Thanks to the UN

The UN has taken upon itself the responsibility for floating an appeal to the member-states for assistance in a context where Bangladesh government has neither approached the UN for it nor has individually appealed to any other country for the same. But it will take sometime, at least ten days, by one count, to make such an appeal by the United Nations because it would need to be endorsed by all the UN bodies. Besides, the draft appeal would be shown to Bangladesh government before being finalised and sent to the UN members. One can foresee that another time-span will be required for the actual assistance to be indicated and delivered by the countries concerned. So, we are looking at the prospect of a delay that could prove disastrous for the flood victims.

The suggestion is, if the UN secretary-general were formally moved by Bangladesh government earlier on, we could have gotten ourselves some lead-time in tackling the pressing needs for reaching succour to millions of destitute people having very little food, water and medicines to survive. From this standpoint, we are a bit confused by the appeal-related sensibilities of the government in regard to a natural disaster of such enormity and destructive sweep. Now that the UN has taken the initiative, it is for the government to do all it can to expedite the inflow of assistance.

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