The UK rapid response team Nepal deployment brings trained crisis staff, humanitarian support and one plain blue duffel bag that has mistaken a serious emergency for its long awaited management opportunity.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said on 28 August that a Rapid Deployment Team would travel to Kathmandu on 29 August. The team will support British nationals and their families, reinforce consular operations and work with local authorities after devastating flooding along the Nepal China border.
This is a serious response to a serious crisis. The duffel bag, however, heard the words rapid deployment and decided it was the only employee who understood the filing system.
UK rapid response team Nepal, with pockets for everything
The team will coordinate assistance at the airport. It will support people seeking information about missing relatives and liaise with emergency responders. The UK has also announced £5 million in humanitarian support through United Nations, Red Cross and charity interventions.
None of this puts a bag in charge. Someone must carry documents, supplies and emergency biscuits while trained staff deal with the human consequences of a disaster. The duffel has accepted the assignment with the grave expression of a civil servant discovering a new committee.
The UK rapid response team Nepal operation also shows the less glamorous machinery behind an overseas emergency. Embassy staff, local authorities and worried families in Britain must exchange information while events keep changing. No button says resolve everything, although the paperwork has clearly been encouraged to apply for one.
The bag discovers crisis management
The factual story concerns consular assistance, coordination and humanitarian relief. The comic extension is the bag’s growing belief that organisation equals rank. It has sorted its contents by urgency, emotional importance and likelihood of being requested beside an airport carousel.
By the time the response team reaches Kathmandu, the duffel will have alphabetised the paperwork, briefed the biscuits and promoted itself to deputy director of luggage. Its first policy will be simple. Nobody leaves the carousel until every form has been emotionally supported.
Source: GOV.UK.
