By Malek Arol Dhieu
Which one to first deal with, hunger or extreme heat? For hustlers, the extreme heat is unbearable. The sun rises at 5:00 AM instead of its usual time. So, by the time hustlers set foot out, it is already too hot. The hustlers who earn a living on working on documents from office to office are affected as heatwave blows them off. The hustlers who earn a living on manual work are severely affected as extreme heat and labour collaborate to dilapidate them.
Those whose cars, offices and houses have ACs think they are comfortable, but they are, too, affected as their co-workers without cars, offices and houses with ACs go absent from work because of this extreme heat. So, you find that everyone is affected in one way or another.
You need not to tell people to undress so that you confirm that they have lost the flesh. You simply notice it from the faces. With sunken eyes, prominent zygomatic bones and mandibles, dry lips and all that suggest emaciation, what comes into your mind? Definitely, what comes into your mind is either sickness or hunger.
People look like they were discharged from hospitals yesterday. People look wasted and lethargic, no energy at all. People are operating under a body system called “Reductive Adaptation System”. With reductive adaptation system, the body slows down and does less in order to allow survival on limited calories.
So, if the extreme heat strikes in such a situation, how many days can people spend alive? The little fluid in the body gets sucked by the heat. The little food, of course, half a meal, gets digested by the heat, instead of being digested by the digestive enzymes. You eat, drink and within 30 minutes, you feel like the last time you ate food was two days ago.
When two or more disasters hit people at the same time, the result is always catastrophic. When something is being described as “catastrophic”, it has a profound effect on the people. With the chronic hunger, people have starved beyond starvation.
Now, is closure of schools the solution? Is remaining indoors the solution? When one remains indoors, he is like someone being chased by a lion and when he climbs up the tree on the shore of the river, the snake chases him down. Wanting to throw himself into the river, he sees a crocodile waiting for him with its mouth wide open. So, death becomes inescapable. As one remains indoors, hunger attacks very seriously and when one goes out for hustling, heatwave strikes very mercilessly. So, survival becomes difficult. Many people, particularly children and elderly people, are succumbing to the hazards of extreme heat.
So, what then follows the directives from the Ministries of Education and Instructions, Environment and Forestry and Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Management, combined? Hunger and extreme heat are two different catastrophic disasters that need to be addressed as early as possible.
What is the government doing about this? If the government is unable to provide food, it should provide electricity and drinking water until when the extreme heat subsides. As a responsible government, there should at least be one time in a year where it tickles people to forge a smile. Where is that claimed care? It is one month plus now with this extreme heat and the pre-existing hunger, but the government looks somehow hesitant about the condition. Giving out directives is one thing, but making an intervention as a people’s government is another.
Thanks for reading “Sowing The Seed Of Truth”.