Thought Picnic: Killing their people with incompetence

Nothing to hold my confidence

I have many views about how I think there is no upside to Brexit if at any time I thought the government of Boris Johnson had a tenth of the acumen, principles, competence, and/or the capacity of the coalition war cabinet of Winston Churchill, I might even consider they’ll pull off a useful EU deal.

Their response to the Coronavirus pandemic already shows they are completely incapable, the excuse that they did not know enough about the virus to act with alacrity, preparedness and purpose does not wash, because governments all around the world had the same access to the information we also had, New Zealand, South Korea, and Germany are good examples, even Scotland rejigged their response to contain it.

Killing their people with bluster

The difference is they took the information and acted on it, testing, detecting, isolating, locking down, monitoring, tracing, and informing truthfully. These are what others did without boasting and with a clear grasp of the realities they faced. The virus had no time for bullshit and there was no vacuous optimism that could take the place of effective action. It showed up Johnson, Trump, and Bolsonaro as windbags and their citizenry is paying for it with deaths that top the global tragedy of this pandemic.

Blog - It perished in a lake of tea

For all this, I was listening to a programme on BBC Radio 4 the other night when I heard the last few lines of a poem, haunting and dangerously fearful, I stirred from my slumber to look it up. Brian Bilston encapsulates the tragedy of our times, both on Brexit when he wrote it two years ago and now as we bungle a deal as much as we bungled the response to the Coronavirus. I am sorry, whilst I have no instant hope to give, I hope the only way is up from this rock bottom splatter at the bottom of the cliff. [BBC Magazine: Brian Bilson - 'How I accidentally became a poet through Twitter']

Hold my hand while we jump off this cliff

‘Let’s jump off this cliff – it’ll be fun! A right laugh!’
urged all the people (well, I mean just over half
of those who had bothered to speak up at all).
I peered down at the rocks; it was a long way to fall.

I said, ‘This cliff’s more than three hundred feet high
and my doctor tells me if I jump I will die.’
‘Cliff-jumping’s fine!’ they said. ‘Don’t trust doctors, trust us!
We read all about it on the side of a bus.’

Worried, I met up with my local MP.
I shared my concerns. He was forced to agree:
‘Why the rocks below would smash you to bits!
Where did you get this idea of jumping off cliffs?’

‘It was the will of some of the people,’ I said
and his expression changed to another instead.
‘I think,’ he revised, ‘you’re being melodramatic.
The problem is you. You’re undemocratic.’

On the clifftop, we waited. In silence we stood.
Then a voice: ‘Remind me, why is cliff-jumping good?’
But we looked down at our shoes, baffled and stumped.
Then, out of embarrassment, we held hands and jumped.

© Brian Bilston Hold my hand while we jump off this cliff

Thought Picnic: The gospel was never about Karma

Not what I believe

“Coronavirus is not God’s judgment on the world. We need to stop preaching Christian Karma. The Cross of Christ destroys all Karma. God wants to save the world, not hurl disaster at it!” Dr Andrew Farley

Coronavirus is not God’s judgment on the world. We need to stop preaching Christian Karma. The Cross of Christ destroys all Karma. God wants to save the world, not hurl disaster at it!

— Dr. Andrew Farley (@DrAndrewFarley) March 23, 2020

This was a tweet that appeared to encapsulate ideas I have not been able to articulate for a while. The number of religious people who look for disasters to project of a version of a vengeful and truculent deity who can only gain our attention by visiting calamity and catastrophe on his creatures.

Too many times we have heard, after an earthquake, a tsunami, a hurricane, a plague, or some natural disaster, where hapless lives are lost in stories that never get told except in the sheer spectacle of the horror that leaves us with a sense of the fragility of life and the suddenness that could end it.

In comes a religious figure who in their Jeremiad finds a greatly unmistakable sign from on high, as if we are back to our primordial animist worship practices, the gods are angry and we need to bring sacrifices up to the temples, mountains or grottos to appease the gods to spare us from another disaster.

