EDITORIAL : THE GUARDIAN, U.K

New Europe: Mapping a continent

If Europe finds it hard to tell its own story at the moment, it does not mean there is not one

It is like being in an accident and emergency reception on a Friday night. To inhabit this place we call Europe is to see nations wheeled in on trolleys from a series of pile-ups. First the banking crash; then the sovereign debt crises of Greece and Ireland – with ambulance crews poised for 999 calls from Portugal, Spain and Italy. Once admitted, treatment can be worse than the trauma: the austerity packages, welfare cuts, job losses. Recovery is slow, fragile and sensitive to changes, like oil prices being pushed up by the revolution sweeping the Arab world. Small wonder that the banks feel "stressed". A good number of Europe's citizens do too.

The poll we publish today is taken from a sample of more than 5,000 people of working age in the five leading EU states – Britain, France, Germany, Spain and Poland – and clearly speaks to a crisis in European governance. Only 6% truly trust their government, and just 9% think their politicians are honest, either in power or out of it. Political anxiety is driven by economic pessimism, particularly in France and Germany, the powerhouse of Europe. Almost three-quarters of the French think they will be worse off a decade from now, and so do half of all those polled in Germany, despite its economic recovery.

If Europe is unthinkable without its nations, and those nations are led by a generation of politicians so lacklustre that the only character who stands out, for all the wrong reasons, is Silvio Berlusconi, does that mean that the grand European project is on the wane, however you define it – as a market, a union, a currency, a set of rules, standards and law? Which would now seem more eloquent of the collective mood – the optimism of Beethoven's Ode to Joy, the EU's official anthem, or John Cage's four minutes and 33 seconds of silence?

Yet sift through the wreckage of discarded European ambition, and all is not quite what it seems. Our poll shows that despite the costs of bailing Greece and Ireland out, those in the eurozone clearly want to stay in it. Despite high levels of opposition to EU migration and the rise of the right, the majority polled are loyal to the EU's founding values of openness and social liberalism. Collective action is far from dead either. The principle of common economic governance and Europe-wide rescue funds entails its own political logic even if the current packages are sticking plasters rather than treatments.

Social democracy may be down but it is not out. A meeting of European socialists in Athens recently put together a distinctly Keynesian-looking alternative to the austerity hairshirt forced on ailing southern eurozone economies by Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy. Bernard Guetta, writing recently in Liberation, may have been premature in seeing the formation of what he calls a European shadow cabinet, but with presidential elections in France next year and federal elections in Germany the year after, who knows? Public opinion is volatile and prone to large swings. The true length of the mandate it gives national governments is shorter than it once was. Five years at these levels of mistrust somehow feels like an age.

Over the next four weeks, Guardian writers, along with leading voices from Germany, France, Poland and Spain, will comb through this vast social, political and economic terrain. It is essential to map it. If Europe finds it hard to tell its own story at the moment, it does not mean there is not one. Federalism envisaged as the permanent answer to a war-ravaged Europe may be last century's dream. The expansion of Europe may have stalled. But few who have experienced the contagion of chaos can argue that any country in Europe can seal itself off from the sometimes violent winds of change blowing through the whole continent. Even in distress, Europe has simply become too integrated, too big and too close to us to ignore.

Japan: the crisis mounts 

Japan boasts a long-lived people, but those demographics may prove one of the defining features of this crisis

When Japan's prime minister Naoto Kan described the crisis facing his country as its "most severe... since the second world war", his assessment, extraordinary though it was, did not sound at all overstated. As if 10,000 missing residents from one town alone is not calamitous enough for even the most advanced of countries to deal with, technicians were last night battling to save from meltdown nuclear reactors with failed emergency cooling systems. Only a few weeks away from the 25th anniversary of the world's worst nuclear accident, no one can be under any illusions of what could result if the technicians lose their battle.

Disasters can sometimes pull a people behind their leaders; but they can just as easily dissolve the trust that the electors repose in the elected. In 2005, the Bush administration's bungling of the damage done by Hurricane Katrina swiftly became effective shorthand for a president out of touch with his people. The early signs do not look good for Mr Kan.

