With the disaster in the gold mine in İliç, Erzincan, the question of whether we are negligent in taking the necessary precautions and conducting inspections before disasters has once again come to the agenda. In fact, this and some previous disasters reveal that we have serious deficiencies in these areas. Because the size of the landslide in this last disaster is enough to show that almost all the conditions for a disaster are present. As a matter of fact, some experts draw attention to the fact that there is a mistake in the placement of the soil and the high slope tendency.
Finally, it was observed that big cracks started to form at the points where the landslide occurred in the last one or two days, and some contractors who were doing work with their trucks withdrew their workers, saying that they could not work here. Otherwise, our human loss could have been higher. Despite this, no precautions were taken by the relevant authorities and nine of our citizens were unfortunately buried under the soil…
Now it remains for the state to appoint dozens of prosecutors and inspectors to determine where mistakes have been made and who is at fault… Whether the disaster will cause other problems will become clear in the coming days. In the meantime, work will stop there for a long time, investments will remain, expected gains will be cancelled, etc. These will be written as other financial losses. The reason is either not doing everything properly from the beginning and not taking the necessary precautions or not fully implementing the inspections!
Let me tell you an incident in the simplest way. It was about eight months ago. We were having tea with some friends in front of ADEMDER’s headquarters in Yakuplu. Two hundred metres away from us, the rough construction of a five-storey building was finished. One of our friends said, “I am afraid there will be an accident here soon. Almost no precautions are taken for the labourers”, he said. Indeed, before a week had passed, an accident occurred there and a worker lost his life.
In a sense, the accident had happened openly. The worker died. We don’t know if he was married or had children. But a home was destroyed. Moreover, the work was interrupted, and if there were any flats sold, the buyers were also victimised. In short, almost everyone involved, including the owner, suffered a great loss.
What would have happened if precautions had been taken? We don’t know that. But we are obliged to take precautions. Our first duty was to do the work properly and by calculating all accidents. When we do not do that, the accident becomes inevitable. Looking for a cause and solving that cause is useless. What is lost does not come back and national wealth is wasted.
Our ancestors have expressed it beautifully: “Who is defective in precaution finds an excuse for appreciation.” In other words, one should take the necessary precautions in advance in every work. People who fail to take precautions blame the consequences of this on bad luck or fate!… However, when we encounter an unexpected event, it is a requirement of reason, science and religion that we check out where we have been negligent instead of looking for the blame elsewhere…
It’s fate to take precautions!
When I was in high school in the 1970s, I used to read Türkiye newspaper every day. If there was a traffic accident news on the front page of the newspaper, the following spot sentences would be placed next to it:
“Citizen! What is fated happens. What happens in fate is created for a reason. In traffic accidents, the cause is carelessness. It is necessary to obey the cause, to pay attention. Taking precautions is also a part of destiny.”
What is destined to happen is created for a reason. In traffic accidents, the cause is carelessness. So you are bound to stick to the causes. If you do not fulfil it, in a sense you are inviting an accident.
The following statement must be written in the introduction of every textbook: “Carelessness is the cause of accidents and disasters!”
Unfortunately, we always wake up after accidents. The precautions we take remain on paper and we do not implement them, and before long we forget them as the maxim “human memory is doomed to forget”. Until a new disaster…
As a matter of fact, we did not give up building houses on water beds without experiencing dozens of disasters. We were able to realise fault lines after experiencing major earthquakes. After the 99 earthquake, which we called the disaster of the century, we carried out the urban transformation, which we saw as a recipe for salvation, at turtle speed. We stopped vital activities with our own hands. This time we were exposed to disasters that were considered the earthquake of the millennium. Only then did we realise that we had made a progress at a rate that we call a camel’s ear and that we ourselves had blocked our own path. We experienced many mining accidents as a result of negligence.
Were we such a nation? Of course not. When we look back at our history, we were the most cautious nation.
The logistic measures of our armies were taken in such a way that all the troubles that could be seen in the army such as hunger, thirst, etc. were reduced to almost non-existent.
The captain-general would testify to the sultan, “Sultan, if the sea caught fire, measures were taken in advance”.
Because the first condition of success was seen as precaution.
Like “living haphazardly without taking precautions”, if we think about why and how we have come to this mentality, two most important reasons will appear before us.
The first is alienation from our history and culture; the second is detachment from our religion. Even labelling our religion as backwardness and bigotry.
Abdulhamid II and caution
In the Ottoman Empire, the first electric car was brought to our country from England by Sultan Abdülhamid Han II. In 1888, the Sultan ordered the first electric car from the London Embassy. The first vehicle brought to Istanbul by sea was test-driven by the Minister of Finance of the period. Sultan Abdülhamid Khan also used this car for a while.
Thus, vehicles started to enter Istanbul traffic. The first person to bring a petrol-powered automobile to Istanbul was Züheyrzâde Ahmed Pasha, one of the notables of Basra, in 1895 when the Galata dock was opened.
Sultan Abdülhamid II was not against importing cars from abroad. However, he was going to make it seriously difficult. Some people think that this was due to the assassination at the Hamidiye Mosque in Yıldız. However, this issue was purely precautionary. Because the streets and roads of Istanbul were not yet suitable for the use of such vehicles. The public, who were accustomed to classical horse-drawn carriages and had never met such a vehicle before, experienced great surprise and fear when they saw these cars speeding in front of them, which often led to accidents. For this reason, the sultan stated that these vehicles could only be used outside of towns and cities. The Sultan said, “Our people are in a hurry and love speed. We should prepare the roads before importing the cars, otherwise there would be many accidents.”
On the other hand, since there were no spare parts, the broken down cars remained as they were. If the Sultan had fully liberalised the import of cars, Istanbul would soon have turned into a car dump and the national wealth would have been wasted. For this reason, the Sultan would pay special attention to the organisation and development of roads.
Sultan Abdülhamid II, who supported all kinds of developments in the field of technology, would not neglect to reward the companies that developed electric cars. In December 1900, the Sultan ordered the Mecidi Order of the 5th rank to be awarded to Monsieur Herman Blum, one of the engineers working in an automobile factory in Aachen, Germany, and one year later, the Ottoman Order of the 4th rank to Monsieur Ashof, Director of the Aix-la-Chapelle Automobile Factory. These initiatives showed that the sultan was considering an automobile factory in Istanbul in the not distant future…
In terms of our religion, every Muslim knows that taking precautions is commanded by Allahu ta’âlâ. The 71st âyat of Surat al-Nisa says: “O you who believe, take precautions”. Our glorious Prophet also said, “The wise take precautions.” Not taking precautions is arrogance. One should take precautions, but if an undesirable situation arises, one should rely on Allahu ta’âlâ.
REFLECTION
(Do not fail to be cautious, though appreciation is what counts,
You do your work with good judgement, Allah will appreciate).
Prof. Dr. Ahmet Şimşirgil
16th February 2024
Türkiye Gazetesi