Re: Response from the office of Karnataka Chief Minister

[Guest guest]

Dear Chief Minister,

In the 21st Century the wonders of electronic mail means that human rights

issues become known to local, national and international members instananeously.

Many lives have been saved when an email alert has activated messages to senior

politicians or bureaucrats some of whom were not even aware that a problem was

playing out in their country or ministerial area of responsibility.

The down side of such capability is that it is never clear just how many people

will both read and respond on behalf of their brothers and sisters in trouble.

It is therefore unavoidable that target chief officers will find out very

quickly when the cat is amongst the canaries. While this process will generate a

significant once only hit, of hopefully enormous proportions depending on the

seriousness of the alert, it usually is a once only email and doesn't go on and

on from the same people.

The comfort that you can take from the deluge of single mails that arrived in

your in-box would seem to me to indicate that Karntaka and the welfare of all of

its people is very important to the local, interstate and wider global family.

That same support of course would be available to you and your government if you

were to raise an alert concerning something that affected your government's

capacity to care so please don't see it as an immature response. The facts were

very clear. The correspondence from the Chief Medical Officer who, as a medical

doctor presumably, was in fact issued to the agency and he or she like so many

other doctors in India really need to attend some in-service training so they

will not fan hysteria where there is no need for an hysteric reaction to

occur.

I have to say that I was not one of the people who contacted your office but I

have great pleasure in writing to you now from Melbourne, Australia but

hopefully soon again in India and of course for some time, in Karntaka again.

It would be very empowering and encouraging if you could try to plan an official

visit to the project in the OMBR layout. Your presence will bless the residents

whose lives will probably end there and it will also dispel some of the fears

of the people who live nearby.

Apart from forest dwelling brigands and pickpockets who work tourists over on

the State Rail network Bangalore in particular was a highlight of my recent

visit and I look forward to returning again quite soon.

Geoff Heaviside

SUNSHINE 3020 Australia

E-mail: <gheaviside@...>