Is there a reason an Israel flag is hosted on the site or is a sign on patriotism or is to trademark the area. Imagine if all the countries that came to help in ground Zero hosted their flags on the site ?okay stop critizing Irena..these men were of great help..
Concrete strategy
"Our lethargic and reactive nature, as opposed to being pro-active, was evident during the rescue operations at site of the collapsed building in Nairobi. The public, who were the first to arrive at the scene, did their best, using their bare hands, to save those trapped under the rubble. You have to give it to them for working tirelessly with minimum supervision. The rescue efforts were so uncoordinated that no one even thought of the much-needed basic equipment.
Enter members of the Israeli Defence Force's Home Front Command, nearly 20 hours later, and we we saw what is possible — if we are organised — as they first got the drawing of the building, set up their equipment and asked for "simple advanced equipment", according to public works assistant minister, Joshua Toro, like sledge hammers, pickaxes, spades, and may be even pairs of pliers.
When the President Mwai Kibaki visited the scene over 24 hours later, he later declared that Kenya would buy from the Israelis "the rescue equipment they used". Mr President, are the Israelis selling brains? That is what they used. "http:///www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?category_id=31&newsid=65961
Now that Mr. Clay has beat me to it (he always talks about issues that I have in mind but never get to blog about, but I'm a huge fan of this Kenyan articles'), lets talk about this. A blogger pointed out to me the other day and asked why Kenya does not have a rescue Disaster Team and it seems whenever there is adisaster it takes an Israel ,US and UK team to do the work.
Fine, not to harshly criticize the government for lack of one but as Mr. Clay has pointed out it requires organization. As he cites above, the Kenyans public with their goodwill and the human compassion did a good job of using their bare hands and coming to the rescue.
However, truth be told, if we had at least a disaster team that responds to such who in turn coordinates with the Kenyan police to keep wananchi at bay and allow the ambulances, Kenya Red Cross and other disaster response teams and organized volunteers to quickly get to work , then perhaps more lives can be saved in such an event. I'm sure there is time wasted when such a disaster happens and I know it first hand for I was there in August 1998 ; the chaos that be fell the bomb site then was unimaginable.
We do of course need Israel but again the tools needed to break the concrete and to dig the trapped do not necessarily need to come from Israel because the response time "a flight away" is a lifetime for someone trapped underneath the debris. This is yet another rescue mission lesson 101 that kenya is learning the hard way but these are issue that need to be discussed as well and maybe when World Bank is busy giving cash left and right, they can save a buck or two and channel it to such areas "Disaster Response Fund"?. For Example the funds can be sub granted towards a jua kali project where all those shovels , wheel barrows, pick axes that Clay talks about can be made.
By the way do we have a mayor in Nairobi? Should he have been the first at the site like Giuliani was the face to reckon with in New York.........?
