The thing with Talking, and then walking it...

So, its been more than a week now, and still little or no response from our dear elected leaders, that were chosen, (or least we are told) to represent our interests. It's a democracy after all, power to the people and all that jazz..

A week after the tragedy, people still are holding candlelight vigils, and demonstrations, and everything else that involves them congregating in a group, and very few are actually acting. The NGOs at this point should latch on to this, or least, there should be some citizens groups forming out of this situation, to put a handle on it, build up a measured response, and rack up the pressure on politicians to affect a change. All I've heard, on social networks, and blogs are whispers of action, that fade into thin air.

As for the response from the politicians, there was a pansy little address from our PMOI, which made it look like someone from his entourage had a gun to his head, and he was reading from a prepared speech, without a trace of concern, or genuine regret, that the country he so magnanimously chose to represent, was attacked so brazenly. The NSA has all but disappeared, and our MEA , Mr. Mukherjee, chose to dial up the rhetoric when Ms. Rice was in New Delhi, and then fell silent, when Ms. Rice went to Pakistan, to showboat with some others. Heartening, yes? A couple of politicians from Maharashtra were fired, for bumbling their way through this crisis, yes, for the way they acted during this crisis, not the way they acted before it. Not for the way they behaved before the security situation in the crown jewel of the country had some to such paltry heights, but for misplacing a couple of words in a press conference, as was the case with R. R. Patil, and with Mr. Vilasrao Deshmukh, who could possibly blame him for running the state into the ground, letting something like this happen, by keeping the local security services so woefully inept, and now, wanting to make a movie out of it?

The next crop of politicians, that replaced our esteemed leaders, dont seem to be much better off as well. Maybe that's because politicians in our country are all in the same mindset? I wonder what "Chance pe dance karna" means to them.

I've been sending out an email asking for suggestions of next steps, the text of which I will post on this blog shortly, followed by the responses I've gotten to date. The shocking part seems to be that out of the 150+ people I sent these emails to, less than 10% have responded. Seems like people are just accepting these as just another terror attack, just another unfortunate 180+ people dead, just another 600 injured, just another group of families ripped apart, just another failure to deny an attack, and just another failure to respond effectively to it. Seems like, the message from the majority of the people seems to be, "Just another part of being an Indian".

See for the following groups, the thing about talking is, it needs to be followed up with someone walking it.

1. For the politicians, they need to dial down the rhetoric, and take a long hard look at what brought the country in general to this situation, and how they can fix it with the help of the people. Else, the people will do it for them, and they can all go dig a hole.
2. For the people, they need to stop accepting this as a part of their life, everything from the fear of an attack, to the attack itself, and then the response to it. They need to take the response to this attack seriously, and use it as a foundation to build out a plan to make a real change in their community, their city, and ultimately their nation.

Post the Carnage, a time for reflection, a time for solutions

So, the most audacious terror attacks in Mumbai are now over, and the post catastrophe process begins. For the media, its been disseminating every piece of information they can find, and they are doing a pretty darn good job of it. The politicians as usual are building up rhetoric, whether it's followed up with action remains to be seen. The intelligence agencies are trying to make sense of what hit them, and how they can change. I shall try and do a post on each one of these aspects, but the first one is the most important. 

What, as regular citizens can we do to not let this happen again, or at the very least, reduce the chances of us getting caught unawares in a situation like this, be it Mumbai, Delhi or Guwahati.

Here's some ideas about how we can plan and implement community programs to help bring the people closer together, and find solutions to the issues facing us at this point.

Create a petition to the Indian Courts, get help from the sheriff. Ask the politicians to provide an accountable deadline based plan to how they plan on improving the security of the country as a whole.

I am hoping that if enough media rallies arnd around this cause, and we time it right, we will be able to get the support necessary to get the local courts to act. 

Get a petition going to the United Nations, and our Federal government to put diplomatic pressure on Pakistan to get this issue into the spotlight of the international diplomatic community.

Politics in this day and age needs to be infused with young blood which seems to be sorely missing. 

The current situation in the political world contributes to the lack of world awareness, complacency, and the narrow mindedness that has come to be hallmarks of indian administration. The same old govt office desk workers mentality. Politics needs to be cleaned of people with criminal records. How can you commit a crime, and then pretend to lead a section of society? Get students and friends together and get them involved in political education first for themselves, and then for the people. This should be done without any political affiliation whatsoever.

For the youth, I would look at getting us together, and building little focus groups, that specialize in one area of responsibility, be it education for the poor, instilling a sense of national pride in the community, handling media for a certain awareness program or be it coordinating with local agencies and building community watch programs to help police neighborhoods. All of this can be done on voluntary time, with little or no effort from a person's daily routine. The most important thing is moving forward, we refuse to accept being erased from the world by a crazy lunatic with a gun, without trying to do something about it, which means tomorrow's rally should be the beginning of a series of steps that we, as responsible citizens take to fortify our society.

All of this will go a long way in getting a better awareness of the city/ community we live in, and will create small atoms of responsibility that adhere to form a bigger sphere of influence.