Sandy hit the US East Coast Monday evening. Its effect started Monday morning. We live in Connecticut and lost power Monday morning. The Tri States which consists of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. The devastation was huge. More than 100 lives lost. An estimated damage of over 50 billion, a number that seems to keep rising. As of today, 6 days after the storm hit, there's no power in over 1.5 million homes, trains and the New York subway are still not fully functional and schools which were closed this week are also closed tomorrow and Tuesday.
We got power on Thursday and even today more than 25% of the people in our area don't have power. But this article is not about the devastation. A million articles have already been written. This is about Attitudes. Attitude towards Calamities. And I've now been through a major calamity in India and the US. The Mumbai Flooding in August 2005 and Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
In both of these events, I'd like to compare the 4 major groups who are part of the event. The Common People, the Service Providers, the Media and the Politicians.
The common people in Mumbai came out with flying colors. They went out of their way and even took significant risks to rescue fellow citizens. They took a lot of personal hardship to reduce the hardship to people they did not know. The American people were almost as good. They behaved in a kind and understanding manner and did everything expected of a common man. While they get 10 on 10, the Mumbai common man gets a 11.
The service providers have several challenges they have to go through to make sure that everything works the way its expected to. In both cases the challenges and the expectations are relatively similar. In both cases they did a reasonable job. Could have been a lot better, but definitely competent. I would rate both as a 7 on 10.
The media in the Mumbai flooding, played an extremely negative role. They highlighted the negatives and gave little coverage to several positives. The US media seemed to focus on the positives. Even the negatives had the positive side projected. At the end of the day, the media is able to create perceptions and influence thinking. In Mumbai, all I heard was how corrupt and incompetent everyone was. Here the media as well as individuals keep talking about what a wonderful job everyone is doing. Surprising when factually, the service providers in Mumbai did as good if not a far better job than here. Indian Media - 2, US Media - 9.
And finally the politicians. The biggest difference is that in India, they visit but don't speak to the common man, either directly or through the media. Here they don't stop speaking. And communication is good. Everyone from the President to the Mayors of the affected towns were on TV. Giving updates, offering support and solutions. Indian Politician - 1, US Politician - 7.
And this seems to be true not only in unexpected events, but in day to day life. We in India want to talk about the problem and how everyone else is not doing their job. Its high time we stop criticizing and reflect on what Mahatma Gandhi wisely said,
"You must be the change you wish to see."
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