THE DOCTORS and paramedics treating thousands and thousands of injured in make-shift hospital in the earthquake - devastated areas and in the civil and military hospitals in the major cities and towns are not behind any other person involved in rescue and relief operations. The troops aided by volunteers and NGOs as also local officials and foreign contingents are writing a glorious chapter in the history of humanitarian work worldwide in which services of medical teams, specially surgeons, will figure at a prominent place.. According to unofficial estimates, over 100,000 persons were injured, mostly critically, in the catastrophe that hit Pakistan’s northern part and the adjoining Azad Kashmir. After the calamity devastated Muzaffarabad, Bagh, Mansehra, Balakot, Islamabad, Bhisham, Batgram, Jhelum and Neelum Valleys and other areas on October 8, the influx of the injured in the hospitals started. To date, some 22,000 victims with serious wounds, multiple fractures, etc have been evacuated by helicopters of Pakistan Army and friendly countries from Azad Kashmir and NWFP for immediate treatment. More than 50 per cent have been hospitalised at Rawalpindi/Islamabad.
The pressure is mounting on orthopaedics who are required to perform surgeries, quite often extremely complicated, over hundreds of patients in each hospital. The foreign and local doctors are perhaps doing an impossible job in field hospitals set up in the quake zone. The most unpleasant task is amputation of arms and legs to save the life of critically wounded patients. Patients have streamed in by truckloads since the earth tremors whose intensity on Richter’s scale was 7.6 struck the area. Towns after towns and tens of thousands of villages were wiped out. It is beyond any Government to face the challenge of widespread devastation. The hospital corridors are full of injured patients and new arrivals are being accommodated in tents. The way extremely large numbers of the victims are being attended to by doctors and paramedical staff is indeed inspiring. No one seems to complain about the mounting pressure. The locals are donating blood and medicines required by various hospitals and young students are seen round-the-clock helping the medical staff.
Meanwhile, the U.N. sponsored conference of donors is being held in Geneva where the world body will once again urge upon the international community to increase its assistance substantially to meet the challenge of relief for the millions of homeless whose miseries will get compounded once the winter sets in. Already, Bhisharn, Allai Batgaram and Mansehra have received rains on Tuesday which enhanced intensity of cold weather. The impending cold winter will be nightmare for relief workers as about one million survivors are still desperately requiring shelter. The donors and aid agencies are making frantic efforts to acquire and supply winterized tents to the shelter less .If in another seven days, the deficiency in provision of tents is not met, the UN relief officials warn of a death-trap for the already traumatized survivors. With the start of snowfall, the pressure on medial staff will also mount further.

Of arms & men

IT IS unfortunate that Brazil voters have rejected the sensible and much needed ban on gun sales. About 64 per cent people voted against and 36 per cent in favour of the ban in a referendum held on Sunday. The referendum results do not really come as a surprise though since most opinion polls ahead of the vote had predicted a defeat for the government proposal. Yet it is hard to justify the overwhelming opposition to gun sales ban. It only goes to show that majority is not necessarily always right. But there could be more to this vote against the gun ban than meets the eye. It is believed that it is not so much as the Brazilian voters’ belief in the so-called right to own guns but their opposition to the extremely unpopular government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and its policies that could have undermined the proposed ban. If that’s the case, it is all the more unfortunate that in their attempt to discipline the government the Brazilian people have ended up hurting themselves.
For the ban on gun sales could have made Brazil a more peaceful and safe country for its people. Even Brazilians know that if any country today needs a gun ban, it is their country. With 107 gun-related killings a day, the South American nation remains one of the most dangerous countries in the world. The statistics, provided by the UN, are most damning. More than 500,000 people were murdered in Brazil between 1979 and 2003. There are more than 17 million firearms in Brazil, of which nine million are not registered. About 36,000 Brazilians are killed every year by firearms — more than cancer or traffic accidents. This is why it is such a tragedy that the voters, despite being aware of these facts, chose to reject the ban.
The Sunday referendum was held to ratify a clause in the 2003 statute of disarmament. The statute made it harder for the people to buy arms and imposed a virtual ban on carrying them. There was a sharp reduction in gun-related deaths following the introduction of the statute, and the proposed ban had wide support from human rights groups and the clergy before campaigning on the referendum began. It is possible that the voters may have been swayed by the powerful gun lobby that played on people’s fears and insecurities by projecting the possession of guns as something of an assurance against criminal elements. As in the US, the gun manufacturers’ lobby in Brazil is extremely powerful and can make or break governments. But as the experience in US bears out weapons do not offer any security to their owners. They invariably lead to more weapons — and more bloodshed and crime.

—Khaleej Times