Brought in as a rather unlikely change candidate to run a country bogged down in an economic slump lasting two decades, the prime minister's few months in office have left him looking beleaguered – and with plummeting approval ratings. The country's press has repeatedly accused him of weakness in territorial disputes with China and Russia, while his economic policymaking has often been blocked by the opposition in parliament. And now the government and nuclear industry face accusations that they had seriously underestimated the nuclear plants fundamental vulnerability to earthquakes. There are lessons here for Britain's government, too – as environment secretary Chris Huhne acknowledged yesterday in calling for an official report on nuclear safety. The obvious point for ministers to make would be that Britain does not face the same quake threat as Japan. An important point, but it may not sway public opinion formed by TV footage of Japan's crisis-hit nuclear plants.

Meanwhile, the dimensions of this disaster keep expanding: more than 210,000 people evacuated from five prefectures, 3,400 homes destroyed, the coastal area of Miyako and almost all of the town of Yamada submerged. Many of the victims will be elderly. It is the boast of Japan to have a long-lived people, but those demographics may prove one of the defining features of this crisis. In Shintona many buildings withstood the force of a 10 metre-high wave slamming into the coastline at the speed of a jumbo jet; but a number of their elderly occupants could not. A stark reminder that the toll from this tragedy will continue to mount, even after the immediate danger has receded.

EDITORIAL : THE NEW YORK TIMES, USA

Listen to Judge Lippman

Acknowledging New York’s deep fiscal crisis, Judge Jonathan Lippman, the state’s chief judge, has reluctantly agreed to make cuts in his $2.7 billion budget request, including a reduction in the number of people working for the court system. But he is refusing to back down on his call for a $25 million increase, to $40 million, in support for civil legal service programs that help low-income New Yorkers faced with foreclosures, evictions, domestic violence and other serious legal problems.

His commitment comes at a time when Republicans in Washington are determined to slash the federal contributions to these essential programs.
Judge Lippman knows what he is up against politically but is undaunted. In a recent talk at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in Manhattan, he described the shocking need for help out there — and the cost to justice and the judicial system if it continues to go unmet.
He told of state courtrooms that are “standing room only, filled with frightened, unrepresented litigants — many of them newly indigent — who are fighting to keep a roof over their heads, fighting to keep their children, fighting to keep their sources of income and health care.” And he cited the astonishing fact that in New York City 99 percent of tenants in eviction cases and 99 percent of borrowers in consumer credit cases have no lawyers.
“What is at stake,” he said, “is nothing less than the legitimacy of our justice system,” adding that the rule of law “loses its meaning when the protection of our laws is available only to those who can afford it.”
Judge Lippman offered a final practical reason for increasing spending on civil legal services: preventing unwarranted evictions, avoiding foster care placements, helping clients get access to federal benefits and easing court delays will carry real economic benefits for the state. He is right on all counts. The Legislature should approve the increase.

The Cheaters and Their Banks

The Obama administration is rightly keeping the pressure on tax cheats and the bank executives who help them by stashing their money in secret accounts overseas. Now we would like to see the Internal Revenue Service and the Justice Department take the battle to the banks themselves. That’s the only way of getting them to drop this lucrative and illegal business.

The Justice Department has charged five bankers with helping wealthy Americans conceal their assets from American authorities. A former employee of Switzerland’s UBS who now works for rival Credit Suisse was arrested in January and accused of helping 100 to 150 Americans hide as much as $500 million from tax authorities.
A few weeks later, three former employees and one current banker at Credit Suisse were indicted for helping 17 Americans conceal assets in accounts at the bank and then helping them move the stash to other banks in Switzerland, Hong Kong and Israel once it was clear American authorities were on the trail of tax evaders at big Swiss banks.
This is a promising route both to recover unpaid taxes and to deter other Americans from trying to evade the I.R.S. this way. So far, however, the banks have faced no charges. The country-hopping by the Credit Suisse account holders in search of a safer hiding place suggests that cross-border tax evasion won’t be shut down until the institutions determine that secret offshore accounts are too risky a business.
The I.R.S.’s strategy gathered momentum when the agency went after UBS, which was caught sending bankers to the United States to offer tax evasion services and settled with the government. The bank paid a $780 million fine and exited the business. It promised to cooperate with the government and later revealed the names of some 5,000 American secret account holders. The case eventually led Switzerland to relax its bank secrecy laws and cooperate with American authorities.
Since then, some 20,000 Americans have disclosed their accounts to the I.R.S., taking advantage of programs that shielded them from prosecution in exchange for paying back taxes, interest and a substantial fine. UBS has since gotten out of the American cross-border banking business, as have Credit Suisse and other big Swiss banks. But there are still banks willing to open secret offshore accounts for wealthy Americans. It will take some more high-profile action against financial institutions to force them out of the racket.

