Category: Haiti

Trinidad and Tobago and [Insert Your Country Here] Needs Emergency SMS

January 19, 2010 by Taran Rampersad

Imagine being trapped under some rubble with only a mobile phone for company. You could be hurt, bleeding, hungry, dehydrated or any combination of the above. If the mobile infrastructure is even partially intact, calling people on the phone would be limited by the likely overload of the mobile system. But SMS messages get queued. They also drain less battery life which, if you're stuck, could be very important in saving your life or the life of someone you love.

Imagine a SMS equivalent of an emergency number (like 999, or 911) you could send a text to - where the right people could get your message quickly. And they could get to you and those you care about more quickly. Simple, isn't it? 

As I mentioned on KnowProSE.com, Haiti now has the number 4636 for emergency SMS messages . It was set up after the fact by a group of volunteers because it was of use in communicating after the earthquake. The mobile phone infrastructure seems to have survived, at least to a noticeable degree. It's under very similar circumstances that one of my own abandoned projects, the Alert Retrieval Cache, was constructed after the South East Asian tsunami. It's basically the same thing - and it's a good idea that keeps popping up independently all over the world. I've even seen it done by UWI students for a contest last year - and they had no idea about the Alert Retrieval Cache concept. Here's a diagram for the reading impaired. {Read more}

Co-ordinated disaster response

January 18, 2010 by Edmund Gall

This article in today's Trinidad Express suggested that the T&T government has mandated that all T&T organisations collecting money and supplies for relief efforts in Haiti must handover their collections to the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Management (ODPM). To quote the article:

"The decision to have the ODPM take over the entire process ... was made by the Government, who mandated that they coordinate and manage the delivery of cash, goods and services to the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) in Barbados and the Caribbean Disaster Relief Unit (CDRU) in Jamaica. ...

To facilitate the collection of the donated goods within Trinidad and Tobago, the ODPM will coordinate the establishment of a number of collection outlets to be managed by the Adventist Disaster Relief Agency (ADRA), United Way of Trinidad and Tobago, Chamber of Industry and Commerce (TTCIC) and ODPM offices across the country.

While ODPM will be in charge of collecting goods and money from Government, ADRA will collect from all the faith-based organisations, TTCIC from all corporate entities and United Way from all non-governmental organisations. Everything will then be dropped off at one of ODPM’s warehouses in San Juan, then be taken to CDEMA and CDRU, who will then take it to Haiti." {Read more}

BMobile Texting To Support Haiti

January 14, 2010 by Taran Rampersad

Via text message from BMobile:

Please help Haiti. Text HAITI to code GIVE (4483) to donate $10.00. Bmobile sends all proceeds to Medianet & Red Cross Relief Funds. Give to save a life.

So, one corporate sponsor could have a definitive impact on the amount of funding going to Haiti from Trinidad and Tobago's shores.

'But does that really balance the Beyonce issue?', someone asked me.

And I said: Do you think Beyonce would donate her proceeds from her concert to Haiti? 

I doubt it. But wouldn't that be a nice surprise.

The rich giving to the poor and needy is always a nice surprise.

On Earthquakes And The Caribbean

January 14, 2010 by Taran Rampersad

I didn't write anything about the Haitian earthquake. Global Voices has a great roundup of posts discussing the Haitian Earthquake (and even more here), and I have no new facts to add to the mix. It's horrendous. It's devastating. It's sad. And in its own way, it actually is helping Haitians get the much deserved attention that they have needed for some time - it's sad that so many had to die and become injured for it to happen.

When it comes to earthquakes, we all play Russian roulette with the planet we live on.

While everyone is up in arms about getting relief to Haiti - as well they should - they should be taking a few moments to look around their own country. Since the limelight is on, all the Caribbean nations should be looking into building standards and enforcement of those building standards.I can't write too much of other countries, but I can write a bit about Trinidad and Tobago's dangers.

Have you seen Point Lisas Industrial Estate? How about La Brea, where the powers that be will defy the very people that elected them to drop a smelter, complete with cyanide and fluoride pollution. Or the industrial island planned to be built off of Otaheite Bay where they will likely drop another smelter? 

Having seen all of that - nevermind the domestic building codes or lack thereof - what would happen if a serious earthquake were to hit these areas? Would, perhaps, toxins somehow be magically contained by rhetoric printed in the media? Would the Prime Minister say, "Things are OK!" and they magically would be? 

Of course not. Well, unless you're the one safely spewing rhetoric from a distance. {Read more}