more on Katrina, view from afar (Figaro) (fwd)

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Rahul Tongia <tongia () andrew cmu edu>
Date: September 19, 2005 6:57:00 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] more on Katrina, view from afar (Figaro) (fwd)


Dave,

I would tend to agree with <chodge5 () utk edu> that no matter how  
advanced a society is, it can face failures.  However, two reactions:

1) The US was dealing with a "point-source" problem, where more  
precise effort would have been important, while in Europe, you had  
tens of millions of homes to "protect."  They need different  
thinking, planning, and intervention.  Not all natural disasters are  
the same.
2) It is possible to admit that BOTH screwed up.  Given humankind's  
general (and well-documented) overemphasis on acute instead of  
chronic problems (e.g., a plane crash instead of poor kids starving,  
which kills many, many more), NOLA stands out as a failure even when  
there was extensive modeling and recognition of the threat.  In  
contrast, while there was the knowledge that many people were at risk  
in Europe, it was not known who, where, and exactly when.  A somewhat  
different problem (but with commonalities).

Rahul

--On Monday, September 19, 2005 6:35 PM -0400 David Farber  
<dave () farber net> wrote:


> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: chodge5 () utk edu
> Date: September 19, 2005 6:17:18 PM EDT
> To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
> Subject: [IP] more on Katrina, view from afar (Figaro) (fwd)
>
>
>
>
>
> > And, BTW, much less than the more than 35,000 killed by a heat wave
> > in Europe two summers ago.
> >
> > You recall the debate that set off about European heartlessness,
> > racism and discrimination? No, neither do I.
>
>
> IPers might be interested in Philip Klinkner's recent post at PolySigh
> http://polysigh.blogspot.com/2005/09/overstating-katrina.html
> I think Klinkner is at Hamilton College. The post has a number of very
> good links, but the passage I thought worth noting was:
>
> Compare the Katrina tragedy to the heatwave that struck Western   
> Europe in
> the summer of 2003. We still don't know the death toll from  
> Katrina, but
> most indications are that the early prediction of 10,000 plus  
> deaths  were
> wildly off the mark and the actual toll will be less than half of   
> that.
> In
> contrast, the 2003 heatwave led to the deaths of 35,000 Europeans. In
> France there were nearly 15,000 dead and in Paris alone, 1854 people
> perished. Thus, looking only at deaths, the heatwaves were a much  
> great
> disaster for Europe than Katrina is likely to be for the U.S.
>
> And like the Bush administration, the French government was   
> criticized
> for
> its laggard response to the calamity--including the fact that the  
> prime
> minister and health minister were away on vacation when the disaster
> struck. According to the Economist, the health minister was criticized
> because (shades of President Bush strumming his guitar in Crawford):
>
> His first reaction had been a television interview showing him, in a
> T-shirt in the garden of his holiday home in the Var, arguing,   
> unworried,
> that all was under control.
>
> Nor, like Katrina, was this disaster unforseen. One Paris doctor  
> said at
> the time:
>
> Last summer the situation was catastrophic and this year it is  
> worse; we
> were not at all prepared. The hospital system is failing.
>
> Finally, most of those that died were from the most vulnerable   
> segments
> of
> European society, the elderly, particularly those who were poor  
> and  lived
> alone. This is despite the fact that for several generations, most
> European nations have constructed social safety nets to provide for  
> the
> care and well-being of their citizens, especially the elderly.
>
> What's the upshot of all of this? The lesson of Katrina and the  
> European
> heatwave is that natural disasters can have a devastating impact on  
> even
> the most advanced and wealthy nations, and that this impact has   
> little or
> nothing to do with the governing structure, ruling party, or political
> culture of those nations. It is no more accurate to claim that the
> heatwave deaths in France are the result of unworkable welfare  
> state or
> the indifference of morally lax society, than it is to claim that the
> Katrina victims are the result of conservative social policy,  
> racism, or
> free market economics.
>
>
>
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