Mr. Maliki’s Power Grab

Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq is drawing the wrong lessons from the upheavals in the Arab world. Inspired by uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, thousands of Iraqis have taken to the streets to criticize their government’s failure to combat corruption, create more jobs or improve electricity and other services. Nearly 20 Iraqis have been killed in clashes with security forces.Instead of taking responsibility, Mr. Maliki charged that the protests were organized by “terrorists.” He ordered the closing of the offices of two political parties that helped lead the demonstrations.
His only concessions were vows not to seek a third term in 2014 and to cut his pay in half. That was not persuasive, especially given his many recent power grabs.
It has been one year since national elections and three months since Mr. Maliki and the opposition leader Ayad Allawi finally ended their destructive impasse and formed a government. Yet Mr. Maliki has still not filled all his cabinet positions — most notably, he has not named a defense minister or interior minister. Instead, he is personally overseeing the powerful, and often abusive, army and police forces.
That concentration of clout is corrosive, especially to a fragile, new democracy.
Mr. Maliki needs to quickly appoint competent professionals to run the two institutions and let them do their jobs in a fair, impartial manner. The reported torture and other abuses by security forces must stop now.
Mr. Maliki’s thirst for power doesn’t end there. In January, Iraq’s highest court — which is far too cozy with the prime minister — agreed to let him take control of three formerly independent agencies that run the central bank, conduct elections and investigate corruption. (Last week, the court issued a “clarification,” insisting the agencies would remain independent; we’re eager to see if that proves true.)
Six months earlier, the court — at Mr. Maliki’s request — ruled that only the prime minister or his cabinet, not members of Parliament, could propose legislation. Democracy requires checks and balances. They are fast disappearing in Iraq.
It’s reassuring to see so many young people willing to criticize their government, without picking up guns. Protests have largely called for more freedom and effective government, not the political system’s overthrow.
As American troops prepare to withdraw in July, the United States has to keep pressing Iraqis — including with targeted aid — toward a more democratic system, grounded in the rule of law. It needs to encourage other Iraqi leaders to both challenge and work with Mr. Maliki to build a more responsive government.
Despite winning the most votes in the last election, Mr. Allawi — whose deal with Mr. Maliki to head a new national strategic policy council appears to have fallen apart — doesn’t work hard enough or spend enough time in Iraq to be an effective opposition leader. Other politicians and Parliament need to step up and play that role.
After all that the Iraqi people, and American soldiers, have sacrificed, Iraq’s democracy must not be allowed to falter because of Mr. Maliki’s ambitions or the passivity of other leaders.

Gulf Oil Spill Damages, Phase Two

There must be days when Kenneth Feinberg, who administered the 9/11 victims fund nearly a decade ago, asks himself why he ever volunteered to run the $20 billion compensation fund for victims of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. He has heard little but criticism — some justified and helpful, some unfair and unhelpful — from the start.

Gulf coast residents have complained of delays and shoddy treatment. Representative Jo Bonner, an Alabama Republican, recently called the program a “monster” and Mr. Feinberg a “miser.” A Mobile newspaper once asked the White House to fire him. And now BP, whose money Mr. Feinberg is dispensing, has jumped in with the claim that Mr. Feinberg is being too generous.
Mr. Feinberg pushes forward, as he should, making midcourse corrections in the program’s rules, as he also should. As of March 10, he had awarded $3.6 billion to 170,000 claimants across five gulf states, mostly in “emergency payments” equal to six months’ lost income. The Justice Department, which has kept a close and critical eye on the program, says these are “significant numbers by any measure.”
The emergency payments period is over; now begins the harder task of calculating final payments. Claimants have three years to file. Nobody is required to accept a final payment, but those who do — as in the 9/11 program — give up their right to sue BP. Alternatively, claimants can receive “interim” payments for damages as they accrue, without relinquishing their right to sue.
The interim payment alternative is crucially important. Mr. Feinberg’s instinct will be to encourage people to accept a final settlement; the main purpose of the program, after all, is to provide an expeditious alternative to drawn-out lawsuits, and the idea worked well after 9/11.
Even so, as Mr. Feinberg acknowledges, it’s hard to predict how quickly the gulf is going to recover, or how soon businesses — shrimpers, for instance — will return to good health. The Justice Department has urged him not to favor one form of payment, and to make sure that interim claims are processed fairly and efficiently.
We would expect Mr. Feinberg to be evenhanded. He has already made several positive changes at the department’s urging. Until quite recently, for instance, he had limited eligibility to businesses obviously affected by the spill, like fishing and lodging. This effectively excluded some potential claimants, dentists for instance, who say they have lost tourist revenue. Mr. Feinberg has also promised a more customer-friendly and transparent approach to individual applicants.
Justice should continue to comment, and Mr. Feinberg should continue to listen. Meanwhile, the more boisterous politicians could show some patience. Nearly 250,000 individuals and businesses have already filed claims for final or interim payments, with more coming. Finding a balance between paying claims in a prompt manner and ensuring their validity is a hard enough job without grandstanding from the sidelines.

