| November 11, 2005 | Friday | Shawwal 8, 1426 |
To send a letter to the Editor
Click here
Question of perspective
Interim shelter options
White paper
‘New perspective on partition’
Machine readable passport
Threat to life
Cricket matches
Migraine medicine
Earthquake coverage
A LOT of work is being done for earthquake relief as one found out during a visit to the earthquake-affected areas over the Eid holidays. Often intentions are good but misguided. Essentially nothing is needed more than monetary donations and manpower. Money is best given to organizations with offices and teams in stricken areas.
Driving into Balakot is a surreal experience. Buildings up to five storeys are reduced to rubble that is waist high. There is a strange silence and hollowness about the town. Everything, even the air, seems suspended in time and space. Sixty per cent of the residents are dead, the rest relocated. It is a ghost town and its effects on those who see it haunting.
There are huge piles of clothes everywhere. Clothes that have been sent by well-meaning people. Clothes that are inappropriate. Clothes that have been discarded. The affected people have lost much but still have their pride and dignity.
To a large extent, the accessed villages are receiving supplies. People have been moved into tent cities like Bassian, for Balakot. Camps are divided into sectors controlled by various organizations. There are strict entry and exit timings. Food is distributed at set hours.
In places like Garhi Habibullah tents have been set up by the villagers themselves. From the outside, Garhi looks intact. When the helicopters first flew over the town, people below were screaming and waving to no avail. One woman says it was the only time she cried. It was like something from a movie. Inside, the town is wrecked. Unlike Balakot there are hints of buildings that once existed.
A guided tour of the town reveals schools where books and satchels still litter the floor. A few schoolgirls, some still wearing their uniforms, come to find out when classes will resume. People confined to tents have nothing to do, tempers are running high. Many have salvaged clothes and furniture from their homes.
The tents are clean and comfortable. Lit bulbs indicate electricity has been restored. The army is doing its work. There are mattresses and blankets on the ground and sometimes a mobile charging on a table. A computer has children around complaining that the Internet is not working.
Five hundred people are sharing two washrooms. Only one tap provides running, though not clean, water. Women had not bathed in three weeks. Men have access to a hammam in a nearby town, but the cost of a bath has doubled. Sanitation and female hygiene are the main problems.
NGOs with experienced sanitation teams are in a position to help. People without the technical know, living far away, can do nothing directly, but can donate towards the effort.
Some have sent medicines and food from Karachi. Often the medicines are wasted as they are not needed or are surplus.
Plastic sheets are needed to cover tents which are not waterproof. They offer little insulation against the winter cold. NGO engineers have designed rooms that will be easy to build.
Money is required for organizations that can buy requirements on a need basis. Rehabilitation is going to take a long time. People cannot think of rebuilding till the rubble is cleared.
People are afraid to move away in search of jobs as they are afraid their land will be seized by others. Many cannot access their bank accounts as their papers and NIC cards are lost.
Many logistical problems lie ahead. But it is heartening to see not only life continuing among the victims but also the tireless work of relief workers.
SAMAN SHAMSIE
Karachi
IT is high time Pakistanis got the perspective right regarding the Oct. 8 earthquake, which is only possible if we comprehend the true magnitude of this disaster.
Over 86,000 people are dead and 2-3 million are homeless. Most of these people are very poor people. Snow and sub-zero temperatures are around the corner. Tens of thousands may die due to food shortages and extreme cold.
Can people comprehend the sheer magnitude of the work that is required to rebuild all the infrastructure? Many of our parliamentarians must have gone to the Galiyat area for a summer sojourn — they should know the time it takes to repair roads damaged by just a couple of landslides.
Water and mortar do not mix or bind in winters in our northern areas. Therefore, substantive reconstruction is unlikely to begin before the summer of 2006 and will likely be limited to about six months, before the next winter sets in.
So, it will be a marvel, by any count, if all the homes and buildings can be rebuilt before the next winter sets in.
Does anyone disagree with the prioritization of food, medicare and temporary shelters as the immediate needs? All of this needs a lot of money, equipment, manpower and expertise and we are short in all of this. Does any opposition MNA or MPA disagree with these priorities of the government?
If Nato or other foreign soldiers can help our indigenous effort and provide succour to the helpless and homeless millions, should we have a problem with that? As it is, western countries have all the satellite technology available to them to study the area and that is why their maps of the region are more accurate than ours.
Those opposing these foreign troops should also remember that for many years, foreign troops have been stationed in the area as UN observers.
Our army does not have adequate equipment to complete the work within the four to six weeks or less that are now left before the weather turns and starts to take a heavy toll. If the opposition parties really care why don’t they suggest new ideas and options to bolster the current relief effort because it is very easy to criticize?
Since the opposition parties claim to have wide popular support at the grassroots level, why don’t they launch a parallel relief effort using their activists and supporters?
This is a problem also with some of your columnists. One in particular is never ever satisfied with anything that the army does. May I suggest that on occasion he should not only bemoan what’s wrong but also offer some cogent solutions?
