Here in the UK, it looks like next week will see a major strike by the tanker drivers who keep Shell petrol stations fuelled up – catalysing fears of a potential repeat of the fuel crisis of October 2000. The government has already been drawing up emergency plans, and for the last few days has been calling on motorists not to panic buy stocks for their cars.
I’ve always thought that calling on people not to panic buy is the one measure guaranteed to trigger a rush to build up personal stockpiles. But it emerges that the Cabinet Office’s Civil Contingencies Secretariat is (as ever) several steps ahead of the game: the injunctions against panic buying were precisely designed to get people to start panic buying. The FT’s Jean Eaglesham has the details:
The government assumed that the “buy as normal” message issued by the prime minister on Tuesday would prompt those prone to panic-buying to do exactly that. “We’d rather people started filling their tanks now, giving time for the forecourts to restock before the strike takes hold, than over the weekend,” a government insider told the FT.
The strategy appears to be having some effect. Sales of petrol were up about 10 per cent on Tuesday, compared with the previous week, according to the latest estimates from the Department for Business.
By any estimation this is a shocking video. A hit and run case made worse because people walking along the pavement don’t rush to the victim, or call 911 but instead they stand and watch the victim. This psychological phenomenon is fairly well documented and is known as genovese syndrome (after a woman by the name of Kitty Genovese was stabbed to death by a serial rapist and murderer over a period of about a half hour, after which it was reported that dozens of alleged “witnesses” failed to help the victim). Researchers found that individuals will intervene if another person is in need of help – but that help is less likely to be given if more people are present.
But how, I wonder, does this social phenomenon play into the broader issue of community resilience – if at all? Self help groups, good Samaritans and community spirit all play critical roles in helping a community bounce back from an event. But what if they don’t actually exist in the first place? Are policy makers and policy wonks assuming too much about individuals and their appetite to help others? Evidence is key but think about the following:
Back in March 2008 the UK Government unveiled a plan for a civil defence network to protect Britain against natural disasters and terrorism. The idea was that organisations would team up to build the country’s resilience in a catastrophe.
But this initiative was based on the assumption that people would want to join such an organisation. And most individuals, it seems, don’t. So my prediction is that the civil defence force will be consigned to the dustbin of ideas even before it’s piloted. And is there an alternative? Based on a superficial reading of the evidence it seems most people form their own groups in response to specific events. A case of bottom- up approaches trumping top-down initiatives – leaving Government with a massive headache as to how it should approach the issue of community resilience.
The Putnam County Legislature’s Physical Services Committee implicitly acknowledged the financial impact that rising fuel prices are having on the county when, during its May 13 meeting, it heard a presentation on alternate fuels and ways of reducing the ever-escalating costs of heating the county’s buildings.
Water is perhaps our most precious natural resource. All life is dependent on a supply of clean water. And whether you are an average resident changing the oil in your car or a developer constructing several new houses – you have a legal obligation to ensure that your activities do not jeopardize the quality of water in area streams – and ultimately in the Hudson River. That was the gist of a presentation made at a meeting on May 14 at Cold Spring.
Gasoline continues to be a subject of considerable interest in and around the Village of Cold Spring – and not only because consumers are paying more than four dollars to purchase one gallon of regular at area pumps. At the meeting of the Village Board, Trustees passed a resolution requiring Mayor Anthony Phillips to submit expense claims documenting mileage incurred on Village business in order to be reimbursed.
It’s a sort of Olde Worlde Resilience, I guess. And good to see. Although most Putnam residents are probably most concerned about exactly how Olde Worlde their local 1970s-vintage nuclear power station is, especially as it has a “history of problematic performance”. This week it’ll be testing its 156 emergency sirens – a temporary system, it transpires, while a new one is sorted out. Reassuring.
UPDATE: for thoughts on why this post makes me look like a fool, look here.
Something I hadn’t picked up until recently was the role of the black cab on 7/7. Anecdotal evidence suggests that on the day of the bombings black cabs ferried people to hospitals, carried people to and from the target areas and helped bring relatives and friends together. All for free. It’s not on the same scale as the now famous evacuation on 9/11 when ferries, tugboats, private vessels, and others joined together to evacuate an estimated 300,000 people from lower Manhattan but it is a useful demonstration of community resilience in action.
Yesterday’s Brooking’s event on the US and Europe (see this post) included three panels – one on the Presidential election; one on the French EU presidency; and one on Russia.
The Presidential panel combined general rejoicing at the imminent (243 days and counting) departure of George Bush (“somewhat less popular in Europe than Satan”) with caution that expectations may be too high at what will follow.
Gary Schmitt, from the American Enterprise Institute, who advises McCain, thought that Republicans had become much more realistic about the need for transatlantic ties. McCain’s speech at the Munich Conference on Security Policy got a plug (and not just from Gary, but from other speakers too):
The debate in the transatlantic relationship – over who is to lead and who to follow, whether to act in concert or unilaterally, or if the bonds that unite us are stronger than interests that divide us – that debate is over. Our interests, though not always perfectly congruent, are rarely diverging.
The Obama narrative, meanwhile, is ‘deeply attractive’ to Europeans, according to Laurence Freedman, currently promoting his new book, on American and the Middle East – A Choice of Enemies. The Bush administration was forever tarnished in European eyes by Guantanamo Bay, Iraq Abu Ghraib, he said. At a time when Europe is populated by a cast of ‘weak leaders’, a new President will have the opportunity to make a clean break from the past (close Guantanamo) and generate real leadership for the US. (more…)
