Every disaster is a grim reminder of the mighty forces of nature at work: be it floods, earthquakes, land slides, forest fires. Man needs to learn his lessons from experiences and observations, and act wisely. With prudence and responsible behaviour, much of the disaster-related damage and destruction can be contained, if not prevented altogether. Collective choices of a society in terms of development model pursued can make a difference. Consider for instance, ecological sensitivity and fragility of certain regions. Public consciousness around environmental protection and wider issues of sustainability need to be foregrounded in rules and regulations for common welfare. Moreover, we owe a duty to care for our neighbours, to help them in times of distress and disaster, to mitigate their suffering through selfless service, reminds Hazrat Khalifatullah (aba) in this discourse.
Read the Friday Sermon Below:
Humanity in Danger: Showing Mercy: Part 2
The earthquakes in Kahramanmaras are not only the largest earthquakes ever experienced in recent years in Turkey but also the largest earthquakes in the world in the last century or more in residential areas. The quakes flattened buildings of all kinds and killed thousands of people across southern Turkey and northern Syria like I mentioned last week. The magnitude 7.7 and
7.6 earthquakes were centred in the Kahramanmaras. The earthquakes affected an
area of approximately 110,000 square kilometres (about 42,471 square miles).
This is equal to or greater than the area of many countries in Europe. The
earthquakes also caused high death tolls and destruction in Syria. Lebanon, felt
the strong tremors that struck Turkey in the space of fewer than 10 hours.
Aerial footage from over the earthquake zone in Turkey revealed entire neighbourhoods
of high-rises reduced to twisted metal, pulverized concrete and exposed wires.
However, this tragic event has demonstrated that the effort and cost required to construct safe buildings is worth it to save lives. Regarding these issues, landowners and construction companies must be sensitive to the dangers, and the state should be responsive. Had all the regulations been followed, the columns would have survived intact and the damage would have been confined to the beams. The Turkish justice minister has said anyone found to have been negligent or at fault will be brought to justice.
International community
has been sensitive to this indescribable distress caused by one of the biggest
earthquake disasters Turkey and Syria have ever faced. In Turkey, which has
suffered the brunt of the deaths from the tremor, local rescuers working in
earthquake ravaged towns and cities have been joined by volunteers from around
the world, including Mauritius – like I stated last week – and bolstered by
international aid shipments. But in Syria, where the United Nations serves as a
lifeline for 4.1 million people in the north-west, only two of its aid convoys
have made it through the sole border crossing with Turkey since the tremor
occurred – one of which was organized before the disaster. The Turkish
authorities and NGOs have been very swift to mobilise resources in order to
come to the rescue of the victims. They have also appealed to international
community for help. The disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) and
the Turkish Red Crescent (Kizilay) are accepting donations also for
relief work for victims of the earthquake in Turkey.
As for the European
Union, it was swift to dispatch rescue teams to Turkey. The European President Ursula
von der Leyen announced that the EU is planning to host a donor conference in
March in Brussels in coordination with Turkish authorities “to mobilise
funds from the international community in support for the people” (of both
countries). The US government has pledged more than $80m in urgent life-saving
relief for earthquake victims in Turkey and Syria.
The tragedy has
generated a sense of solidarity among the Muslims worldwide in favour of the
victims. From Islamabad to Kuala Lumpur and from Senegal to Azerbaijan, they
are all mobilized to extend a helping hand to Turkish and Syrian peoples. In
Mauritius too, people have been spontaneous to extend their help. Several Arab
countries have extended vital support with rescue teams and relief supplies to
help in earthquake relief operations in Turkey and Syria. Arab nations rushed
to raise funds and send aid to Turkey. United Arab Emirates has set up a field
hospital in the southern Gaziantep province. The United Arab Emirates has sent many
planes – some to Turkey and some to Syria – with the required aid in hundreds
of tons, several search and rescue teams, and a fully equipped mobile field
hospital.
On President Sheikh
Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan’s directives, special prayers were held in mosques
on Jumu’ah for the victims of the devastating quakes. Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim
bin Hamad Al Thani donated more than a dozen million dollars to earthquake survivors
in Turkey and Syria. Al Thani donated the money to a campaign organized by a
Qatari television channel. Around $19 million has been raised as part of the
campaign. Saudi planes arrived in the southern Turkish city of Adana with
rescue teams, ambulances, volunteers, and more than 200 tons of relief and
medical supplies. More than 550,000 people have donated in Saudi Arabia for the
quake victims, generating more than 250 million riyals.
The Kuwaiti Cabinet has
pledged $30 million for relief efforts in Turkey and Syria. In Bahrain, special
prayers were held in the country’s mosques for earthquake victims during
Jumu’ah. A campaign for donations was also launched in Bahrain. Rescue teams
and relief suppliers from Oman have already reached Adana and have started
working in the Hatay province. The Iraqi government has also sent planes with
relief items and medical supplies for earthquake victims in Turkey and Syria.
A 73-member Palestinian
team reached Turkey and Syria to help out in the ongoing quake relief efforts.
The Palestinian government has also launched a relief drive, with the religious
Endowments Ministry starting off the collection by donating $100,000.
In Libya, Moulay
Guedidi, head of the Tuareg Social council, called on people to donate and
extend assistance to quake victims in Turkey and Syria. The Mauritanian
President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani directed the government to organize urgent
support for Turkey and Syria. In Sudan, the Sudanese army has sent a plane to
Turkey with rescue teams and relief items. Jordan, Lebanon, Tunisia and Egypt
have also announced sending humanitarian aid for earthquake victims in Turkey
and Syria.
