Hurricane Arthur and Surge Technology

When Hurricane Arthur touched down on the east coast of the U.S., he blew in with a new tool that would help coastal residents understand–and react to–stormy water conditions.

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) released a Google map-powered water surge tracking system that visually represents the risk posed to those whose homes are within the scope of upcoming tropical cyclones. Most coastal residents are familiar with the concept of storm surges but often underestimate the potential impact they could make. Many others are simply reluctant to believe that harm could reach them.

Jamie Rhome, who runs the NHC’s Storm Surge Unit, has attested to the doubtful demeanor of coastal inlanders. “We could convince people right along the beach that the ocean has a potential to invade their home, that was a relatively easy sell,” said Rhome in an interview with Public Radio International. “But what was really, really hard is to convince people that might be 10, 15, 20 miles inland that saltwater could invade their homes; it was really hard to get people to evacuate during a storm.”

A surge occurs when winds and low atmospheric pressure combine to raise sea level and push water inshore. Consequences are flooding, water damage to buildings and death to those who caught in the worst circumstances. The NHC hopes to prevent each of these outcomes as best as possible by educating the public with their storm surge maps.

Storms on the eastern and southern coasts of the United States are frequent enough for their inhabitants to generally understand what may be coming their way. Those living close enough to the coast but at a questionable distance are less aware, the most reluctant to take action and will benefit most from the new technology.

Storm surges are becoming increasingly problematic even for seasoned coastal dwellers due to rising sea levels and the growing populations of seaside cities. “That means more people, more things, harder evacuations,” stated Rhome.

It is hard to believe that Hurricane Katrina happened almost ten years ago, especially since its devastating effects are still felt today. Cases like Katrina and the more recent Ike and Sandy are constant reminders to not take threat of tropical cyclones lightly, but stubbornness often prevents people from burdening themselves with over-preparedness. The NHC hopes that with its real-time storm surge maps, people will make better educated decisions at any point within a storm’s lifespan for their own safety.

The storm surge maps are the first of their kind and will undergo a two-year trial period to gauge their impact and effectiveness. The NHC is emphasizing user experience research during its trial period to improve the usability and readability as the technology develops. If successful, the storm surge maps could be released worldwide where the effects of tropical cyclones are even more devastating.

For most U.S. residents, evacuating from an upcoming storm is doable. Although there are disadvantaged Americans with less agency to prepare for or flee from a hurricane, the U.S. infrastructure is generally more resilient than many other areas in the world.

Developing island nations such as Haiti, who was hit by four tropical cyclones in 2008 alone, are the most vulnerable.

In the near future, it is hoped that technology and a solid internet connection will be accessible by all, including the NHC’s surge maps equipped to display storm conditions for any area in the world. At the end of the day, natural disasters are harmful regardless of where they occur and remain the most uncontrollable threat to global health. Circumstances are severely worsened when poverty is thrown into the mix.

Even if it is difficult for people to evacuate, seeing the danger before it arrives might compel people to make the decision to flee. No matter how inconvenient it is to pack up and go, a human life is worth more than taking the risk to stay. That is the sentiment the NHC hopes to instill.

– Edward Heinrich

Sources: PRI, NOLA.com
Photo: CNN

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Women’s Bodies as “Justice”

In many places around the world, women and young girls are viewed as commodities. Whether or not they are raped themselves, women’s bodies are used to atone for crimes committed by others. More than 700 million women alive today were married under 18, and more are used as a way to bring justice to criminals.

In some countries, it is legal for a rapist to escape prosecution if he marries his victim, who is usually a minor. This practice is allowed in Algeria, Bahrain, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Syria and Tunisia. The law was also up for debate in Mozambique earlier this year. Even in places where the law is not on the books, often rural, traditional customs allow for it.

This year, a man in Zimbabwe raped a 14-year-old girl. He had been harassing her, and her grandmother told her to marry him. After the rape, her grandmother continued insisting she marry the man, and he took her away from her home. Against the law of the state, he called her his wife and continued raping her until her mother paid for her bus fare to get home.

