Burners Without Borders appreciation thread

[TomServo]

Rarely do we see random acts of kindness, but in 2005 a small group from the Burning Man event did, what our elected fucktards could not! They mobilized during the event, to help the poor bastards who lost their homes during Hurricane Katrina.They are a shining example of what Burning Man is about....IMHO.

http://www.burnerswithoutborders.org/

[Ansgard]

This is a test?

[geekster]

Never heard of 'em.

[TomServo]

Never heard of 'em.

Too bad

[geekster]

I was being sarcastic, dumbass.

But if you want a real "doacracy" try Team Rubicon.

Ex US military special operations forces medics who go into areas denied to conventional NGOs to help people in the most remote areas. They went to Pakistan to help the people there hit by the floods, went to Thailand to train Burmese medics so they could go back into Burma and help their own, were the first ones in to Haiti and were operating there while the regular NGOs were stranded at the airport.

Team Rubicon is able to do what it does because of you, the individual donor. We pledge to use your donation wisely, fairly and with transparency; we do not use your tax-exempt donations for salary, overhead or administrative costs (Team Rubicon currently has no paid staff and all overhead is covered through grants).

http://teamrubiconusa.org/donate/

[TomServo]

I was being sarcastic, dumbass.

But if you want a real "doacracy" try Team Rubicon.

Ex US military special operations forces medics who go into areas denied to conventional NGOs to help people in the most remote areas. They went to Pakistan to help the people there hit by the floods, went to Thailand to train Burmese medics so they could go back into Burma and help their own, were the first ones in to Haiti and were operating there while the regular NGOs were stranded at the airport.

Team Rubicon is able to do what it does because of you, the individual donor. We pledge to use your donation wisely, fairly and with transparency; we do not use your tax-exempt donations for salary, overhead or administrative costs (Team Rubicon currently has no paid staff and all overhead is covered through grants).

http://teamrubiconusa.org/donate/

That's admirable. Who pissed in your wheaties, wanker?

[LeChatNoir]

Woot to the BWB!!

And Team Rubicon seems really freakin' cool, too.

I like people who do shit instead of talk about what others should do.

[ygmir]

Woot to the BWB!!

And Team Rubicon seems really freakin' cool, too.

I like people who do shit instead of talk about what others should do.

BRAVO!!!!!

[FaeTora]

I like people without Borders.

[maryanimal]

I say bravo to all the people, no matter who they are, where they are, or where they go, that volunteer their time, their hearts, and their souls to help others in times of need and crisis.

[geekster]

That's admirable. Who pissed in your wheaties, wanker?

Look, BWB have been in practically every single Jackrabbit Speaks since they came about in 2005. They have their own camp at Burning Man and have for several years. You plop down in the middle of a burning man forum on the official BM site to inform people about BWB? Please.

My guess is that most people here have been aware of BWB for many years.

Sorry for the "dumbass" remark. I should have chosen something different, but it seemed to fit at the time.

[geekster]

Actually, in some cases I believe there can be a sort of synergy between an organization like Team Rubicon and BWB. Rubicon is meant to be quick "in and out". They go in before any of the more organized relief efforts can get in. They live in very harsh conditions and aim specifically to reach the people that the more organized NGO's who have a larger logistics tail can't reach.

One of the primary problems in disaster relief is how the locals are treated. They are often put in camps and treated as "victims" even though there are considerable skills among them that could be put to immediate use. Look at the people impacted by a disaster and they consist of a cross-section of the impacted community. You have the very people that built that community right there with nothing to do ... why not put them to work immediately rebuilding their own community? Look at New Orleans. Why evacuate out hundreds of construction and other laborers only to contract out and haul in hundreds more? Isn't it somewhat stupid to evacuate out a construction crewman only to pay money to bring in a different one? And the psychological impact is also important. If the people of the community immediately set to work in cleaning it up and rebuilding, it reduces the "victim" mentality and gets them personally invested in rebuilding.

The best thing we could do is go through the people impacted by the disaster, triage them by skillset, and put those who are qualified to work immediately making their own situation better.

