Trial by Fire and Ransom

My faith in the last vestiges of humanity, particular in our part of the world, evaporated yesterday. I was faced with a revelation so shocking and harrowing that I am as yet unable to find adjectives that truly depict the horror within.

It was not that long ago that over 300 people lost their lives in the tragic inferno at a textile factory in Karachi. This post, largely an out-loud rant, is not about the owners and their apparent lack of regard for safety of their workers or even how they went to Larkana, of all places, to get bail. No, this is about a sin bigger than theirs.

Soon after the fire, the Government announced compensation for the families of the victims. Organizations like KESC also stepped forward to provide assistance through financial relief. It was the least that the public and private sector could do to help those whose lives had been shredded by the shrapnel of this fire. The pain of losing someone to a death like this is not something that one accepts easily - in fact, many of the relatives are only now beginning to come to terms with their loss and are beginning to put the pieces of the lives back together. Helping them along in this process, believe it or not, are political parties who have started visiting them, demanding their "share" of the compensation. Or 'bhatta' as it is more commonly known. What better reality check than to be thrust back into the vagaries of everyday life in Karachi - and what better way to do that, then to demand bhatta from the relatives of fire victims?

I was also told that there are two families who have already received compensation and people from their homes have already been kidnapped for ransom. An effective collection technique and ominous warning to those who may have second thoughts about cooperating. Perhaps you have, by now, understood the reason for my sheer horror at this bizarre situation. And if you haven't, then you probably aren't entirely to blame because frankly, we have all been thoroughly desensitized to such things, much like agents of secret agencies are repeatedly exposed to scenarios of death and destruction to remove all evidence of fear from their beings.

The saddest part is that these families, barely back on their feet and now reeling from this latest slap of fate, have no where to go. It's all very well for me to come online and rant about it and for you to read it, but none of this will make the problem go away. These poor people cannot go to the police, for obvious reasons. They cannot go to rival political parties for help, for self-preservation reasons. And they cannot go to the state, because the state doesn't give a damn.

And so they will probably pay up and silently lament their trials, first by fire and then by ransom.