Come with Noah’s Ark

The Christian variety of the evangelical or charismatic strand are the biggest culprits, from prophets who see the evil to come but are rarely able, willing, or equipped to navigate their flock from the apparent wrath to come, but are ready to gain the fame of having foretold the passing of the disaster. Their revelation never goes as far as to be inspired to build a Noah’s Ark as a sanctuary from the many floods, saving life and more.

Neither do I believe in Christian Karma, I separate the revelation of the God of the Old Testament from the God introduced in the New Testament through the ministry of Jesus Christ. In my view, his only act of mischief would have been when he allowed the evil spirits in a possessed man to enter swine and that drove the swine into the sea, at which point those spirits would have needed to find other hosts. [Bible Gateway - A Demon-Possessed Man Healed]

Our capacity in calamity

Like a friend opined yesterday, he said apart from the fragility of humanity, there is a resilience and strength that cannot be fully understood, the capacity of man to face adversity and come out the stronger and wiser to life and purpose. The spirits could not destroy the man even though they made his life miserable and yet the swine had no capacity to handle those spirits, their entry was an immediate suicide run in the swine.

Anyway, one of the reasons I do not believe in the concept of Christian Karma was in the words of Jesus Christ himself, when you look at the verse after John 3:16, John 3:17 says it all, “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” (NKJV)

Salvation is not for retribution

You don’t save the world, believer or unbeliever, sinner, or saint, Christian, Gentile or any identity you might care to possess by destroying them. Condemnation is not the purpose, even if a natural disaster, plague, or some other adversity comes our way. The prevailing purpose, opportunity, and desire are to save, it is of salvation and triumph. That is not in any way the spirit of Karma.

So, it is with sadness when I could in my basest human instinct lay hold on Schadenfreude that I learnt that a preacher who thought COVID-19 was an exciting bout of mass hysteria had now fallen victim to the Coronavirus and passed away.

It’s a shame, I doubt his religious beliefs would have expected that, yet, we are only human. Things happen to us, but I hope in our story, we can take whatever happens and create a better happening. May his soul rest in peace and may his survivors be comforted and strengthened with fortitude in this time of loss. [RawStory]

Thought Picnic: How experience humbles our generosity of spirit

Peeling away at the sores

Experience seems to bring us into close encounter with the core of our humanity. It is in experience that we begin to discover who we really are, if what we can do in comfort can be reflected similarly in the presence of discomfort.

We may deign to understand, dare to sympathise or attain the supreme expression of empathy, but when we are touched, how would our minds change, and how would our concern for others dissolve for the ascendancy of the trumpeting of our self-pity?

How would we attempt to magnify our circumstances almost to the level that suggests we have been ravaged by the greatest disaster ever to overwhelm humanity?

They are questions we must ask ourselves always.

Beyond belief

Yesterday, I heard a sermon where the preacher told a story of a tightrope walker who did his act over the Niagara Falls many times with greater daring-do each new time he attempted the feat.

Charles Blondin did many feats, blindfolded, on stilts, trundling a wheelbarrow and even carrying his manager on his back as well as frying an omelette midway. It got to a point that people believed he could do anything, however, the same people when asked to sit in the wheelbarrow for a tightrope walk balked at the idea.

Experience takes issues to another level just as having to place one’s trust in the death defying feats of Charles Blondin to be a participant called on a new level of trust, a trust in circumstances one would have no control over until the feat is completed, the risk of it going wrong coming to the fore, in their minds.

Disaster comes here

There are many natural disasters around the world, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, typhoons, tsunamis, droughts, floods, fires and much else. Most of them we would only see on television and are moved to contribute to charity drives to help the victims of those disasters.

It is probably our nature to give as an expression of our innate humanity, and that is a really good thing. However, the natural disasters have come to our land, storms raging, winds so boisterous bringing down heretofore stable things, rains coming down in incessant deluge causing floods and a few sink holes, this is serious and grave.