Instead of putting people up in a hotel in a different city and giving them a cash stipend and at the same time hauling in labor from all over the place, what we should be doing is putting the qualified locals to work in their own local areas right away. Stop treating them like victims and start treating them like dignified people who can make their own situation better.

Oh, and there are only two kinds of people in this world .... wankers and liars.

[LeChatNoir]

Although it wasn't a stated method of operations, in Pearlington that became sort of a way of it sometimes... the finding of peoples' skills and putting them to work rebuilding, I mean. Although it was more of a "working on your own project while BWB helps you" type of thing and it varied in degree from situation to situation. They (BWB) didn't have the resources to manage the type of logistical feat of pooling those in the community and managing them in an area-wide rebuild effort. Plus an organizational effort from an outside group probably wouldn't have worked that well actually due to the interesting balance of staunch self-reliance and the want to help one's neighbor that the local folks possessed. When BWB arrived, the people of Pearlington were already knee deep into the clean up and had formed a relief center where people could come and get supplies. It was also a place to let others know who needed help and in what form. BWB just sort of dove in and out to the places where they could.

One of the most interesting things I found was that two groups, who at first seemed so dissimilar to each other found in the end that they were more alike than they weren't.

Geekster, I could see how Team Rubicon and BWB type groups could definitely be part of a 1-2-3 process of getting into a place and helping. Team Rubicon has the skillset to be first in, followed by BWB who could lay the groundwork for the other typical NGO's who seem less able to get their weight moving quickly.

TomServo, thanks for pointing out that BurnersWithoutBorders exists. I've met people at the Burn who were wondering how they could organize some sort of volunteer effort for something but they hadn't even heard of BWB. We'd always send them to talk to someone at the camp who could help them organize their own thing. One of the instances I'm thinking of was close enough to Camp Katrina that we could point to the big sign about 500 feet away. So I suppose its fair to assume that there are newbies on the board who don't know about it either. Because of that, I'd ask a favor of anyone reading this thread. In a world full of strife and news shows that have become half-hour long violent crime rosters, let's not beat up on someone who spreads some good news.

Thinking back to what geeksters said, I think that's a great point. Most times people will do what they need to do. The problem, it seems to me, is that they are in a situation they've never faced before and just don't know where to start. It would seem all they need is a little sense of direction, some resource help and reassurance... and a little push. A group like Team Rubicon or BWB could really be a cool part of that little push.

[geekster]

It would seem all they need is a little sense of direction, some resource help and reassurance... and a little push.

Yes, it takes some leadership but usually people in that situation take to direct leadership fairly easily, except after they sit around for a long time doing nothing in crowded conditions. That is when they start to get irritated, begin complaining, etc.

You do need to get some of the people out of the disaster area, those who can't or do not wish to help in the recovery should be evacuated to reduce demands on resources in the disaster area. We should in this country have kept a couple of closed military bases, one in the East and one in the West, mothballed for use as emergency evacuation locations. They would have had everything an emergency community needs: hospital, housing, schools, stores, and generally have an airstrip or rail line capable of moving large numbers of people quickly in and out.

Then rather than paying to bring in outside contractors, you begin to locate resources in the area itself. Where is the heavy equipment and where are the owners/operators of it? You then begin to staff crews to begin cleaning up. These people are paid for their work. Rather than simply being given money gratis, they are actually working for a paycheck. This does wonders for a person's dignity. People down to the age of 16 can be pressed into community service doing all sorts of work if they desire.

The other thing this provides is a sense of accomplishment and they can see things getting better as their work progresses. In addition, they begin to take a certain amount of pride in their work. A community that rebuilds itself bonds together and has the potential to take better care of what they rebuild than what they built in the first place. This reinforces a community spirit that is not created by scattering people across the region to sit in hotels and complain.

All skill levels are needed initially. It doesn't take a lot of training to push wheelbarrows, operate shovels, and clear debris.

There is a lot that could be done but the key is to look at the people in the disaster area generally as a potential resource and not as cattle that need to be warehoused, fed, and watered. They are quite capable, in many cases, of helping their own situation.