A 13-year-old girl in India also reported that cops forced her to marry one of her attackers after being gang-raped.

The motivation behind the marriages has to do with honor. Girls who lose their virginity are seen as worthless, or unable to find a husband, so their families will often marry them off to their rapist in order to restore their honor. Some countries do not view marital rape as a crime, so anything happening within marriage is seen as honorable. Sometimes there is external pressure to force their child into marriage.

In 2012, 15-year-old Amina Filali killed herself by ingesting rat poison after she was forced to marry her rapist. She endured continued rapes and beatings before committing suicide. Her family and her rapist’s family agreed to have the two married, in part because of honor, but also because of pressure from authorities.

Families also force children into marriage because of war. Child marriage is seen as protection from the raping and kidnapping that often happens in conflicts.

Honor is a major factor, and rape causes shame for the victim, not the attacker. Sometimes the quest for honor affects justice for rape victims. In Northern Africa, the punishment for rape depends on whether the victim is a virgin or not. In Pakistan, although a Women’s Protection Bill was passed in 2006, if a woman is of “generally immoral character,” punishments are not as severe or are completely ignored.

A Somali girl named Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow was gang-raped by three men in 2007. The family reported the incident to the militia, but instead of prosecuting the perpetrators, Aisha was stoned to death. According to the local police force, she had committed adultery.

The honor associated with young girls’ virginity extends beyond their own sexual experiences. Sometimes local law will allow young girls to be raped because of crimes committed by family members. The idea is that a girl’s loss of virginity is a blow to the entire family’s honor, so the crime of the family can be paid by her body.

This year, in a northern Indian village, a leader ordered the rape of a 14-year-old girl. Her brother had sexually assaulted another woman. The victim’s husband was to carry out the rape himself, while she received no assistance. A 22-year-old was ordered to be gang-raped by 13 of her neighbors for going outside her community for a relationship. A 24-year-old was gang-raped because her brother eloped with another man’s wife. She was then forced to marry one of her attackers.

All of these women’s bodies are being used in the name of justice. The highest reports of rape come from Europe and America, but the social stigma, discriminatory laws and patriarchal culture of some areas of the world prevent women from speaking out against their attackers.

Women fear the consequences of speaking out. Sometimes they are not even related to a crime, but their bodies are used to exact “justice,” anyway.

– Monica Roth

Sources: Amnesty International 1, Amnesty International 2, Al Jazeera America, Jezebel, UNICEF, Mumbai Mirror, The Nation, The Daily Beast, NewsdzeZimbabwe
Photo: The Daily Beast

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NGOs in the DRC Reject Drones

Drones buzz through the skies of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to monitor this mineral-rich country that has been racked with war for 20 years. The U.N. Stabilization Mission, or MONUSCO,  a peacekeeping operation with over 21,000 personnel, brought two of these Unmanned Aerial Vehicles into action in the DRC last April. MONUSCO then offered to share drone-collected information with humanitarian NGOs working in the DRC.

The offer was emphatically rejected.

The NGOs reject drones because MONUSCO is a military operation. International NGOs are humanitarian and as such are bound to the principles of “neutrality, impartiality and operational independence.” Using drones for both military and humanitarian information gathering compromises these principles.

A July 14, 2014 statement released by NGOs working in the DRC pointed to the potential for data gathered with a humanitarian objective nevertheless informing combat operations.

2006’s guidelines for how humanitarian actors and MONUSCO are to coordinate has recently been revised, but IRIN reports that a final draft “does not directly address the use of info gained through drones.”

NGOs are concerned that they have no guarantee the info will come from non-drone sources.

Drones have served both military and non-military purposes in the past. For example, while one drone might use its infrared camera to search for people congregating at night (a sign of an attack brewing), another drone might be tasked with monitoring the geological activity of a volcano.

