LUMS SSE will not publish a full newsletter for October 2005 in view of the tragic earthquake of October 8, 2005. Our next full version will be in January 2006, at which point we will move to quarterly newsletters.

A few reasons necessitate this decision. First, there have been very few people in the country who have not been affected either directly, or by a few degrees of separation by this massive tragedy. Second, people at LUMS, as the rest of the country, are devoting significant time and energy to volunteer efforts, including resource mobilization, policy efforts, and direct relief work in forward areas. Third, this disaster has jarred the consciousness of the nation, and we feel we should not compete for attention so soon when people’s energies are focused on vastly more important things: relief, awareness, and long-term planning for rehabilitation.

Nature has been specially harsh over the last year. From last December’s tsunami, to hurricane Katrina, and the Pakistani earthquake, to name only a few, our collective resilience is being tested. Victims of course know no racial, religious, economic or national boundaries, and our hearts go out to all who have and are suffering. Consolation in words seems the most inadequate response; we hope our collective actions match our empathy. The signs are positive. For the tsunami and Katrina, the world mobilized rapidly; and already civil society in Pakistan has responded marvelously to the challenge, showing the deep and pervasive humanity that binds us all.

LUMS is also trying to do whatever it can. At the institutional level, as early as October 10, LUMS Faculty, Staff and Students formed the LUMS Disaster Relief Fund, for raising funds alone as well as in partnership with effective relief agencies. Several committees were also formed and are working on long-term relief as well as finance and media support. At the group and individual level, efforts like RISEPAK (www.risepak.com, with multiple international institutions) were seen as international prototypes (for instance by the Worldbank). And at a still more personal level, LUMS faculty and students went in teams to survey villages in Kashmir that had been cut off by landslides, relaying back the villagers’ needs and taking relief trucks to the areas. There are many others at LUMS, who are working outside of LUMS-centered initiatives, as parts of multiple other organizations. The disaster response at LUMS, as by the rest of civil society, has certainly been exemplary.

But this is also a time to reflect. We need to rethink research universities’ role in preparation and response for large-scale emergencies. For this is surely not the last large-scale hazard we will have to confront. Already the massive public health dangers of the Avian Flu are looming large over the Asian continent, both in terms of its human and economic costs. We need to figure out how institutions like the LUMS SSE can help formulate and execute public responses to such potential emergencies.

We wish all our friends the best at this difficult time.