Factors Making Small Communities in Pakistan More Vulnerable to Disasters Essay Example for Free

Factors Making Small Communities in Pakistan More Vulnerable to Disasters Essay There is no single definition or explanation of a disaster, as a matter of fact in this modern age of science and technology one could predict the time and place and estimate the damage when a disaster would hit a certain area however only an estimate could be made about the outcome of the dreadful event still all the disasters could not be forecasted. This prediction also has difference in opinion when it comes to interpret the disaster; economists may measure it by calculating the loss of assets, health workers might talk of diseases that might spread after the event, political view might be setting institutions to deal with the event and social view might involve the effects on the society. Pakistan has been at risk to many natural and manmade disasters in the past. History states various events when cyclones, flooding, drought, landslides and earth quakes have hit the country. The country is also believed to be one of the most flood prone terrains in South Asia. The floods of 1950, 1992 and 1998 and 2011 have taken various lives and made severe damage to property and assets. Pakistan is also located at seismically active zone making the area vulnerable to extreme consequences. This vulnerability was proven on October 2005 when an earthquake measuring 7. 6 on the rector scale had hit 9 districts in Kheyber Pakhtunkhuwa and Azad Jammu Kashmir killing over 72,000 people and destroying over 4,00,000 houses. Pakistan being an agriculture based country also has fear of droughts. The droughts of 2002 had cost an estimated amount of 2. 5 billion $. Pakistan does not have a lot of reported cyclone hit incidents to stat yet till now roughly fourteen cyclones have been recorded since 1971-2012 which also had damages in a notable amount. When a disaster strikes some area it does not spare any in its way but the most prone and effected people are the ones who belong to small communities. Their segregation and exclusion in to small communities might be due to the false and holistic systems present in our social circles bases on ethnic, religious or class based values in the current society. Further on these segregated segments are marked as poor or minorities. However these small communities are most vulnerable when a disaster strikes. The level of their vulnerability increases in the post disaster scenario. There are many factors behind the vulnerability which have horrific outcomes for these small communities as a result. I would like to discuss on a few factors which in my view point are the important factors and causes of the increased vulnerability of these small communities. Poverty is one of the most fundamental causes which results in increased level of vulnerability of small communities. Their lack of access to resources leads to the lack of capacity in dealing with a disaster. An estimate made in 2005 states that around 22. 6% of the total population lives under the poverty line in the country, further on 40% of the total urban population lives in slums. The economic situation in the country is not very stable and due to this inflation is widespread in the country leading to income volatility. In circumstances where poverty is present in the society at such a high scale, it gets difficult to make ends meet, fighting against a disaster is a question that does not even comes in to the context. Poor construction practices also result in the increase in the vulnerability of the small communities. Due to poverty still in many villages people build their houses out of mud. This is not a strong structure. At the time of a disastrous event such structures can prove not to be very resistant. Similarly in urban areas as mentioned above a large number of people live in slums which are again not a very resilient structure in case of disasters. There are no proper code and conducts devised by the government authorities to tackle with this issue. Such conditions increase the vulnerability of the small groups present in Pakistan. Weak early warning system is a problem present in many developing countries. Pakistan being a developing country also has this problem where due to the lack of resources and technology many disasters cannot be predicted on time. Due to this it gets hard to estimate the damage level and the intensity of the disaster beforehand. It also gets hard to make a relief plan or mitigation strategies to minimize the effects of the disaster. Remoteness and isolation is another factor which is caused by the cultural and social barriers due to which majority of the small communities are effected as they are segregated and isolated from the society. Remoteness can be taken in to two different means one is the social exclusion factor the other can be the nature of their inhabitant area which might geographically be landlocked by nature. In either ways their isolation can be a factor that can lead small communities in to a more vulnerable situation. Infrastructure can also play a role in increasing the vulnerability of small communities. If we take the area of Southern Punjab as in example the area consists of the rural side of the country and agriculture is their main source of employment, the place also has a history of floods related disasters in the past. Due to lack of proper roads etc it might get hard for people to evacuate even if the disaster as been predicted beforehand. The people from strong communities have means of transportation by which they can get to safety with ease on the other hand the poor and small communities don’t get a chance to evacuate from the danger zone. Awareness programs and education about strategies to counter disasters is a phenomenon which is not present in the current society. The floods of 2012 could be held in account as evidence of this acquisition as many of the rural poor were displaced as majority of their assets were destroyed and many lives lost. If people were given proper education about strategies to deal with the disaster as it was an area with high risk the amount of loss might have been reduced. Lack of community participation is also an important factor as due to exclusion, factions are produced in the society due to barriers they do not tend to interact with the weaker segments of the society. Their lack of communication and participation creates a divide and due to which the vulnerability is increased in the smaller communities at the time of crisis. Limited capacity and coordination between various governmental and nongovernmental agencies. This might occur due to the meager means of resistance available or mismanagement on behalf of the agencies. Corruption also has a role to play in this situation where the rights of the small communities are usurped by the larger or more power full factions of the society. This corruption could give rise to mistrust between the state and non state actors trying to fight against the disaster. As they don’t unite therefore their power is also diminished. Religious/Ethnic biases can also lead to disasters as small minorities are at stake. Due to quarrels and other means of violence threat to their assets and lives increases their vulnerability. Similarly in civil conflicts the small and less powerful communities are the ones which are at the high risk level due to their openness to danger. Rapid Urbanization as societies become more and more modern day by day the process of urbanization also increases. In search of reaching to an industrial society as it brings more and more recourses to increase the level and quality of life it also brings along some negative aspects out of which greed is most prominent. Today man has become so greedy that it does not care that what effects his voyage to success might have on others. Rapid Industrialization is also having its negative effects on the environment which will eventually lead to severe consequences as global warming. At the same time rapid urbanization means the extinction of forests and other natural resources. As majority of the small communities cannot afford to live at the core hence the are pushed to the outer circle of the area where there might be a non availability of basic necessities of lives leading to various epidemics for example due to lack of sanitation facilities or making them live in to disaster prone areas due to deforestation leading to earth quakes, landslides and floods. To conclude I would state that the above mentioned factors are some of many which evolve in our social system. What so ever is the cause of the disaster event either it is manmade, natural in nature it is the small communities which are affected the most. Social, political, armed conflicts, hazards all in total increase the vulnerability of small communities. Steps are to be taken in to account to eradicate this in justice from our society as this may lead to social unrest or may have even more bizarre outcomes on the community as a whole.

