NEEDED: WORLD DISASTER RESPONSE AGENCY
THE EDITOR: Nature continues to give us warnings and teach us lessons by we continue to ignore them like many before us who have failed to heed the lessons of the past. The disasters in Kashmir, central America and Louisiana continue to warn us of the world’s unpreparedness to deal with these tragedies. Think of the number of nations led by the United States of America that spend billions of dollars on weapons of destruction and use them to unleash terror innocent citizens. On the other hand the recent natural disasters have shown us that spending a fraction of those billions on standby emergency equipment such as helicopters, cargo aircraft, tents, medicines, trucks, tractors and search and rescue equipment could save thousands of lives from death and serious injury when such a sudden disaster occurs in any part of the world. The Pakistanis and Guatemalans had to beg for helicopters and other rescue equipment while America and the United Kingdom were using dozens of helicopters and similar equipment to kill and maim innocent Iraqis and Afghans. Isn’t it more honourable and humanitarian to save lives than to take them? Many countries have organisations like FEMA, NEMA, etc. Is it not possible to have an International United Nations type Emergency Response Organisation with all the necessary equipment and personnel to respond to a national disaster in any part of the world, within hours? With all those World leaders and diplomats just warming seats at the United Nations Assembly and other International Organisations and with the regular and continuous occurrence of natural and man caused disasters, isn’t it about time that these people give serious consideration to the creation of a really effective and efficient immediate disaster response agency? M HOTIN St James
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"NEEDED: WORLD DISASTER RESPONSE AGENCY"