Dear Members,
Coming from a disaster prone developing country I fully agree with Terry.
Public resources are available but they are rather used for tax returns ,
subsidies and paying international debts. On the other hand majority of the
people are so preoccupied with daily survival that a disaster which may
strike in the future has very low priority. Best Regards.
Dr. Necati Dedeoglu, Turkey
----- Original Message -----
From: "Terry Cannon" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, May 21, 2008 7:39 AM
Subject: Re: Fw: Update on disasters in Myanmar and China
> Dear All
> there is a considerable amount of work been done on school safety, notably
> in
> campaigning by Ben Wisner (report School Seismic Safety) through ActionAid
> and
> ISDR and others. I am travelling and unable to check all the sources at
> the
> moment.
>
> We also know from much research that Paul Grundy's point 5 below is not
> really
> relevant if the political will is in place. More significant is the issue
> of
> failure to abide by buiilding codes for NEW schools, never mind
> retrofitting!
> Some of the Chinese victims are bravely raising the issue of corruption in
> the
> construction of new schools that collapsed.
>
> On retrofitting, there is currently a programme under way in Bogota,
> Colombia,
> to retrofit all schools in the city. this is supported by a World Bank
> LOAN. It
> is a scandal that this is a LOAN and not a grant. Again, there are plenty
> of
> resources in the world that could be diverted to many aspects of safety
> but
> which are going to other priorities. We will all have our favourite list,
> but
> lets not pretend this is an issue of resource availability: it is one of
> priorities that are determined by political and economic systems that are
> not
> sympathetic to the needs of people, but designed to support those who are
> already rich and powerful.
>
> good wishes
>
> Terry
>
>
>
> --
> Terry Cannon
> Reader in Development Studies &
> Research Fellow of the Natural Resources Institute
> School of Humanities
> University of Greenwich, Old Royal Naval College
> London SE10 9LS
> 020 8331 8944 or 8800
> +44 20 8331 8944 or 8800
> ======================================================================
> University of Greenwich, a charity and company limited by guarantee,
> registered in England (reg no. 986729).
> Registered Office: Old Royal Naval College, Park Row, Greenwich SE10 9LS
>
>
> Quoting Parminder Singh <[log in to unmask]>:
>
>> Dear Colleagues,
>>
>> Forwarding Paul's query.
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Parminder
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: Paul Grundy
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Sent: Tuesday, May 20, 2008 11:10 AM
>> Subject: Update on disasters in Myanmar and China
>>
>>
>> Dear Friends,
>>
>> My apologies if you receive this more than once, or if you have received
>> the
>> attached directly from another source.
>>
>> We are still reeling from two terrible natural disasters. To add to the
>> media coverage I thought it of value to send you two presentations by
>> Walter
>> Hayes of the Global Alliance for Disaster Reduction. In addition I
>> have
>> attached an analysis of the losses from natural disasters in 2007 by
>> the
>> Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED), Louvain.
>> Already in 2008 the statistics are worse than 2007.
>>
>> I single out one point for comment - the schools. Instead of being
>> refuges
>> and emergency accommodation after disaster strikes they have become
>> tombs.
>> The greatest source of grief in the communities affected.
>>
>> I have tried - unsuccessfully so far - to excite interest in retrofitting
>> schools on coasts and in earthquake prone regions so that they become
>> refuges
>> and sources of emergency accommodation. All this to happen before
>> disaster
>> strikes. There are five major obstacles:
>>
>> 1.. lack of awareness of community risk, where the impact of a disaster
>> is
>> greatly magnified compared with an individual risk,
>>
>> 2.. lack of knowledge on how to retrofit existing buildings using local
>> community resources,
>> 3.. lack of research to provide the knowledge on how to retrofit,
>>
>> 4.. lack of government commitment to effect change, and
>>
>> 5.. lack of resources and funding.
>>
>> Any suggestions?
>>
>> Paul
>>
>>
>> --
>> Emeritus Professor Paul Grundy, AM
>> FIEAust, CPEng, Honorary Member, International Association for Bridge and
>> Structural Engineering
>> Chairman, Joint Working Commission for Disaster Reduction on Coasts
>> http://civil.eng.monash.edu.au/drc
>> Department of Civil Engineering, Monash University, VIC 3800, Australia
>> Tel/fax: +613 9877 6695. Mobile: +614 1931 1533
>> Mailing address: 65 Gardenia St, Blackburn, VIC 3130, Australia
>>
>
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