5Qs with Dr. Grace Turner

Q. Effective communication is critical in disaster management. What are your thoughts so far on what went right and wrong after the Haiti earthquake, from a communication perspective?
A. Right communication action is difficult to assess from a distance especially when it is being received second hand under the Opinion Leader model of communication.  Nevertheless, the extent of the information received can be an indicator of the effectiveness of the communication flow so the points to note are:
1.    The immediate news of the disaster virtually simultaneously world wide describing the nature, magnitude and location.
2.    The immediate needs being made known
3.    The high level of international reaction across all levels of various societies indicating the impact of the messages
4.    Regular and steady updates being provided around the clock
5.    Success or happy stories of survival of loved ones
6.    Truth with respect to high levels of human decay and squalor

Wrong Communication action discerned:
1.    No head of communication established as the central and official voice
2.     Travel constraints and restriction not publicised leading to panic by those unable to return to particular countries
3.    Post event steps with respect to the response from the global community was haphazard with no clear communication plan to address critical issues such as the food and shelter plan, migration plan for victims within or away from Haiti, and security plan

Q. What lessons can other Caribbean nations take from the tragedy in Haiti two weeks ago?
A. Lessons to be taken away from this tragedy are:
1.    Have a disaster plan in place that is known by all key stakeholders
2.    Apply urban development principles of habitation, which would involve considering:
-Road networks in and out with possible alternative routes
-Location of primary agencies and transportation hubs at different points
-Number of habitable units per area

Q. Reporting on disasters sometimes seems formulaic. What can Caribbean media do with disasters other than report them as events or as they've occurred?
A. The age old call for behind the scenes investigative journalism could be what should be heeded now to make the difference. Taking Haiti as an example, her conditions and the circumstances that have led to and have maintained them are known inside and outside of her borders among academics and those who command attention and action in the corridors of power and influence.
A constancy of exposure in different forums and via different media, of the causes and the effects of her circumstances, is a strategy that the media could and should adopt to realise change in an incremental way without encouraging and anticipating the possibilities of an uprising or coup in this or like territories across the globe.

We must remember and acknowledge in a frontal way that Haiti is not alone with such a state of affairs. But in order to implement this expanded approach to reporting, the media owners, managers and workers must first be able to identify what the true disasters are, make a conscious and collective decision to do something about it and then take right action as a matter of policy and practice, until change is realised.

Q. NY Times columnist David Brooks wrote: "On Oct. 17, 1989, a major earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 struck the Bay Area in Northern California. Sixty-three people were killed. This week, a major earthquake, also measuring a magnitude of 7.0, struck near Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The Red Cross estimates that between 45,000 and 50,000 people have died. This is not a natural disaster story. This is a poverty story." http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/15/opinion/15brooks.html What's your take on this?
A. This story does speak to poverty. It speaks to poverty in the ability and willingness to care among the community of those who can make a difference.

It also speaks to the grave and continued imbalance of support to nations in distress by the powerful who choose to fight other more costly battles instead. Those who have met their demise in the Haiti earthquake would be singing the song with the words that say “don’t send me flowers when I am gone” to the donors now stepping over themselves, each other and countless corpses in Haiti with some making grand announcements about debt forgiveness at a time such as this. The desperation existed long before now as a disaster waiting to happen in the clear view of all those who wished to see. Now we are all seeing through a glass darkly.

Q. In your estimation how close to ideal are local and regional disaster management policies?
A. Ideal is a word that is better suited to the fact of the likelihood of a natural or man made disaster striking. With reference to the Caribbean region in our current context and history, our location is ideal for this possibility. The disaster agencies throughout the Caribbean have admitted to the inadequacies of our resources to handle disasters, evidenced in our response to hurricane; volcano and earthquake events over the years, especially recently. Translation: we are not in nor anywhere near an ideal position to plan for, nor address a local or regional disaster.

Our resilience to disasters is as strong as our relations with our neighbours far and near; the will of our people to voluntarily adhere to regulations and codes if they are not enforced and our continued ability and stamina to bounce back after repeated and varied disaster events from which we endure a battering each time they occur.