What the Haiti earthquake compels one to ponder… (1)
by
Hamza Zeytinoğlu & Mehmet Öğütçü*

The same happened after the İzmit earthquake, which was a 7.6 magnitude tremor that struck northwestern Turkey on Aug. 17, 1999. The event lasted for 37 seconds, killing around 17,000 people and leaving approximately half a million homeless. It was a display of massive failures in the efficient and timely response to an emergency as well as in the regulation of construction. All this notwithstanding, it was spectacular in the way these failures were compensated by solidarity in the ranks of government, military and civilian support.

However, a massive international response was also mounted to assist in digging for survivors and assisting the wounded and homeless in its aftermath. A shining example was that of the supposed historic “enemy” Greece coming in to support its neighbor in this time of need and Turkey, fatefully, returning this favor just a few months back.

Disasters are moments of truth where true faces appear in terms of altruistic cooperation or the worst cases where vultures wait to profit from the temporary or perhaps permanently debilitating weakness of the poor victims in the neighborhood. Turkey was able to display a high level of resilience in the face of its major earthquake in the last decade, and its sheer volume of economic and social strength played a role in this. It fortunately enjoyed international solidarity and cooperation with perhaps no strings attached at all. Today Turkey is able to selflessly reach out to Haiti with $1 million, 40 tons of emergency humanitarian aid, teams of 20 health professionals, 10 emergency response staff, 10 tons of medication, 20 tons of tents and blankets and food on four military aircraft.

The real question we face today is how to seriously deal with the growing number of international natural disasters beyond mere rhetoric and show-off actions while preventing regional or global opportunists from unjustly exploiting such disasters and profiting from them.

The damage to human life, property and infrastructure from natural disasters has been growing exponentially for the past 40 years. The reason behind this development is the increase in exposure and vulnerability of human society to the impacts of disasters. Significant local, regional and global capacities for disaster reduction have been built since the beginning of the UN International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction in 1990. Yet, it remains unclear how the race between efforts at mitigation and the expanding potential for disaster will develop in the coming years.

The world today is highly interdependent. One country’s disaster can spill over to other countries through political and economic channels. There is no disaster limited to one country, and human beings cannot solve the issue of living without mishap when facing a disaster. Therefore, no country can escape by sheer luck from disaster and solve the problem alone. Indeed no country lives in absolute safety. In this case, the whole world should unite together to share the risks. Human beings should work together to face, resist and eliminate risks. But unfortunately, such a kind of system that can effectively deal with natural disasters has never existed. There is a need for international rescue, emergency assistance and reconstruction, and monitoring based on core values defined from the outset.

The earthquake in Haiti raises an important point. We are now facing a situation where the dynamics around a failed state in the second decade of this new century is forcing us to think of new means and ways of dealing with natural disasters.

Such international governmental efforts will by no means replace individual and corporate initiatives. Take the scenario, for instance, starting with two human beings, John from Bank X (no names to avoid damaging reputations, but we will leave it to your imagination which bank this might be) and Sylvie from Port-Au-Prince, who in the last weeks both underwent major changes to their lives. John heard of his bonus for the year and after a few days of anxiety realized there wasn’t much to fear, and despite the hefty sums announced to the public and the seemingly sincere  frustration of the US president, it was OK. As planned, it was all fine; they were still the heroes keeping the global economy rolling.