I was listening to 2 presenters arguing on radio, as they are employed to do nowadays. (the radio stations have figured that we have a lot of music at home and very few arguments, and therefore we look forward to hearing less of music and more of arguing in their stations). The presenters were talking about how we need to help people displaced by perennial floods in Budalangi.
It got me wondering about Budalangi, and its perennial floods. After a few seconds of thoughts, I was quite bewildered. What puzzled me, is that the floods are a predictable event. Matter of fact, by December, we will be blessed with floods at the same place. So if the floods are predictable, how come that there are people who are affected all the time? The floods occur due to the river bursting banks. So for people to be affected every time, the river must expand every time it floods to areas it has never flooded before. The alternative is that the victims move back to their homes every time the floods subside. Given that option one is not possible; I will go with the second one.
It is therefore surprising, that people live and occupy a rivers flood plain, and cross their fingers that the floods will not come calling. This is quite strange. Who don’t this people look for alternative accommodation which is not flood prone? Somebody who hails from the constituency says that land attachment and traditions are to blame. Apparently, people believe that they have a right to won land, such a fundamental one, that they are willing to die to own land. To them, it is better to be dead land owner than a living landless person.
That is OK with me. But can't this people change their living habits to fit the flooding of the river, rather than hope that the river will stop flooding one day. Wouldn’t it be quite easy for the people to live in villages, or towns, in areas where it doesn’t flood and only farm in the flood prone areas? This way, they would still own their land, but would only farm on it and not live on it, such that only their crops were prone to flooding.
As far as the capitalist government advocates for free land policy, shouldn’t it come up with a policy that controls occupation of such land? Well, if this was communist (which I think is an invite only form of capitalist government as I will discuss in posts to come) china, the government would have long forced this people out of this self-made “disaster” and reallocated them to safer areas. I call it a self made disaster because of its 100% predictability rate!
Someone flood some reasonable help to this people of Budalangi!
It got me wondering about Budalangi, and its perennial floods. After a few seconds of thoughts, I was quite bewildered. What puzzled me, is that the floods are a predictable event. Matter of fact, by December, we will be blessed with floods at the same place. So if the floods are predictable, how come that there are people who are affected all the time? The floods occur due to the river bursting banks. So for people to be affected every time, the river must expand every time it floods to areas it has never flooded before. The alternative is that the victims move back to their homes every time the floods subside. Given that option one is not possible; I will go with the second one.
It is therefore surprising, that people live and occupy a rivers flood plain, and cross their fingers that the floods will not come calling. This is quite strange. Who don’t this people look for alternative accommodation which is not flood prone? Somebody who hails from the constituency says that land attachment and traditions are to blame. Apparently, people believe that they have a right to won land, such a fundamental one, that they are willing to die to own land. To them, it is better to be dead land owner than a living landless person.
That is OK with me. But can't this people change their living habits to fit the flooding of the river, rather than hope that the river will stop flooding one day. Wouldn’t it be quite easy for the people to live in villages, or towns, in areas where it doesn’t flood and only farm in the flood prone areas? This way, they would still own their land, but would only farm on it and not live on it, such that only their crops were prone to flooding.
As far as the capitalist government advocates for free land policy, shouldn’t it come up with a policy that controls occupation of such land? Well, if this was communist (which I think is an invite only form of capitalist government as I will discuss in posts to come) china, the government would have long forced this people out of this self-made “disaster” and reallocated them to safer areas. I call it a self made disaster because of its 100% predictability rate!
Someone flood some reasonable help to this people of Budalangi!
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