it was the people of Pakistan, poor, rich and the philanthropists who gave and collected donations from their communities and sent whatever they could to the flood hit areas. But for the first few days, there was no organized body or government agency, other than the Army, to receive the relief goods and distribute among the devastated people.

The media did a good job in reporting the flood devastations, but every channel was trying to win the race by flashing slides “First reported by …..” Like elected representatives they also made their coverage a photo sessions. The lady reporters wore make up and gaudy attire when people around were in a mess and in muddy clothes. Instead of focusing on the relief efforts, they would people who would lament for not being helped at all, thus trying to white wash the efforts of those who were doing their best to embattle the monstrous floods ever.

For as long as the water did not reach the Arabian Sea, our TV channels were full of reports and footages of distressed people. But as water moved forward, so did the media, leaving the people of the previous areas to their fate and were forgotten. Now that the rivers have dried up of the muddy flood waters, so has the media dried up of any news about What Now??

It is sad to see that we do not have any follow up journalism in our country. Our media has found new news to report, the fuel price hike, the disappearance of sugar, discussions of fate of present government, considering of options and what not. Suddenly those 20 million people have been forgotten and left to themselves to live a new life from scratch. All claims of building houses and model villages have become echoes of the past. Except for issuance of Watan Cards, there is no news about the plight of the flood hit people and their rehabilitation. There are now reports that even the Watan Card holders have started to sell their cards (I do not who is buying these and why) to get some relief.

Any word from the government and the political parties? Not a word. No one talks of floods anymore. The government for obvious reasons of hiding its failure to address the issue, and political parties – they have other issues on their agenda. One party is Musharaff specific and is dying to put him on gallows, as if that is the only thing they should be concerned about. Others are too busy in finding additional benefits from the government or elsewhere. It is only those 20 million who remember the floods, it seems, as they suffered and continue to suffer God knows for how long.

I urge all and sundry to keep the tragedy alive and let us not forget those who suffered and lost their lifetime fortunes and possessions. Let us keep following their rehabilitation process through active monitoring and point out loopholes and weakness in the efforts by the federal and provincial governments so that corrective measures could be taken.

Let us just not forget those 20 million, please.

Related Reading:

Lamenting Scars of the Soul – A Rejoinder

Even if your waves touch my feet a million times..

Crisis Mismanagement

Chaos when disaster strikes

Deadly Monsoon in Pakistan

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Sanjh – Helping the flood victims in its own way

The recent floods have moved every heart in Pakistan and all over the world. While the philanthropists came forwards with everything they could afford, the ordinary people gave away their small but precious savings and the Army took over one of the biggest relief operations of its kind in recent times. The world community also came forwards to render a helping hand. Even individuals from China, Turkey, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and many other countries came forwards donating generously to help the helpless. We as a nation are grateful to every heart that was moved by the sufferings of the devastated people.

Like everyone, the artists of Pakistan also came forward to share the grief of their brethren in distress. “Sanjh” is one such collective effort of artists with a caring heart who got together to raise funds for the flood victims through an innovative way. The initiative by Zahraa Assad Saifullah and Zahra Mirza of RetroArts in collaboration with Foaad Nizam of Danka, and Visual Artists, Imran, Sajjad and Usman have compiled a set of dozens of postcards carrying photos of paintings of volunteer artist. The funds so generated by the sale of these postcards will be used to help the needy at this time of their need.

The effort has been supplemented by the University of Gujrat which rendered every possible assistance in printing the post cards by allowing the use of their state of art printing facilities.

As for me, I am thankful to my friend Shirazi who introduced me to Mr Yaqoob of University of Gujrat, who has very graciously sent me this beautiful collection of post cards. At the same time I commend the efforts of Sanjh for helping the flood victims in its own way.

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Disaster (mis)Management

Now that the flood water has washed away half of Pakistan’s central belt and has reached the southern provinces of Sind and Balochistan, the devastation left behind is enormous. The flood affectees are having the worst time of their lives, with all their belongings and most of the livestock washed away by the flash floods, leaving behind nothing but some remnants of their houses. They are finding it extremely difficult even to sustain themselves on daily basis. There is shortage of food, tents and medicines. The water borne diseases are wide spread and already a number of children and women have died of gastro and related diseases.

Despite the concern and efforts by everyone, less by the government and more by the NGOs and philanthropists, there are still a sizeable number of flood victims devoid of any worthwhile relief or aid meant for them. There seems to be widespread chaos and confusion for distribution of the relief goods. Although a large number of relief goods are collected by many leading NGOs and sent to the flood affected areas on daily basis, these are not reaching the people. The only controlled effort seems to be undertaken by the Army, supported by the other two sister services. The army did a commendable job to evacuate the marooned and the stranded to safer places. But after that, there has been a general lack of supervision and management by the local officials and government departments.

