I'm a bit surprised that I have not seen a single e-mail about the
supercyclone in Orissa, India from anyone in this forum. I assume
that I have not missed any e-mail if there was any.
Based on what I have read and heard about the cyclone, millions are
facing starvation, thousands have died, crops have been destroyed on
thousands of acres of land, roAds and bridges have been washed
away; there is mass looting and rioting by hungry people, and so on.
Is this not worth discussing at all?
The cyclone is interesting intellectually. News reports show several
interesting things already: how effects of the cyclone have been
class-specific, how the state has been slow in responding to the
crisis, how some people in some areas prefer the army to the
civilians in terms of relief operations, etc etc.
Are critical geographers not showing their uncritical side: their
spatial parochialism? Are the 'distant strangers' in
Orissa too distant to talk about? Or perhaps there is nothing to
deconstruct?
Raju
Raju J Das
Department of Geography
University of Dundee
Dundee DD1 4HN
United Kingdom
Phone 01382 348073 work
01382 737097 home
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