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Thursday, March 31, 2016

calamity, crisis, post mortem of calamities, blame games, Chennai floods

Chennai floods- Here is an account of observed wounds and ointments to heal.

A to Z of Post mortem of calamities in India, they have a predictable pattern while all calamities go unpredicted.

Why not a PPP model for all infrastructure maintenance and monitoring beyond roads and railways?

Almanacs claimed ‘we said so’ invariably after everything got damaged;
Blame game began by all towards all;
Cheap publicity seeking stunts, mostly verbal, in front of media cameras by some;
Dodging on relevant questions by many;
Enthusiastic exaggerators were everywhere;
Fueling panic was a pass time for some;
Government departments geared to selectively inform/help;
Help however came for various aspects from all- government, individuals, organizations etc;
Information sharing on social media was helpful, of course, with some instances of mischief even amid calamity which was projected too disproportionately by the jealous main stream media;
Judge all journalists with hidden agenda showed and shut selectively according to their pay masters;
Kind souls kept everyone’s spirits in good shape;
Lasting solutions were lost forever for various reasons, as usual;
Media sensationalism diverted attention and ensured no one learnt any lesson from the tragic experience.
Nonchalant flow of suggestions inundated mostly from media anchor rooms from thier all knowing advisers;
Obvious facts were buried;
Political mudslinging popped out, district wise, in the city pin code wise;
Questions of life’s feebleness against natural calamities and accidents were quietly acknowledged;
Relief, rehabilitation, repairs were undoubtedly prioritized and performed by many;
Slowly surely all resigned to inevitable, demanding and justifiable routines of living;
Trauma of tragedy tormented all souls;
Untold stories of suffering surfaced slowly from the debris and devastations of the deluge;
Very soon all consigned the contributory factors to indifference and proceeded towards acquiring amnesia till next calamity;
We cannot go on like this for any reason and we all must own up responsibility;
X-ray we must, into all aspects and initiate all possible corrective actions to avoid recurrence of avoidable damages;
Yes, we all need to bequeath a livable planet with necessary and proper infrastructure;
Zero in on multiple possibilities, participants, and technologies to improve because everyone is a loser in any natural calamity.


Besides all the invaluable devastation, suffering, loss of lives etc, in terms of monetarily evaluable damages were too heavy for the  various government departments, real estate operators, insurance companies, corporate houses etc.

So, why not think of a PPP model where in all of the above mentioned institutions can engage in maintenance and monitoring of all possible activities like deepening, desilting water bodies, dredging and all other periodic maintenance activities as well as looking at possibilities of linking water bodies, creating large number of artificial ponds in waste lands etc and also ensure remote controlled mechanism to divert enormous and excess water during flooding into the sea.



Most importantly on the whole social media contributed more on the positive side though some elements in social media too, like main stream media, peddled in rumors, fuelled panic, politicized etc.

Some mobile network operators promptly started setting up bill collection centers at many places after everything normalized without rendering even a basic apology for lack of service for many days.

Kudos to all government organizations and their staff from both central and state government who worked 24/7 and provided enormous help along with many voluntary organizations, individuals from Tamil Nadu and also from all other parts of India.


Most importantly our education system, religious institutions, political parties etc must educate people of all ages the importance of priorities and relevance. 


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