EDITORIAL : USA TODAY, U.S.A

Japanese earthquake sends sobering message for USA

Of all the disasters that can wreak havoc, earthquakes stand out for not being entirely natural. To a farmer in a field, a quake is a strange and frightening occurrence, but probably not life threatening. In cities, however, the man-made structures that provide shelter from other disasters can turn into a lethal enemy. Add a tsunami, and farmer and city dweller alike could be swamped.

If any country understands this interplay of earthquakes, waves and buildings it is Japan, which has developed stringent building codes and well-rehearsed evacuation plans. Having lived for centuries in such close proximity to one another and facing a common threat, the Japanese have evolved into a much more communitarian and ordered society than ours. And yet, as the continuing stream of bad news from Friday's quake indicates, even the Japanese couldn't save themselves from a temblor of such magnitude so close to shore.

Here in the USA, this should be sobering. When the capital of Haiti was leveled by a quake last year, Americans could at least take comfort from the fact that buildings here are much stronger and safer. The Japanese quake sends the opposite message.

Earthquake-prone areas here are pockmarked with schools and other facilities built decades ago that don't meet earthquake safety standards. The Utah Seismic Safety Commission recently concluded that 60% of a sampling of 128 schools did not meet federal guidelines. A 2007 study in Oregon found that roughly 1,000 schools, or 46% of the state's total, had a high or very-high risk of failure during a temblor.

The list of vulnerable infrastructure is long: dams, bridges, pipelines, nuclear plants and more. And outside of Hawaii and Alaska, who has even thought about a tsunami threat?

Given the severe financial difficulties many states and localities are facing, retrofitting tens of thousands of buildings will not happen quickly. But the Japanese temblor should serve as a clarion call to start chipping away at the problem because preparing a secure future is a priority America has wholly devalued. Earthquake-proof schools, dams and nuclear plants take a back seat to more immediate indulgences in the same way that the nation's economic security is sacrificed to tax cuts and entitlement spending.

At all levels, government is expected to be limited and to tax little. At the same time, it is expected to make benefits appear out of thin air and come to the rescue when disaster strikes. An event as minor as a snowstorm can send people into a rage about the inability of local government to respond. Hurricane Katrina exposed the lack of focus on disaster at the city, state and federal levels. And still preparation is lacking.

If an earthquake like the one in Japan struck in a similarly populated area in America, it would be an utter calamity. Not only would the devastation be vastly greater, but the pace of getting life back to normal would be slower, even on the West Coast where temblors are common and preparation for them is greatest. A quake in the Midwest or the East — where two of the biggest shakers in American history struck — would be exponentially worse for reasons of geology and indifference.

This might not change, but the Japanese quake should at least raise the requisite alarm bells on nuclear power plants. The U.S. is not as dependent on nuclear power as is Japan (We get about 20% of our electricity from it while Japan gets 30%). But we do have existing plants near fault lines, including the Diablo Canyon and San Onofre facilities, both along the California coast where they are exposed to both earthquake and tsunami. And, after a 30-year hiatus, several new plants are now under consideration. The energy they could provide is sorely needed. But this quake should prompt a re-evaluation of which new plants to build and which existing plants should be considered for decommissioning.

Given all the misery left in a country as well prepared as any for a major earthquake, Americans should be humbled and concerned, not grateful that such a tragedy did not strike closer to home. Because one day it will.