The world is expressing
solidarity with Turkey after the powerful earthquakes. Governmental actors, NGOs,
activists, and individuals have come together to help those in need. This is
how solidarity can overcome adversity at difficult times. Insha-Allah.
Beyond our human
obligation to the victims of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria, are there
lessons to be learned, including in our local context?
Same question with
regard to the victims, for example, of the sad and regrettable accident that
occurred when the Hindu pilgrims were returning from Grand Bassin. Is it
earthquakes or electric shocks that kill, or should we also see gross
negligence on the part of men?
Even now, as
international aid seeks to reach the affected areas in Turkey and Syria, what
are the obstacles that still risk causing thousands more deaths from disease,
hunger and cold? What should we do, here as elsewhere, to be less vulnerable
and more resilient to disasters, natural or otherwise?
We do not imagine the
Turkish and Syrian victims or others for that matter, to be evil people. No one
prospers in age or diminishes in age unless it is recorded in a book. However,
only God knows when someone will taste death. We talk about a miracle when a
woman comes out of the debris after a week, alive, or a building collapses on a
baby but the baby survives. It is not difficult for God in a split second to destroy
us all. But we do not know what fate is (i.e. what will become of us) and this
ignorance is our freedom. So, if our trust is in God, we must act with
conscience, intelligence and responsibility. Passivity, laziness, mediocrity
and fatalism are contrary to our testimony of faith in God.
We have known for a
long time which places are most exposed to a probable earthquake. Moreover in
1999, the same territory was already shaken by an earthquake of magnitude 7.6,
causing more than 17,000 victims. Of course, there was then the establishment
of a centralized civil defense body to deal with disasters in Turkey, but that
did not prevent the construction of giant buildings without any seismic
standards.
Many point to the
overconcentration of powers in Turkey which does not allow good governance at
the level of local authorities. Basic rules regarding construction and
infrastructure should not only be promulgated, but also enforced on the ground.
Japan and California, for example, are ahead in this regard both in the
techniques that have been developed and in the involvement of the population in
the awareness-raising and preparedness processes. In most cases, it is not
earthquakes or other natural phenomena that kill but it is the buildings and
infrastructures that men themselves have built. And when it is countries in a
situation of conflict that are affected, as in north-eastern Syria, there is no
need to ask the question whether the seismic standards are in force and are
respected there (because we all already know the answer, i.e. “No!”).
This same region has,
on the other hand, an extraordinary humanitarian intervention force, the Syrian
Civil Defense or the White Helmets. Originally, in 2011, there were groups of
men and women who formed spontaneously to make themselves useful to a
population deprived of public services in areas lost to the Al Asad regime,
therefore suffering the bombardments of the latter with the support of the
Russian air force. Today, the White Helmets are a seasoned non-political organization,
ready to intervene, but they do not have the necessary support. For example,
the United Nations continues to prioritize channeling its aid through the Al
Asad regime. Not only do victims in northeast Syria risk never receiving timely
relief, but it could be diverted elsewhere.
The urgency of
preparing and empowering those on the ground locally in advance so that they
can respond quickly is also evident from what happened in Germany with the
floods in 2021 and in France and Spain with forest fires in 2020. And
especially with the recent floods in Pakistan, directly linked to climate
change.
The [personal] investment
of volunteers and local professionals, whether firefighters, medical services
or humanitarian relief workers, men and women, is not a luxury, but a
necessity. They must have access to everything they need, without delay in
order to quickly reach the populations they know better than anyone. Otherwise,
donations and other acts of solidarity, while essential, will not be of much
use in time.
Who is not heartbroken
seeing a survivor crying, holding the hand of his lifeless little girl, who
lies under the ruins of a building, and the father who cannot part away from
her? Otherwise, there is the image of this mother who is inconsolable, because
she lost her son who left for a pilgrimage, but who will not come back. To God
we all truly belong, and to Him we will certainly return. We must help those in
need as much as possible, and above all do what is within our means so that
buildings and infrastructures, and everything built by men, do not become
sources of public danger. We must also act so that access to aid following
disasters is not in itself a human calamity.
Concretely, what to do
on our island, and also in Rodrigues, Agalega, Saint-Brandon and the Chagos,
while waiting for the return of its inhabitants? The accidents and incidents we
witness, such as the one involving pilgrims to Grand-Bassin, should wake us up.
There are three priorities, in short. First, build by always taking into
account the limits that nature imposes on us, whether it is the risk of natural
disasters or the impacts of climate change such as torrential rains. Sometimes,
the limits are human, they should not be ignored either. Only our [i.e.
mankind’s] love for the power, the glory and the possessions of this world, as
well as for its pleasures, its appearances and its futilities, seem limitless.
Second, train
volunteers and professionals adequately, and equip them, especially those who
have access to the field, so that they are the first to intervene without
delay. Finally, awareness, decision-making and leadership are critical in
crisis management: we must reinvent our local communities so that they are able
to act correctly without eternally waiting for orders from the top of a hyper-centralized
hierarchy.
A few years ago, in the Budget speech (at the level of our island), an economy of life was announced. This is what we need today. More than economic or even sustainable development, there is an urgent need for true sustainability in everything we want to build. Trust in God is essential because it is not only God Who has a responsibility towards His creation, but we also have the duty to put everything in order and help our fellow human beings and our environment. And in the end, we have to regulate ourselves so that we are able to fulfill all the divine commandments, and to help our neighbours without ulterior motives and without any thirst for power. It is a selfless sacrifice that God asks of us. Insha-Allah, may Allah help us to accomplish what He expects of us, with confidence in Him and in our own ability to change the world with our efforts, our prayers, and a pure heart, Insha-Allah.