Monday, April 27, 2015
In an Already Troubled Nepal, a Picture of Despair Emerges
Even before the massive earthquake, Nepal was struggling with political tension and issues. The earthquake has made things much worse, leaving most citizens receiving no aid from their government. The severity of the earthquake stems from many things including the landscape of the area as well as poorly structured buildings. The earthquake has created a time of need for the Nepalis, this is when they really need there government to support them most.
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The situation in Nepal is reminiscent of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. In both events, the government failed to provide adequate assistance in a timely manner, but in Nepal, the poor infrastructure of the country is proving to be a large problem. The article mentions that many buildings were built weakly and that the roads make it difficult for aid to reach the country, showing that the government failed not only to provide aid, but also in making it easy to administer aid and prevent a disaster from occurring. This earthquake highlights the inefficiency and ineptitude of the Nepalese government, and the government should now be aware of the cost of failure.
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ReplyDeleteThe government of Nepal should be held responsible by other nations. A government is meant to serve its people and the Nepali government has clearly failed. The government needs to respond faster and help its citizens who are in need of medical assistance. Their lack of preparation and efficiency is going to end up costing thousands of lives. Like the article mentioned, the Nepalis are known for their strength and toughness so hopefully proper help does arrive and life's will be saved.
ReplyDeleteI think that from our position, it might be easier to say that the Nepalese government should be able to care for its people. While I agree a government is supposed to exist for the good of its people, I think it's also hard to expect immediate and thorough support from such an unstable body. That said, Nepal now has every reason to fix the multitude of problems they have developed to prevent this kind of disaster from happening again. This should serve as a red flag to any third world country living in a natural disaster prone area.
ReplyDeleteI agree with both Raman and Dan. However, I do agree that the government has to respond faster but I think in times of disaster, we believe that the government would respond sooner but they have so much stuff to handle. I do think that they do lack efficiency but not so much preparation because preparation can only get you so far. Even when you prepare for something, it doesn't mean that you can execute it perfectly in the situation at hand.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that the worst disasters happen in the poorest areas. It's really a shame. Nepal was already in bad shape and as we discussed in class, when bad things happen people turn to the government for help. In this case the government cannot do much considering the inaccesibility of the terrain and the poor state Nepal is in. Hopefully they receive lots of aide from foreign countries to help them recover from this disaster.
ReplyDeleteIn most cases I think people should be able to rely on their government, but when they know their government is unstable they should have backup plans in place. Communities could have prepared in advance for possible situations. I'm not saying it is completely their fault. I wish their government could support them. Also I think that Nepalis should be accepting to foreign aid if their government can't help them.
ReplyDeleteThe earthquake in Nepal is tragic, and its effects have unfortunately been exacerbated by a dysfunctional, unresponsive government. It makes no sense for the Nepalis to reject aid from India because of petty mistrust of the larger, more equipped country. The impoverished people of Nepal who have been injured and deposed from their homes likely don't care about political disagreements between the two countries in this catastrophic situation. Despair like this is what happens when monarchs control a country with such a high degree of ethnic and linguistic disorganization, making it difficult to achieve national unity.
ReplyDeleteA government should do anyhing it can to help its people especially in a tragedy like this. It is however, difficult for a government like Nepal's to respond to such a big disaster. There could have been more preparation and aid but there wasnt. It is sad and the foreign aid should be accepted.
ReplyDeleteThe government of Nepal is not equipped to or capable of handling such a large disaster, like many other small and underdeveloped countries. That in itself is not a problem. What is a problem is when a country in need does not accept help. Would it make sense for West African countries to refuse assistance in response to Ebola or for Haiti several years ago to refuse earthquake aid? Nepal's leaders are too blame for any more death and suffering that happens because they foolishly refused aid.
ReplyDeleteI also find it so sad that the worst natural disasters tend to affect the poorest areas of the world. I hope that the nation and the world will learn from this tragedy. While it's easy to blame them, the Nepali government was in a state of transition when the earthquake hit. I guess this just proves that a national government must always be strong and ready to support its people. Hopefully the leaders of Nepal know now that they need to set aside their differences and form a strong government afterwards so that this type of disaster can't happen again.
ReplyDeleteNo government is perfectly equipped to handle a natural disaster. At least, no government I've heard of. As Raman mentioned, our national government, which is supposedly more stable than that of Napal's, was unable to deal with Hurricane Katrina in an effective way. This is why I think that a government must do its best, but also those who are in more stable situations should assist those parts of the world that are hurting. If more people donated their time and money to the relief efforts of Katrina, maybe we wouldn't have places in New Orleans that are still not rebuilt after the damages of the hurricane. A national government can only do so much by itself, and I think we should be willing to help out and pick up the slack in some places.
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