Floods inundating the desert

The world's climate has indeed taken an entirely different turn. Even the much fabled deserts in the Middle East are now experiencing storms, floods and torrential rains. Which never happened many centuries before. These are unprecedented and are sending Arabs either into shock or in exuberant glee, dancing in the rain, shouting their thanks to Allah.

But these floods and storms are bringing death and suffering, too, to all Middle Eastern people.

The Arab Times, the leading broad-sheet in the Gulf Area, has reported that in Saudi Arabia alone, 103 people died in one day and another 1,400 people have been rescued from the onslaught of storms and floods in the kingdom.

Many of the victims were reported to have died due to drowning or killed by collapsing bridges and crashing in the midst of stormy weather.

People suing governments

In Saudi Arabia, a lawyer was reported to be filing a damage suit against the city of Jeddah, in a rare display of outrage for the government's failure to protect the citizens from the ravages of natural calamity.

It was reported in The Arab Times that lawyer Walid Abu Al Kheir has assured that many families would join the suit, which alleged massive mismanagement of the city's public works construction, resulting to poor sewerage infrastructure and outmoded systems. And that is a good news, after all.

There is a poster in Facebook entitled "Popular campaign to save the city of Jeddah". The Saudis are using the latest computer technology to campaign for better disaster preparedness in order to protect themselves.

Again, this is entirely unprecedented. It would appear that the disasters are pushing people to empowerment.

* * *

Email: [email protected]