Keep government open

The Continental Congress, the Constitutional Convention of 1787 and even the U.S. Senate, in its early years, met in secret. The Founding Fathers were mostly wealthy planters and businessmen who didn't trust the common people quite enough to let them know what was being done in their name.

Fortunately, the flexible government they created evolved in a more egalitarian direction. Washington and the states now have laws that largely require public bodies to meet in public and make government records available to citizens. But the struggle continues.

Open-government laws have loopholes; politicians, bureaucrats and law enforcement officers who don't want the voters to know what's going on obstruct access to information and decision-making.

Just a sampling from recent headlines:

•The New York City Police Department insists its reports of shooting incidents, even reports of police shooting at civilians, must be secret. Encouragingly, a trial judge ordered last month that they be made available in response to freedom-of-information requests. Without a chance to review such reports, how is the public to know whether such shootings are justified?

•Authorities in York County, Pa., tried to hide addresses linked to 911 emergency reports, thus making it impossible to evaluate the timeliness of police and fire department responses. An appeals court ordered that the addresses be made available.

•In two examples of exceptional legislative arrogance, the watchdog Sunlight Foundation reports that the New Mexico Senate passed a rule this year to bar members of the public from recording any of the public meetings held in the state Capitol. And the New Hampshire House, claiming exemption from the state's right-to-know law, is carrying out executive sessions immediately after general sessions.

•Elsewhere, the Utah Legislature, with little notice, rammed through a law signed last Tuesday exempting records of text messages and voice mails of government officials from open-records laws, restricting access to other records and raising the fees imposed on members of the public trying to find out what's going on in their government. The new governor of Maine claimed the right to exempt advisory boards he's creating from open-government rules, and the governor of Tennessee blithely exempted himself from state financial disclosure rules.

•In Washington, D.C., reforms in recent years have supposedly made public access to records faster and easier, but at a recent conference, research groups complained that computerized reports are often electronic gibberish, not in usable form, and bureaucrats' definition of timeliness in meeting requests leaves a lot to be desired. Nearly half the federal agencies ordered by President Obama two years ago to streamline public access to records have yet to act in a substantive way.

This is Sunshine Week, an annual event sponsored by advocates of open government to call attention to the ongoing struggle over the public's access to what's being done in its name. Today also marks the 260th birthday of James Madison, father of the First Amendment and the man whose copious notes of those debates inside the Constitutional Convention, when eventually made public, became the accepted historical record of how our government came to be.

As these and other struggles show, an ongoing sunshine effort is indispensible. Absent public scrutiny, politicians, law officers and bureaucrats will act like the 18th century aristocrats in their zeal to keep the public in the dark.

EDITORIAL : THE INDIAN EXPRESS, INDIA

Moving forward

The first shot in the battle for the control of Tibetan politics and Himalayan Buddhism after the Dalai Lama has been fired. The pre-emptive salvo came from none other than the Dalai Lama himself when he announced on Thursday his decision to step down as the political head of the Tibetan government-in-exile. For some time now, the Dalai Lama has been hinting at his political retirement. Reincarnated as the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso is both the temporal and spiritual head of the Tibetan people. Exiled in India for more than 50 years — he fled Chinese repression in 1959 — he has sustained the Tibetan struggle for its just rights in China, protected its culture and given it a credible international voice. While the Tibetan parliament meeting shortly might want to reject his decision, the Dalai Lama appears to have made up his mind, in the long-term interests of his people.
At 76, the Dalai Lama knows he has only a few active years left. In calling for an elected political leader, the Dalai Lama hopes to lay a strong democratic foundation for the movement so that it can survive internal division and external manipulation after his departure. Beijing has been waiting patiently for the death of the Dalai Lama to strike at the roots of the Tibetan movement. Organising an orderly political transition might be a lot easier for the Dalai Lama than ensuring there is no chaos in choosing his spiritual successor, the 15th Dalai Lama, which is traditionally done through a “discovery” of the “reincarnation”. Beijing will undoubtedly organise its own reincarnation. It has insisted that the Dalai Lama can’t choose his successor.

... contd.