On May 5, 2014, drones in Rwanda that were flying over Lake Kivu relayed information indicating a ferry had capsized, leaving 20 people in the water struggling for their lives. Rescuers saved 14 people who probably would have drowned otherwise.

However, the issue here is not whether drones are capable of serving a non-military function; humanitarian organizations know they would find information gathered by drones helpful. The issue is that, according to certain core principles, humanitarian NGOs cannot take sides in a war.

The drones’ many uses could embroil the NGOs in the conflict because MONUSCO might use “humanitarian information” for military purposes.

The region these drones patrol is highly unstable, with many armed groups fomenting conflict there. Last June, members of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, a militia group with a large presence in the DRC, proclaimed their desire to disarm and negotiate. Provided the offer to disarm was genuine, some thought this might stabilize the region to a certain extent.

However, recent attacks on barracks in Kinshasa by a separate group highlight how one party’s exit from the conflict can hardly be used to foretell an end to the larger conflict. Because of this, drones will remain a fixture in the DRC’s skies.

-Ryan Yanke

Sources: IRIN, BBC News, The New York Times
Photo: BBC

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The Link Between Poverty and Education

It is a well-documented fact that children from low-income households are significantly less likely to be successful than their middle and upper class counterparts. Studies have repeatedly shown a link between poverty and education. Family income is one of the strongest predictors available for measuring success, both in the classroom and later in life.

With fewer resources and less of a focus on education at home, children growing up in poverty are behind from the very beginning. Household stresses from living in poverty build up in the child, making it extremely difficult to concentrate on education.

Even if they are going to school regularly, children in poverty often fail to get an adequate education due to the stress of destitution. Since they have such a difficult time in the classroom, the kids fall into the poverty trap, in which their lack of education prevents any rise on the social ladder.

Until recently, it was unclear exactly what biological process made that the case. However, recent studies have pointed towards working memory as the key psychological factor linking poverty and education, specifically in academic achievement.

 

Working Memory Links Poverty and Education

 

Working memory is a “temporary storage mechanism” that lets us hold information and facts in our head for short-term usage and manipulation. The process of using working memory is central for reading, problem-solving and learning new languages.

A number of studies have shown that children with the best working memories also tend to have the highest test scores and the best grades. Children in poverty consistently have a less developed working memory than those above the poverty line.

With a dearth of educational resources in poor countries, an underdeveloped working memory often goes unnoticed and untreated.

This means that in addition to dealing with stress at home, children in poverty also have trouble remembering basic facts and instructions at school. Unable to stay on task, and struggling to keep up, their failure at school only adds to their stress level.

What’s more, a study published in the Development Science journal showed that, “Stress in early childhood negatively affects a child’s working memory in adulthood.”

The problems for children in poverty become even bigger problems in their adult lives. While a poor working memory for a child only means bad grades, it spells unemployment and crushing poverty for an adult.

The answer must come well before adulthood. With properly trained educators, an underdeveloped working memory can be easily spotted and rectified before it becomes a larger problem.

The lack of a proper education makes up a major part of the poverty trap — a phenomenon in which people living in poverty cannot rise up due to scarce resources, depression, lack of opportunity and other issues. The poverty trap can start before the child ever enters the classroom, and it has long-term psychological consequences.

Even from early childhood, poverty can create both a biological obstacle and an inescapable trap that collectively reduces the likelihood for academic and monetary success.

– Sam Hillestad

Sources: PsyBlog, PNAS

Digital Banking Changes the World

Cash-based systems for holding money are inefficient and hold a lot of risk, with especially high consequences for the world’s poor. With ‘digital cash’ and saving methods, more people are able to experience financial inclusion in modern banking, suffer less risky consequences and begin investing in their future.

Much of this banking is done through mobile phones, which have become increasingly available to developing countries. About 89 mobile phones exist per 100 people in these areas. Even non-financial institutions, such as small businesses, use mobile payments in order to perform faster business and expand their customer base.