We are affected, some of us have to stay put, and others can apparently temporarily escape those conditions until things improve. Our attachment to our things might well determine how affected we are about possible loss as a result of a natural disaster.

The aid matters even more now

The UK has a large foreign aid budget, and it goes a long way to improving the lives of the people at the receiving end of our aid in fighting poverty, disease, disenfranchisement and inequality whilst sponsoring health, education, democratic and human rights programs.

We cannot in essence, in principle or in understanding our role in society and the world at large withdraw aid for the expediency of our little local difficulty.

That is why I am saddened that personal disaster has a tendency to expose the deeper selfish human nature where our temporary pain gains ascendancy and greater importance over recognising the broader context of the bigger, deeper and more serious sufferings of others.

It would pass

Indeed, we should help ourselves and find the means to tackle the big natural disaster issues that ravage our lands, but for that to be at the expense of the foreign aid that brings quality to lives, yet nowhere near the comforts we have enjoyed before disaster struck is unacceptable.

The power cuts here would soon be restored, many of those we give foreign aid to do not have that luxury, the flood waters would soon recede, many of those we give foreign aid as a consequence of natural disaster may not have resource or hope for the change that would make our bad experiences become history.

A selfish humanity

When I hear people on television go on about the government addressing our problems first before thinking of foreign aid, or by inference these first world victims of mishap comparing themselves to the poor and destitute of much less fortunate countries and circumstances, you begin to appreciate the shallowness of our humanity and its absurdity.

We are mostly good when things are good, but when things go bad we subconsciously reveal the worst of who we are. Much as man’s capacity for good is well regarded, our capacity for selfish malevolence when we are most affected is unspeakably unprintable and with that our humanity as a whole suffers the more.

Such is life.

Nigeria: My Observations of the Dana Air Crash Aftermath

Untold tragedies

Last weekend, Nigeria was hit by unimaginable tragedies that would have far-reaching consequences and hopefully significant changes for the good in what we are and who we are as people and part of the greater humanity of the world.

To have two air crashes in the space of 24 hours was just unmitigated disaster that had to be systemic in its Genesis and utterly appalling to all concerned, only the whole truth can begin to assuage the pain of loss suffered by all affected, the loss of life in both tragedies just leaves one numb as questions linger.

From what has been observed, reported and gleaned from most especially, the Dana Air crash on Sunday on the outskirts of Lagos, it is pertinent that some fundamental issues be highlighted in our approach to disaster and emergency response in Nigeria – these need to be addressed by all forms of communication, information dissemination, education and public enlightenment.

Bad or negligent maintenance?

The comment I had with regards to the cargo plane crash in Ghana of an aircraft that took off from Nigeria was related to the assumption that the brakes had failed. I opined that no matter how badly an aircraft is serviced, brake failure is not what you expect to hear of, it would appear I had spoken too soon on the matter of airworthiness and aircraft safety.

The next day, with less than an hour in the air and approaching Lagos to land, Dana Air lost its two engines and crashed into a highly populated area of Lagos, there had to be something fundamentally wrong with the aircraft for it to lose two engines on such a short flight, we hope that the black boxes reveal much more about why this happened.

Initially, there are these issues, our preparedness for impending emergencies when Mayday calls are made and what possible action the crew might have taken after the Mayday call to avert ploughing into crowded areas.

Obviously, the matter of maintenance of fleets of aircraft, their airworthiness, the age of the fleet and the other issues surrounding the regulation of airlines in Nigeria are brought to the fore by these tragedies, one will hope that all systems and processes have been above board but serious doubts remain.

Feeding our bizarre appetites for the macabre

On the ground we were met with another set of troubling circumstances.

Crowds had gathered out of curiosity and interest to view and gawp, not doing much to help the victims of either the crash before the plane exploded or those whose houses had been demolished by reason of impact and collision.

