From: bytesforall_readers@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:bytesforall_readers@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Jehan
Ara Sent: Monday, October 24, 2005 4:06 AM To:
jehan@wiredET.com Subject: [bytesforall_readers]
Scream
This is an article written by Umair Khan, CEO
of Clickmarks, a VC funded silicon valley company and an MIT alumni. Many of you
know Umair Khan from Chowk.com
Spare a scream for the 100,000
dead and 3 million homeless, muted out of world media.
Unmourned by the
news media, unmarked by the world, Saturday October 22 was the two week
anniversary of the 7.6 magnitude earthquake in Pakistan, India, and Kashmir. An
estimated 100,000 have been killed and, of the 3 million made homeless, at least
another 100,000 are in high peril as winter rolls down from nearby K-2. If they
perish, they would surely have been suffocated by the silent air
waves.
For the 3 million homeless the bell tolls noiselessly. Beyond
Pakistan's national news media, their coverage is a silent movie playing out on
inside pages (if at all). Four more weeks ! of radio (and print and TV) silence
and the region will become as quiet and stone cold as the news media. The news
folks whose attention to the tragedy has declined as swiftly as the deaths have
mounted, may finally get to report a "frozen" death toll. In four weeks, winter
too will white-out the survivors.
Intense and swift and whole-hearted as
the response has been among the compassionate and the aware, it has been far too
noiseless. For Pakistanis, for Kashmiris, for South Asians, for Asians, for
humans and for humanity everywhere, this is not the time for whispered tears,
silent if ardent prayers, mumbled grumblings, and soundless emails.
This
is the time to scream.
Not in despair, or panic, or anger. But in
recognition and in resonance.
This is the time to broadcast the
unbroadcasted. And this time expires in 4 weeks. There will be little point to
being heard after that.
There have been No vigils to ! mark the disaster:
week 1, week 2, now week 3 - I keep counting. No silent, candlelight vigils at
sunset. No minute of silence at 8:51am. No day of mourning. No protest march
(silent or loud) against NATO's refusal to airlift the injured. No sit-ins to
demand of governments the desperately needed helicopters, tents, medicine,
monetary aid. And no demonstrations in front of the oblivious offices of world
media.
3 million people have cried out, shouted, groaned, and screamed
for 14 days. Cries of pain, of loss and mourning, out of deep rubble, for a sip
of clean water, in despair, in panic, in anger. That is a lot of noise muffled
down by the media.
These screams must make it through us into radio, TV,
online editions and hard copies. Why? Because compassion and humanity do not
stifle the cries of the helpless. Villainy and inhumanity do that.
Why
else? Because as long as these screams are unheard, they will keep
multiplying.
! This is the time to scream.
Here is one scream that
keeps ricocheting within me. The scream of a boy born the same month and year as
my 6 year old son, who was laid out on grass and given candy in place of
anesthesia, as one leg is amputated with a non-surgical instrument. Given the 40
or so similar amputations on children each of the last 15 days, there is a
scream from a child who was born the very same month and year as your child. If
you make his scream heard, it may not multiply.
Why, I wonder, have we
not screamed till now. Those for whom the quake struck close to home have
responded with unimaginable emotion and effort. I have never seen anything like
it within my community. But the din of our passion blocked out the silence
around us. That must be why the even the most well-intentioned among us have not
reached out to all colleagues, friends, family, schoolmates, neighbors,
bystanders, celebrities, talk radio hosts, politicians, journalists! . That must
be why Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz who met with Angelina Jolie a few months back
has not called upon her to raise awareness of the plight of these people. That
may be why we have not plastered our local public spaces with flyers and
posters. Or called our local TV stations and demanded that they cover the news.
Or incessantly called and emailed world governments to send in helicopters. Or
protested NATO's refusal out in the streets. Or bombarded the detached media
with voicemails.
But there is still 4 weeks of time left to scream out to
the what-you-never-hear-never-exists world. Not just a metaphorical scream but a
real one: close your eyes, clasp your hands in font of you, focus on the
unheard scream of a victim, then exhale a loud "Aaaaaaaaaah" till you have no
breath left. Smile at the absurdity or cry in relief.
Do this at home, at
work, in public places, at non-silent vigils you hold, during commemorative
moments of non-silen! ce that you declare, and at rallies you help organize
(preferably in front of news media offices). And when others (colleagues,
friends, family, schoolmates, neighbors, bystanders, celebrities, talk radio
hosts, politicians, journalists) see and hear this, and ask if you are feeling
alright, tell them about the earthquake: about the helicopters, the tents, the
winter, the 100,000 dead, the 100,000 to save, the 3 million homeless, the
injured, the amputated, the NATO refusal, the silent media.
