Current Developing Crises

27 04 2009
Residents wear surgical masks while riding the subway in Mexico City, Monday, April 27, 2009. Mexico's government is trying to stem the spread of a deadly strain of swine flu as a new work week begins by urging people to stay home Monday if they have any symptoms of the virus believed to have killed more than 100 people. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

Residents wear surgical masks while riding the subway in Mexico City, Monday, April 27, 2009. Mexico's government is trying to stem the spread of a deadly strain of swine flu as a new work week begins by urging people to stay home Monday if they have any symptoms of the virus believed to have killed more than 100 people. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

Over the past couple days, the international community has been monitoring the somewhat-panic-inducing spread of swine flu, which the World Health Organization has declared could become a pandemic.  With over 100 deaths and thousands of potential cases in Mexico, swine flu has also been confirmed in about 40 people in the United States (including 28 students in a school in Queens), all of whom have recovered or are recovering.  Elsewhere in the world, this strain of the flu has been found in Spain as well as in Canada.  This is a new viral strain of influenza (combining human, avian, and mostly swine flu components) and is transmitted from person-to-person, not from pigs or eating pork.  NPR seems to have a great lineup of articles whereas Mashable offers some ways to track swine flu online via RSS reader/GoogleNews or Healthmap.org (definitely check these sources – they’ve helped me stay informed and also calmed me from my overactive anxiety).  And, of course, there’s always the real-time #swineflu hashtag and trending topic on Twitter.  Paul Currion of humanitarian.info also lists good resources from the WHO and CDC.

Update 4/28: From InSTEDD’s most recent blog post, regarding their involvement in the swine flu situation: “From the early hours of this outbreak, we’ve been engaged with WHO in Geneva and we’re working to support the public health community at large in tracking and responding to this event.”

Update 5/1: President and CEO of InSTEDD, Eric Rasmussen, posted yesterday about the relevance of InSTEDD’s Citizen Guide to Pandemic Influenza, aka the Flu Manual – it’s available for free download here. Without being at liberty to say much about the organization’s work regarding the outbreak, he points us to two good resources:

Internally we’re following the notifications on Twitter from Veratect (www.Twitter.com/Veratect) and reading the really exceptional work that Janet Ginsburg is doing on TrackerNews.net. Don’t miss her hair-curling blog on factory farms and their infectious disease risks at www.TrackerBlog.InSTEDD.org.

P.S. I plan to interview InSTEDD team members this weekend about their use of technology in the Mekong region. It’ll be interesting to hear how they think their tools can be/are being applied to the current disease outbreak.  Expect a post on my experiences later next week.

Update 5/2: InSTEDD talks about how they’re using Evolve - one of their main tools – to visually track (on a map) and collaborate around the latest information on swine flu. It’s really interesting, make sure to look at this picture for an understanding of what Evolve does.

HealthMap's visualization of news from around the world concerning Influenza. The markers are color-coded for "hotness," or intensity of the disease (see Mexico).

HealthMap's visualization of news from around the world concerning Influenza. The markers are color-coded for "hotness," or intensity of the disease (see Mexico).

Another developing crisis in the world is taking place in Sri Lanka as the civil war continues between the government and the Tamil Tiger rebels, or LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam). Based on my very limited understanding of the ongoing (25 years, to be exact) situation, the Tamils recently called for a unilateral ceasefire, which the government refused to acknowledge.  The UN urged for the end of combat, concerned for the safety of the civilians caught in the Northeastern region war zone. Though this crisis is not exactly on-topic for my project on ICT for response to natural disasters/disease outbreaks, I’ve found that this particular activist field spans most humanitarian emergencies. ICT is widely used for crisis mapping as well as war/violence response in places like the Sudan.  The Télécoms Sans Frontières (TSF) team situated in Thailand has been closely monitoring the situation in Sri Lanka but reports little access to the country to provide humanitarian relief.  Their latest status: “A TSF emissary has been in Sri Lanka since Sunday April 26, in order to assess of the situation and prepare for an eventual deployment of personnel and telecommunication equipment.”

Sri Lankan soldiers. From NYTimes article, click on picture. Photo credit: Eranga Jayawardena/Associated Press

Sri Lankan soldiers. From NYTimes article, click on picture. Photo credit: Eranga Jayawardena/Associated Press


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Categories : ICT for Disaster Response

“Coordination is not a luxury. It is an absolute necessity.”

