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The MPA in Emergency and Disaster Management
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ResourcesMCNY BlogsMCNY's Emergency and Disaster Management Blog Why More Men Die in FloodsJune 25th, 2008 In its June 24, 2008, edition, TIME Magazine published an interesting article by Senior Writer Amanda Ripley titled, “Why More Men Die in Floods.” Disaster Central encourages its readers to read this article as it contains a number of valuable points concerning the relationship between gender and survivability. The article can be accessed at: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1817603,00.html For some time, we’ve recognized a connection between social/economic class and survivability - now there appears to be further evidence to support a connection between gender and survivability. Are men less prepared than women? Or are these statistics due to the fact that many first responders are male, and therefore more likely to die while carrying out their duties? It has been suggested that many emergency management preparedness programs be directed at females as they most often play an integral role in protecting children during emergency situations - does this lead to an unintended gender imbalance in the preparedness and response matrices? Disaster Central invites your comments. Email this · Subscribe to this Feed · Bookmark This! Posted by David Longshore in Evacuation, Emergency Preparedness. Post a Comment » David Longshore is the former Director of MCNY’s Emergency and Disaster Management MPA Program. The Titanic CrisisApril 17th, 2008 I’d like to thank those of you who were able to attend our April 16 presentation, “The Titanic Crisis”, held at MCNY to commemorate the 96th anniversary of the Titanic disaster. While it’s true that emergency management and homeland security specialists draw upon the experiential sciences in devising preparedness, response, and recovery protocols, it’s equally true that there’s a metaphysical approach to both fields - an approach that thus far is only (forgive the pun) the tip of the iceberg. As part of the presentation, I posited a “mythical” approach to the Titanic’s symbolic role in shaping many of the concepts emergency managers and homeland security professionals use today. Despite embodying some of the finest and most innovative technology of its day, the Titanic didn’t prove to be unsinkable, or even “virtually unsinkable”, and the ship’s demise was as shocking a technological failure as it was a human event that claimed the lives of over 1,500 men, women, and children. The seeming inevitability of the Titanic’s sinking (due, in large part, to the “incident pit” in which the ship found itself) leads us to wonder if there were factors (some actual and tangible, some symbolic) that influenced the final outcome, but remain specifically unknown to us today. This understanding formed the metaphysical thread that I used to link our interpretation of the Titanic disaster as a technological failure, and perhaps a failure of a larger and more amorphous magnitude. Some may contend that this failure is societal or cultural in nature, while others may apply a more philosophical or even religious patina to the events of April 14-15, 1912. To my mind, the ship’s builders and operators traded the metaphysical good sense of objectives for that technological hubris often mistaken as capability. It’s well known that technology is good only when designed and applied with wisdom. I use the word “wisdom” guardedly because many aspects of emergency management and homeland security “wisdom” remain undefined and ill-used. Nearly seven years after the events of September 11, 2001, and just five years after the formation of the United States Department of Homeland Security, we’re still in the process of wresting from our experience, our knowledge, and our desires the metaphysical underpinnings of the emergency management and homeland security disciplines. Like the Titanic’s builders and operators, we perhaps limit our concepts and practices to what has been defined by past experience, or suits our more immediate objectives, such as commerce or political power. The Titanic wasn’t built to prove or disprove the wisdom or reality of an “unsinkable ship.” It was built to generate a profit by carrying passengers and cargo across the North Atlantic Ocean. And while the vessel was publicized as being “virtually sinkable”, this was a mere marketing tool, a reassuring nod to the seagoing public that the ship’s creators knew from past experience that crossing the Atlantic was always a dangerous business. Here we see the concept of risk turned into appeal, and that appeal (it was hoped) transformed into increased passenger patronage and profits. I’m reminded of an aeronautical engineer who once remarked that they could build an aircraft that would never crash, but it would never fly, either. Along a similar vein, had the Titanic truly been constructed (as they believed it had) to be unsinkable, it probably wouldn’t have floated - which it did…for a while. But it’s within this paradox, this often tangential tension between reality and symbolism…between preparedness and fantasy…that the metaphysical aspects of emergency management and homeland security exist. There’s a body of knowledge regarding these two fields that influences our plans and actions, but is of yet unknown to us. It can be said that we’ll know more after the next disaster occurs, and from an experiential viewpoint, the point is a valid one. Of the two fields, emergency management is presently geared more toward recovery than either preparedness or response; and when it does engage the anticipatory approach, it’s in order to determine the parameters of a particular type of recovery. And while homeland security’s mission is characterized by a more “anticipatory” approach than is emergency management, its doctrinal (and conceptual) foundations remain unfinished. Even nearly a century after its loss, the Titanic continues to provide intellectual fodder for the EM and HLS communities. This source material, paid for that night by the sheer terror experienced by 2,200 people, inspires us to learn its many bitter lessons - one of which is that there’s a lot less to technology (or capabilities) than one might think, and much more to “attitude” or objectives than one may know. Professor Longshore Email this · Subscribe to this Feed · Bookmark This! Posted by David Longshore in Homeland Security, Evacuation, MCNY EDM Program. Post a Comment » David Longshore is the former Director of MCNY’s Emergency and Disaster Management MPA Program. WelcomeMarch 20th, 2008 I’m Professor David Longshore, director of the MPA program in Emergency Management and Homeland Security at Metropolitan College of New York (MCNY), and I cordially welcome you to our Emergency Management and Homeland Security blog, Disaster Central. It’s a catchy name, I know, but particularly so because of the vital subject matter it covers. Right now at Disaster Central, we’re discussing numerous general topics relating to Emergency Management and Homeland Security, such as:
Within each of these topics, Disaster Central features themed discussions that draw upon historical, operational, cultural, economic, philosophical, technological, political, and other sources and examples to create an on-line forum for the advancement of knowledge, insights, and wisdom relating to the Emergency Management and Homeland Security disciplines. Disaster Central also posts topics relating to past emergency management and homeland security events, including historic natural, human-made, and technological disasters. In these posts, participants can discuss the circumstances behind some of history’s catastrophes, both large and small, as well as the often-harsh lessons learned. Disaster Central is also a resource for information relating to MCNY’s MPA program in Emergency Management and Homeland Security, and on how you can apply for admission to this selective program. While one of the cardinal rules in politics is never make it personal, and never take it personally, Disaster Central respectfully requests that participants avoid engaging in personal attacks, threats, inflammatory language, and other unprofessional behaviors that can hinder an intelligent and relevant discourse on emergency management and homeland security topics. This includes the use of profanity. Thank you in advance for your professional cooperation, and welcome to Disaster Central, MCNY’s Emergency Management and Homeland Security blog. Email this · Subscribe to this Feed · Bookmark This! Posted by David Longshore in Natural Disasters, Anti-Terrorism, Homeland Security, Emergency Management Planning, Counter-Terrorism, Maritime Domain Protection, Intelligence and Information-Sharing, Airline Security, Critical Infrastructure Protection, Public Sector Continuity, Exercise Design, Human Services, Evacuation, Sheltering, Emergency Preparedness. 6 Comments » David Longshore is the former Director of MCNY’s Emergency and Disaster Management MPA Program.
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