Wish to die a normal death
Tuesday, 8 June 2010
Maswood Alam Khan
On January 12, 2010 in Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince an earthquake of seven-magnitude killed in just one minute about 230,000 people, almost one-fourth of the capital's population. As I was viewing the horrible scenes of Nimtali fire tragedy last Thursday I was thinking how many people will have to die in case a similar or a worse earthquake hits Dhaka city, a metropolis of 1530 square kilometers jammed with more than 10 million people, mostly living in dilapidated buildings or in rickety houses in urban slums that were constructed following no building codes.
One hundred and seventeen people have already died from the tragic fire at Nimtali and hundreds with burned and charred bodies are racking with unimaginable pains on hospital beds. The nation is mourning and people have lost their language to express their grief, anguish and frustration.
Death by fire is horrifying and agonizing. But, more agonizing is a death after a prolonged suffering from being burnt by fire. Given the large size of the fire at Nimtali one can assume most of the victims probably died from carbon monoxide poisoning and those who are still alive were perhaps not inside the large fire and could have lesser burn injury had they been rescued just a little earlier. In a fire disaster like this every second counts between death and life.
For us who had never encountered an ordeal like what the Nimtali victims are now facing it is impossible even to imagine the extent of their pains. Those who are now writhing and groaning with their third degree burns are perhaps desperately wishing an early death for a relief. The kith and kin of the victims must have forgotten their speech out of distress or perhaps they have been too stunned to feel any shock as they found their nearest and dearest vanished in a matter of minutes.
No sooner had we forgotten the tragedy of crushing deaths of 25 people under collapsed building at Begunbari than we had to witness another more heartbreaking catastrophe at Nimtali, both in Dhaka city. With so many unnatural deaths occurring in so quick successions, we are accustoming ourselves to deaths by accidents and torments as normal and ordinary; there seems to be to us no difference between killing mosquitoes by insecticide and slaying humans by torture. We don't know how many more such deaths would be required for us to wake up and ferret out a solution that will close the haunting door through which people are being pushed to die abnormal deaths from blazes, building collapses, road accidents, tortures and from cross-fires.
A condolence to one who has lost his or her relations in Nimtali fire must be sounding like a mockery to the bereaved. Silence is far better than a voice of consolation in such a situation. The best we can do for the bereaved is silent donations of money and materials because they need money to treat the injured members who are still alive and materials to reaffix or rebuild their gutted homes.
It was a great gesture on the part of both the prime minister and the leader of the opposition who have assured of all help and assistance to the victims.
Who are responsible for such tragedies? The answer is simple: corruption and mismanagement in every facet of our society.
Law enforcing or law abiding has already proven elusive in the extreme when one can bribe anybody to get any job done by any authority at any level from top to bottom.
The easy jobs possible for bribes that have of late become lucrative civil crimes to commit are grabbing land and property, evading tax and flouting codes of building or building without approved design.
The tragedies at Begunbari and Nimtali are due to ignorance on the part of builders and dwellers; they could not comprehend the outcome of the crimes they had committed. When the builder of the house at Begunbari had built the building unscientifically and without following any approved structural design or when the dwellers used the residential quarters at Nimtali as factories and warehouses for inflammable articles and chemicals, there was no authority who did discourage them from doing those crimes or warned them of dire consequences.
Begunbari and Nimtali tragedies have exposed only the tip of the iceberg. Similar vulnerabilities of collapsible buildings and inflammable dwellings can be found in more than 50 per cent areas of Dhaka city, both in older and newer parts. In old Dhaka the roads and lanes are originally narrow and in newer Dhaka the original broad roads have been made narrowed by local residents and their tenants by grabbing roads and footpaths for gains in business. Dhaka city has thus become the un-friendliest city to fire fighters one can find anywhere else in the world.
According to the latest global ranking Dhaka city was graded as the second least-livable city. With tragedies in Begunbari and Nimtali already reported by the international news media, our Dhaka Metropolis may not be graded as the first least-livable city in the world; the city, many are afraid, may be slapped by the global ranking authority with a big yellow slip saying "Simply unlivable".
Let us not brood over the bygone time and the past tragedies. Begunbari and Nimtali have given us warnings. The building collapse and the horrible inferno have sent shock waves for us to wake up. We may turn our mourning and anguish into a firm determination and demand immediate measures that can stop repeat of the same catastrophes. The government should immediately form a high-powered authority and engage experts on town planning and fire fighting from home, and also from abroad if necessary, to devise what short-term and long-term measures have to be taken in all the cities and towns in Bangladesh to prevent such a tragedy happening again.
We, the humble people of Bangladesh, are content with the minimum of food, securities, facilities and amenities. Our demands are very nominal. We don't want supersonic speed in our trains; nor do we want compulsory welfare benefits for all the unemployed. We don't complain if our buses and trains simply move. We feel bad only when our transports are stuck and don't move at even a snail's pace. We feel bad when there is no power during our irrigation or during our dining. We feel bad when our leaders don't keep their promises.
We don't complain if we die of a disease lying on a bed. We don't complain much when we suffer from inconveniences caused by the negligence of public officials. We don't mind giving bribes when an employee wants the same as speed money. What we demand is a delivery in time. What we demand is a life to live contented with three meals a day and a few pieces of clothes to wear. What at the end of the day we demand is a peaceful departure from this world at the time of our death, not those horrifying departures out of fire or cross-fire.
