Editorial

Preparedness, the Lesson 2011 Sought to Deliver
If the recap of years were to be undertaken as tasks aimed at condensing the experience into the lesson they sought to deliver, then the year 2011 is undoubtedly one which underlines the need for better preparedness; and this, not just for Sikkim, but for the nation and the world at large. More than a decade into the 21st Century, and for all the scientific and technological advances achieved, we kept getting caught off-guard whether on environmental matters or in the hands of the vicissitudes of social and/or political shifts. Let’s begin with something that affects everyone everywhere – Climate Change.
Global Warming, even if it faded away from media coverage save in reports challenging the science behind the projections, reinforced itself this year, but found the world community unprepared to do anything substantial about it. The World Meteorological Organisation has released data informing the world that he warmest 13 years of average global temperatures have all occurred in the 15 years since 1997. The year 2011 was a La Nina year [associated with relative cooling], and yet global temperatures in 2011 were the tenth highest on record and higher than any previous year with a La Nina event. That has contributed to extreme weather conditions which plagued much of the world through the year- drought in East Africa has caused mass starvation; catastrophic floods in Thailand, southern Africa and Australia; and winter temperatures across Russia averaging 4 degrees Celsius above average. What is more, the Arctic sea ice is the second lowest on record and the lowest yet in volume. The evidence suggesting that global warming has kicked in remains overwhelming, but preparedness remains tardy. Of course, everyone wishes global warming weren’t happening, but such collective hoping is of no help.
A similar refusal to face up to facts underlined how the world conducted itself through the year whether it be in blindsiding the seething desire for change in the Arab nations or the resentment against corporate profiteering in the developed world. The lack of preparedness was also exposed at the national level in the frequency with which policy decisions were rolled back and the consistency with which the policy makers were found unprepared to justify and see through their own initiatives. Much of this also applies to Sikkim, and this was a year when policy interventions were kept on hold [the Public Order Bill, for example] and the continuing refusal to face up to the challenge of suicides, landing Sikkim the ignominy of becoming the State with the highest suicide rate in the country. For a State located on such an environmentally and geologically fragile zone as the Eastern Himalaya, the lack of disaster preparedness, which establishes itself each monsoon, exploded in everyone’s faces with the 18 September Earthquake. The State was lucky to have emerged from the earthquake less devastated than what the 6.8 temblor had potential for. The rebuilding works and tasks of rehabilitation are underway in the earnest now, but there is the very real possibility that the lesson has not been learned well. Very little is being seen in the public domain by way of disaster preparedness and that could have a telling impact in the future; slope stability across the State, one needs to be bear in mind, has been substantially compromised and the road network far from sturdy, the next monsoon will definitely test preparedness and mitigation arrangements.
So what was it about the past year that held up hope? This one has a unanimous answer- the lay people and their coming together. Here’s to hoping that 2012, the Mayan speculations notwithstanding, reinforces people’s power and returns common cause to priority...