Humanitarian Aid as a Strategic Response - Assignment Example

Topic: Humanitarian Aid as a Strategic Response Introduction The earthquake that occurred on 11 March, as well as the subsequent Tsunami was the biggest earthquake to be recorded in history (Suzuki & Kaneko, 2013). Japan has always been renowned for its meticulous disaster management, particularly when it comes to earthquakes. The humanitarian characteristics of the people of Japan marveled media from all over the globe even though the management by various authorities as well as the government was a bit wanting. As far as Japan is concerned, the crisis is considered as a multiple disaster since there was one caused by the tsunami and another from the nuclear crisis (Suzuki & Kaneko, 2013). The people of Japan along with the humanitarian community appeared to identify a distinction between the nuclear occurrence at Fukushima and the ensuing management by the government from its humanitarian responses to the areas that had been hit by the tsunami, which were efforts the people of Japan considered a failures. The nuclear crisis was a man-made tragedy that led to the public being outraged by the government from its making poor decisions in regards to nuclear energy. Subsequently, in regards to its humanitarian responses in the areas that were hit by the tsunami, the humanitarian community perceived the response as sufficient and going well in light of the unique situation. Humanitarian aid and response Any tragedy that is as big as that experienced in Japan that involves shocking destruction, homelessness, relocation, sudden loss of life as well as profound uncertainty concerning the future comes with severe risks of short and long term effects psychologically. The population of Japan is among some of the oldest in the globe since more than twenty percent of its people are older than sixty-five. This people have a higher vulnerability in regards to medical services, food and water being disrupted as well as regular schedules of critical medications. However, regardless of these kinds of hardships, the culture of cooperation inherent in the Japanese people enabled the country to deal with the disaster. The people of Japan have a culture of preparedness which is considerably different from that found in the US. Additionally, Japan is a relatively small country, so in the event that disaster strikes; it usually affects the entire nation. Japan is frequently hit by disasters which usually have uniform characteristics with all the people in the country being apprehensive about earthquakes (Deodatis, Ellingwoodc & Frangopol, 2014). Consequently, this has facilitated the establishment of a common culture of preparedness compared to other places such as the US that has a higher diversity of disasters that can be faced by particular communities as well as the people making up the population. Experts in emergency preparedness have shown that the people are likely to prepare for any kind of disaster only when they have experiences that convince them that the disasters are likely to affect them. This is the reason why residents of Oklahoma will consider a tornado disaster with seriousness and those in Florida will want to be prepared for the hurricane season. Nonetheless, as the events recede in the memories of the people, the levels of preparedness also decline. In various areas, the degrees of preparedness continue to decrease in proportion to the time between earthquakes. The first responders as well as other organizations who are relied on by the population for immediate and effective responses on a daily basis such as medical personnel, the police and firefighters as well as transportation workers, are usually well prepared and trained to deal with majority of the casualties (Lowther, 2013). They usually carry out their duty at some degree of intricacy and difficulty daily and regularly work under leadership of more experienced directors, emergency managers and chiefs in case the significance of the events escalate. In the event of a disaster, the people usually expect that they official along with the leaders of various agencies organization and companies will take practical roles in response to the disaster and the restoration of the areas that are affected back to normalcy. In the event of a disaster, various officials and leaders should know each other, be aware of the plans and be able to make important decisions regardless of the limited information they may have. They should be able to make crucial decisions despite strict limitations in terms of time while at the same time coordinating and collaborating with other organizations dealing with the disaster. The officials and other leaders who head response organizations should have sufficient knowledge of each other to the point that they can actually anticipate the others decisions that may have to be arrived without consulting each other. Various nations lack uniform, consistent and stable cultures of preparedness and development of these cultures should be done in a manner that will consider the character of the specific country. Since some countries are a combination of numerous diverse communities, they are supposed to come up with nationwide cultures