This is the fundamental problem I have with the approach to disaster management in many areas today. If you look at how Midwestern towns approach devastation by tornadoes or flood, and compare that to how coastal areas approach disasters, you see quite a difference in approach. Even in the small town where I grew up, in a case of a massive blizzard, people didn't hunker down and bitch about the county not getting things plowed out quickly enough. The people who had vehicles capable of plowing started right away busting out drifts across the driveways of their neighbors, getting the back roads cleared, etc. Often, by the time the county got to a little knot of a settlement back in the woods, the area had already plowed itself out.

Going in to other countries is more difficult. You have to understand the language, the culture, and the customs. In some cases the local "pecking order" needs to be recognized as well, if anything is to get done. One of the reasons Rubicon was so successful in Haiti is simply by chance. They happened to meet up with some Jesuit missionaries (Brother Jim, et al) who had been working in the area for decades. They knew the back roads, the towns off the beaten paths, where there were areas of destruction and where people needed help long before the Red Cross and other organizations even got off the tarmac of the main airport.

[LeChatNoir]

Lots of good points. I could see how some would take issue with some of the ideas in principle. For instance, "evacuation"... is that "helped out of" or "forcibly removed from". But I think that's been an issue with any evacuation at some point. It'd come down to how things were implemented, I'd think.

In some cases the local "pecking order" needs to be recognized as well, if anything is to get done.

Very true. It may be worth stating that "recognized" should not always mean "going along with". There were some instances in Mississippi where a pecking order tried to insure that certain places got cleaned up while others did not. Some in the local populace may try to influence, for personal reasons, how rebuilding comes about.

I think you touched on a root issue in your post, geekster. That being that in many cases, the first response is for the government to corral people and make them wait around while the "Pros" handle things. This seems like such a demoralizing approach. At the same time, I don't advocate saying that the government should stay out of the way, either. Empowering people by helping them to get things done seems way better. Currently it seems the only ones getting this are the smaller, more organically structured groups we're talking about.

I want to continue thinking on this. I'm liking this conversation.

[mdmf007]

...

...The best thing we could do is go through the people impacted by the disaster, triage them by skillset, and put those who are qualified to work immediately making their own situation better...

...Instead of putting people up in a hotel in a different city and giving them a cash stipend and at the same time hauling in labor from all over the place, what we should be doing is putting the qualified locals to work in their own local areas right away. Stop treating them like victims and start treating them like dignified people who can make their own situation better...

Geekster this is already done - Many people are pressed into service already in their communities, and when it is time to rebuild or mobilize we always try to use as many locals as possible for this very reason. Part of the problem with displaced people is their responsibilitites that come with them.

Picture yourself as a New Orleans resident who evacuates. You return to find your home leveled. Now what? You have 3 kids a wife and a job that is gone. You hardly have time to pick up a hammer because your looking for food, work, shelter and caring for your immediate needs. Trying to get to a relatives house 500 miles away for assistance.

Join the local FD, Red Cross, civil air patrol unit, County S&R and others. all of these units are out while the storm is still blowing performing triage on routes and damage.

long term recovery is also stressed to use locals as possible. Incident of National Significance will always strip resources to the core. Housing people in old military bases sounds good, but then it starts to look like a refugee camp. IMHO there is enough surge capacity built into the private logistics network (hotels, trains, buses, rental cars, airlines, rental's) to meet the need for some very staggering numbers.

[geekster]

Geekster this is already done - Many people are pressed into service already in their communities, and when it is time to rebuild or mobilize we always try to use as many locals as possible for this very reason. Part of the problem with displaced people is their responsibilitites that come with them.

Picture yourself as a New Orleans resident who evacuates. You return to find your home leveled. Now what? You have 3 kids a wife and a job that is gone. You hardly have time to pick up a hammer because your looking for food, work, shelter and caring for your immediate needs. Trying to get to a relatives house 500 miles away for assistance.

The kids should be evacuated out of the area. If they have only one parent, the parent would go with them or, if there is an acceptable guardian also being evacuated, the kids can go with that guardian. Now, anyone remaining to stay and help would be put up just as outside workers are put up when they arrive in the area. Probably in a tent city initially, or some other hasty shelter.

Likely scenario in my lifetime:

Magnitude 7+ earthquake on the Hayward Fault. Complete devastation from Milpitas to Berkeley. No water, sewer, natural gas, or electricity for most of the SF Bay area for at least a month.