Sappho And St. Teresa De Avila :: essays research papers

Day by day women are faced with obstacles simply because of gender. In the plays we have read women are faced with obstacles but overcome them. Women in the past were expected to be submissive and not object to the men’s decisions. The world today has changed its face. No longer are women quiet. Sappho and her work is a good example in our readings to represent today’s day and time. Her poems seem contemporary, very modern. The Descent of Inanna ,on the other hand, is a prime example of works we’ve read that represent the past much more.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I strongly believe that each generation is a product of the previous generation, and during the Ancient World, women were not expected to write. They were submissive and their religious superior had the final say. Sappho broke these rules and went against the odds. She wrote and produced wonderful work that everyone can relate to during any time period. Although religious leaders successfully destroyed a great amount of her work, the few parts and pieces that survived still describe things of today in such short lines and phrases. “At noontime'; is a good example of this. It describes the sun and its’ heat and the cricket which till today “sets up a high-pitched singing in his wings.'; “If you will come'; is another example. “At noontime'; is simple to say it relates to today’s world, the sun will always be hot the cricket will always live, but the customs and traditions of people do and Sappho still describes customs from her t ime that live today. “If you will come'; tells of things that generally a person would do for visitors. It says, “ If you will come I shall put out new pillows for you to rest on.'; In just these few lines so much is said. This can be taken as literally taking our new pillows for a visitor to sleep on and rest after a long drive to your home. It may also mean that the host is making the visitor feel at home by welcoming him with open arms. Nevertheless, this poem describes customs that a person would do now. For these reasons Sappho’s works are the most modern in our readings.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The Descent of Inanna is quite the opposite of Sappho. It describes Inanna going into the “underworld'; a place that we do not relate to as easily as a worldly location.

