Now, retrospectively, I wonder why that question never got asked. After all it was a certain scientific phenomenon that had occurred which was completely explainable. And as far as the damage caused to houses in the valley is concerned, less said the better. No moment in time can I recall anyone saying that within this small area that was once upon a lake, there are certainly places that can 'resist' the jolt whereas others simply would cave in.The point I am mentioning this is perhaps they too only got to know about it after the event. The reason we get to know what actually happened must be credited to researchers in universities across the world busy trying to unearth what actually happened beneath the earth when quake happened. In a way, that was something our experts could not have explained this simply because we lack the technology. Our universities do not conduct research. Let's leave it at that.
The fact that while we did not have technology to explain many things, what on earth stopped us from making use of the technology that was available to us? To a certain degree, I can afford to be authotarative here for this happens to be my domain.
One of the offshoots of the earthquake was perhaps for the first time the realization dawned upon us as to how internet technologies can be of help in disseminating 'timely' information. You all know what I am talking about. I think there was a time when even at the slightest 'jolt', we waited to find out the magnitude of the jolt. The source of the information was completely local. After all, it was the site owned by one of government's not so 'sexy' department that went on to became an instant 'hit' overnight.
The job that they performed was extraordinary. No doubt the system did crash at times for obvious reasons that the system, while at its design phase, may not have been looked from the point of 'load' it can bear. One of the critical information for software system designers is to know how much request they expect the system is likely to receive when being used at its peak. Like with every disaster management unit, I am sure they must have this discussed but as was the case with the rest, they never really thought that we would get 'hit' so soon.
Whatever the case is, I certainly have heaps of praises for the managers who just did not manage to keep the site up and live at all possible times but also managed to update the site on timely manner the moment we felt a jolt. Interestingly, this was a moment of reckoning. 'People learn either by reading or experiencing', so goes the Nepali saying and I feel even the so called experts learnt more from 'experience' than what their doctoral degree research had taught them.
The website was of immense help. It might not have been able to save lives but did help us know where exactly the event has happened. Next up, there were certain application development enthusiasts who started building applications for any kind of phone that you carry and on the press of the 'icon' it would let you know where, when and of what degree the recent quake was.
The days that followed the quake was chaotic at its best. People blamed state for various reasons and at times it was right to do so and at times, people were overtly critical. The reasoning that they drew probably stemmed from the fact that we had taken for granted that PM, the Chief Executive of Nepal Inc., was inept at handling such issues. To me and hope that to you as well, he appeared as someone very weak, someone who just had his cancer treated and, as publicized, needed regular dose of oxygen. Then came this football match.
The fact that the old PM managed to last for 25 minutes on ground completely shattered my impression. Couple of days later, he managed to gather everyone to arrive at a consensus of drafting a new constitution made me feel guilty. Perhaps I was being too judgmental, so was the feeling. To sum up, he just not 'seemed' but definitely he was man in charge. Physically too!
If that got me elated, it drove me mad as well for there were easy ways to tackle the issue of providing information about relief material arriving at PM's disaster relief fund. Any student of computer science could have easily built a website where Koirala himself could have seen, and in the process shown to his entire countrymen, how much relief material has reached his 'fund'. More significantly, the site could also show moment what was being dispatched and where was it intended for, the kind of details people felt that they never got to know.
How come it did not occur to him that he could have addressed the nation every evening or morning about the course of action for that day? How come our tech-savvy chief secretary did not come up with this suggestion? Apart from website, PMO could have created its own Facebook page where facts could have been regularly updated. As much clichéd as it may sound, one picture of certain 'aid package' received from one particular agency or country would have helped us know what all we were getting. Apparently he was meeting a lot of dignitaries and how I wish he could have tweeted us regarding what kind of help was promised.
We all know that IT for many of us has been limited to touch phones with Facebook on top of it. Therefore, one could argue that not much would have changed since people affected by the quake neither would be equipped with gadgets from which they could access Facebook nor everyone, even if they had one, would be able to use it. That would be height of absurdity if I were to make such claim.
There is nothing that can beat the power of information. Had CDOs been updated in information they would have rushed back to victims telling them that a certain chopper or trucks with relief material would be arriving. Furthermore if you are thinking that sharing information would have led to goons 'looting', it would certainly have helped those working for the government like the police as they would know where to keep an eye on.
Websites and other social platforms—there were so many ways to reach out to people. The reason that did not happen is baffling. That leaves me with two suppositions, either it was intentionally not done for obvious reasons or, as he disclosed his property after becoming a prime minister, the cell phone model he owned does not support any of this technology? It better be the latter one.
hiteshkarki@gmail.com
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