5 Foot and just above 11 Inches: February 2005

TSUNAMI.................................

Recently the most of south asia and some part of india was hit by a tsunami....which had a devastating effect on the lies of people.
here in india....ppl contributed whole heartedly....lots of donations came ....in less than a month, The Prime ministers fund had accumulated 430 crores...forget the rest...so huge money came in.....but was it actually spent on the victims.......god knows....but we got some counter views on that also. what i am mentionong below....is just a view....not mine exactly....but can be given a thought........
read on.

I am well placed and I earn well. But I will not contribute a single rupee to benefit the victims of the Tsunami.

Am I selfish? Am I inhuman? Not so at all.

I love my country, and I love my people. And that is
why I won't contribute.

A quick recapitulation of "disasters":

2004: Tsunami

2001: Bhuj Earthquake

1999: Orissa Cyclone

1993: Latur

1988: Darbhanga

1984: Bhopal

About every 3 years disaster on a massive scale
strikes our country.

Every time the world wants to donate a few million dollars. Every time the We, the People are jerked into sudden action and we donate our clothes, some food, a few days pay and assume our duty done, and get on with our lives.

Every time our dear Government of India resolves to erect disaster warning systems, evacuation procedures and necessary safeguards so that devastation on such massive scales can be avoided. Every time the news moves gradually from the Front Page to the Nation page to the State page to the Editorial where it finally rests and where the intelligentsia wakes up on every anniversary and indulges in some good measure of intellectual masturbation.

Every time our compassion begins with moist eyes and lumpy throats, and quite quickly melts away as our assigned or chosen duty beckons. And perhaps that is how it should be. As they say, life must go on. You cannot weep forever.

But are we not guilty of something somewhere?

And what about our beloved government, what about our media? For them too, must the show continue to go on,the same show? Every time?

Ladies and gentlemen, we are confronted by the worst calamity in recent history. And the story is playing itself to script more than Bollywood films stick to their established formulas. Less than a week down, the news is already the second bullet in the news
channels.

People all over the country are suffering severe compassion for the victims and donating generously ? New Year will be here tonight and they will party away the sadness.

The magnitude of loss is immeasurable ? it runs into millions, and not counting the value of lives lost. But we, children of India Shining,
find it below our dignity to accept foreign aid. But we are not ashamed of ourselves that these people who died lived in abject poverty on the margins of existence, living unworthy lives. No, that is okay with us.

Just a digression ? just a thought: Are we refusing help from other humans in other countries who feel compassionately for those who died just to prove a point, or is it because foreign aid comes with controls that ensure that the ultimate targets benefit and there is lesser scope for someone distributing those funds to line their pockets?

Years have passed. The victims of the Bhopal gas continue to suffer,Latur still has insufficient water or sanitation, Orissa was
never rebuilt, we don't even know what happened to the Darbhanga victims.

Have you ever considered who are these people who died in all these disasters?

When the earth shakes, shanties collapse sooner. When the waves swallow,the hutments on beaches are swept away.

These people who die are not people like you and me writing and reading emails in air conditioned offices, rooms and halls.They are people who
live on the fringe of life. They are the filthy scum who beg outside our rolled up air-conditioned car windows, and are ignored. They are the dirty

kids who try to sell sea shells for 5 rupees each, and are shooed away. They are the homeless girls and children who live under the bridges where they sell themselves every night to arrange for the next day's breakfast.We, who never questioned our government for not providing food, shelter
and opportunity to these people when they lived, are falling over each other to contribute now that they are gone.

You and I are more culpable than our beloved government and we will continue be the worst culprits ? till the day we become the victims and are written about.We are to blame because we forgive the failures of our government and our administration so easily. We are the people who have the collective power to change things, but don't care to. We are the people who feel the most for our country, but just that ? we feel; we do nothing. We are eunuchs (as a figure of speech and nothing against them) who talk, and just that? we don't act. Lord! We don't even think it worth our
while to vote. It is because of us, that such governments rule us, and fail us. Repeatedly.We are the biggest insult to those who lost their lives and to our own selves.

I resolve not to be party to this insult. I will not give alms to people who deserved and had the right to a meaningful life and a more respectful death. I will not give dole to people who wanted to live with self-respect, but couldn't. I will not weep for survivors from the family of people who had the right to clean bathrooms and safe water, but who we denied the same when they lived.

I will not donate to comfort my conscience because I know that giving away a day's salary is no atonement for how I continue to deceive my ountry,
my people, myself. I love my people more than that. I am more human than that.

And that is why I will not contribute

5 Foot and just above 11 Inches

Tuesday, February 15, 2005

Tuesday, February 08, 2005

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