As the relief effort continues following in the devastating Bam earthquake, the Iranian press and public are asking tough questions about the government's lack of a comprehensive disaster response plan. Straddling several major seismic fault lines and with a history of deadly quakes, Iranians are justifiably asking: why weren't we better prepared?
An Iran Daily editorial summed up the prevailing popular sentiment: "Men, women, and children dying in the thousands only because the state machinery was ill-prepared for natural disasters is mind-boggling." Iranians, quoted by local and international news organizations, expressed a mingling of grief and anger over the over 30,000 casualties caused by the December 26 quake. "Our government only gives us slogans," said one frustrated Iranian to a local reporter. "But they don't give us proper building codes."
The normally mundane topics such as building codes, the regulation of construction companies, and municipal oversight of economic development, have become hot topics of debate in Iran in the aftermath of the Bam tragedy. The reformist Sharq newspaper derided the country's construction firms: "They only think about how to turn one dollar into two
Editor's note:
Afshin Molavi, the author of Persian Pilgrimages, writes frequently on Iran for EurasiaNet.
