BBC NEWS :
At least 125 people have been killed after three days of torrential rains battered the Indian states of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, officials say.
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I'm well aware that no government can legislate against or proscribe natural disasters but that doesn't mean they can't take precautions to minimize the overall effects of the damage these cause.
It therefore seems to me that while prostituting itself as a would be world power and strutting around in that manner as it endeavours to force itself into the "elite" club of permanent members on the UN Security Council, just as it bombarded its way into another "elite" club of countries possessing nuclear weapons that India does the absolute minimum for its poor masses, often despised by the intelligentsia and political classes there; and if a fraction of the energy India expends elsewhere in all this political posturing were employed on the welfare and safety of these people there wouldn’t be so many needless causalities among them on a sickenly routine basis.
Professor Dr. Stanley Collymore.
Natural disasters are often unavoidable whether in rich or poor countries. Look at Indonesia, clobbered by landslides which obliterated 4 villages moreover, after an earthquake 3/4 days ago that had alreay shattered that society. I mean Katrina happened in the US and its victims are still victims today b/c they don't have homes to go back to, etc. The 2 wars e.g. Iraq was clocking in $10bn a month, couldn't some of that be allocated to help Katrina victims? ...and of course there are several other examples. I have lived in many continents and realized that some nations (1st, 2nd or 3rd world) only display to the world what paints a good picture about them and any negativity is often swept under the rug. We need to start respecting nature and then, ourselves b/c as it is we can not control some natural disasters. Better yet, as people we need one another to thrive and live.
I don't disagree with you regarding nuclear weapons. But it is an oversimplification to state, in general, that a country should focus only on poverty alleviation and not on defence. Unfortunately the two things have to proceed in parallel.
A government has to defend its citizens, especially in the kind of hostile neighborhood that India is in, while looking for new sources of energy for its teeming masses, and alleviate poverty all at the same time.
And your use of "strutting about" sounds a bit imperialistic, to put it mildly. Sort of like the use of the word "uppity".
I wish I had some deep Kannada saying to impart, but will merely express my condolences.
And while it is crass to politicize something so soon after a natural disaster, that if the BJP were truly negligent, that they lose next time around. But, then again, I'd say that anyway.
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First Posted: 10- 2-09 02:45 PM | Updated: 10- 2-09 03:47 PM