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Famine Relief

Chŏng Yagyong

in Admonitions on Governing the People: Manual for All Administrators

The English translation of six chapters in Book XI of Mongmin simsŏ on administration for district magistrates is shown here. The chapters discuss the following: preparation of relief supplies, ... More

The English translation of six chapters in Book XI of Mongmin simsŏ on administration for district magistrates is shown here. The chapters discuss the following: preparation of relief supplies, solicitation of contributions, the extent of relief measures, setting up camps and organizing relief activities, additional measures for dealing with famine, and concluding relief operations.Less

Return, Relief, and Rehabilitation

David H. Weinberg

in Recovering a Voice: West European Jewry After the Holocaust

This chapter discusses the start of the relief effort for the Jews of post-war France, Belgium, and the Netherlands after the Second World War. The initial strategy devised by the American Jewish ... More

This chapter discusses the start of the relief effort for the Jews of post-war France, Belgium, and the Netherlands after the Second World War. The initial strategy devised by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) and other international Jewish organizations in 1945 in France, Belgium, and the Netherlands was to leave relief efforts to others. While working to secure Jewish representation on local aid committees that had been created by Christian charities, the Red Cross, and individual political parties, they would piggyback on the numerous relief efforts that Jewish communities in the three countries had themselves established during the war or had initiated at the time of liberation. Where possible, they would also demand that national governments assist Jewish survivors. In the absence of support from private aid groups and despite their weakened condition, a variety of local Jewish community agencies did what they could to aid survivors. Ultimately, in the first two decades after the war, American and other international organizations would be only partially successful in restructuring the Jewish communities of western Europe.Less

Andrew's First Cavalry: State Officials Respond

David K. Twigg

in The Politics of Disaster: Tracking the Impact of Hurricane Andrew

As announced in chapter 4, three cabinet members, the governor, and the lieutenant governor were in office and about to seek reelection when Andrew struck. In the wake of the hurricane, incumbent ... More

As announced in chapter 4, three cabinet members, the governor, and the lieutenant governor were in office and about to seek reelection when Andrew struck. In the wake of the hurricane, incumbent campaigns adjusted for the continuing recovery efforts in South Dade. The significant responses of these officials after Hurricane Andrew, their success at bringing substantial resources into South Dade to help with the initial relief and with longer term recovery efforts, improved their images among South Dade voters. To a large extent, they became heroes to that part of their constituencies. Similarly, the 1992 presidential candidate Ross Perot, who had provided substantial financial and rhetorical support for the Salvation Army's hurricane relief efforts in South Dade, earned greater vote share in South Dade than further north in the county.Less

War

Bridget Ford

in Bonds of Union: "Religion, Race, and Politics in a Civil War Borderland"

The Civil War presented Cincinnatians and Louisvillians with formidable tests of loyalty. Allegiances remained precarious in both places as the challenges of rapid mobilization, political dissent, ... More

The Civil War presented Cincinnatians and Louisvillians with formidable tests of loyalty. Allegiances remained precarious in both places as the challenges of rapid mobilization, political dissent, and emancipation pressed against fragile bonds of union. But as this chapter reveals, residents of both cities practiced forms of allegiance through their relief work to Union soldiers. This work helped border state residents establish bonds with those in northern states who suffered and sacrificed. Rhetorically, the relief work also fashioned powerful identities between civilians and soldiers to repair the violent ruptures of war. Furthermore, this chapter argues that black and white Unionists pressed for an abolitionist interpretation of the conflict, making emancipation a means of national reunification. Black military service proved the most conspicuous example of the war’s new allegiances. In Louisville, black military service and white ideological support helped to make emancipation and the hope of citizenship rights a reality in Kentucky, even if still a bitterly contested one. The physical and rhetorical work on behalf of the Union described in this chapter precluded Kentucky’s departure from the national fold.Less

Images from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita: A Photo Essay

Dave Spizale, Barry Jean Ancelet, Mary Perrin, Sharon Suire, and Rebecca Broussard

in Second Line Rescue: Improvised Responses to Katrina and Rita

This chapter presents photographs of volunteer rescue and relief efforts in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

What We Have, We Share: Solidarity Undergirds Rescue and Relief

Beverly Bell

in Fault Lines: Views across Haiti's Divide

This chapter describes how solidarity reinforced search-and-rescue operations as well as emergency relief activities during and after the Haitian earthquake. It shows how Haitians engaged in every ... More