Studies in Mexico have shown that in areas where more banking institutions were introduced, there was a rise in informal small businesses, as well as a seven percent rise in incomes. This demonstrates that greater access to banking systems can lead to economic stimulation.

Having financial transactions performed on mobile phones makes banking services cheaper and more feasible for the poor. Digital banking also comes with better financial records, making it easier for banks and other lending programs to develop credit scores, and lending methods that are tailored to their clients.

With digital banking, immediate transactions can be made from the comfort of one’s home, saving people time and money by avoiding a possibly long commute and day away from work in order to get to a bank. Digital banking also makes money less susceptible to common risks such as thievery, natural disasters, or manipulative friends and relatives.

Some people in these situations even pay others to keep their money safe, adding another unnecessary payment to their expenses.

Long distance transfers also become easier to accomplish. Many households in developing countries receive their income from a family member working in other parts of the country who sends money periodically.

A poll was conducted in 11 sub-Saharan African countries that discovered that 83 percent of those polled had made a payment to someone far away using cash. This involved giving money to bus drivers, asking friends to carry money, or taking time off work to deliver the money themselves.

These processes are not only unsafe, but they can be unreliable and slow.

After a bank was set up in a region in Malawi in 2002, farmers used it to hold their money after the harvest, so that they would be able to continue buying fertilizer throughout the year. Their crop yields grew, therefore increasing overall income, while allowing these farming families to send children to school for even more future investment.

Recently in Kenya, clients of M-Pesa, a mobile money program, were observed and compared to Kenyans without the program. When natural disasters or unexpected events came, M-Pesa clients were able to receive financial assistance from friends and relatives at a much faster rate, making any negative impact much smaller, and allowing their regular lives to be interrupted as little as possible.

The success of M-Pesa has sparked motivation for other countries to create similar programs. Tanzania has over 47 percent of their population using mobile banking, and Uganda has begun the process, and already has 26 percent of their population as a member of a mobile banking system.

Even governments benefit from mobile banking. Since Mexico’s adoption of digital banking in 1997, their government lowered their spending on wages, pensions and social welfare by $1.3 billion, or 3.3 percent annually.

A study was done in India that concluded the government could save $22 billion annually just by digitizing all payments and transfers.

Although digital banking is expanding throughout the developing world, there are still 2.5 billion people without any banking system. Governments, non profits and private groups are now working on making banking more digital, and therefore more accessible to these bank less people.

-Courtney Prentice

Sources: Skoll World Forum, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Forbes, Global Envision, TIME, Foreign Affairs
Photo: Gulf Business

Forming a Post-2015 Agenda

The Millennium Development Goals outline specific targets to be accomplished by 2015 in the fight against global poverty. What happens after 2015, though? With all the work that has to be done to meet the 2015 goals, looking beyond next year is not at the forefront of many peoples’ minds.

The United Nations has attempted to begin a global conversation about a post-2015 agenda to follow the MDGs.

U.N. leaders trying to formulate a concrete set of post-2015 goals have found that conducting a global conversation is difficult. The United Nations Development Programme sent out an online survey to 1.44 million people from 194 different countries to inquire about what they would like to see included in future goals.

Emerging priorities include education, healthcare and an improved job market.

Despite the survey’s results, the main priority for post-2015 seems to be sustainable development goals. Current research is beginning to reveal how important sustainable development and the environment are to the alleviation of global poverty.

As highlighted at a recent conference in Britain, climate change should affect the discussion of post-2015 goals greatly. It is something that was not included in the 2015 MDGs.

The MDGs related to sustainable development include biodiversity loss reduction, improved access to safe and clean drinking water, decreased number of people living in slums and incorporation of sustainable development policies into more countries’ legal systems.

Climate change hits developing countries hard, especially countries with economies that depend on farming exports. Many citizens in developing countries also depend on farming as a means of personal survival. It also  causes weather-related natural disasters that can destroy communities that lack funds to rebuild.

