May 28, 2012 was one of the saddest days in Qatar's history, a day that we will always remember, a day we lost some of our beloved ones who lived on this land, a day we lost a couple of brave men. A heart-breaking day indeed.
Who could’ve thought that such an incident would happen in Doha, knowing the fact that Qatar is a safe place, compared to many countries even within the region. However, I still can’t wrap my head around the fact of what had happened at Vallaggio mall.
What even hurts me the more is that I am thousands of miles away from Doha and am not being able to share my condolences with the victims’ families and join Qatar in mourning .
As horrific and tragic this incident can be, this is also a wake-up call to look around us and see the first signs of what can be dangerous and what can lead to any hazard. This must also make business owners to think about safety measures and to put the time, money and effort to invest into measures to prevent such incidents.
As a result of all this, stricter regulations should be enforced by the Ministry of Municipality and regular checks should take place on businesses around the country, whether they are in a mall or just around the corner on the street we live in.
Authorities in Qatar should pay close attention whether business owners are meeting safety regulations and also teach people the culture of safety, how to act and what to do in case of emergencies.
Qatar, within few years, will be hosting the World Cup and because of that it is important that good safety culture is ingrained properly in our minds. Prevention is always better than cure but still sometimes things could go wrong without any warning. Therefore people need to learn how to be prepared and to act in time.
Another lesson that can be learned from this is how quick was the authorities’ response to the emergency and whether there is room for improvement there.
Rumours spread like wildfire after the tragedy, especially on social media sites. People spreading inaccurate news at such a hard time have no heart or feelings for anyone. This irresponsible behaviour is totally unacceptable. It doesn’t help anyone; in fact, it can make things worse and, for me being outside Qatar, I wanted to hear an official account from a reliable source but unfortunately, many of what I had read were plain rumours and unconfirmed news.
And since I am not in Qatar, it kept me worried and I was drawing conclusions based on some of the rumours that were all over the social media.
That got worst when I turned into our “national TV” and there was no proper coverage of the fire, and everything seemed normal, according to it. It continued showing normal programmes sticking to its schedule, as if nothing had happened. It was unbelievable.
With no reliable source of news, some sections took the chance to spread falsehoods about Qatar. A Syrian regime agency even proclaimed that an opposition group was responsible for the fire. It was ironic that it could say such a baseless thing when the Syrian regime was crumbling, killing its own people and using anything to cover up its crimes.
Many things should have said and done, before, during and after this tragic incident, but we can’t bring back the past. However, we can control the future and prevent anything like that from happening again. It might the hard and toughest way to learn, but it is surly one lesson that we will never forget.
l Reem.alharmi@gmail.com