'Have we got no decency left?'

I feel that our attitude to the flood affected people have not only crossed the limit of decency, but sometimes it has also crossed the limit of humanity. I worried that we have lost our strong fellow feeling attitude -- one of our big capitals that we have been using from the past to recover the nation form worst situations. I can still remember how people had responded on the cyclone of 1991 that ravaged the coastal belt. People had not waited for the instruction of the government or any relief agencies. The cyclone hit at night on 29th April, and the next morning many volunteers, students and general people rushed to the affected areas and stood by the suffering people with whatever they had. I was involved with relief work during the 1988 flood and have seen that the people from all walks of life stood beside the flood victims. In the flood of 1998, the death toll remained very low and economic losses was recovered quickly because with the government, NGOs, civil societies, and the common people have massively responded on emergency basis on the flood. But this year, one kind of reluctance is evident among the NGOs, civil society and the well off people. What is the matter? Have we lost our sensitivity and become indifferent? The cry of the millions of flood victims has failed to touch our heart. We were never such insensitive in the past.

Observing the city life it is difficult to understand whether really 1/3 people of this country are passing the most critical days in their lives. The shopping malls, fast food shops, recreation centres, the streets and lanes, all are as normal as they were before the flood. Mr. Badrul Ahsan got shocked seeing the opening ceremony of the Basundhara shopping malls amid this flood situation. Not only that, many more odd things have happened and is still happening that can not help shaking the sensitive people. BTV has demonstrated it's lack of empathy for the flood victims. It has been relaying the recent cricket matches for hours after hours from Sri Lanka. When thousands of our people are just struggling to remain alive, a section of people are watching the cricket matches and shouting on the fours, sixes and wicket falling. Indecency too has it's a limit. I have really got shocked when BTV was also busy in showing directly the nationwide competition of Nitol-Tata football matches. The thousands of football fans in the stadium simply reminded me that the country is divided into two with different identities -- one is flood affected and another one flood unaffected. The second one has nothing to do for the first one other than reading the flood report in newspapers, or watching it on TV as if it is happening in a distant country. There is no dearth of examples of responding on disasters forgetting boundaries, friends and foes. Recently, to help the earthquake victims in an Iranian town, the US has forgotten the old enmity and come to help Iran. More recently South Korea rushed to North Korea to rescue the people who were affected in a tragic railway accident. They have prioritised humanity, not politics. But we indecently remained firmly divided on our previous differences and could not cross the limit of the parochial self-interest even at the time of this national disaster. This time too, people from many countries of the world are responding to help the flood affected people. But have we done our best for our own people?

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A group of opportunists have flooded the market with adulterated ORS. Where our inhumanity have reached! Who knows how many people have died or suffered taking this adulterated saline? A woman in Gaibanda was describing that a young man was struck by diarrhea in the evening and passed away in the early next morning. Since then a fork is poking my mind: was the boy served with the adulterated ORS? Some of my colleagues working with a national NGO were complaining that a distribution company was demanding higher rate for the water purification tablet. Newspapers also published the report of misappropriating relief goods. Shamefully, we had to witness the subversive activities like cutting the dam in Dhunot to let the flood water enter and wash away a few hundred people with their belongings. I do not know what I shall call it. Is it indecency or simply inhumanity, or other things worse than those?

I have just come back to Dhaka after doing some relief work in some Chars (isles) located on the mighty Jamuna and Brahmaputra river which were very badly damaged by this flood. I had prepared my mind to write something about how the people have survived the flood and how they are passing their days at present. But this time I feel that I should thank Mr. Ahsan for writing such a good article. I hope that it will harp on the dusty cord of our conscience.

Md. Firoj Alam is a development activist.