We are the life forms with highest maintenance requirements. We need governments, schools, factories, banks, electricity, networks, vehicles, fuel and what have you. And above all we need a home with its numerous furnishings and fittings to meet our persistent daily maintenance requirements many of which also require privacy. I am not aware if any other animal needs such paraphernalia.
And so we build our houses, perhaps the most expensive of our possessions, on terra firma. It is a bit surprising that in this ever changing world where nothing stays still, we take the terra firma as firm, still and stable enough to place our most important asset on it. Thankfully it stays that way at many places and for relatively long times. But when it gets shifty, it brings down our abodes like a house of cards! The plight of being without a house and all the amenities that it provides must be no less terrible than getting trapped inside a fallen one.
One silver lining in this cloud of calamity is that such unfortunate incidents also bring out the best amongst fellow human beings whom we often see as guided by greed and selfishness alone in normal times.
It also brings out the need for governments to enforce bylaws for compulsorily making buildings earthquake proof in higher seismic risk zones to the extent that the current technology is capable of. Given the nexus between builders and politicians this may prove to be more difficult to achieve than providing relief to the unfortunate and hapless victims.
For luckier people who escaped the brunt of the quake - and I am one - the tremors have served as an urgent reminder to renew our house insurance and ensure that the policy doesn't consider earthquake as an act of God which cannot be insured against (as in OMG!)
And so we build our houses, perhaps the most expensive of our possessions, on terra firma. It is a bit surprising that in this ever changing world where nothing stays still, we take the terra firma as firm, still and stable enough to place our most important asset on it. Thankfully it stays that way at many places and for relatively long times. But when it gets shifty, it brings down our abodes like a house of cards! The plight of being without a house and all the amenities that it provides must be no less terrible than getting trapped inside a fallen one.
One silver lining in this cloud of calamity is that such unfortunate incidents also bring out the best amongst fellow human beings whom we often see as guided by greed and selfishness alone in normal times.
It also brings out the need for governments to enforce bylaws for compulsorily making buildings earthquake proof in higher seismic risk zones to the extent that the current technology is capable of. Given the nexus between builders and politicians this may prove to be more difficult to achieve than providing relief to the unfortunate and hapless victims.
For luckier people who escaped the brunt of the quake - and I am one - the tremors have served as an urgent reminder to renew our house insurance and ensure that the policy doesn't consider earthquake as an act of God which cannot be insured against (as in OMG!)
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