This chapter describes how solidarity reinforced search-and-rescue operations as well as emergency relief activities during and after the Haitian earthquake. It shows how Haitians engaged in every type of solidarity imaginable by presenting a number of personal accounts, including that of Yolette Etienne, an alternative development expert and a longtime activist who was heading the national program of Oxfam Great Britain at the time of the earthquake. It also considers the role of ordinary citizens as rescuers and first responders as well as providers of of emergency humanitarian aid, acts of heroism during and long after the disaster, and the gift economy and culture of generosity that were prevalent after the earthquake.Less

“You Can Do It, Japan!”: Social Networks and Natural Disasters

Pamela L. Runestad

in At Home and in the Field: Ethnographic Encounters in Asia and the Pacific Islands

This chapter describes what it meant, in the aftermath of the 9.0 earthquake that struck off the east coast of northern Japan on March 11, 2011, to belong to a family, a particular community, a ... More

This chapter describes what it meant, in the aftermath of the 9.0 earthquake that struck off the east coast of northern Japan on March 11, 2011, to belong to a family, a particular community, a particular region of Japan, or even Japan itself in the minds of survivors when whole families, neighborhoods, and communities were suddenly washed away. It investigates the central role of social networks as channels for relief and in the forging of new global and local connections. In so doing the chapter stresses that disasters allow us to see how social networks are fluid and ever-changing, how local social networks can be global, how social networks are central to the success of relief efforts, and how anthropologists are not outside social networks in the field, so they can contribute to relief efforts through these networks, too.Less

Between New York and Washington

Felix L. Armfield

in Eugene Kinckle Jones: The National Urban League and Black Social Work, 1910-1940

This chapter covers Eugene Kinckle Jones's involvement with the federal government, as he had political ties to the two presidents in office during his tenure with the NUL, Woodrow Wilson and ... More

This chapter covers Eugene Kinckle Jones's involvement with the federal government, as he had political ties to the two presidents in office during his tenure with the NUL, Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose administrations sought and received advice and active participation from Jones and the NUL. The late 1920s ushered in a new day in national reform policies, after all, and Jones had proven himself as a progressive reformer. Thus the chapter examines how black social workers responded to “relief” efforts and the ways they facilitated institution building and community development during the 1930s. It also examines Jones's fund-raising activities, his relations with white philanthropists, and his position within the Department of Commerce during the New Deal era..Less

Hurricane Gumbo

Mike Davis and Anthony Fontenot

in Second Line Rescue: Improvised Responses to Katrina and Rita

This chapter describes how the residents of Ville Platte—a poor Cajun and black Creole community in Evangeline Parish, Louisiana—opened their doors to over 5,000 displaced people they call “company” ... More

This chapter describes how the residents of Ville Platte—a poor Cajun and black Creole community in Evangeline Parish, Louisiana—opened their doors to over 5,000 displaced people they call “company” (the words “refugee” and “evacuee” are considered too impersonal, even impolite). Ville Platte’s homemade rescue and relief effort stands in striking contrast to the incompetence of higher levels of government as well as to the hostility of other, wealthier towns, including some white suburbs of New Orleans, toward influxes of evacuees, especially poor people of color.Less

Balancing Humanitarian Priorities

Alex J. Bellamy

in The Responsibility to Protect: A Defense

Noting that humanitarian organizations are often on the ground when mass atrocities strike, this chapter examines the dilemmas they confront in trying to balance humanitarian principles with R2P ... More

Noting that humanitarian organizations are often on the ground when mass atrocities strike, this chapter examines the dilemmas they confront in trying to balance humanitarian principles with R2P considerations. It shows that while humanitarian organizations often do provide some protection, there are real concerns about the relationship of their work with R2P. In particular, the association of humanitarian action with controversial political action has the potential to weaken humanitarian space, making it more difficult to secure access and potentially placing humanitarians—and those they assist—in harm’s way. The chapter offers some ways of overcoming or rethinking these problems so that their contribution can be harnessed without forcing humanitarian agencies to imperil their core principles. These include the adoption of an “atrocity prevention lens” to identify ways in which humanitarian action might better protect populations from atrocities whilst remaining sensitive to the potential problems.Less