Showing posts with label Boeing CH-47 Chinook. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Boeing CH-47 Chinook. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

A Looming Disaster

The monsoon is going to be tough.

 
one month after the disaster the situation in the affected areas is an unimagined nightmare...... 70 Village Development Committees (VDCs) have received no relief ..... These VDCs are administrative units, each covering several square kilometres and including perhaps 1,000 households, and many thousands of people. They have very little food or shelter. ....... the mess that Nepal was already living with. ..... Many of the worst affected areas received little, or almost nothing, in terms of government or donor-driven support even before the earthquake. ..... There has always been an incompetent administration and political class, which is obsessed with control of resources, but callous in its lack of urgency in providing for needy rural people. ...... the army's top leadership has displayed its undue power over the civilian government, and its chauvinism, by blocking the deployment of British Chinook helicopters which would have been invaluable to the relief effort. ....... Western donors, who are perceived to want to undermine the status of the dominant sections of society. ..... The donors were providing over $1bn a year to Nepal before the disaster, around 70 percent of it channelled through the government system. But, while the donors behave like they have all the answers, they've never been able to deliver on their rhetoric. ....... They are, in fact, as deeply entangled in the dysfunction, and as much a part of the mess as everyone else. The complete failure of the multimillion dollar "earthquake preparedness" schemes of recent years is only one obvious and topical example....... The government is seeking $10bn in reconstruction funds........ One major scheme of the past decade - designed to fund infrastructure construction - was called the Local Government and Community Development Programme. This delivered hundreds of millions of dollars through complex, donor-designed systems. In the absence of an elected local government, committees of unelected politicians called "All Party Mechanisms" misused vast sums intended for the poor, for the benefit of themselves and their cronies. There is once again talk of reviving All Party Mechanisms now. ....... One of the NPTF's programmes was intended to provide compensation to victims of Nepal's conflict. In practice, many genuine victims received nothing, while district-level politicians and administrators gave the money to local supporters. This is worth remembering now when it comes to earthquake victims. ......

Giving reconstruction funds directly to survivors could cut out a great deal of corruption and administrative waste, and give true meaning to the rhetoric of "transparency" and "empowering beneficiaries"

Friday, May 22, 2015

The Chinook Mistake Was An Impeachable Offense

And if the Nepal Army had anything to do with it, I think that criminal act negates 50% of the good work they have done in the aftermath of the earthquake. The Chinook was so badly needed. This is not a time to emphasize the chain of command. This was and is the time to take relief supplies from the Kathmandu airport straight to the villages. The Chinook deliberate mistake is enough reason for Sushil Koirala to resign. How dare the Nepal Army play asinine politics with the best relief helicopters money can buy at this time of tragedy?
 
In a town called Dhap, so many animal carcasses were trapped in wrecked buildings that the whole stretch of road reeked of decay, and people jogged by with handkerchiefs clamped over their mouths. ...... The families from Dhap were huddled in a schoolhouse, their eyes wide: If they even approached the rock piles that had been their homes, flies swarmed around them in such numbers that they turned back. Here I saw, for the first time in Nepal, something like despair. As we passed that town, I saw a woman sitting on a hillside, staring into empty space, as if part of her had already left this earth.

Monday, May 18, 2015

The Chinook Controversy: Crowded Airport: Lame Excuse



Nepal's PM: Ban On RAF Chinooks Is Not Politics
The Prime Minister tells Sky News the UK's heavy lift helicopters were refused permission to land because the airport is crowded..... Nepal's Prime Minister has added confusion to the debacle over permission for British Chinook helicopters to fly in Nepal. ...... In a somewhat confused answer, he said that the airport was crowded and that Nepal's terrain was difficult, suggesting that would cause problems for the Chinooks. ..... "We have had a very good discussion with the British Prime Minister only yesterday, so I have told him, 'You know, you have visited our airport, how crowded it is.' Not only that - we have one runway and it's so crowded and I told him that and not only that: the engineers, the capacity, the load capacity, 190 tonnes - the heavier choppers. It has become very difficult," he said...... "Our terrain is so difficult, you know... So I have explained everything to [David Cameron] and it is closed now."........ Prior to this comment, the Nepalese government had said it did not want the Chinooks to take part in the earthquake recovery because of concerns that the huge downdraft from their twin rotors would damage land and housing........ This concern was dismissed by the British military...... the helicopters would not need to land on the airport's surfaced area. They could operate from the ample open grass space around it. ...... The cost of flying them to the region, keeping them on the ground in India as well as accommodating the thirty to forty crew and maintenance teams has been met by the UK. ...... Chinooks are the workhorse of the Royal Air Force and have frequently been used for humanitarian relief operations....... They can carry a load of about 10 tonnes. They are designed to carry 55 soldiers but for evacuation purposes they can carry up to 70 people........

