New Orleans and Mumbai...
this is a forward mail I recieved from a dear friend. i just had to blog it...
couldnt' stop making this comparison..
inches of rain in new orleans due to hurricane katrina... 18
inches of rain in mumbai (July 27th).... 37.1
population of new orleans... 484,674
population of mumbai.... 12,622,500
deaths in new orleans within 48 hours of katrina...100
deaths in mumbai within 48hours of rain.. 37.
number of people to be evacuated in new orleans... entire city..wohh
number of people evacuated in mumbai...10,000
Cases of shooting and violence in new orleans...Countless
Cases of shooting and violence in mumbai.. NONE
Time taken for US army to reach new orleans... 48hours
Time taken for Indian army and navy to reach mumbai...12hours
status 48hours later...new orleans is still waiting for relief, army and electricty
status 48hours later..mumbai is back on its feet and is business is as usual
USA...world's most developed nation
India...third world country..
oopss...did i get the last fact wrong???
while the last line does seem a bit cruel, the developed countries like the US have never really needed to cope by themselves in a long time. The people are so dependant on infrastructure and facilities that they find it hard to think on their feet and act accordingly. the people of poorer countries on the other hand are more resilient. for most of their lives, they've had to fend for themselves and when a disaster strikes, they just find a way to pick up and go....I am not sure how that makes me feel though - resilience! It somehow implies that just because a certain people are resilient and can handle more, its ok for them to be in extreme conditions for longer periods of time. In so many ways it dehumanizes the more developed countries simply because they cannot relate to life in say...Niger...perhaps Katrina has made some people more humane towards the tsunami struck areas....perhaps the levels of empathy will increase...no one should have to suffer such losses....perhaps it can make America look at its excesses and find ways to live better....just some thoughts!!
couldnt' stop making this comparison..
inches of rain in new orleans due to hurricane katrina... 18
inches of rain in mumbai (July 27th).... 37.1
population of new orleans... 484,674
population of mumbai.... 12,622,500
deaths in new orleans within 48 hours of katrina...100
deaths in mumbai within 48hours of rain.. 37.
number of people to be evacuated in new orleans... entire city..wohh
number of people evacuated in mumbai...10,000
Cases of shooting and violence in new orleans...Countless
Cases of shooting and violence in mumbai.. NONE
Time taken for US army to reach new orleans... 48hours
Time taken for Indian army and navy to reach mumbai...12hours
status 48hours later...new orleans is still waiting for relief, army and electricty
status 48hours later..mumbai is back on its feet and is business is as usual
USA...world's most developed nation
India...third world country..
oopss...did i get the last fact wrong???
while the last line does seem a bit cruel, the developed countries like the US have never really needed to cope by themselves in a long time. The people are so dependant on infrastructure and facilities that they find it hard to think on their feet and act accordingly. the people of poorer countries on the other hand are more resilient. for most of their lives, they've had to fend for themselves and when a disaster strikes, they just find a way to pick up and go....I am not sure how that makes me feel though - resilience! It somehow implies that just because a certain people are resilient and can handle more, its ok for them to be in extreme conditions for longer periods of time. In so many ways it dehumanizes the more developed countries simply because they cannot relate to life in say...Niger...perhaps Katrina has made some people more humane towards the tsunami struck areas....perhaps the levels of empathy will increase...no one should have to suffer such losses....perhaps it can make America look at its excesses and find ways to live better....just some thoughts!!
posted by Arpana Sanjay at 10:44 AM
12 Comments:
chay .. i some how dont agree to these comparisons !! its in bad kinda taste (!) .. and we are comparing two different things that cant be compared ! Heavy rain is not hurricane. .. but yeah ..
resileince of the ppl is so stark !!! dependency on system so huge that .. one to one dependency is almost nill and all hell broke loose where there was no system !
Chets the intent for comparison itself might be debatable, but the facts cant be ignored. while hurricanes and heavy rains are 2 seperate things and the destruction is on entirely different scale, the data here offers perspectives that are both surprising and interesting. Take for instance the violence and shooting or the speed with which the armed forces reached the people...
some one did observe the diference between reporting in media here and in india !!! (kinda vulturistic) ... forexampel .. did you know that ppl were standing below water level to molest women who were desperately trying to get a foothold ?? .. numerous such things happened and dint stop with just molesting !
wow chets, I did not know that bit about people standing below the water level.