of preparedness from the bottom all the way to the top by developing community-based initiatives instead of top down. It is imperative to note that regardless of the considerable degree of preparedness on Japan, Japan as a nation was not able to prevent the demise of very many of its citizens. A lesson that should be learnt is that citizens will always face challenges regardless of their degree of preparedness in the event that a disaster occurs. Public discussion with the capacity to set practical expectations for the citizenry concerning what they might encounter during a large disaster and the degree to which their governments will assist has not been sufficient. In the event of disasters, foreign assistance is vital even to developed and rich countries like Japan and the US and in some instances, technical capability like searches and rescues will typically be highly needed. Therefore, countries should consider offers for technical assistance in a separate manner in order to make sure that the correct services are implemented on the ground. Even the nations that have broad capacity may need aid and donations during disasters in the event that they cannot shift their domestic resources to the areas affected by the disaster on time. Disapprovals of Japan’s government capacity to accept and utilize aid are similar to those concerning the US subsequent to the oil spill in the Gulf and Hurricane Katrina. To some extent, the unwillingness to accept aid was occasioned by everyday restrictions like logistical considerations as well as incongruity of the needs on the ground and the aid being offered. Conversely, the inability to accept aid effectively reflects limitations in regards to disaster response systems which are more suited to deliver aid instead of receiving. In the case of Japan, information is not always shared through clear channels in the times when there are no disasters, and this creates more limitations to getting information from the decision makers in the event that disaster strikes. Consequently, foreign disaster assistance is likely to be mismanaged when the communication is not effective and efficient. Japan and other nuclear nations should develop international rapid response capabilities led by industries that will allow it to respond to key nuclear incidents all over the globe (Povinec, Hirose & Aoyama, 2013). Countries that have nuclear plants operating commercially can effortlessly incorporate this capabilities into their response programs which would be critical to minimizing the hesitation that was experienced in Japan to accepting technical assistance from other countries while at the same time providing nuclear operators with a better awareness of the resources available to them. Additionally, it can provide and effective means of sharing best practices, integration of responses as well as making sure that all the countries are able to access the latest technology as far as for responding to nuclear incidences. The private sector should finance and control these capabilities through various institutions such as World Association of Nuclear Operators among others. Conclusion Regardless of the massive scale of the earthquake and subsequent tsunami that occurred in Japan, the resilience of the nation’s planning regulations as well as earthquake technology was demonstrated since most buildings and infrastructure remained standing. Therefore, if the earthquake had not been followed by a tsunami, Japan could have considered itself successful and effective in planning for major earthquakes. The effects of the disaster were escalated by Japan’s authorities that were more concerned with economic benefits that the moral and safety factors and even subsequent to the disaster, the nation was concerned with economic benefits while seeking to export its technology. Nonetheless, the disaster motivated people and governments all over the world to decommission all nuclear plants that were old and unsafe. Even though issues of energy and the management of the crisis associated with the power plant were not the key issues as far as disaster management in Tohoku was concerned, the social ethics of the Japanese people as well as the manner in which they dealt with the issue were the points that should noted. The people of Japan remained disciplined, maintained their calm and continued having public confidence in scientific management, and this facilitated rapid resolution of the situation. Long queues could be seen with people patiently waiting for food and facilities rather than chaos, which is an aspect that is mainly considered in emerging nations and this demonstrated that investing in knowledge concerning how to behave in the event of a crisis is practical and effective as far as improving management of disasters is concerned. References Deodatis, G., Ellingwoodc, B., & Frangopol, D. (2014). Safety, reliability, risk and life-cycle perofrmance of structures and infrastructures. Boca Raton: CRC press. Lowther, A. (2013). The Asia-Pacific century. Boca Raton [Fla.]: Taylor & Francis. Povinec, P., Hirose, K., & Aoyama, M. (2013). Fukushima accident. Amsterdam: Elsevier. Suzuki, I., & Kaneko, Y. (2013). Japans disaster governance. New York: Springer. Read More