Then the first pictures that appeared showed the crowds standing on parts of the destroyed aircraft risking the contamination of essential evidence that would have had to be gathered to determine the cause of the crash.

Soon afterwards, other pictures appeared in their full gruesomeness of the presumably dead in some cases and possibly gravely injured but barely alive. The picture takers had no scruples about posting the grotesque, macabre and downright intrusively disrespectful of the victims as if they were doing a great service of wholesome dissemination of information.

It behoves one to condemn in the clearest terms the inurement we have acquired to tragedy that we think nothing of sharing these shocking pictures almost for the fun of having the technology to project the utterly reprehensible – we have seen the same in the appetite for sexually explicit rape videos, the unfortunate blowing to smithereens of a bomb disposal officer and much else – you wonder where does the savage Neanderthal in us stop gaining ascendancy and allow a sense of civility and humaneness to make us cultured humans again.

The crowds and civic responsibility

What annoyed me the most was the way crowds impeded the access of emergency services to the accident scene. You wonder if we need basic civics classes to be told and to know that emergency services should and must have priority of access, right of way and literally no impediment to getting to an accident scene.

Their ability to access the scene without obstruction and then the ability to leave the scene freely with victims for medical care must not need for anyone to be informed. Alas! I learnt something of Nigerians I somewhat did not know in 46 years of being associated with that country, we are ostentatious, hedonistic and found with the most modern of things but are primitive, backward and ignorant when it comes to emergency response either by the services or by the reaction of the people at large – it was at first shameful, then unforgivable and ultimately beneath contempt.

That the armed forces had to use whips and twigs to beat away the crowds like animals to cordon off the place for the emergency services and investigation of the air crash site speaks volumes, there are issues of crowd control but more importantly as a matter of civic responsibility people should just know to make way, disperse and make allowances for constituted authority to have way.

It is something we most definitely have to address, probably to promulgate laws that criminalise people and owners of any obstructions in the way of emergency services when they are out to fulfil their urgent duties.

Fuelling oil fires with water

The fire services unpreparedness in dealing with an aircraft fires, was evident from one of the pictures I saw. Water? At first, they did not have enough to quench the fires, but more importantly, aircraft fires are doused with foam because the active propellent is kerosene – water is the very last thing you need to attack a burning inferno fuelled by petroleum products.

Now, the houses that caught fire by reason of the accident might well have needed fire-fighting with water but I doubt a distinction was made of what caused the fires and how to tackle each fire as they raged.

To read that rescuers clashed at the scene of the crash just took my breath away. What were they thinking? How could they not reach a compromise of coordination for the sake of those they came to help? Even in the midst of such great tragedy egos and megalomania reared its ugly head as if this was some competition or contest for a prize – it is shameful.

Rescue minded even when recovering

Then, the authorities had immediately switched to recovery mode as soon as the crash was announced saying there were no survivors when information suggested the plane did not catch fire for another 20 minutes after impact giving the impression some might have survived the crash only to die from negligence and the lack of sensibility of gawking crowds when at least some rescue attempts should have been made.

This informs our mind-set of disaster, we are so lucky in sub-Saharan Africa not to suffer from earthquakes else no one will care if people were buried alive and died weeks after, people discovering the bones many years after the event.

We need a new thinking to disaster response that all is not lost until we have done all possible to assess, access, investigate, review and confirm by examination that indeed, all is lost. The first action should always be to rescue possible survivors and the recovery of remains must be the very last resort without extinguishing all hope.

The last affront

As if the tragedy was not palpable enough, the flight manifest was made public long before all relatives and survivors had been informed of the tragedy. In a country where the management of data is poor and the collection of the same for use is sketchy, one might say the only way to get the information out was to publicise it but for people to first learn of bereavement on social media or the news wires before they were individually and personally addressed as they waited in vain at the airports or watched television at home does leave much to be desired.