The reason is mismanagement – rather utter mismanagement. There is no central body to channel the aid and relief goods. The NGOs and others are sending truck loads to places they deem worthy of help. So the end result is that commodity A goes to a place where commodity B should have gone, and commodity C goes to a place which is already in abundance of the same goods.

At times like this, there must be somebody who should immediately asses the damage and requirement of relief good and aid, and it is through this body that all aid and relief effort flow outward rather than everyone taking the relief operation on its own. And for this very reason, people are seen lamenting when interviewed by the TV channels that they have got nothing so far. Although in such times, every victim wants more and more, but at least what is bare minimum should reach everyone.

But no such arrangements are in sight so far even after three weeks of floods and rains. If such in-attitude on the part of the government functionaries continues, I am afraid the woes of the victims are going to increase and even their move back to nowhere would make matters worse with no materials at hand to rebuild, rather construct their houses from the scratch.

After the earthquake of 2005, an authority by the name of National Disaster Management Authority was (NDMA) created to manage the disasters. But despite an elapse of many years, the NDMA today at best can “Monitor” the disaster and has no muscles to “Manage” the disasters. During earthquake, specialist teams from foreign countries were called to detect people still buried under the rubble as they had the sophisticated sensing equipment, well trained dogs and personnel specially trained for such disasters. With the creation of the authority, it was hoped that now specialist teams at home with requisite equipment will be trained and be readily available in times of disasters. But as of today, there exists no such facility or setup that has such specialist people available. When the Marriot Hotel in Islamabad and Gakkhar Plaza in Rawalpindi were on fire, the buildings almost burnt to ashes but we did not have any specialized force or teams which could rescue people inside the trapped buildings. We did not have sufficient snorkels with the Rescue 1122 or any other agency to extinguish fire from elevated platforms. It was an apology to see water with hardly any pressure being sprinkled from the ground, which hardly reached the first floors. And when the Air Blue aircraft crashed, the volunteers did not have equipment o fight back the fire and they were seen removing the debris still on fire with bare hands or wood sticks. In fact for such eventualities, teams equipped with fire extinguishers should have been dispatched first so as to extinguish fire as fire tenders cannot reach such inaccessible areas.

In a recent interview on one of the TV channels, the Chairman NDMA very candidly confessed the inability of NDMA to control of the situation as it does not “battalions” to move physically into the disaster hit areas. So that means, as of today, we do not have any well trained and equipped body to take charge and control of the disaster hit areas. NDMA on its part can at best be called national Disaster “Monitoring” Authority for it can only provide figures and base assessments.

And that is the reason that despite collecting thousands of truck loads by NGOs and other organizations, the aid fails to reach everyone. Since the NGOs and other donor agencies are at loss to where to send their relief goods and how. So whatever suits their individual NGO/Organization’s assessment of the disaster or damages, they divert their effort there. And in some cases due to mismanagement and lack of security, the victims have reportedly looted the relief goods meant to areas ahead of their locations. The piecemeal effort also resulted in taking credit by the NGOs / Organizations for “being the first” to reach an area. Even the private TV channels were trying to race ahead of others and flashing slides that they were the first to air such and such report or incident.

If there existed a well managed and organized body, it should have had at least tents and other essential items already stored at various places and had sent these to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa immediately. Then as the flood travelled downstream, they would have had time to collect more aid and relief goods to systematically place these on ground for people to move in. Even such an organization should have already issued list of items to be packed in small cartons for immediate use and bigger cartons for subsequent use to all NGOs donor organizations in normal disaster free times. This would have helped the NGOs/Organizations to pack the items as already chartered and sent to preselected places, where these should have been taken over by Army for further dispatch to areas under their jurisdiction.

There is a need to formulate a rehabilitation strategy as any time wasted would mean dissipation of the aid and the relief goods. And in the end no one will get even bare minimum to start afresh. At the same time, the role and charter of NDMA be rehashed and it should be made a potent organization which could take control effectively in such eventualities. And it should be only NDMA or any such organization that emerges out of detailed analyses of the present situation which should have its own control room to monitor, manage and issue press statements rather than individual organizations.

I pray to the Nature to spare us and forgive us and such disaster may not befall on us again as we are ill equipped and ill prepared for such disasters. Spare us for we do not learn from our past experiences and constitutes authorities, organizations and bodies rich at top and in perks and privileges with hardly any capability to control, manage and monitor. In the meantime, our people will brave out the hard times and endure the hardships as they have always done and make some shelter for their families to live on. No thanks to the government.

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