The first thing I am going to do is evacuate the area (route already planned), get the kids to relatives outside the disaster area, return to begin getting network infrastructure back up and running.

long term recovery is also stressed to use locals as possible. Incident of National Significance will always strip resources to the core. Housing people in old military bases sounds good, but then it starts to look like a refugee camp.

That depends on the number of people evacuated, first of all, and the size of the military base. Fort Ord housed 50,000 people in a situation quite unlike a "refugee camp". Granted, in the above scenario, we are going to need to evacuate a lot more than 50,000 people as more than that will have injuries of one sort or another and there will likely be tens of thousands dead. The current population of the East Bay is around 2.5 million people compared to about 1/5 of that for New Orleans (a little under 500,000). So figuring at least 5% dead, 20% injured and of the remaining 75%, three quarters will require evacuation leaving about 500,000 in the area and 2 million dead, injured, or otherwise evacuated. Where we are going to evacuate nearly 2 million people to, I have no idea. And that is leaving behind as many as the entire population as New Orleans.

IMHO there is enough surge capacity built into the private logistics network (hotels, trains, buses, rental cars, airlines, rental's) to meet the need for some very staggering numbers.

I hope you meant *not* enough surge capacity. Nevada would be the logical destination with Reno being nearby and having a large supply of hotel rooms but it wouldn't be near enough. Just where are you going to put 1.875 million people that you need to get out of a disaster area, many of whom have no relatives in the US outside of the affected area?

At that point you are either going to have to organize the people with some strong leadership or you are going to see mayhem. In that case, everyone is going to need to be pressed into service. Shelter, water distribution, sanitation management, food distribution, daycare while parents work, caring for the sick and injured, the needs will run the gamut of everything you can think of.

And that only encompasses the people in the immediate area of devastation. Other impacts:

San Francisco: no electricity. Shutting down last power plant in the city, completely dependent on external supply, most coming from the East Bay. Consider the power cut off. No water. Hetch Hetchy water system likely sustains major damage. No natural gas.

San Mateo County: No electricity. Little water. No natural gas.

Santa Clara County: Electricity disrupted, completely out in many areas, little water, little natural gas.

So now you increase the affected population to 5 million or more. About the population of New York City.

It will be pure mayhem. We are out via a "less traveled" route ASAP.

[mdmf007]

2 million people is a lot - but that many move around all the time. Every hurricane that hits more than 2 million people leave because they want too and that is on their own.

Las Vegas is great - It has over 140,000 hotel rooms available. That would be 500,000 people easily.

Chicago has 105,000

so there is plenty of capacity already built in. The real shortage in emergency needs is in long haul trucking. Tractors and trailers don't make money empty, so companies watch their inventory closely. Idle gear doesn't sit long - it is surplussed. Making it difficult to arrange for 2000 loads of whatever to move from the west to the east right now.

[geekster]

"The real shortage in emergency needs is in long haul trucking. Tractors and trailers don't make money empty, so companies watch their inventory closely. "

In addition there is this entire "just in time" notion in manufacturing where a company keeps no stock of parts required to make its product and relies on a transportation system that delivers the required parts as they are needed. Companies in the East Bay (or anywhere else that a disaster might strike) that provide component parts for larger manufacturers will idle those larger manufacturers in far off area.

Now include a diversion of transportation resources to haul goods and people in/out of the disaster area, and the total impact multiplies further.

Maybe we could make use of a cruise ship or two to act as emergency hospitals. And the US currently has three aircraft carriers in mothballs, refit them to be med-evac ships where helicopters could land the worst cases on board the carrier which serve as mega trauma units and refueling depots for helicopters.

[Ansgard]

Go to any major truck stop in the U.S. and you'll find owner ops waiting for a load. Not to mention the Major trucking companies have drop yards all over for empty and loaded trailers. As well as Idle bobtails, just waiting for a load.

[mdmf007]

Go to any major truck stop in the U.S. and you'll find owner ops waiting for a load. Not to mention the Major trucking companies have drop yards all over for empty and loaded trailers. As well as Idle bobtails, just waiting for a load.

There are plenty of empty boxes - tractors and drivers are the bottleneck.