Category Archives: Hazards
Complex Emergencies R Us. (Part 2)
I call the 1980s the “naïve decade”. The cold war was ceasing. The East – West, USSR – USA struggle was ending. The Berlin Wall was tumbling down. No more nuclear arms race. Disarmament talks. Superpower chess game over. Peace at last! Nothing could be further from the truth. Seething, pent-up animosities between various ethnic groups in […]
Complex Emergencies R Us (Part 1)
The recent deadly riots in Cairo. Egypt during August have been shocking. Equally alarming have been other conflicts, such as Syria, with the alleged use of nerve gas on civilians. It is debatable whether the greater tragedy is the killing itself or the paralysis of the international community to stop the carnage. The world seems […]
The Season of Wildfires
All of us were shocked and saddened by news of an elite crew of firefighters in Arizona who died on July 2 when the wind suddenly changed and they were trapped. It is a reminder of the deadly danger that wildfires pose, and the risk that is taken by both homeowners and those battling the flames. Virtually every summer, […]
Evacuation with your Pet
I stood at the water’s edge in the Ninth Ward of downtown New Orleans. This was several days after Hurricane Katrina had caused its havoc along the Gulf Coast. Before me was a flotilla of small boats, all with one purpose. The “Pet Rescue” was in full swing. I had never witnessed this before, despite […]
Pandemic and the Public
The slow but steady death increase in the “SARS-like” respiratory coronavirus centered in the Middle East should be of concern. But why, when it seems so distant, so remote? After all, the virus is clustered in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Tunisia, and Jordan. A few cases have been confirmed in Britain, France, Italy and […]
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