Human nature Essay

Personality is the particular combination of emotional, attitudinal, and behavioral response patterns of an individual. It is the sound total o the multi-dimensionality of an individual. It is the sounding of one’s upbringing as a person. Personality is the reflection of how we are cared by our family, friends, government, society, etc. There are two factors that affect personality. These are nature and nurture. Many of us would try to look deep into ourselves and try to answer these following questions. Which is the most significant, nature or nurture? Which of the two most change my personality as a whole? What am I really? Nature is the genetic or biological component of an individual. This means that a person’s nature comes from its predecessors and the attitudes comes from its parents. Genes play a greater role in determining key personality traits like social skills and learning ability than the way we are brought up by our parents. Genetics were most influential on people’s sense of self-control and also affected their social and learning abilities and their sense of purpose. Nurture is the social and environmental factors that affect the individual. This means that the environment affects how a person thinks and do. There are many people in this world wherein they where affected by the changes in society. Maybe it is because it is needed so that they can fit in or maybe they need it to be socially compatible with others. Behavior can be non-genetically transmitted from parents to offspring. Non-genetic transmission of behavior can play an important role in shaping personality. Both nature and nurture are important in constructing our personality. They are sine qua non with the personality. Both factors help and determine the outcome of an individual. Both genetic and environmental factors contribute to personality continuity and change, but genetic factors affect rank-order change only in younger decades of life, whereas environmental influences appear to represent a lifelong source of inter-individual differences in personality development. For some they might choose nature over nurture, or vise versa, but soon they would realize that both help them determine their real self. As time passes, our society also changes and this reminds us that we too have to change so that we can fit in. We have to change so that we won’t be left out from the others. Some people give so much importance with their social life that they forget their self. There is nothing permanent in this world. Our personality is also the same; it changes according to what we will need depending on the situation. And with the help of the two factors, nature and nurture, we will be able to change easily. We will be able to address our problems and answer it without difficulty. Although we have to be reminded that changing our personality doesn’t mean that we have to change our whole self. Yes, we have to change because it is needed but we also have to be reminded that we have to remain a little amount of ourselves. We change because society tells us to but we should still stay true to ourselves because if all of us change, then we will be identical with each other and that would mean a disobedience to the natural law. We have to be true to ourselves because we have to be different from others. We have to be distinct from the others. We have to be unique. Even though society tells us to change our personality or attitude, we are still given the authority and choice to do so. We are the bosses of ourselves and we can dictate ourselves what to do and what not to do. ‘In order to gain something, you have to lose something’ I disagree in this statement. Why? Because we are given a choice and that choice doesn’t mean that we have to let go, it only means that we have to accept new things. There may be clashes and disagreements with two factors but it is possible to combine them and maybe there will be better results. Again, both nature and nurture are important in constructing ourselves. Some of us already found themselves and some are still struggling to find their meaning but we have to be reminded that we are different. We are who we are and we shouldn’t force ourselves to change just to satisfy other people. We have to learn to accept ourselves first before others would learn to accept us. Being true to ourselves makes our personality shine the most.

