How can we talk about disaster management without talking about social
issues? How can we talk about disasters and lessons learned without taking
in consideration some good practices that comes from different social
systems (i.e. Cuba)? Are we being narrow minded?
Ben, I personally fully agree with you, risk reduction and disaster
management is a crosscutting issue. If we want to improve our systems, we
should see all the aspects are affecting it. I hope there is no doubts in
this mailing list that working with National and local government(s) is
essential to make the change. In some cases, we will have to criticize some
systems and let us hope we are open enough to accept it. Otherwise, we are
just wasting our time.
Esteban Leon
"Peiser, Benny"
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disasters Subject: Re: Katrina, "good governance", and legitimation crisis of the
<NATURAL-HAZARDS-DISASTERS@JISC state
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07/09/2005 17:39
Please respond to Natural
hazards and disasters
Ben Wisner wrote:
> What all of this suggests to me is that the political aftermath of
Katrina is not
> simply "political" in the short term sense of electoral challenge,
"spin," and
> Congressional investigations. The situation in the U.S. and elsewhere
raises
> fundamental questions about the function and legitimacy of the nation
state.
> Beck's inspiration is Jurgen Habermas, a great political philosopher.
One of
> his seminal works was, indeed, entitled, "Legitimation Crisis."
I'm just wondering whether this mailing list is about Marxist philosophy or
about disaster research and effective disaster management?
Benny Peiser
Ben Wisner <[log in to unmask]>
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<NATURAL-HAZARDS-DISASTERS@JISC Subject: Katrina, "good governance", and legitimation crisis of the state
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07/09/2005 17:28
Please respond to Natural
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Dear all,
This morning the "New York Times" reports a deadly fire in Egypt. It seems
to have been handled by the Egyptian authorities is a way that reminds me
of the U.S. federal response to Katrina -- confusion, little information
available for the affected, highly visible use of heavily armed military.
I was struck by a quote by one of those grieving, "They don't care about
us," referring to the government
(
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/07/international/africa/07egypt.html?th&emc=th
).
Over the past week we have read and heard statements that echo that
perception of national government by the speaker in Egypt.
This brings to mind Ulrich Beck's book, "The Risk Society," and the
question of what the basis of legitimate authority of the nation state is,
or should be, in the 21st Century. A few years ago I published in the U.N.
Chronicle and elsewhere an appeal for development of an international
treaty that would assert protection from avoidable harm in extreme natural
events to be a duty of the nation state. I suggested that this protection
should be seen as a positive human right (
http://www.un.org/Pubs/chronicle/2000/issue4/0400p6p.htm ).
That was 2001. By 2005 the forces of economic globalization and
neo-liberal ideology in the U.S. and many other countries have further
eroded support for a "rights driven" approach to human development. The
"culture of prevention" has been reinterpreted in the U.S. as a matter of
individual responsibility. "Lean government," and "less government" have
become uncriticized standards that are being exported and imposed on poor
countries as part of debt forgiveness conditionality.
Meanwhile the phrase "good government" and "governance" is on every lip in
U.N. agencies, donor country aid agencies, NGOs, and was heard echoing
through the conference rooms on Port Island, Kobe, Japan during the World
Conference on Disaster Reduction in January 2005.
What all of this suggests to me is that the political aftermath of Katrina
is not simply "political" in the short term sense of electoral challenge,
"spin," and Congressional investigations. The situation in the U.S. and
elsewhere raises fundamental questions about the function and legitimacy of
the nation state. Beck's inspiration is Jurgen Habermas, a great political
philosopher. One of his seminal works was, indeed, entitled, "Legitimation
Crisis."
Ben Wisner
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