26 04 2009

On April 24, 2009, just two months shy of the 4.5 year anniversary of the December 26, 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, delegates from the five most affected countries – Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, India, Maldives – gathered in New York for the Tsunami Lessons Learned event. Reporting on their continued relief and recovery efforts in the years since the disaster claimed almost a quarter of a million lives worldwide, these countries met with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, UN Development Programme Administrator Helen Clark, and Bill Clinton, former President & UN Special Envoy for Tsunami Recovery.  Below is a rather choppily-edited video featuring remarks from each of these officials as well as images of recovery in the severely-affected coastal region.

Without a full transcript of the report, I can’t be sure how often the delegates discussed their use of information communication technologies.  What is clear is that all of the countries have worked toward better and quicker disaster management (which includes disaster reduction/early warning and preparedness, with the aim to decrease the need for emergency response).

Perhaps my favorite part of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s speech is his acknowledgment of the countries’ shared strength: coordination.

The tsunami recovery was unique in this respect. All Governments have emphasized coordination.

India has established a National Disaster Management Authority.

Indonesia has created a Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Board.

In Maldives, the Government set up a National Disaster Management Centre, while in Sri Lanka, the tsunami was a catalyst for the creation of the Ministry of National Disaster Management and Human Rights.

Thailand enacted a Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Act and a high-level command for disaster response.

The United Nations matched the effort by establishing a “One UN” office for Recovery Coordination in Aceh and Nias.

Coordination is not a luxury. It is an absolute necessity.

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Overview: InSTEDD

20 04 2009

InSTEDD = Innovative Support To Emergencies Diseases and Disasters

“The InSTEDD Platform: Collaboration Technology for Humanitarian Action and Global Development” via Slideshare

This is a presentation created by InSTEDD’s Chief Technology Officer, Robert Kickpatrick, about their 3-part collaboration technology suite for humanitarian response to global health emergencies.  If all goes well (which I think it will!), I should be interviewing InSTEDD team members this week for a Digiactive.org post on key aspects of their Mekong Collaboration Program.  The presentation above gives a great overview of their platform and tools. Read the rest of this entry »


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“Natural” Disaster or Not, Response is Key

20 04 2009

While browsing my Netvibes tab, I came across a post from Development Gateway’s Disaster community about the contested definition of a “natural” disaster.  On the one hand, consider the UN’s definition: “the consequences of events triggered by natural hazards that overwhelm local response capacity and seriously affect the social and economic development of a region.”  On the other hand, humanitarian activists question whether natural disasters are indeed “natural” in the sense that they occur without provocation – an “act of God,” as it were.  In a world of human-induced global warming and climate change, the number of natural disasters (hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, etc.) worldwide is rising accordingly.

This same debate comes into play with disasters that occur as a result of human intervention (or lack thereof).  As with the recent “mini tsunami”/dam collapse in Indonesia, many local bloggers are demanding the government be held accountable for its negligence and poor maintenance of the Situ Gintung dike.  Though the dike was built almost 80 years ago by the Dutch colonial government, people still lived in the surrounding dangerous area.  When it burst (after people reported leaks for some time), it destroyed hundreds of nearby homes and took approximately one hundred lives.  After the jump: one of the videos embedded in the very informative Global Voices article; shows one village after this tragedy.

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L’Aquila Earthquake: From Online to On-the-Ground Response

13 04 2009

About this time last week, a 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck L’Aquila, Italy, killing approximately 281 people in the region and injuring over 1000 others.  With towns and homes destroyed, estimates of the number of displaced and homeless are upwards of 20,000.

via Breaking Tweets: #earthquake (Posted by @Buonaiuto in LAqulila, Italy)

via Breaking Tweets: "#earthquake" (Posted by @Buonaiuto in L'Aqulila, Italy)

As we’ve seen the immediacy of social networks like Twitter and Flickr in reporting past disasters (e.g. the earthquake in California this past summer, the Mumbai terrorist attacks, the airplane crashes in NY), local Italians were the first to break the news of the earthquake (or, #terremoto & #italy hashtags) via Twitter. Twitter user, @danybus1, tweeted about waking up to the earthquake. Much thanks to Global Voices bloggers for aggregating such great responses.

Twitter user @danybus1, tweeted about waking up to the earthquake. Much thanks to Global Voices bloggers for aggregating such great responses.

The following tweet reads (again, thanks Global Voices): "Awaken by the earthquake, look up immediately info on twitter (and I find them)"

Not only did Twitter help spread the word of the disaster in the hours following its initial destruction, but over 500 Facebook groups were created during this critical time, in which people offered their volunteer efforts, their homes for  victims, and their support.  It isn’t clear from the Global Voices post whether any of these people indeed secured housing for earthquake victims to live in, but Facebook was definitely used as a medium to help coordinate citizen action.