 

Music moments

 Long before Twenty20 had altered the surround sound at a cricket match in India, visiting teams from the West Indies would prepare themselves for the silence between overs and during other hold-ups — say, when a wicket fell or during a drinks break. Ramnaresh Sarwan once said he would try to keep a soundtrack running in his mind, for fear that the lack of music would wreck his concentration. At the ongoing World Cup, men like Sarwan can now submit their requests to the ICC, so that key moments in their team’s outing can rock to the strains of songs of their choice. And the songs different teams have opted for make for ready sport sociology.

India, unsurprisingly, ask for “Chak De India”. It’s appropriation of an order only those familiar with the film of the same name can appreciate. “Chak De India” is the battle cry of a rag-tag team of women hockey players whose ultimate victory at a World Cup in Australia is really the icing on the cake for the little victories they pile up by digging deep within their resolve — over a patriarchal sport federation, over a dominant culture that privileges men’s cricket over all other sports, over the rivalries within the team, over the temptation to personally shine at the team’s expense. In a film that cautions against misplaced nationalism, the anthem marks the difference between vanity and wish-fulfilment. How Dhoni and his men have internalised that sentiment is an intriguing thought.

EDITORIAL : THE DAILY MIRROR, SRILANKA

Tsunami again: Waterloo re-enacted by high tech Bonapartes 

 The terrifying 8.9 magnitude earthquake and tsunami which hit Northeastern Japan and several other countries in the Pacific area yesterday  is yet another grim reminder that top priority needs to be given not so much to terrorism or tourism but to global warming and related factors that cause such self-made catastrophes.

Yesterday’s shattering calamity was also a reminder – just 48 hours after Ash Wednesday – that everything in life is transient or impermanent and no one, not even the highest or the most powerful, can escape the destiny of ashes to ashes or dust to dust. It was a full-scale warning to those who seek personal gain or glory in subtle ways, those who use their power to abuse or dominate others, those who use their power for personal prestige or popularity or plunder or pillage the resources of the country to build bigger barns of wealth and possessions. Only what is done for others, what is done sincerely, selflessly and sacrificially for the common good of all will last beyond the dust and ashes. All worldly things, built up over years or decades can be destroyed in a moment as we saw in Japan and other countries yesterday and as we saw in Sri Lanka during the 2004 tsunami.
Yesterday afternoon, Japanese television showed cars, ships and even buildings being swept away by a vast wall of water after the earthquake and the tsunami, while massive fires were also seen and even nuclear power plants faced danger. Some analysts described it as being like an atom bomb attack similat to what happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
The earthquake struck about 400km from the capital at a depth of 16km. There were also powerful aftershocks.
The catastrophe at 11.15 a.m Sri Lankan time brought about tsunami warnings in some 20 countries. Waves of up to 10 metres and roaring at some 800 kilometres an hour, the speed of a jumbo jet, were seen hitting several places.
 The earthquake also triggered a number of fires, including one at an oil refinery in Ichihara city in Chiba prefecture near Tokyo.
More details of the deaths and devastation appear in the front page lead story and the international news pages of the Daily Mirror today. While watching these horrific scenes what we and other countries need to do is to speed up measures to prevent such catastrophes which are not natural or supernatural curses but are largely self-made tragedies. Our own selfishness, self-centeredness and greed to grab more, exploit more of the world’s natural resources and change the balance of the eco system have sent us plunging towards self destruction. We need to carefully read the signs of the times and take counter measures.
By divine providence Sri Lanka escaped yesterday’s calamity. But it was a signal for us to act fast and act wisely to save Sri Lanka and be prepared to face such disasters.

EDITORIAL : THE DAWN, PAKISTAN

Courage in adversity

THE scale of the tragedy that has hit Japan is overwhelming. The earthquake, registering 8.9 on the Richter scale and the most powerful since the country started keeping relevant records 140 years ago, triggered a 10-metre-high tsunami. The consequences have been calamitous, even for a country that is no stranger to natural disasters. The world watched in horror as dramatic footage rolled across their television screens: the massive tremor caused at least 80 fires to erupt in the coastal areas, while the churning torrents swept away vehicles and wrecked homes, engulfed buildings and left ships flung on their sides. Contact was lost with trains and ships. A huge explosion at a nuclear power plant has added to concerns and led to evacuations. The costs, it is clear, are going to be enormous. The world`s third-largest economy had just been showing signs of recovering from an economic contraction. Now, it faces a massive repair bill likely to run into tens of billions of dollars. The world grieves with Japan, as it prepares to help it deal with the crisis.