Discussing climate change must be done sooner rather than later.

“Everything is related to everything,” said  Tom Bigg, head of partnerships at the International Institute for Environment and Development.

The Development Cooperation Forum will work with the U.N. to determine the best course of action beyond 2015. The Forum will look at global needs, as well as the people’s wishes, to determine where the world should focus its attention after the 2015 MDGs have passed.

– Emily Walthouse

Sources: The Guardian, IIED, Thomas Reuters Foundation, UN 1, UN 2, UN 3
Photo: Free Digital Photos

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Bhutan HIV Reports

The Southeast Asian country of Bhutan reported 34 HIV cases between December 2013 and June 2014, according to the nation’s Ministry of Health.

The number of cases breaks down as 18 males and 16 females. Two of the cases involve minors aged 2 years old and 3 years old, respectively.

Among the same time period four years prior, the country saw 32 cases of the disease, equally split among males and females.

A 2008 report published by the nation’s Ministry of Health stated that the first case of HIV appeared in the country in 1993. Though Bhutan continues to enact measures to stop the spread of the disease, the “number of cases continues to rise steadily.”

On average, Bhutan reports five new HIV cases each month.

While other countries typically see a higher proportion of males with the virus than females, the distribution among genders is nearly equal in Bhutan.

Bhutan is a small Southeast Asian country with a population of over 750,000 people. Roughly the size of Switzerland, Bhutan has experienced strong economic growth since the beginning of the century. The nation’s per capita gross national income (GNI) has risen from $730 in 2000 to $2,070 in 2011, making it one of the highest in South Asia.

However, despite sizable drops in poverty, Bhutanese citizens suffering from severe poverty continue to become victims.

According to the World Health Organization, HIV attacks the body’s immune system. It is spread by unprotected sexual intercourse or through contaminated blood or instruments including needles and syringes. The more advanced stage of the virus, AIDS, often occurs within 10 years to 15 years of the first signs of the virus.

While there are treatments and medication that can slow the progression of the disease, there is currently no cure for either HIV or AIDS.

– Ethan Safran

Sources: Zee News, The Health Site, The World Bank, The Bhutanese, World Health Organization 1, World Health Organization 2
Photo: Authint Mail

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The Status of Orphans in Developing Countries

Losing a parent is undoubtedly a traumatic experience for any child. It is an experience that will follow that child, likely playing a large role in their development and the opportunities they will have later in life.

Globally, 153 million children are orphans; the number of orphans in developing countries is enormous: 132 million. Here are 5 facts about the 132 million orphaned children in developing nations.

1. The large amount of orphans in developing countries is a result of many negative circumstances. Among these are natural disasters, famine and war. However, AIDS is the most significant reason children in a developing country lose their parents. In 2007 alone, AIDS left 15 million children orphaned after one or more of their parents passed away from the disease.

More than 24 percent of orphaned children had parents taken from them by AIDS. In 2008, 430,000 children were infected with the disease as well.

2. Asia holds the largest number of orphaned children, at 71 million – India alone is home to 31 million orphans. This is followed by Africa, which harbors 59 million.

3. Each day, 39,000 children are forced from their homes alone because of the death of a parent, family illness or abuse and abandonment.

4. After losing parents, circumstances for children drastically decline. They typically lack basic needs, like food and shelter. Education, however, is the first to be sacrificed, especially for older children who stop attending school to care for their younger siblings. These children try to provide for themselves and their younger siblings, often endangering their health.

The International Labor Organization reports that orphans are often found working in commercial agriculture, as well as street vending and housekeeping. Seven percent of orphans are stolen and sold into the sex industry.

5. The number of orphans is growing. Predictions for the next five to 10 years show the trend moving upward. By 2020, more than 200 million children could find themselves orphaned. This is almost three percent of the world population.