We have to have better ways to handling this kind of information, with dignity for the victim, with respect and consideration for their relatives and survivors and much more with a sense of compassion. The press comes after those particular humane needs have been satisfied with all due care and attention.

People with hearts of gold

My friends, there is much to think about after this tragedy and I am moved at the way people have acted with great resolve and initiative to help the victims on the ground, to obtain therapy and counselling for families, to gather help and succour for all concerned – we have the capacity for great human compassion, you sometimes wish a few more of those with minds like that were there to help in the immediate aftermath of the crash. See #DanaCrashAction

#DanaCrashAction: Immediate Relief Aid, Relief Materials Drop-Off Points

Other views on the Nigerian Aviation industry can be found in the links below. Presented as tweets.

Nigerian Aviation: Break It Up To Make It Up – by @DoubleEph http://t.co/WVCUVanv Nigerians have no business running airlines.

Great reporting from @yibukun & @jongambrellAP on the horrible #Nigeria plane crash. http://soc.li/omx2vPE

BBC News - Lagos plane crash: Nigeria suspends Dana Air licence http://bbc.in/NeMq72

How old is your plane in Nigeria? http://is.gd/x3QNtm by@jeremyweate Then in the United States http://is.gd/ROplio Crikey!

BBC News – Global Air disasters timeline http://bbc.in/qMyUmf

Timeline of air disasters in Nigeria.

Unnamed, unknown, unsung and undone in Nigeria

Imprecise numbers

After the oil blast in Nigeria that took probably 150 lives or more just in the suburbs of Lagos, I restricted my commentary to the blogs of other commentators who were in ways witnesses to the event.

However, I have decided to step into the fray by rehashing the comments I left on the Exodus of Ayoke because the issues about to be addressed by the government appear to be the usual seen-to-be-doing-something, but achieving nothing stance – another probe.

In my view, a probe in Nigerian parlance is the unconscionable propensity to allocate funds to an event bordering on an investigation that would produce a whitewash – that is the most appealing of the views I can express.

No lessons learnt from before

There have now been at least 7 reported incidents of pipeline roastings, the last three being in Lagos State, with the numbers set to vary depending on how the scene of the disaster is accessed and forensic abilities of the investigators.

Hardly 2 months ago, we had the census of the nation which involved closing down the country for a whole week and we hopefully would receive a plausible figure of the number of people resident in Nigeria.

Beyond that, even if a count of the victims were possible, identification beyond property on the bodies the victims would have been impossible. The health is not advanced enough for the documentation of health records talk less of dental records.

People generally would not have identity papers, and where they did, one cannot say that such information would be followed through.

Death in a desperate cause

The real number is somewhere in the number of those who have woken up the next morning to find a loved one has not returned home – that statistic would however not be recorded because going forward would stigmatise the family in terms of the theft of petroleum products rather than the quest for survival.

Worse still, the victims are being buried in mass graves; no worse an indignity can be visited on an African death than to end up in less than a pauper’s grave, shared in the company of those unknown but caught in the collective desire to make ends meet.

So, I would wonder what became of the previous investigations of the disasters like this and what is really being done to prevent the recurrence of such tragedy.

My earlier comments (edited)

If the 7th or 8th largest oil-producing country in the world still has people taking drills, buckets and jerry-cans to siphon oil from pipelines - great indeed is the poverty of the nation and greater still is the sin of those who lead us thus far.

When would this embarrassment of oil riches begin to smile on the little man who strives to the ultimate to make ends meet and ends up as unidentifiable charred remains?

The lack of Education, Opportunity and Goodwill

This whole thing feeds the ignorance of many who do not know the dangers of possible oil explosions. (Education)

Even if they did, there was a scarcity of oil for domestic purposes that it had to be imported into the country – almost a case of fish drowning in water.

It feeds the widening gap of prosperity/poverty that makes crime thrive and investment elope from the country. (Opportunity)

Beyond the achievements of debt relieve and the expansion of the telecommunications market, people are still desperately destitute, as the government has pre-occupied itself with the quest for extended incumbency.

