Why Should Death Be A Good News?

Media-persons, including this writer, have the habit of prioritizing news stories/reports on the basis of how many people have died or are adversely affected, which is actually necessary to structure a news bulletin, always a tough job doing justice to the stories, selecting them and giving the prominence a story deserves. When a reporter comes in to the newsroom stating that an accident or any kind of such tragic happenings has occurred in which 2-4 people have died the news editor would just grimace it away and most often would ask it to be included in the scroll. If the fatalities are around 10 it normally gets into the bulletin as an important story, and when the toll is more than 15/20 then it becomes a headline news story. Well, this is unfortunate indeed; but in a hyperactive newsroom it becomes unavoidable. However, such stories are never taken as a good news story.

 

Deaths are always unfortunate whatever be the number, because for the person who succumbs in an accident or is killed it signals the end of the world for him/her. Yes, death is a very normal and inevitable part of human existence as we live with deaths all around us till our turns which always seem to be unreal and elusive. But dying unnecessary or avoidable deaths always hurt the most. If there is an outbreak of a disease or an endemic or a pandemic people die in varying numbers; but the question remains as to why at all should they die. Why such deaths are not preventable in the age of the most advanced modern medical science and amenities?

 

What has suddenly prompted me to write these words? Well, in a very well-known private news channel in India I had the misfortune to watch and hear the anchor reporting a few deaths as a ‘good news’! The anchor was narrating the Omicron-led COVID-19 pandemic spread story in Mumbai that more than 20,000 new cases were reported in the city in the last 24 hours which is the highest ever of all the three waves, and then said ‘but the good news is that there are only 4 deaths in the same period’. Sure, the anchor said this while making a comparison with the disastrous second wave. But, terming the fewer deaths as a ‘good news’ is extremely unfortunate. Recently, in the same channel, one sensitive doctor echoed my thoughts by saying that if the country is fully prepared to face the third wave why at all people should die, whatever be the number.  

 

Death can never be a cause for celebration even if one of your deadliest enemies dies suddenly. Some perverted and sadistic souls may rejoice within themselves, but it just can never be made official before the general public. During the pandemic years it has, most unfortunately, become a habit with the governments or authorities boasting of reducing the fatality figures and thus bringing the virus under control. I must emphasize again that even though only one person dies unnecessarily it is the end of the world for him/her and for his/her family.

 

Of course, it is also true that most ignorant or careless people do rush to their deaths by throwing all precautions and norms out of the window. Governments or authorities can only issue the rules and regulations, they cannot force all citizens to follow them. Finally, it is the duty of the citizens to take care of themselves and their kin, particularly the elderly people in their families. In India people of all religious faiths believe that their heavenly protectors would always protect them and, in that spirit, they throng to the temples or any places of worship in large numbers to offer their prayers and get the blessings, even if it amounts to blatant violations of the norms. All the true saints and preachers have said since times immemorial that Gods or your protectors live within you and all around you, and you can seek the blessings from the confines of your heart, it is not at all necessary to rush to the places of worship, stumbling, stampeding over each other. 

Vizag Gas Tragedy: Compensation Cover For Callousness?

Photo: english.sakshi.com

Tragically ironical that in the time the ‘StayHome’ mission people of Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh should find themselves forced to run out of their homes in the early hours today terror- struck. A polystyrene gas plant of the LG Polymers near Visakhapatnam started leaking gas in the early hours and the deadly gas started entering into the homes of more than 1000 people of five villages in a 3km radius of the chemical plant. Shocked inhabitants ran out of their homes into the streets breathless and with a burning sensation. Several of them fainted or lost consciousness and fell in the streets while many others ran, sat down or stood there helplessly or loitered around in a daze. However, as against the StayHome irony, at least COVID preparedness of the district helped give immediate relief to the affected with ambulances, oxygen cylinders and ventilators kept in readiness. National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) was also called in.

