A nation’s development cannot be equated with economic progress alone.
It does not matter how high a country’s GDP or per capita income is or how standards of living have improved, at the end of the day, if we do not change the way we value human life, all of that means nothing.
Economic growth and stability are no doubt indicators of a country’s developmental status. However, the fact that -- despite what we witnessed in Nimtoli nine years ago and Chawkbazar earlier this year, and the 16,000 fire incidents which have taken place over the last 10 years -- we have continued to flagrantly disregard the risks involved with our infrastructure means that, while we have progressed economically, we have not done the same elsewhere.
For us to become a middle-income nation, merely increasing the amount of money we have is not enough. We must also have a middle-income mind-set, one which can no longer treat human life without the dignity it so deserves.
Basic safety precautions are a necessity that a country can only ignore when it sees the potential risk of losing human lives as being acceptable.
We as a nation must decide that our current state of affairs is unacceptable.
The fact that we have had four major fire incidents in the course of a couple of days is indicative of the hazardous situations in which we continue to survive.
This can no longer stand, and we as a nation must decide to value human life enough to take safety precautions, no matter how small the risk.