Their load capacity and their manoeuvrability are ideal for the challenges facing the people of Nepal. Many communities remain stranded and aid agencies have repeatedly complained of a lack of helicopters. Small civilian helicopters owned by local tour firms are currently carrying out a significant number of the recovery missions and are flying dangerously overloaded.



That Little Chinook Detail
The Foreign Minister Confirms My Chinook Suspicion
Bring In The Chinooks

I am not harping on the Chinook because I know a ton about the machine. I don't. I know little, much of it I learned this past week. But for me this is the tip of the iceberg. The dysfunctional Nepal Government that was in place in Nepal, if it does not fundamentally mend its ways, is going to mess up the relief and reconstruction work. The same old, same old will not work. But there's every sign they are hellbent on keeping with the same old, same old.

The Chinook could land anywhere in Nepal, airport, no airport, does not matter. It might just be the perfect air vehicle at this point in time for Nepal's relief work as it battles the onset of monsoon. There are tents and supplies that need to reach remote villages. There is no other way to get it done. If the Chinook can land anywhere in Nepal, it does not need to land at the Kathmandu airport. So crowded airport is a really lame excuse.














Sunday, May 17, 2015

That Little Chinook Detail

Gordon Brown: Ruthless $570-Per-Child Traffickers Exploit Nepal Tragedy

I am really trying to understand this one. If you are trying to dig up people who might be alive but buried underneath, saying it has been a week, 10 days, and the chances anyone survived has gone down a lot makes sense, I guess. But even that line of thinking was challenged by the second big earthquake that crossed 7 on the Richter scale.

But monsoon is fast approaching, and food, shelter, and other relief supplies have not reached the remote villages. The Chinooks are perfect for that. I think they are the very best. The World Food Program asked for them.

The Foreign Minister, a CPN UML guy, came out saying, the way for a country like the UK to help is, put your cash into the Prime Minister's Relief Fund, from there it goes to the Home Ministry, run by Bamdev Gautam, a CPN UML guy, and from there it goes to the CDOs, Chief District Officers, and from there to the people. Chinooks damage that chain of command like a political earthquake. They take relief supplies from the Kathmandu airport straight to the villages, and no village is too remote for a Chinook.

Another line of thinking was, these Chinooks are so large, they actually damage houses. Well then, have them do their drops some distance from the villages. A 30 minute walk from the village is still much closer than the capital city or the district headquarters.

Then a Nepali Congress newspaper - Setopati - put out a story saying Prime Minister Sushil Koirala had talked to the British Prime Minister on the phone, and had held his own, and had brought great pride to the Nepali people in the process. Pride is good and all that, but there are better ways of bringing that about than messing up the logistics of relief.

A third line of thought made the Prime Minister look bad though. The Nepal Army Chief, unhappy that a Nepal Army honcho had been nabbed by the British Courts for civil war time crimes, made the PM refuse the Chinooks. So the Nepal Army Chief gives orders to the Nepal PM! Where's the pride in that?

Within days of this refusal, the Armed Police asked that a helicopter be bought for their needs so they can be more effective in relief work.

Send away three of the very best helicopters, then try to buy a new, small one.

This is dysfunction. This is not national pride. And if the Nepal Army Chief had anything to do with this, this is a case of the tail wagging the dog. The PM should be ordering the Army Chief, not the other way round.

The British government and citizens have been at the forefront of relief response. Why can't the Sushil Koirala government be at the forefront of receiving that help?

If you ask me, this is a hostage crisis. The corrupt elite in Kathmandu will not subject themselves to accountability and transparency. You could wait and watch people die, or you could give in and give aid and let them deal with it any way they want. When they are not outright taking a big bite out of it, they are using it as a tool of political patronage.

Nepal has a bigger presence in the British imagination than the American imagination for historic reasons.

Chinooks are big like airplanes, but they can land or hover like helicopters, because they are, well, helicopters.



