Tsunami tantrums _ Part 2
Look, I don't want anyone imagining for a minute that I condone the inept way in which the disaster was initially handled by Indian authorities. To send a fax to the ex-minister about the tsunami and not even be aware of it is truly inefficiency personified.
To have a time of two-and-a-half hours to warn people and not even putting a minute of that to use is unbelievable.
And now that the tsunami has come and gone, we all do know that we have all these big bullies with politiical clout who make off with a lot of the relief booty.
Fine, agreed! I am not saying that we are mistake-free.
But what gets to me is people running down even good things that are being done. Just because we are a third world country and were ruled by whites till about half a century ago, doesn't mean we can't do anything efficiently.
Or is it that the Western world is loath to give us darkies credit? I wouldn't know. But in my mind, I feel heartened to know that humane values are triumphing and relief work is working wonders in India.
And it isn't just the world media that is projecting India as egoistic bunglers. There have been many Indian voices too knocking down the good work and pointing only to the goof-ups.
The media coverage here has been very comprehensive and very sympathetic to the victims. Kiwis as a rule, are very aware of the world around them and are not at all insular, a la the Yanks.
It is just that the focus tends to be a very judgmental and western-viewpoint oriented, at times. Well, I guess I gotta take the good with the bad.
5 comments:
All i will say here is...that i completely agree with you!!!
I have it on record from Brinda that the aid work is very VERY good in India, that there are ample medical supplies and doctors (if not quite optimally used) and plenty of local and international volunteers. And that's why the the Indian Navy has been sent to help in Indonesia. My cousin is in Banda Aceh now. It's good to hear something positive about the TN administration, isnt it?
Hi Laskhmi,
Atlast I landed up on your blog ;-)
Okay coming to the topic
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I think Indian Government has handled Tsunami aftermath very well when compared to other countries. And thats what even Kofi Annan said. That we have handled it very well!
But would the media be happy to spread this news to the world? No right. Thats why you get to read reports which claim no help is being provided for people.
990 of 1000 would have got the help. And 10 would have been left out. But our media will make those 10 people stand together and publish a story, that no relief work is happening.
We can eevn recover from Tsunami. But not from false media propagandas
laksh,
like i said on my blog, we got some really good work happening on the field in tamil nadu. give the devil its due! :)
btw, i got one more post on tsunami up on my site. check it out when u can...
cheers
ramya
Prabhu, Welcome to my blog.
I was referring only to Western media. As far as I can see, our Indian media has been doing a good job. However, as our response to the disaster has not been done with the speed that is common in the Western world, they have been quite harsh.
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