Bringing back memories of the horrendous Bhopal Gas Tragedy in 1984 that killed nearly four thousand people and impacted thousands in the long term, eleven citizens lost their lives in today’s polystyrene gas leak with around 25 continuing to be under critical care and more than 300 being hospitalized. While there was intense media coverage of the tragedy hardly anyone questioned why the gas leak should have happened and the possibility of any callousness involved. The chemical plant reopened in the early hours today after being closed for 40 days due to lockdown. Now, after such a long interval of shutdown why the factory management should not bother to check everything and any possible disorder in the plant machinery beforehand, knowing very well that there was a near-fatal gas called polystyrene produced in the plant? No answers are given till this piece is written except for one of two voices calling for prosecuting the factory.

The Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh visited the site promptly and announced hefty compensation packages for the hospitalized, for the ones kept under ventilators and for the kin of the dead. LG Polymers is believed to be one of the most favorite companies of the administration and several irregularities over the years were ignored. Naturally then, no question has been raised over any negligence or callousness that could be involved in the incident leading to loss of innocent lives. Even otherwise it has become customary in India just to condemn such incidents or express dismay or express heartfelt condolences and do nothing as follow-up. The VVIP archival condolence messages that get put up too promptly also reflect such kind of deplorable mental approach. Hope someone would do deep into why such tragedies should keep on happening and who is accountable for the Vizag Gas Tragedy, this time. It should not end with experts saying that any long-term impact of the gas leak is unlikely or the authorities finally taking credit for handling the incident and its fallout efficiently. 

Devastated Uttarakhand-A Saga of Endless Suffering And Indomitable Courage

It’s now nearly a fortnight since the flash floods devastated the north Indian state of Uttarakhand leaving a trail of endless sufferings and indomitable courage. Torrential rains and cloudbursts led to the flash floods the fury of which was beyond our human imagination. The floods swept away or swallowed up anything that came its way—pilgrims and tourists; cottages, houses and buildings; guest houses and hotels; huge chunks of land mass and roads; hills and hilly tracks and the temples and even the sacred idols in this holy state of the Char Dham Yatra pilgrimage. After the rescue of more than 100000 pilgrims thousands are still trapped and missing. While the official death toll has been pegged at around 1000 sources say it could be beyond 10000 when you account for the fact that thousands of missing persons have not returned still. Mother Nature punished her greedy children one more time in such a telling manner that the governments and the people of our planet earth better stop and ponder before embarking on the next folly.

Thousands got trapped and stranded in various tricky and inaccessible nooks and corners of this hilly state—a natural paradise ever increasingly compromised by human greed in the forms of lobbies and coteries involving an unholy nexus of politicians, bureaucrats, businessmen, builders and brokers. Questions of Eco-zone sensitivity and ecology guidelines always get relegated against such overpowering greed.

It’s no secret that millions of sinners in this great country throng temples, holy places and sacred waterways in a desperate bid to wash away their sins and you can see their desperation when you get pushed, sidestepped and manhandled while standing in any queue for any temple or holy places. It looks like the incorrigible sinners try to absolve their sins so that they can go back to commit more sins in their daily life and come back again creating a vicious circle of vice and virtue. This desperation translates into the 'business' desperation to cash on. We like it or not, the Uttarakhand devastation is another classic example of man’s folly and Nature’s wrath.

While the inimitable Indian politicians of all hues and colors hankered for garnering credit—the most sought after commodity in any form of Indian activity—for providing relief and rescue for the stranded pilgrims the trapped ones continued to suffer indescribable misery of starvation and death, and the soldiers of the armed forces launched the biggest rescue mission in Indian history braving the furious weather and risking their own lives. The unsung heroes of Uttarakhand have made thousands of helicopter sorties rescuing more than hundred thousand stranded so far and they have displayed full skill, bravery and courage while getting them to the helicopters through makeshift bridges over rifts, rope-ways from inaccessible hilltop roads and plain mountain climbing. Few days back the armed forces—prominently the Ind-Tibetan Border Police, the Army, the Air Force—rescued 4500 people with 330 helicopter sorties in a day making this the biggest chopper rescue mission of the world so far.