Yet the world must also salute the Japanese state and society, which even in the throes of such a tragedy managed to keep chaos at bay, demonstrating how planning can mitigate the consequences. Estimates of the death toll stood at a little over 1,000, although this figure may well increase. By contrast, the 7.9 Great Kanto of 1923 killed more than 140,000 people in the Tokyo area. Japan has built scores of breakwaters and floodgates to protect the coastal areas. The latter would have been far more badly hit and many more lives would have been lost had these measures not been in place. The Japanese people themselves showed remarkable courage. Footage of Friday`s tragedy showed people filing out of buildings in an orderly fashion, bracing themselves for aftershocks and even waiting at traffic lights as they sought to exit cities. There was none of the blind panic that would normally be expected in such a situation.
The lesson is that while natural disaster can hit at any moment, proper planning and the existence of coordinated standard operating procedures can save lives. Since the 2005 earthquake, Pakistan has made attempts to develop procedures and instil safeguards against any future disaster. Yet the response to last year`s floods showed the inexperience of organisations such as the National Disaster Management Authority. And while buildings in Islamabad are being constructed to earthquake-proof standards, there has been little effort to replicate this in other seismically sensitive zones. Pakistan must better prepare itself against natural disasters.

 

Assembly spectacle

WHO knew Punjab`s MPAs were bursting with such creativity and artistic talent? Armed with every variety of lota , from plastic lotas for hurling at enemies to clay ones for smashing, from lota finger puppets to lota footballs to drawings of lotas , the provincial assembly`s opposition benches — now including the PPP — pulled out all the stops on Friday. Decorum, or, for that matter, effectiveness, did not seem to be a priority in their effort to protest the appearance on the treasury benches of the PML-Q splinter group, the Unification Bloc. Nor did their inventiveness stop at employing as a weapon every conceivable form of the humble household object. Verbal insults from both opposition and treasury benches against the other`s leaders added colour to the proceedings. In the midst of this circus, some well-meaning MPAs thought they would try to get a resolution passed to condemn the assassination of minorities` affairs minister Shahbaz Bhatti. It seems to have escaped them that creating pandemonium and playing football were the only things the Punjab Assembly wanted to achieve on the first day of its current session.

Bizarre comedy aside, however, the day`s events highlighted some very serious issues that need to be tackled in an equally serious manner. This was the first day of business since the PPP and PML-N parted in Punjab, and it hardly set a promising precedent for the role the former party aspires to play as the opposition. Will the PPP`s MPAs simply use their new position to complain about their political foes, or will they use this opportunity to demand the improved governance they had claimed they were not being allowed to deliver when serving as coalition partners? Another serious matter has to do with the charge of defection by the Unification Bloc. It remains a matter of debate whether or not the constitution calls for disqualification when a substantial number of lawmakers leave one party for another. Given the legal complexity of the issue, it would be far more constructive for the provincial opposition to seek a judicial opinion rather than launch verbal and physical attacks in the assembly, even if these provide some much-needed comic relief.

Rule of the mob

THURSDAY’S gory incident in Karachi’s Kharadar locality, in which a suspected extortionist was lynched by a mob, points to two disturbing trends: first, that criminals are harassing the business community in the metropolis without fear, and second, that growing incidents of mob ‘justice’ in the city show no sign of abating. The suspect was set upon by a crowd after he had shot a trader who had resisted the extortion attempt. The mob made short work of him while an aide was badly injured. While all this was taking place the police was nowhere in sight. This is the fourth incident where a mob has administered ‘justice’ in Karachi this year. The injured suspect has admitted he and his colleague were involved in the extortion racket. A number of traders who have refused to oblige extortionists have been shot in the recent past while one figure says over 100 businessmen were kidnapped last year. Also, reports say that criminals active in the extortion business enjoy the backing of elements within political parties and the police.
Due to the state’s decreasing interest in keeping the peace, citizens are stepping in to fill the void. Like so much else, this crude behaviour is bound to become the norm if the state remains complacent when it comes to maintaining law and order. The reality is that people don’t trust the police or the courts to respectively apprehend culprits and punish them. That’s why there has been a continuation of such vigilante behaviour. Administering justice and punishing criminals is solely the government’s responsibility. Should it choose to ignore it, then the law of the jungle will prevail in Pakistan. There is still time to take corrective measures, but this can only happen if those in power are bothered to do so.