S. ANWER
Chicago, IL, US
THERE is an urgent need for a rapid programme to provide shelters that are winterable before the snows close in on the earthquake region. To be able to have thousands of shelters within the next month seems like an impossible task when we cannot even deliver tents. How can every family be given a home?
The solution must certainly lie at the grassroots using an inventive approach to make possible a shelter in every village and hamlet. Such shelter must be able to better withstand seismic activity, be warm, and should be quick and easy to build with existing materials and resources already available locally (or recycled from the debris of the houses).
The solution is to build an ‘A’ shaped frame structure from wooden beams and cover them with GI sheets, both of which are available in most of the areas. Alternatively, timber strips and wooden battens can also be used with mud roofs of the previous homes. Insulation will be provided with mud and straw.
This ‘A’ shaped frame structure can be built in a day and weathered in and made winterable by the next day. This can be achieved by a team of two people in two days with a simple set of tools: hammer, saw, nails, crowbar, tape measure. The advantages of this type of construction are: (1) To better withstand earthquake activity (triangular structures are very stable and strong); (2) it is rain- and snow-proof; (3) it is warm; (4) easy construction; (5) it directly involves the local people in the rebuilding effort and utilizes their existing knowledge and skills for building their homes; (6) it is cost-effective because it’s a self-built housing programme, based on local materials and the local workforce; (7) only basic directions and some tools are needed; (8) is particularly important for those who may not be able to receive help from organized sectors; (9) volunteers with technical expertise can span out into whole areas, building prototypes that everyone can copy and modify to family needs
This way we can help build these shelters that the local people can call homes, before the winter takes its toll. Manuals and instruction sheets are available at www.iap.com, www.pcatp.org or can be obtained by emailing thearchs@cyber.net.pk
TARIQ HASAN
Karachi
MALADMINISTRATION and corruption in government departments have been gradually increasing all over the country and in particular in the Karachi Building Control Authority, which controls the entire building activities in the largest city of Pakistan.
In this case, the situation has been made worse by the absence of town planning laws, non-approval of the Karachi master plans (excepting one prepared with the assistance of the UN), the combining of the “town planning regulations” and “building byelaws” and the lack of professionalism.
This has led to escalation of the cost of land and construction making it beyond the means of a middle income person to buy land and construct his own house. Besides having a building plan prepared and approved, a person has to deal with the functionaries of the KBCA. They enjoy immense opportunities and discretion in the absence of a master plan, and given the defective and illegal byelaws. This inevitably opens the avenues for corruption.
A few years ago the approval of a building plan did not cost much. One had to pay the normal fee. Today you have to spend millions while it is impossible to get buildings regularized.
The chief of the KBCA until recently was not a professional and thus could not visualize the consequences of what he and his colleagues had done to the city and the people.
To work as the chief of the KBCA, one needs to be qualified in all the three disciplines of engineering, architecture and town planning. He must be registered with the Pakistan Engineering Council and the PCATP.
If the town planning laws and regulations and building byelaws giving “construction specifications and standards” are laid down and professionalism introduced in the KBCA, corruption and maladministration will gradually be eliminated.
The way buildings have crumbled in Azad Kashmir due to the earthquake, it seems no professional ever worked on their construction. This has resulted in death and misery.
We need a white paper on this national calamity by a high-powered commission headed by a retired justice and assisted by a multi-disciplinary professional team consisting of town planners, engineers, and architects. A comprehensive and coordinated town and country planning law should be enacted immediately.
AFTAB MUHAMMAD KHAN
Islamabad
MR Zafar Iqbal is his article “New perspective on partition”(Oct 24) has described the arrival of the Cabinet Mission to India in March 1946 as a move to forestall the danger of the Indian army turning against the British in the wake of the creation of the Indian National Army (INA).
It is rather unfortunate and intriguing that the writer has failed to mention the Royal Indian Navy Mutiny on Feb 18, 1946 which shook the British empire to its foundations and was perhaps the greatest single factor in hastening the freedom of the subcontinent.
It is true that India was seething with discontent, and with popular support growing for the INA, there was a general feeling of expectation of a call for struggle in the armed forces.
The Royal Air Force strike followed by the RIAF led to the emergence of a more planned effort in the navy.
On Feb 18, 1946 at 8am, the ratings of HMIS Talwar, the signal-training establishment of the Royal Indian Navy, refused to take their breakfast and walked out of the mess protesting against the bad quality of food. Cdr. King, the commanding officer, and all other British officers were taken by surprise.
Lt S.N. Kohli and Lt S.M. Nanda, who went on to become chiefs of the naval staff, were deputed to mediate with the ratings but the ratings refused to talk to these officers as most of the Indian officers were not very popular with them.
Admiral S.M. Nanda has highlighted this episode in his recently published book. The Man Who Bombed Karachi. On Feb 19, a naval central strike committee (NCSC) had been formed with an initial strength of 12 that rose to 36 on the last day with all members below 26 years of age.
Like the British, the Indian National Congress and Muslim League were also taken by surprise at the spontaneity and intensity of the RIN strike.
The political leaders to whom the young ratings had looked for leadership did not know how to deal with them.