Despite the harsh reality of being orphaned in a developing country, it’s important to note that the rate of children becoming orphans in developing nations is finally slowing. The U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child has become the most rapidly and widely ratified human rights treaty in world history. It lays down a set of rights for each child and, as nations struggle to bring much needed care and protection to their orphans, provides pathways and options for each nation to do so.

– Rachel Davis

Sources: Humanium, Moju Project, UNICEF
Photo: The Guardian

The Philippines: Land of Typhoons

Every year, 20 typhoons pay a visit to the Philippines. In their wake, they leave towns and cities bursting at the seams with flood water that residents must wade though in order to get to their jobs and homes.

This is what residents of Quezon City had to deal with again as Typhoon Rammasun hit. The numbers were huge: 12,000 people were displaced, 38 people were killed when Rammasun hit this land of typhoons and at least eight were missing shortly after the storm.

People’s homes, 19,000 in all, were left damaged.

Meanwhile, in the town of Noveleta, people braced against 185 mph wilds. The typhoon cut across Luzon, shutting down the capital and leaving a trail of blackouts and ravaged trees as it passed.

Then it set course for Southern China.

Before the storm had even reached the country, China was already feeling its effects. Heavy landslides and rainfall killed 45 people before the full brunt of the storm could even be felt. Torn-apart power lines plunged the region into darkness, and 21 people went missing. China prepared for the oncoming 140-kilometer-per-hour winds that had yet to come.

For the Philippines, the aftermath of Rammasun serves as a bad memory of the destruction caused last November by Typhoon Haiyan. The November storm killed over 5,000 people and left more than 1,600 missing, surging the ocean into massive, tsunami-like waves that surged onto land.

Unidentified bodies found resting places in mass graves.

But the problems weren’t buried with the Philippines’ dead. More than one million people have been left financially devastated with the destruction of 33 million coconut trees across the country. The trees, which will take eight to 10 years to grow back, served as the livelihood of poor Filipino farmers.

Sixty percent of farmers in the Philippines were already impoverished, and the November blow Haiyan delivered made their situation desperate.

Farmers weren’t the only group affected; with 30,000 boats destroyed in Haiyan’s massive waves, the livelihoods of poor fishermen were also at stake. They now face relocation in regions far from the coast, preventing them from returning to their trade even with the restoration of their fishing vessels.

With Rammasun’s latest rampage, the farmers and fishermen of the Philippines are now in serious need of aid.

– Rachel Davis

Sources: CBC News 1, CBC News 2, Oxfam
Photo: The Australian

Lake Victoria Treaty Signed to Protect Wildlife

Representatives from Israel, Germany and Kenya signed a treaty that will initiate the second phase of the plan to protect Lake Victoria.

The Lake Victoria treaty was signed on July 11 in Nairobi.

“Kenya committed 600,00 Euros; Germany committed 400,000 Euros; and Israel committed 200,000 Euros for training, support, and also equipment, totaling 1.2 million Euros for the next two and a half years,” said Andrea Bahm, program director at the German Agency for International Cooperation’s Food Security and Drought Resilience Program

The first phase of the treaty was signed and implemented in 2012, and aimed to improve the environment surrounding and within Lake Victoria. As the population surrounding the lake grew, the population of fish steadily depleted every year, and the treaty was enacted to prevent total depletion of fish from Lake Victoria.

Phase I involved promoting tilapia fish farming in an effort to support the community’s economy and livelihood. Phase I also included implementing a better system to manage the water waste in the Lake so the tilapia could more readily thrive.

Phase II will involve extending the project and funding and cooperation from the three countries that signed the treaty. Through this second phase, the treaty aims to ensure that the three countries will work to “enhance sustainable ways of protecting Lake Victoria’s environment but creating alternative livelihoods for the communities living around the lake.”

Plans to create lasting means of support involve building more ponds in Kenya to expand the areas in which tilapia can be raised and later used for food.

– Jordyn Horowitz

Sources: Israel Diplomatic Network, Sada Elbalad, World Bank
Photo: SafariLands