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THE GREATER CARIBBEAN THIS WEEK -
Made in Japan: Commitments for Disaster Reduction |
By: Luis
Carpio, Director of Transport and Natural Disasters of the
Association of Caribbean States.
October 1, 2007: ”If a way to the Better there be, it
exacts a full look at the Worst” Thomas Hardy
It had been some time since the worst winds had died down
and the rain, which only hours ago had pelted A’s house in a
relentless cannonade, had resigned itself to beating an
on-again-off-again tattoo upon the tin roof of the old
family home. The hurricane, already on its way to the next
island, never looked back to gloat over the destruction it
had visited upon the works of Man. It, after all, was just a
piece of weather and neither knew nor cared who was in its
path. God, neither Trini nor Venezuelan, neither Dutch nor
French-speaking, kept to His inscrutable business and left
us to our own self-important plans, keeping His promise not
to micromanage (see: New Testament). |
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In a strange
twist, A’s old family home, bought for a song so many years
ago because it was so far from the river and the terraced
hills where most planting was done, had escaped the worst of
the flooding and mudslides, becoming an impromptu refuge and
triage center after the local hospital was damaged and
overwhelmed in its capacity to minister to those injured
during the worse of the weather and those unwise enough to
venture outside against official advice immediately before
and afterward. Sadly, as is often the case, these
well-meaning souls had left the relative security of their
dwellings in order to help neighbours or seek out family
members.
Ironically, the hospital, finished only eight months prior
and to the highest international standards, was the showcase
of the new National Building Code for Earthquake Resistance
passed through the Legislative by a government that had
ridden to power on a National Development / Law and Order /
Safety and Security platform.
In fairness, no one judged the government too harshly for
this early false start and there continued to be
international and national recognition of its efforts to
create and empower a National Platform for Disaster
Reduction as recommended in the UN’s Hyogo Framework for
Action (HFA), adopted by our governments in Japan in 2005.
The construction of the new Stadium & Sports complex, in
fact, was an example of multisectorial consultation and
cooperation, which brought on board a wide range of
planning, environmental, financial, educational, sports and
other authorities and community stakeholders.
The new platform’s ability to enlist champions to its cause
was also generally lauded, particularly due to its success
in getting the private sector to stop griping and get on
board by appealing (of all things) to their profit motive.
The fact that the international donors to the project
insisted on this approach didn’t hurt either.
The hurricane’s lessons had not been lost upon A and had
added real-life experience to the curriculum which she hoped
to complete soon. Upon graduation as the first-ever Disaster
Reduction Specialists in the nation, A and her class would
be immediately deployed at the national and community level
in order to put their new knowledge and the available
technology to use in reducing disaster risk, including by
preparing an adequate response.
This would become increasingly important in A’s community,
given the near-certainty that coastal-dwellers, pushed
inland by rising sea levels, would exert ever-growing
demands on already strained resources.
I bring you this bittersweet and apocryphal tale of
qualified successes and failures because, as straightforward
as some of these things may look on paper, it is a fact that
few, if any, developing countries can pull them off on their
own.
Hyogo Priorities:
1. Ensure that disaster risk reduction is a national
priority with a strong institutional basis for
implementation.
2. Identify, assess and monitor disaster risks and enhance
early warning.
3. Use knowledge, innovation and education to build a
culture of safety and resilience at all levels.
4. Reduce the underlying risk factors.
5. Strengthen disaster preparedness for effective response.
International and (crucially) regional cooperation will be a
determining factor in the Greater Caribbean’s ability to
meet the Hyogo commitments and the Members of the
Association of Caribbean States can be proud of their
initiative to hold their first ever High-Level Conference on
Disaster Reduction which will take place in Haiti on 14th,
15th and 16th November.
It has been said that the difference between optimism and
hope lies in that, while the former is the belief that
things will turn out as you wish, the latter is the
conviction that something is worth fighting for regardless
of the consequences. We should similarly soon come to accept
that the lightning-rod on the church steeple, far from a
sign of flagging faith, is a testament to our free will and
a symbol of our hope.
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