They were content to follow a non-violent and constitutional path for attaining freedom.
Raj Thapar in her memoirs All These Years has beautifully captured the ambience in these words:
“The entire city of Bombay turned out to support the mutineers. There was just the pathetic spectacle of Jawaharlal Nehru hurrying to Bombay for consultations with Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the whole country in the wings for that final order to revolt but, before any sound could emerge, Nehru had disappeared like a shadow back into the folds of Delhi.”
She narrates the indifference shown by the leaders of the mainstream political parties eloquently.
Curiously, history books in India and Pakistan are silent on this heroic struggle of RIN ratings which led to the release, discharge and dismissal of 476 ratings belonging to all communities.
Brig Kim Yadav (ADC to the last viceroy of India) writes in his book, British Lions and the Indian Tigers: Triumph of the Sepoy against the British Sword: “Axiom is that history is written to please and flatter the ruler of the day.
‘‘After power was transferred to Indian politicians in 1947, it was but natural that historians were hired to justify how and why the British transferred power to a certain coterie of political leaders.”
CDR (retd) NAJEEB ANJUM
Karachi
I HAVE just received my machine readable passport. Amazingly:
i) It does not give my address.
ii) It also does not give the address of the issuing authority -– it just says Director General, Immigration and Passports. The city is not mentioned.
iii) The profession column has been deleted. Did Nadra have a mandate for changing the basic contents of the passport which had been in use for the last 58 years?
First Nadra printed red passports, a colour associated in our minds with communism, and also deleted the column for religion. After a lot of protest this column and the green colour of the passport have been restored but the address of the passport holder, a most vital piece of information, has been deleted. How much will we have to pay for Nadra’s experimentation?
The immediate restoration of the passport holders’ address will save hundreds and thousands from botheration. Those without addresses on their passports should be given the facility of getting it entered without any endorsement fee.
S.A. BILGRAMI
Karachi
DR Seemin Jamali has highlighted the problem of dog bite cases in Dawn’s Supplement of Sept 29. According to her, the Jinnah-Post Graduate Medical Centre (JPMC), Karachi, receives at least 15 new cases of dog bite every day. The same is the case with the Civil Hospital, Karachi.
Occasionally campaigns are launched to kill stray/pye dogs but the situation remains the same. There should be mobile vans for each area (town) fitted with wireless/mobile phones so that on receipt of complaint, they can rush and kill the dogs on the spot. I hope the city nazim will look into this matter. In due course we can get rid of this menace for ever.
ABDUL AZIZ PATEL
Karachi
THE English cricket team is most welcome on its visit to Pakistan to play their matches that they believe will cheer up the badly shaken and shocked nation due to the recent quake disaster.
But the series can be seen as a redeeming feature only if the entire proceeds of the matches played or 50 per cent of the proceeds are diverted to the President’s Earthquake Relief Fund.
This will also be a memorable gesture on the part of the PCB and the visiting team.
M. SHAFIQUE AHMED
Karachi
I WOULD like to draw the attention of all physicians who are involved in treating patients suffering from migraine and prescribe ergot containing preparations for it.
Recently we have had two patients who have been chronic users of such a medication: one developed gangrene of the upper limb necessitating amputation of the hand, whereas the other developed a vasospastic condition of both legs which improved on discontinuing the medication.
Physicians should act responsibly and inform their patients of the dangers of exceeding the maximum dosage and side-effects such as numbness, tingling, pallor of extremities and rebound headaches.
Medication boxes contain an insert which states the side-effects, contraindications, maximum dosages, etc., but these days many hospital pharmacies dispense medications in their own containers without the insert and in developing countries the issue of literacy is an added problem. Beta blockers are used as prophylaxis for migraine, but if used with ergot alkaloids the risk of peripheral vasoconstriction is increased.
Vascular disease, hepatitis and hypertension are all contraindications to the use of ergot to treat migraine. The medication should not be used in children, pregnant women or lactating mothers.
Cost constraints limit the use of other ? medication such as HT/serotonin agonists which are more prompt in the relief of migraine headaches and would not be associated with the above adverse effects.
DR SALMA SOPHIE
Karachi
IT is now over a month since the devastated earthquake shook the country killing thousands, the exact number still unknown. Images of the event keep coming on television screens on and off reminding all of us of the tragedy that has happened. This may be needed to sustain the rehabilitation and reconstruction phase. But why cannot the TV channels also show some positive stories of bravery and courage which lift people’s spirits and show hope?
Showing dead bodies and crying children is not creating a good impact on adult minds, let alone on children. Young minds are getting frightened and feel insecure. Isn’t it the responsibility of the media to prevent such images from being shown on TV? It may be true that images always overpower the spoken word and powerful pictures can help explain stories better. But to what extent? Inquisitiveness is natural. It’s part of our general psychological attitude. But where do we draw the line?
SHIREEN AZFAR
Karachi
You can also send letters to the Editor
Just send your message to the following address: letters@dawn.com
Make sure you include your full name, postal address, e-mail address, and in the case of Pakistan your day-time telephone number.