Here's the thing...I am not saying one system is better than the other...just that India, along with a whole bunch of other 3rd world countries somehow get up, dust off and go on with life. And that is perceived as though its ok for them to be in floods and earthquakes, while a nation that struggles with citizens who refuse to cooperate in evacuation procedures is suddenly faced with the same problems that other countries have...
Lemme reiterate...only the italicized bits in the blog are my own...the rest is a forwarded mail.
I guess in the face of crisis and the lack of a system and order to follow, people, regardless of race or economic levels will go ahead and behave in the same fashion. The mob mentality and survival skills get turned on...the best in people as well as the very worst come out...
But here's is what really gets me Chetz...the kind of media attention a national disaster gets as against an international disaster...Besides the coverage that Indian media provides...its that system that seems entirely screwed up to me!! The part you can rely on for in depth info does not cover enough international issues and the part that does cover some of it chooses to cover partially!!...oh well, I've ranted enough I think!!
http://us.rediff.com/news/2005/sep/09flip.htm?q=tp&file=.htm
I think the above article is more of a balanced view.
And chay ... yeah I have got that mail from about 10 different ppl. And they all seem to be so proud ! I just felt that the pride is a little misplaced !!! Its kind of "I screwed up and hey you screwed it up worse !!!"
And again I do agree with what you say on this "there is no world outside USA" attitude in general ..
pride?? hmm...another wasted quality that somehow makes one believe he is better than the other...what can there possibly be to feel proud about...?? and yet they do...
thanks for the article...reading!!
yeah..got this forward as well. find myself increasingly questioning blanket statements though..i mean, comparing mumbai to new orleans has some flaws in my POV:
1) tsunami was NOT well handled..Mumbai, imho, has a lot more high stakes going for it than new orleans [though economically new orleans did depend on tourism and conventions etc].
2) the same forward-creators are gonna send a mail out about how some earthquake in japan was better handled than the gujrat one.. its not a comparison of likes, it just means the context and environment isnt taken into consideration.
3) the media--how much went unreported in mumbai is still not clear. slums and chawls have always gotten a bad deal, useful only for a few sympathy shots of the camera. They are regularly displaced and relocated and what-nots, so the impact is not significant, from the media point of view, but is as real as new orleans.
4) I am not saying new orleans situation is any better, hell, with the resources they have, it could've been way better handled. but like cheti says, the comparision is in bad taste.
5) infra better here, resilence better there. You cannot point to one of those and claim its more useful in a crisis than the other. its a combination of the two, each place lacked one of them.
6) and i seriously question hte "U.S folks know nothing beyond the country" statement. if its a survey of the entire population, i doubt indian public would know any better either. but yes, given news here does 15 minutes of weather and 0 of world news, its rather pathetic.
like my sister says "now they know how the rest of the world lives".
i don't agree with the tone of the forward either, but i do agree with one of ur points in the italicized portion chay...
i have a similar opinion that dependence on a well-oiled functioning infrastructure does reduce the people's ability to cope in alternate ways in its absence...although i think there is nothing un-natural about it...i think it is similar to an un-used muscle group atrophying in ur body, for example... :-)
Mumbai is the work capital of India and has a very positive attitude. Plus the people of India are used to facing hardships. And the people of Mumbai are really tough. Mississippi and New Orleans are like the Third World parts of the US of A. I remember Gene Hackman asking "What has four eyes and can't see?" in the film Mississippi Burning (ans:Mississippi). Make that "Who has two eyes and can't see?" "George Bush"!
Interesting.
While I won't get into the comparisons or take sides, I would like to point out one thing. While the violence in Mumbai was not substantial, it was not absent either. There are stories and news reports about people who spread false rumors. Take, for example, the late-night tsunami rumor, that caused an expected frenzied panic. This left the perpetrators of the rumor free to rob the homes of those who thought they were fleeing before a tsunami. Abhorrent behaviour, and a few people were arrested ... but there was violence that resulted as a result of this, including a few stabbings.
The rest of the comparative facts, do, indeed, point to impressive response & resiliency by Mumbai folks, but HEAVY rain, however disruptive, is hardly a hurricane. Nor is quick gutter flooding as akin to instantaneous city flooding due to collapsing levees.
One more fact
there was some problem with the mumbai crane-owners because of which the deadly fever caught people else even that could also have been avoided had the corpses lifted earlier.
the crane owners didn't provide their cranes to the municipality to lift the innumerable dead buffaloes and cows which continued to decompose and became a thriving place for the mosquitoes.
anyways, withing the last 2 months of my stay in mumbai, i have felt the harmony among the mumbaikars.
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