Tsunami VS Katrina

MCU
#17林育如 Amber 93659470
Time: 65202 18:30-20:15
Presentation Oct 27,2005

Outline
Title: COMPARING RELIEF EFFORTS – TSUNAMI VS KATRINA
Source of material: http://www.behindwoods.com/features/Literature/Literature9/tsunami-vs-katrina.html

Two items to be compared : 1. Tsunami 2.Katrina

Relationship the items share: Both are natural disaster

Thesis statement/Controlling idea: The governments of each nation responded differently;

Subject to be discussed: For the poorest, they asked for immediate help; for the wealthiest, the response was slow and uncaring.

3 major points of differences and similarities:

1. The governments reacted differently.
a. Tsunami wanted to help, but could not, asked for outside help.
b. Katrina reacted with delay although they had the means and the power.

2. Asia is not abusive towards nature as is the USA.

3. In both case, there was loss of human lives and immense destruction: in both case, the poor paid the price, in both, the rich got away.

Paragraph 1:
Topic sentence: The loss is similar, but the impact is different.
Subtopic: The apparent destruction appears huge but the psychological effect is as great.
Main idea: The relief effort should concentrate on both physical and mental.

Paragraph 2~ paragraph 4 (Body)
Topic sentence: The relief workers should provide appropriate and timely efforts.
Both are regular natural phenomena
No man can control any of these natural disaster or prevent these.
The tsunami hit largely under-developed pockets of the world like Indonesia
All of the countries hit were developing nations and the areas hit were poor or part of the main economic wealth such as tourism in Thailand.
International aid flowed in freely as these nations called out for help.
Help flowed in largely due to the press attention and their continuous reports
The world’s richest country stood exposed about its ugly underbelly of skewed development and misplaced priorities.
The USA is the most polluting nation and thus responsible for all of these disasters.
They remain the marginalized and faceless section of American society for whom the government would not go the extra mile so as to bring in quick relief.
Because Katrina hit the poorest area in the US, the governments response was not quick and effective.

Paragraph 5
CONCLUSION:
This is an interesting insight into the type of collaboration / interaction supported by different online communication tools.
The media did not want to show the US in its worst form but all should be done to help.

Summary
The poorest and weakest among us always suffer the most.Leaving aside politics, all should be done to help the victims to return to normal life.


COMPARING RELIEF EFFORTS – TSUNAMI VS KATRINA
Ramaa
E-mail : behindw@behindwoods.com

Any natural calamity evokes a wave of sympathy for the victims. The loss suffered could apparently seem to be similar but the intensity and the impact could be vastly different. The familiar symptoms like loss of lives, homes, belongings, sources of livelihood and access to medical attention present great challenges for relief workers. The psychological impact of the unfortunate incident is more intangible.

The role of relief workers or disaster management professionals is onerous. They shoulder the burden of expectation of battered souls. They should provide appropriate and timely relief. The method of delivery of relief varies with the unique circumstances. In this context, this article analyzes the relief efforts undertaken during the two major calamities, which shook the world recently- the giant tsunami of December 2004 and Hurricane Katrina of September 2005.

Both are regular natural phenomena but this time round they struck with such unprecedented intensity that the entire world was left gaping. The tsunami hit largely under-developed pockets of the world like Indonesia, Sri Lanka and southern India. International aid flowed in freely as these nations called out for help. Men and material were mobilized on an emergency mode so as to bring succour to thousands of victims. While these nationswere found wanting in systems, which could respond smoothly to calamities, the sheer sense of fortitude of the victims complemented the humanistic approach of the relief workers. The giant hurricane Katrina and its successor Rita hit the Louisiana and Texas coast of the USA.

The loss has been estimated to run into thousands of billions of dollars. The world’s richest country stood exposed about its ugly underbelly of skewed development and misplaced priorities. Its unsafe choices with the environment have resulted in compounding the woes of the people in these areas. They remain the marginalized and faceless section of American society for whom the government would not go the extra mile so as to bring in quick relief. The scenes of people huddled in the cold amongst surging waters holding on to anything they perceived precious or the long traffic-choked highways or the traumatized outbursts of the victims remained headline news for about a week. We do not know what became of them afterwards.

Thus, they were conveniently forgotten partly because there has been a subtle agenda in the media not to project the US in bad light. Leaving aside such politics, there should be coordinated efforts to rehabilitate the hurricane victims. Most of them are poor in a wealthy nation which makes their plight pitiable. Let a chorus rise for them.


Reference:
1. http://dormgrandpop.blogspot.com/2005/09/tsunami-vs-katrina.html
2. http://use.perl.org/comments.pl?sid=28431&cid=43072
3. http://craniac.antville.org/stories/1206691/