Cultural and Social issues Resources and Pieces — RADIX: Radical Interpretations of Disasters

This page has a diverse set of links concerned broadly with cultural and social aspects of disasters. The latest addition is topmost in any list.

Children

David Alexander: Reflections on Beslan, 4th September 2004

ReliefWeb: General Assembly, concluding special session on children, adopts outcome document - "A World Fit for Children"
http://wwww.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/9ca65951ee22658ec125663300408599/3dfe9fbbcfef0ead85256bb8004b8a6a?OpenDocument

We the Children: End-decade review of the follow-up to the World Summit for Children
Report of the Secretary-General
http://www.unicef.org/specialsession/documentation/documents/a-s-27-3e.pdf

UNICEF: Goals for Children and Development in the 1990s
http://www.unicef.org/wsc/goals.htm

UN Special Session on Children http://www.unicef.org/specialsession/

AlertNet: U.N. summit set to approve goals for children by Andrew Dobbie
http://www.alertnet.org/thefacts/reliefresources/433265

The State of the World's Children 2002. Unicef: http://www.unicef.org/sowc02/

See also the Proceeedings from the Reaching Women and Children in Disasters Conference, held in Miami, Florida in June 2000 http://www.apu.ac.uk/geography/rwcidconference/. Dowload Word file of Proceedings (123kb)

ReliefWeb: Unseen millions: The catastrophe of internal displacement in Colombia - children and adolescents at risk
http://wwww.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/9ca65951ee22658ec125663300408599/f28247c1b1cd2b38c1256ba50055a628?OpenDocument

United Nations Chronicle: School Bells from Bombshells by Maha Muna
http://www.un.org/Pubs/chronicle/2002/issue1/0102p12.html

Disability

This new page addresses disability issues in disaster prevention, planning and response. Please send relevant links and documents to Ben Wisner or Maureen Fordham.

"In the News: Katrina and People with Disabilities" Compiled by ADA Watch/NCDR http://www.adawatch.org/
Thanks to Todd Reynolds for sending this compilation to RADIX (download Word file 37kb)

Todd Reynolds, Department of Geography, University of Oklahoma, Norman OK 73019,
E-mail: kylun@rocketmail.com. "Perception and response to natural hazards by disabled people-a pilot study"

Disabled people are more vulnerable to natural hazards than those who are able bodied. This is because disabled individuals, depending on the nature and extent of disability, often have trouble perceiving warnings and escaping threatened areas. This paper presents a small-scale pilot-study of hazard warnings for the disabled in Norman, Oklahoma. It draws on personal interviews and existing literature to suggest three further lines of inquiry. First, how natural hazards reveal the ways in which disabled people are marginalized in society. Second, how people with physical disabilities, most notably mobility impairments, often perceive natural hazards as 'Acts of God' and beyond their control. And third, that there is much to be desired with respect to emergency management response to the special needs of disabled citizens when disaster strikes in the form of a natural hazard. The paper concludes by suggesting that recent developments in social theory-notably Gleeson's (1999) concept of an 'ableist society'-might be used to understand the way disabled people perceive and respond to natural hazards.

Key words: natural hazards, geographies of disability

Elders

ReliefWeb: Southern Africa - the threat of famine
http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/480fa8736b88bbc3c12564f6004c8ad5/e5c90fc9318627f749256bba00082f94?OpenDocument

ReliefWeb: Southern Africa: Vulnerable elderly ignored
http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/480fa8736b88bbc3c12564f6004c8ad5/f20f417fb0bd44c249256bbb000c1e38?OpenDocument

Women

A gender search on ReliefWeb: http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/lib.nsf/doc207?OpenForm&query=3&cat=Gender

WomenWarPeace.org http://www.womenwarpeace.org/
The United Nations Development Fund for Women - UNIFEM www.unifem.org

ReliefWeb: Afghanistan: Huge number of women involved in anti-polio drive
http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/9ca65951ee22658ec125663300408599/28ec9b3e0b0eea9a49256bc8000e39d1?OpenDocumen

ReliefWeb: ARC: Women are key to Sierra Leone's future
http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/9ca65951ee22658ec125663300408599/c19753e3d514a899c1256bc3003f0e86?OpenDocument (Violent Conflict)