The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde - 1837 Words

Robert Louis Stevenson’s masterpiece, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde centers around duality of humanity in nature, right vs. wrong, joy vs. despair, good vs. evil. This novella invites the reader in through techniques like flash-backs, foreshadowing and suspense. Within every person there is nature of two equal parts, whether it be obvious or not, it varies from person to person. Dualism derives from the Latin word duo, meaning two. Simply put, dualism can be understood as the existence of two different, often opposite principles. â€Å"The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde† centers upon the conception of humanity as dual in nature. In The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, one man’s dark desires create a case of a†¦show more content†¦When a man’s desires over power his self-control, the malicious nature is amplified. Jekyll loves to be Hyde because Jekyll has repressed his violent and sexual urges. Hyde is Jekyll’s inner nature because he wanted to express himself and his needs without feeling any sort of remorse or guilt for it. â€Å"We had† was the reply. â€Å"But it is more than ten years since Henry Jekyll became too fanciful for me. He began to go wrong, wrong in the mind† (Norton Page 837) This quote shows that Dr. Lanyon began to see the changes in Dr. Jekyll, his mind was going even before he started taking the potion. Although, Jekyll is fully aware of what Hyde is doing, he wakes with a clear memory the morning after. One example of this is when he remembers the trampling of the little girl and the killing of Sir Davis. Jekyll could not live under societies expectations and rules which ultimately led to the evil side of himself known as Hyde. Dr. Jekyll is a socially acceptable repressed individual who still has a dark side but he does a fine job hiding it. Hyde on the other hand is completely free and liberated. â€Å"Hyde is a metamorphic creature, adhering to the elusiveness of Stevenson’s creation: the initial frames depict Hyde as a dark shadow, undistinguished from the abstract cityscape that he aims to possess† (Becoming Hyde) Hyde is not one hundred percent evil, he seems to personify the pure evil side of human nature. He does stillShow MoreRelatedThe Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde1675 Words   |  7 PagesThe Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Essay Robert Louis Stevenson’s novella, â€Å"The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,† is a type of Gothic literature. In the beginning of the story when Stevenson is describing the lawyer, one â€Å"Mr. Utterson,† the mood is a bit dull. At first glance the reader may think that this story would be a bit boring and drab. Stevenson’s story is far from being another dull piece of British English literature. The setting and mood of this novella are more complexRead MoreThe Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde Essay975 Words   |  4 PagesStevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a novella that follows the basic outline established by Mary Shelley in Frankenstein. However, Stevenson’s monster is not created from body parts but comes from the dark side of the human personality. In both novels, a man conducts a secret experiment that gets out of control. The result of these experiments is the release of a double, or doppelgan ger, which causes damage to their creator. While most people think that The Strange Case of Dr. JekyllRead MoreThe Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde1440 Words   |  6 Pagescomplexity of human nature in his books, especially in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Kidnapped. The former is about a lawyer named Mr. Utterson seeking out the truth of Dr. Jekyll’s very strange will. He finds out that Jekyll was transforming himself into Mr. Hyde so that he could have the freedom to do whatever he wanted no matter how evil. By the time Utterson finds all this out and findsJekyll, he is too late and Jekyll has already killed himself. The latter is about David BalfourRead MoreThe Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde1196 Words   |  5 Pageswhich do let control you? The good or evil? This was a question that Dr. Jekyll from the book, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, could not answer. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a book about a man who cannot control the two sides of himself, causing him to do terrible things and not even be aware of it. The theme of this book is good versus evil. Dr. Jekyll is fighting his evil side, known as Mr. Hyde, throughout the book. Some people believe that the book’s theme hasRead MoreThe Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde938 Words   |  4 PagesVictorian Hopes and Fears Involving Science as Found in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde During the Victorian Era there was a great race to use science to alleviate the suffering of the ill, specifically for those patients who were suffering from ailments of the mind. While some of the methods used to diagnose and treat such afflictions would be considered barbaric in nature by today’s standards, they were considered cutting edge medical science during the time of the Victorian Era. It was also consideredRead MoreThe Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde964 Words   |  4 PagesThe Strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, written by Robert Louis Stevenson was published in 1886. The story is published during the Victorian era, the Victorian era was an age of repression, there was no violence, no sexual appetite, and there was no great expression or emotion. In the story, Dr. Jekyll creates a potion that turns him into Mr. Hyde, Mr. Hyde is the complete opposite of what people are in the Victorian era. At first, Dr. Jekyll is in control of Mr. Hyde, but towards t he end MrRead MoreThe Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde1505 Words   |  7 PagesDuring the latter portion of the nineteenth century, Robert Louis Stevenson published his novella, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. The fin de sià ¨cle saw the rise of different thoughts and ideas surrounding science and society. These concepts and interpretations sparked the discourse surrounding the theory of degeneration; which was the concern that civilization would fall to a lower state of being. This chapter will be reading multiplex personality as a manifestation of this broader culturalRead MoreThe Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde1739 Words   |  7 Pagesnovel â€Å"The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde† by Robert Louis Stevenson, the novel â€Å"Frankenstein† by Mary Shelley, the short story â€Å"The Monkey’s Paw† by W.W Jacobs and the short story â€Å"Yellow Wallpaper† by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. These four texts convey this theme through the use of gothic conventions such as death, madness and darkness. In the novels The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll are wronglyRead MoreThe Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde1351 Words   |  6 PagesThe Personas of Henry Jekyll Every person is born with bright and dark personas that people moderate due to the standards of society. In The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Jekyll and Hyde battle for the power to stay alive in the story. As Jekyll continues to try and take over his evil persona, Hyde tries to stay alive and cause evil in the world. In our society, many people will struggle with self control and Dr. Jekyll has trouble controlling his alter ego by performing his evil pleasuresRead MoreThe Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde1326 Words   |  6 Pages The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was published during the late Victorian era, but he clearly brings into question the acceptance of Victorian philosophies, especially the belief that one truth exists and that we can identify good and evil as separate entities. The names Jekyll and Hyde have become synonymous with multiple personality disorder. This novel can be examined from the natural dualism and Freud’s structural th eory of the mind. In The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr