Tag Archives: Barack Obama

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What Is Resiliency?

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When it comes to disasters, prevention is of course better than recovery. But the real world is not paradise and catastrophes will occur. That inevitability means that how companies are able to respond and bounce back might be the most important aspect of disaster management.

Nobody’s perfect — but everyone can be resilient.

But what does that mean? What is resiliency?

Michael Collins of Argonne National Laboratory is helping define it for communities across the United States. And today at the World Conference on Disaster Management in Toronto, he discussed how, along with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), his agency has been tasked with sending officials throughout the nation to assess how each area stacks up. Ultimately, the goal is to compile an objective, quantitative, comprehensive database so that the government — federal, state and local — has a baseline against which municipalities can be compered. It is an in-depth, long-term project that will greatly aid both DHS and FEMA in determining how communities can become more resistant to disasters.

So far, the “resiliency index” they are developing remains in its infancy. We will bring you more on it in the near future as I flesh out more of the details and get the opportunity to speak with Collins directly.

But as they continue to push things forward, let’s first look at a few of the definitions that Collins shared today in his presentation on what resiliency really means.

“Our goal is to ensure a more resilient nation. One in which individuals, communities and our economy can adapt to changing conditions as well as withstand and rapidly recover from disruption due to emergencies.” – Barak Obama

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“The capability to anticipate risk, limit impact and bounce back rapidly through survival, adaptability evolution and growth in the face of turbulent change” – Community & Regional Resilience Institute

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“The ability of individuals and communities to deal with a state of continuous, long term stress; the ability to find unknown inner strengths and resources in order to cope effectively; the measure of adaptation and flexibility” – Michael Ganor

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“The ability of community members to take meaningful deliberate collective action to remedy the impact of a problem.” – Building Resilience to Mass Trauma Events

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“A sustainable network of physical systems and human communities, capable of managing extreme events, during disasters, both must be able to function under extreme stress.” – David R. Godschalk

The Nations Most Likely to Default

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This week, President Barack Obama is visiting Britain, France, Poland and Ireland, which is the first stop on his European tour and the site of a driving snafu today in which the presidential stretch, armored Cadillac got stuck on a ramp. Whoops. (See video above … via HuffPo)

Obviously, chief among the commander in chief’s reasons for talking to EU leaders face-to-face is to get a better understanding of the ongoing sovereign debt crisis in the region that is straining relations on the continent and may continue to threaten global economic recovery.

We have heard much about the so-called PIGS economies (Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain) — and rightfully so; Athens and Dublin in particular both have a lot of economic finagling to do to figure out some real solutions to what is a major long-term challenge for each country. And while Obama will certainly trying to be figure out what the United States can do to help smooth the austerity and economic transitions Ireland will have to make (in addition to exploring his personal roots), there are many other locations across the world with troubles of their own.

Along these lines, Business Insider ranks the 21 countries most likely to default in terms of the cost to insure each country’s debt. Here’s their list in full. Head over there for more detailed economic profiles of the nations.

21. Russia
20. Poland
19. Israel
18. Kazakhstan
17. Belgium
16. Turkey
15. Italy
14. Lithuania
13. Bulgaria
12. Romania
11. Hungary
10. Croatia
9. Spain
8. Vietnam
7. Lebanon
6. Ukraine
5. Argentina
4. Ireland
3. Portugal
2. Venezuela
1. Greece

Obama Artwork Copyright Case Dismissed

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In the December 2009 issue of Risk Management, I wrote about how the artist who created the Barack Obama “HOPE” image was being sued by the Associated Press for using the original photograph that the image was based on without permission or payment. The artist, Shepard Fairey, had initially claimed “fair use” since he had made significant alterations to the original image in creating a new work of art. The case was anticipated to have possible implications for copyright law in the digital age, namely what kind of use would be considered “fair use” and therefore permissable under the law?

Well, a little more than a year later, the case has been dismissed by U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein.  The judge dropped the case, citing a “suggestion of settlement” between Fairey and the Associated Press. The claims could be reinstated within a month, however, if either side requests it.

What did remain in play, however, were related claims between the AP and a clothing manufacturer affiliated with Fairey that marketed and sold more than 230,000 products based on the Obama image. That case is generally considered a more typical copyright infringement case and is expected to go to a civil trial in March.

In papers filed last week, the AP said the case presents “the straightforward question of whether a T-shirt company may use a nearly verbatim copy of a copyrighted image to generate millions in dollars of revenues for itself without securing the permission of the copyright owner.”

But regardless of how this civil case case is resolved, it now looks like greater question of “What is ‘fair use’ in the digital age?”  will remain unanswered.