RAF Chinooks recalled from Nepal quake effort without flying a mission
the three helicopters, each capable of carrying up to 55 soldiers plus equipment ..... “These highly versatile Royal Air Force helicopters and UN aircraft will mean life-saving aid supplies can be moved around Nepal and reach people in remote communities cut off by the earthquake who are in desperate need.” ...... “We are disappointed that our Chinooks will not be supporting the World Food Programme’s request for help in distributing aid ...... “The UK has been the biggest bilateral aid donor to Nepal in response to last month’s devastating earthquake, contributing over £23m, and we will continue to support the ongoing relief effort.” ..... Gurkha engineers from the British Army and a 60-strong search and rescue team have also been sent to Nepal from the UK, as well as more than 18 tonnes of shelter kits, lanterns and other essential supplies.
How can we ensure every penny of aid is accounted for in Nepal?
In the latest study by Transparency International in 2013, 90% of people surveyed in Nepal said political parties were corrupt or extremely corrupt and 85% said the same of public officials and civil servants, making these two groups the two weakest institutions in Nepal. ....... While the prime minister’s relief fund could help to better track and control aid so that it is strategically administered, it also comes with risks if there is no accountability or transparency. The fund has raised concerns with some who say that funnelling money this way risks politicising the aid distribution process. Money could end up where politicians want it, instead of where it is needed most. ....... The injection of large amounts of money into resource-poor economies where institutions have been damaged increases the opportunities for the abuse of power. ..... the aid coming into the country should be reported through the Financial Tracking System managed by the UN Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. ....... The website for the prime minister’s relief fund is another key piece in the transparency process, something that both citizens of Nepal and the aid community can use as a focal point of important information, if it can provide timely and relevant updates. A potential model was developed in the Philippines after the super typhoon of 2013.
One in four Britons have donated to DEC Nepal earthquake appeal

One in four Britons donated

..... the key drivers that made people donate were the large number of people impacted by the earthquake (55% of respondents cited this) and the belief that international aid is essential for helping the disaster (54%). ........ The DEC’s appeal has raised more than £50m in its first fortnight, which is higher than the £34m raised in the first three months of its Ebola appeal. ..... “Appeals triggered by earthquakes and the associated tsunami generally raise the highest totals. These are sudden and devastating events, producing a very high level of news coverage with shocking imagery. Quakes are seen as natural disasters and donors seem more likely to empathise in these cases than when we appeal in response to conflicts.” ........ 42% of respondents said that television was the most influential media channel in encouraging them to donate. The research also found that those aged between 25 and 34 were most likely to donate, with 32% in that age group doing so. ......... Cash has been the most common method of giving (32% of respondents donated in this way), followed by online channels (30%) and text messaging (22%).
Small charities are key to Nepal's recovery
It was the most terrifying experience I have ever had ..... We work directly with the Nepalese people and this way of working means we can get things done – no red tape and no bureaucracy. ...... We have much lower administrative costs, can act immediately and know how to spend money in ways that are best for remote communities. ........ The big agencies advertise on television and have prominence wherever people donate. It’s a pity that we cannot compete, when we are an organisation with deep, local roots who know and understand where the funding is needed.

Friday, May 15, 2015

Bring In The Chinooks


They don't have to go near the villages if the fear is they might bring down weak houses. They could land in valleys some distance from the villages. But these helicopters are the difference between no help at all and some help in most remote villages.

The authorities are saying no because (1) coordinating all the incoming help has been tough, but that is a bad excuse, the problem should be that not enough help is coming in, it can not be that too much help is seen coming in, there is a huge unmet need, (2) when you fly in relief materials from the Kathmandu airport, you are bypassing the Nepal government machinery - corrupt, inefficient, sub par - and that hurts a lot of feelings at many different levels, you are challenging many people's authorities, they don't fear collapsing houses, they fear what they see as a collapse in their authorities, they want all help to reach the poor through them, this helicopter feels too much like direct help, and (3) the bean counters in the Nepal Government think the money the UK government is going to spend on these Chinooks is money that the UK government might otherwise give directly to the Nepal government if the helicopters are not allowed, but if they allow the helicopters, there will be less money for them to play with.

The truth is, these helicopters are needed, badly so. The monsoon is at the doorsteps. The monsoon is the real earthquake. And it is on its way.