Act of GOD or Ill-Will of Man?

A natural disaster a.k.a ‘Act-Of-God’ is not the only one which turns down the happy faces.

The severity of destruction caused by a natural disaster emerges a day after it has ravaged.  The reason of grief does not only extends from the fact that we are unaffected by people dying in some remote corner of the world while we are safely twiddling with a remote control in our comfortable recliner but also stems from the notion that people are willing to feast on the aftermath of it as well. “It’s difficult to read a book close to your eyes”, the sentence can aptly be exemplified by a man’s action. We talk of satellites, Galaxies and life on Mars, when we don’t even give importance to thousands of lives forfeited in natural disasters.

Albert Einstein once said: “The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.”

Even a toddler knows that he has to clear the mess he has created (to avoid a good thrashing of course) but we are always a step behind. We do know accurately that we are a partly the reason for the occurrence of natural calamities, however our efforts to thwart the same are rather naïve and slim.

Imagine a scenario of sky-high structures with their frontages knocked out as if pounded by mortars, and plethora of rubble and dead strewn all over the roads, where electricity and cell-phone towers have been flattened all over, hospitals packed with people and essentials like food and water have become pricier than gold and transportation cost is inching closer by every penny to the air travel cost.

I am sure it has melted your heart, but some seek an opportunity even in such tragedies. So far mankind has been a victim of the worst kinds of destruction caused by nature. But what really destroys mankind is its hunger, unquenchable and unbeatable. As if the mess and destruction caused by the calamity itself is insufficient, even then shoplifters feast on the aftermath.

A research division on disaster management with umpteen scholars doing Ph.D. and a whole department dedicated to manage disasters is present in our government and yet here we stand dubious of our future. After any calamity, we often hear about several rescue campaigns. The newspapers are flooded with articles on political statements by our government leaders, their tours, their promises on the evacuation and sustenance aids, and even more so on rewards for lamenting the dead. Then amongst the plethora of havoc, the aids announced by the government first satisfy the hungers of middle-men and the small politicians, the kin of the victim has to fill hundreds of forms and 20 rounds of the authority office.

A ‘Noah’ with his great arc would come for our rescue or not is uncertain but a serious, well-planned, well-structured and duly executed disaster management technique and technology is needed at this great hour of need. Preparedness, response and recovery needs to be embedded in systems designed for disaster management. With satellite technology literally reaching sky-limits we have the power and means to achieve anything, the thing only required is the well depicted ‘hinoishi’ in literal arts. It means the will of fire, strong and kind that burns away every last bit of evil from a tree and from which new buds of flowers can grow again.

Technology can play a multivariate role in this context • Early warning and disaster preparedness • Search and rescue of disaster survivors • Energy and power supply • Food supply, storage, and safety • Water supply, purification, and treatment • Medicine and healthcare for disaster victims • Sanitation and waste management in disaster mitigation • Disaster-resistant housing and construction.

Emerging technologies Intellistreets Ron Harwood is striving to make streetlights with wireless technology to provide detection of rising floodwaters and even display the evacuation route. It was invented as a response to the chaos created at the streets during 9/11 said Harwood, president of ‘Intellistreets’. iDAWG— Intelligent Deployable Augmented Wireless Gateway During an emergency communication between victim and authorities or even both victims is both necessary and difficult. Much research and effort is going on to develop a device that will maintain communication between different devices without relying on cell towers or Internet networks. Merely reading and pondering cannot save lives, we have to act now.

After all Life is precious.

Mine… Yours...
And even of a man living thousands miles away in a cyclone struck city.

Sources

http://www.emergencymgmt.com/disaster/3-Emerging-Technologies-Emergency-Management.html (retrieved on 14th oct’14)

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Cyclone-Hudhuds-toll-mounts-to-22-Visakhaptanam-is-a-city-in-ruins/articleshow/44807185.cms (retrieved on 14th oct’14)

Guidebook on technologies for disaster preparedness and mitigation - prepared by Dr. Satyabrata Sahu under a consultancy assignment given by the asian and pacific centre for transfer of technology (APCTT).

Image source

http://irides.tohoku.ac.jp/eng/organization/risk/04.html (retrieved on 14th oct’14)

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