Helplessness...

The scenes that I have seen unfolding on the television in Haiti over the past few days have truly been heartwrenching. You cannot help but feel despair when you think about the kind of hell Haitians are being subjected to. I feel a special sense of despair being a Civil Engineer, and that too, one with a good knowledge of structural engineering. It frustrates you when you know that the knowledge to minimize death and destruction due to earthquakes exists, but unfortunately, not the political backbone or the financial resources.

They say an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure. While I certainly encourage western governments and people to give wholeheartedly, I think it is time we took an effort to ensure everybody in the world has access to proper, safe infrastructure, as a human right and not a privellage. The west should exercise its influence to minimize corruption and provide the means to do so in countries such as Haiti, rather than just providing bandaid solutions later on. Of course, it is easy to say, and much more difficult to do, but I really hope that someday we develop the will to minimize the fallout from such natural catastrophes, rather than look onwards afterwards as helpless bystanders.