Can you imagine in this modern age of communication people have died in thousands failing to find roads to travel, for the lack of shelter in adverse weather conditions and not finding enough water or food. In this saga you hear tales of good Samaritans coming to their help providing free food and water, and also of cheats and thugs robbing and overcharging the hapless masses.

The brave soldiers fighting the immense human tragedy have had their share of tragedy too. Twenty excellent pilots of the Indian Air Force engaged continuously in the rescue mission got killed tragically when the helicopter carrying them to transit camp crashed in Uttarakhand. India cried for these martyrs belonging to almost every state of the country with three of them from Maharashtra and Mumbai. We salute the Heroes.

With the rescue operations scheduled to end in a day or two the authorities are trying hard to prevent the possible outbreak of epidemic as it has been a mammoth task to cremate all the bodies of the victims. Unfortunately, the blame game continues too, with the met office insisting it had issued rare kind of weather warnings for stopping and evacuating the pilgrims, and the state authorities denying it stoutly.

Granted we are always at the mercy of Mother Nature and we are helpless against the kind of immense calamities that can confront us anytime. But we can definitely correct ourselves to help our Mother in a more meaningful way and possibly prevent more Uttarakhands from unfolding in near future.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all of you! May this blessed occasion fill your lives with loads of joy and boundless happiness. With New Year 2012 round the corner the celebrations are set to go on! And, we must celebrate to make ours and others' lives happy and meaningful.

With a note of grief we remember the terrible tragedy in Philippines a little more than a week ago. More than 2000 people lost their lives or were still missing  and more than 300,000 are still depending on emergency aid in the devastating flash floods that hit and swept away the southern island of Mindanao. There is no Christmas celebration for the victims there and in our celebrations we must think of them and wish them all the good in the coming times. There are in fact several huge human tragedies in the past two months and we must never get carried away with our celebrations.

I am sorry to say that I could not give condolence messages to the affected people including several friends from our blogging community in good time, because for over two weeks I had been extremely busy with a media coverage out of Mumbai. I had to focused on that and so I missed out on other important news during this period. Another problem was not having a laptop with me. You see, for an average Indian middle class family it's still a luxury to go for laptop when there is a desktop already. I had to manage with mobile posts-that too only now and then- mostly related to issues or incidents of the media event. I hope my readers and Philippines friends would excuse me for that.

Let us hope and look for better times in the New Year that would give us all genuine opportunities to celebrate, and celebrate together.

Now Spurious Liquor Tragedy in Kolkata!

Death toll in Kolkata country liquor is likely to cross 150 and even more. The people who take country liquor are mostly daily labourers, rikshaw pullers and other poor ones. After manual hard work these people just want to forget the stark reality of their existence and take liquor they can afford. The 'business' of such liquor does not allow them even this necessary 'luxury'! The owners of country liquor shops mix poison with the drinks to make money from the poorest of the poor!
The state of West Bengal was ruled by the so-called communists who talk of the interests of the proletariat, but in reality they allow the misery of rikshaw pullers who run with bare feet to hand-drive their loads on the cruel streets of Kolkata to go on! Such deprived souls normally die of TB in young age. A little comfort in their horribly short lives is robbed by the 'business' of spurious liquor. Hand pulled rikshaws still exist only in West Bengal.
The new Chief Minister of the state is only happy with the new-found political power and just not interested enough to try changing or improving the inhuman conditions. She has seen deaths of babies, deaths of suffocated patients and now deaths of solace seeking poor. God knows what more she would like to witness before saying enough is enough. Maybe even God does not know!
Such tragedies are reflections of the abject Indian poverty. Politics thrive on these and allows more and more to unfold. Some say nothing new in such 'incidents'. So true! Why bother about lousy drinkers! Wonders of India never seem to cease! Some liquor owners are arrested, but again some say they will go on doing the same next! O' poor folks, don't eat and don't drink and don't be merry. Your masters forbid you that!