On the relief organization front, Télécoms Sans Frontières (TSF) reported on its blog that it had deployed a response team by April 6th.  TSF (or, “Telecoms Without Borders”) is a French organization with other offices in Nicaragua and Thailand.  Priding themselves on being “deployable anywhere around the world,” TSF specializes in rapid disaster response by establishing ICT hubs in the worst affected areas. Through these hubs, they help connect victims with their family members in the country and abroad.

The TSF team set up mobile networks as well as camps in the Abruzzo region (of which L’Aquila is the capital city). They further assist search/rescue teams by providing access to broadband Internet and phones via mobile “satellite-based terminals.”  And, since many homeless/displaced victims still have their mobile phones with them, TSF set up a generator in the largest shelter (Paganica) to allow people to charge their phones.

Not only did online communities like Twitter enable citizens to report the disaster, but this immediate reaction helped effect rapid response to an urgent situation.  In that ICT means quicker newscasting, it also synchronizes quicker coordination and subsequent action by humanitarian organizations and dispersed individuals.  Because of this ability,  ICT tools will become increasingly integral to disaster response campaigns.

As I work to become more well versed in this area, many of my next blog posts will look at established groups like TSF (“In the past 10 years TSF has deployed to 11 earthquakes world wide”) and analyze the effectiveness of their work in saving innocent lives.

P.S. I’d love to hear any feedback you, my dear readers, might have about this new direction for my blog.  Are you interested in the use of ICT for humanitarian relief?  The role of social media in responding to disasters?


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ICT for Disaster Response

13 04 2009

For the final project in my Globalizing Social Activism & the Power of the Media course, I’m blogging about a global cause of my choice.  After much uncertainty, I decided my topic should delve into the use of information and communications technologies (ICT) for disaster response.  Why this specific area of ICT use?  My cousin died in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami (she had been working in Phuket, Thailand at the time). My family knows firsthand the emotional pain of not being able to locate a loved one after a disaster; without going into further detail, her remains were not identified until about year later. Combining this sensitive part of my family’s history with my blatant enthusiasm for the potential of the Internet/technology/new media, this topic becomes personally relevant.

Over the next four weeks, this blog will shift slightly in direction, to the sphere of activism and humanitarian relief.  As I’m not accustomed to posting two entries a week, this assignment should be good for my blogging muscles.  As a general overview, my posts will examine the ways in which ICT enhances people’s/NGOs’ abilities to communicate and coordinate relief efforts.  After all, in emergency situations such as tsunamis, earthquakes, and epidemics, people’s lives are at risk and timeliness is key.  In that humanitarian organizations/aid workers use ICT to effectively communicate with headquarters as well as with other relief groups, everyone can properly allocate resources while simultaneously  sharing critical information.  Victims, too, can use telecommunications tools to contact loved ones, let family know they’re safe, and ask for aid. Put simply, information communications technologies (mobile phones and laptops, SMS and micro/blogging, etc.) save lives by connecting various relief efforts in a rapid, collaborative way.

Expect more posts soon about specific organizations and disaster relief cases (e.g. last week’s earthquake in L’Aquila, Italy and Télécoms Sans Frontieres’ response team).


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Writing Neuroses

2 04 2009

I’m going out on a limb tonight and posting what could quite possibly be my first and last “literary” (and by literary, I mean “kind of creative”) post. With that said, a disclaimer: throughout my 3 years in college, I’ve developed a comfortable writing style/tone that waxes more academic than poetic. Which, of course, probably explains my hesitance to blog on a regular basis – I craft my words carefully because sounding casual doesn’t come as easily. (In fact, I reworded that sentence about 3 times. Writing takes me a long time, yes.) This inability to write casually might also be symptomatic of my high school years, which were filled with attempts at “poetry” (I cringe to admit this), emotional confessions of unrequited love (cringing, again), and not-so-subtle LiveJournal allusions to the fact that I REALLY WANTED A BOYFRIEND. Considering a certain one of my past “poetic attempts” showed up in an online archive of a certain poetry website last year (I naively submitted it years ago, but deleted it from the site when it resurfaced), I am still reeling from the embarrassment.

Okay, I’m done making excuses now. The following is a piece I wrote for my writing seminar, during my first semester at NYU (fall 2006, crazy.). The assignment asked us to choose a passage from Mrs. Dalloway and imitate Virginia Woolf’s writing style. Though I may not have my own creative writing skills, I definitely enjoyed imitating hers. After the jump! Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : NYC