The writer can be reached at
e-mail : maswood@hotmail.com
On January 12, 2010 in Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince an earthquake of seven-magnitude killed in just one minute about 230,000 people, almost one-fourth of the capital's population. As I was viewing the horrible scenes of Nimtali fire tragedy last Thursday I was thinking how many people will have to die in case a similar or a worse earthquake hits Dhaka city, a metropolis of 1530 square kilometers jammed with more than 10 million people, mostly living in dilapidated buildings or in rickety houses in urban slums that were constructed following no building codes.
One hundred and seventeen people have already died from the tragic fire at Nimtali and hundreds with burned and charred bodies are racking with unimaginable pains on hospital beds. The nation is mourning and people have lost their language to express their grief, anguish and frustration.
Death by fire is horrifying and agonizing. But, more agonizing is a death after a prolonged suffering from being burnt by fire. Given the large size of the fire at Nimtali one can assume most of the victims probably died from carbon monoxide poisoning and those who are still alive were perhaps not inside the large fire and could have lesser burn injury had they been rescued just a little earlier. In a fire disaster like this every second counts between death and life.
For us who had never encountered an ordeal like what the Nimtali victims are now facing it is impossible even to imagine the extent of their pains. Those who are now writhing and groaning with their third degree burns are perhaps desperately wishing an early death for a relief. The kith and kin of the victims must have forgotten their speech out of distress or perhaps they have been too stunned to feel any shock as they found their nearest and dearest vanished in a matter of minutes.
No sooner had we forgotten the tragedy of crushing deaths of 25 people under collapsed building at Begunbari than we had to witness another more heartbreaking catastrophe at Nimtali, both in Dhaka city. With so many unnatural deaths occurring in so quick successions, we are accustoming ourselves to deaths by accidents and torments as normal and ordinary; there seems to be to us no difference between killing mosquitoes by insecticide and slaying humans by torture. We don't know how many more such deaths would be required for us to wake up and ferret out a solution that will close the haunting door through which people are being pushed to die abnormal deaths from blazes, building collapses, road accidents, tortures and from cross-fires.
A condolence to one who has lost his or her relations in Nimtali fire must be sounding like a mockery to the bereaved. Silence is far better than a voice of consolation in such a situation. The best we can do for the bereaved is silent donations of money and materials because they need money to treat the injured members who are still alive and materials to reaffix or rebuild their gutted homes.
It was a great gesture on the part of both the prime minister and the leader of the opposition who have assured of all help and assistance to the victims.
Who are responsible for such tragedies? The answer is simple: corruption and mismanagement in every facet of our society.
Law enforcing or law abiding has already proven elusive in the extreme when one can bribe anybody to get any job done by any authority at any level from top to bottom.
The easy jobs possible for bribes that have of late become lucrative civil crimes to commit are grabbing land and property, evading tax and flouting codes of building or building without approved design.
The tragedies at Begunbari and Nimtali are due to ignorance on the part of builders and dwellers; they could not comprehend the outcome of the crimes they had committed. When the builder of the house at Begunbari had built the building unscientifically and without following any approved structural design or when the dwellers used the residential quarters at Nimtali as factories and warehouses for inflammable articles and chemicals, there was no authority who did discourage them from doing those crimes or warned them of dire consequences.
Begunbari and Nimtali tragedies have exposed only the tip of the iceberg. Similar vulnerabilities of collapsible buildings and inflammable dwellings can be found in more than 50 per cent areas of Dhaka city, both in older and newer parts. In old Dhaka the roads and lanes are originally narrow and in newer Dhaka the original broad roads have been made narrowed by local residents and their tenants by grabbing roads and footpaths for gains in business. Dhaka city has thus become the un-friendliest city to fire fighters one can find anywhere else in the world.
According to the latest global ranking Dhaka city was graded as the second least-livable city. With tragedies in Begunbari and Nimtali already reported by the international news media, our Dhaka Metropolis may not be graded as the first least-livable city in the world; the city, many are afraid, may be slapped by the global ranking authority with a big yellow slip saying "Simply unlivable".
Let us not brood over the bygone time and the past tragedies. Begunbari and Nimtali have given us warnings. The building collapse and the horrible inferno have sent shock waves for us to wake up. We may turn our mourning and anguish into a firm determination and demand immediate measures that can stop repeat of the same catastrophes. The government should immediately form a high-powered authority and engage experts on town planning and fire fighting from home, and also from abroad if necessary, to devise what short-term and long-term measures have to be taken in all the cities and towns in Bangladesh to prevent such a tragedy happening again.
We, the humble people of Bangladesh, are content with the minimum of food, securities, facilities and amenities. Our demands are very nominal. We don't want supersonic speed in our trains; nor do we want compulsory welfare benefits for all the unemployed. We don't complain if our buses and trains simply move. We feel bad only when our transports are stuck and don't move at even a snail's pace. We feel bad when there is no power during our irrigation or during our dining. We feel bad when our leaders don't keep their promises.
We don't complain if we die of a disease lying on a bed. We don't complain much when we suffer from inconveniences caused by the negligence of public officials. We don't mind giving bribes when an employee wants the same as speed money. What we demand is a delivery in time. What we demand is a life to live contented with three meals a day and a few pieces of clothes to wear. What at the end of the day we demand is a peaceful departure from this world at the time of our death, not those horrifying departures out of fire or cross-fire.
The writer can be reached at
e-mail : maswood@hotmail.com