ReliefWeb: Reproductive health during conflict and displacement - Report by Samantha Guy http://wwww.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/9ca65951ee22658ec125663300408599/c8695afc13bc600d85256b92005d41e3?OpenDocument

Empowering women in Bangladesh By Hanna Schmuck, in Cox's Bazar. ReliefWeb http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/9ca65951ee22658ec125663300408599/570056eb0ae62524c1256b6b00587224?OpenDocument

The Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW) organized, in collaboration with the Secretariat for the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR), an Expert Group Meeting (EGM) on "Environmental management and the mitigation of natural disasters: a gender perspective", in Ankara, Turkey from 6 to 9 November 2001. The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) selected this topic as a priority theme in its multi-year programme of work for 2002-2006. The meeting analyzed "women as part of the solution" rather than women's vulnerabilities to disaster, focusing on positive aspects, experiences and characteristics that reduce women's vulnerability, promote gender equality and provide concrete solutions to global problems. The role of women as key environmental managers and key actors in natural disaster management are primary issues which were explored. Findings and conclusions will be considered by the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (New York, March 2002), and become a possible contribution to the World Summit on Sustainable Development (Johannesburg, Summer 2002).

The web page for the Expert Group Meeting is http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/env_manage/
From there you can find links to downloadable documents.
Prior to the meeting there was an online discussion, the materials from which are available at http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/env_manage/e-forum.html

Women at Ground Zero - by Susan Hagen and Mary Carouba

Afghan women share their messages of hope - ReliefWeb

THE NEEDS OF WOMEN IN DISASTERS AND EMERGENCIES Prepared for the Disaster Management Training Programme of the United Nations Development Programme and the Office of the United Nations Disaster Relief Coordinator by Raymond E. Wiest. Jane S.P. Mocellin, and D. Thandiwe Motsisi. Winnipeg, Manitoba 20 June 1994 (Revised Edition).

There is a website and email discussion list which focus on gender and disasters: the Gender and Disaster Network at http://www.gdnonline.org. Register with the website and then send messages to the list at Gdn@Clio.Fiu.Edu.

PAHO have an interesting site on Women Health and Development at: http://165.158.1.110/english/hdp/hdwmuje.htm with plenty of resources.

See: Enarson, E. 2000. Gender and Natural Disasters. Working Paper No. 1. InFocus Programme on Crisis Response and Reconstruction. Geneva: ILO, Recovery and Reconstruction Department

Ben Wisner original think piece on the El Salvador earthquake:

"The number of aftershocks, in addition to the fact that the entire country has been affected one way or the other, constitutes a major stress on each individual - rescuer and/or victim. This has lead some to advise the population, incorrectly, to dispose quickly of dead bodies because they represent a threat to public health. It is a well known fact that people dying in those conditions are not the cause of epidemics when basic rules of hygiene in corpse preservation are followed . It is also well known that mass burial has a huge impact on the mental health of survivors. Being able to identify the bodies of family and friends, even if only through pictures, facilitates the mourning process. In addition, the legal implication of mass burials are endless in terms of pension, insurance, inheritance, etc."

[PAHO, 18 January 2001, emphasis added]

"Increasingly, authorities ordered large earth movers to plow through mud, tree limbs and destroyed homes to begin the process of reconstruction."

[Reuters, 15 Jan. 2001]

"Despite the bulldozers, some emergency workers sifted through debris for photographs that they piled in a truck so that mourners might cling to something of their loved ones.

[Reuters, 17 Jan. 2001]

Bulldozers and mass graves. Is there no respect for public feelings? There is still hope for rescues, or I'm sure some relatives and friends think so. Bulldozing! How would I feel if Sonia and Gabi were bulldozed? PAHO and WHO have been trying to educate authorities for decades that cadavers are unpleasant, but not dangerous to public health under most circumstances. In Mexico City in 1985 there were protests against Mexican military teams who used dynamite to break up rubble for the bulldozers.

Children

Disability

Elders

Women

Ben Wisner original think piece on the El Salvador earthquake:

RADIX: Radical Interpretations of Disasters

radix@jiscmail.ac.uk