It mitigates the stigma of corruption that permeates most strata of society. (Goodwill)

As over $300 billion has been earned from oil and this has been reflected in the emancipation of populace of out of poverty.

When would the money bring the honey?

When would oil money start to toil only for the people to the betterment of a great nation of promise? - Alas! We have only seen promise.

What can we begin to do to see the change we want our great country to become?

And is there a lifetime to expend for posterity or do we just hope someone would sort it out?

For those who have seen sudden hell - I do seriously sympathise - hopefully, they would not have died in vain.

Probe the causes and act to deal with them

Ensuring they would not have died in vain should not be about protecting the oil pipeline infrastructure or preventing crime, which are important things to consider, but the probe should ascertain the deeper breakdown of our moral polity.

Exploring the reasons for desperation that leads to reckless waste of life, as to why there is a shortage of domestic fuel products, how people in an oil-producing country cannot afford to buy fuel for basic consumption.

No easy answers

If a pipeline constitutes an opportunity for petty thievery to grave consequences, then standard of living of those “thieves” or potential thieves needs to be reviewed with major economic ideas to stimulate employment growth and commensurate wage earnings to meet the basic needs of the day.

There are no easy answers, but until the oil wealth of Nigeria gets withdrawn from foreign accounts of looters in governments past and present and the current earnings are applied with greater consideration for the wider Nigerian community – the last disaster would just be the first of many more to come.

The pledge of the probe

This is where the probe should begin – Fellow Nigerians, we are prepared to research the social, economic, political and psychological causes of these disasters, begin to make a greater difference to the lives of those in the Delta region and with that progress begin to make a different in the lives of Nigerians as a whole.

Then hopefully, those unnamed, unknown, unsung and undone in the disaster would not have died in vain, regardless of the crime of damaging the pipeline and stealing from the gushing breach.

Fossils long before their time

Mining mishaps climbing the graph

Beyond air, rail, ferry disasters, mining mishaps seem to figure quite prominently in the records of despair and sorrow pertaining to major accidents.

Generally, victims of disaster are unfortunate in that they are in the wrong place at the wrong time; however, for mining; the people who meet their demise in circumstances in which they happen to earn their living – their working environment.

Nowhere, is the anxiety of expectancy and the dashing of hopes more dramatically played out than in the work that goes into trying to rescue miners from a coal mine mishap.

With all other disasters, help can almost immediately be given at the point that emergency services arrive, but in coal mines; determining the cause of a disaster leading on to ensuring safety for the rescuers in an unstable atmospheric environment puts back the opportunities for any salvation.

We all watched in January just after the New Year as 12 miners lost in a disaster in the United States were sought as the news wires vacillated between hope and despair till we all ended up both despondent and disgusted.

No greater lament could have arisen from the events that occurred, than to ensure that this never happens again. Asrecriminations began flying; damage-limitation and politics took precedent over the people affected; one man lies in hospital regaining speech but unsure of his future.

Coal is the future

Apparently, coal is supposed to ensure future global energy security in comparison to the finite supplies of oil. In the 10 years till 2004, coal consumption increased by 75% of which the greatest amount is accounted for in China.

Coal consumption - BP Global Reports and Publications

In an interesting reversal of roles, the largest coal deposits are to be found in the United States and none in the Middle East. One can almost wager that when the Middle East oil reserves run out and gas does not gain ascendancy, the begging bowl for energy fulfilment would be moving in the opposite direction.

Coal reserves - Australian Coal Association - Global Role of Coal

A case for Iran

Now, if Iran is seeing that far ahead, their quest for alternative energy sources through nuclear power research and development would begin to make seriously astute sense.

Not many nations would want the world superpower be become the main source of raw materials for global energy needs.

So, if coal so underpins the engine of manufacturing in the generation of electricity, production of iron, steel and cement along with other fiery processes for the production of paper, aluminium and metals of economic value; why is the process of extraction so fraught with safety and disaster issues? See How Coal is used.

Too many disasters

In China alone, which comes third in coal reserves, in the same year to December 2004 there were 3,413 mining accidents which killed 5,286 people and that was the safest year in history.

It makes me breathless, but no where near the agonising death of the many that might have been caught up in explosions or mine collapses, or the slow happy death of those who in gasping for air breathe in volumes of Carbon Monoxide which leads to death eventually as blood and organs are starved of life-giving oxygen.

There is no doubt, seeing the importance of coal to the global economy that safety should become a paramount objective or else that industry would be completely decimated for the lack of expertise and human resources – people would just not knowingly walk into death-traps once they see better career opportunities open up for them.

Another 65 lost in Mexico

Back to the issues at hand, we read that 65 men would have perished in a mining disaster in Mexico. Going from other rescue effort records that it normally takes days to mount an effective rescue; one would suppose miners would be given better survival kits as they wait out the disaster before the rescuers arrive.

The Sago miners only had one hour’s supply of oxygen, those in Mexico apparently had up to 6 hours supply, but if it takes days to mount a rescue, we should not delude ourselves into thinking the attempted rescue is would lead to a successful rescue but a recovery of bodies.

I am not chemistry major, however, one would think we could have some sort of catalytic or meta-morphing converter (shows I am a chemistry idiot, but Hey! Someone should be thinking about this) attached to helmets that allow would poisonous gases like methane or carbon monoxide to be converted to usable oxygen as the miners draw breath.

In such dire situations, the miners trapped, need to be able to participate and contribute to their own rescue efforts; with sealed communication equipment and adequate personal life-support that should run for up to a week.

Never again!

In some countries, the miners’ survivors get some sort of compensation even full scholarships for their dependants, but nothing can pay for the daily fear and anxiety that the families endure as each passing day starts and ends on a wing and a prayer.

If they draw any strength from their loss, and I hope they do, it should include ensuring no further generation would see any career development in going back to the mine but in other endeavours that allow people like me to write about these incidents from a different comfort zone.

Postscript

I have written about the significance of coal to the global economy and though I am also conscious of the implications to global warming – my premise here, was to balance the importance of coal against safety concerns especially when disasters happen.

Formerly - Coal fuels despair slowly

Globalisation of disaster relief

Weapons of Mass Relief

One could not help but wonder at the complete inadequacies of developed, developing and under-developed countries (used in the context of 3^rd-world dialogue) in dealing with the natural disasters that have hit their peoples in the last few months.

To surmise, one can see the sweeping global phenomena of globalisation, trade liberalisation, democracy and eradication of poverty through debt forgiveness and other do-gooder mechanisms have overlooked pertinent issues.

This is made ever so stark from the fact that “so-called” Nuclear powers with hefty defence budgets to defend the realm have forgotten that there would be no realm to defend if the citizenry of the realm have been wiped out and left destitute by natural disaster.

More so, these countries have their military forces pre-occupied with unnecessary wars and disputes that seem to foster more havoc than peace with their presence.

The political landscape is both littered and cluttered with intransigence and belligerence that make the Middle Ages seem rather tame.

What has happened to the civilisation of humanity that puts these quests for military aggrandisement over the welfare of its peoples?

We have come to cross-roads, is it weapons of mass destruction in the hands of the powerful or weapons of mass relief from the powerful to the weak?

I hear no leaders speaking up for this.

In the end, the global co-operation needed for attending to natural disasters should involve allocating part of the defence budgets to relief where Africa hosts relief materials for immediate despatch to Asia and Europe, Asia for America and Europe, Europe for America and Africa and so on.

This under the co-ordination of the UN or some other International body like NATO should despatch with immediate effect when disaster strikes at their support areas.

Military weaponry as drones, satellites, recognition and surveillance systems should come in to play to identify the worst affected places and assets brought to bear.

That would be global progress very much in the light of the establishment of the UN.