Analyze

I teach anthropology and environmental studies at Haveford College, just outside of Philly. Currently, I'm holed up in a cabin in the Adirondacks in upstate New York with several family members, including my spouse and 4 year old daughter and 3 dogs. I started working on disasters by accident, when one day in 2001 I was walking to class at NYU and saw the World Trade Center buildings on flames. I have known Kim for a few year and I contacted her to connect with folks around Covid-19 and its imacts.

I'm particularly intersted in issues of communal grief, mourning, and bereavement. Also, I'm interested in the religious response to Covid-19.

There are many websites and papers that cite this website due to the extensive amounts of data that are collected from this site. The website provides a lot of information and data based off health afflictions as a result of 9/11. Since this registry is the largest of its kind, data from it is pulled for numerous studies on 9/11 and its health effects. 

Rikers Island: The subject of this article, it's NYC's main jail complex. It is under scrutiny for poor living conditions of inmates.

Hailey-Means: Interviewed for this article, she was incarcerated in 2015 provides insight into the horribly smelly and toxic conditions she experienced. She is quoted and cited nearly 20 times about solitary and other aspects of the jail.

The New York Times: They were mentioned in the article as having published and spoken out against the violence and human rights issues at Rikers.  

Preet Bharara: US attorney for Southern District of NY who, as of 2014 planned to sue the city for abuse of inmates on the island.

Michael Bloomberg: His run as Mayor was cited when he announced the city's evacuation plan, which did not include a plan or route for Rikers island at all. 

Johnny Perez: A past detainee of Rikers who revealed the extreme temperatures that are reached inside cells and the jail itself. He is now workign to reduce the population and close the jail. He is also now part of the Urban Justice Center.

Susi Vassallo: Conducted temperature monitoring on Rikers Island. She is a professor at NYU med. She determined that the temperature extremes were a seriously health threat and unsafe. 

New York City Panel on Climate Change: Is cited in the article in order to show the extremes that temperature are expected to get by 2080, proving to be a complication for Rikers and it's inmates.  

Carvett Gentles: Another inmate who discusses the oven feeling of his cell and how he has fainted before due to it.

Omar Smith: Was incarcerated in 2014, he has had severe asthma that developed while at Rikers, coughing up blood is something that isn't new to him due to pollution in the area it is speculated. 

Bill de Blasio: Mayor of NYC, he is calling for reform of the jail and has allocated 200 million for upgrades and renovations for Rikers. 

Department of Corrections: Responsible for care and detention of inmates in NY state. In this article they acknowledge the need for improvements in the jail.

Freddie McGrier: Another inmate that was interviewed and confirmed atrociously hot temperatures inside the jail. He states his heart is affected as well as his migraines because of the heat.

Emergency response is addressed in different ways in this article. In terms of true emergency response during and immediately following the disaster, examples of emergency response can be seen in the recounting of those that were interviewed, but they weren't explicitly discussed in the article. The article does however extensively discuss aid that followed the disaster and discusses that aspect of emergency response, and more so the recovery and resiliency aspects of it. Such as government funding, aid relief, conditions in which things were left, hardships that those who survived came back and had to deal with, how medical care, socioeconomic factors and much more were highly effected post Katrina.

The data used to support the argument includes numerous publications by other authors providing information on the correlation between mental health and disasters. Background information on different disorders is also provided as well as interviews and case studies from patients and doctor as well as experts on the topic. 

The Chernobyl nuclear power plant explosion in 1986 led to a ten day reactor fire that resulted in a large and unknown amount of radiation spilling into the surrounding areas in Ukraine. This caused the contamination of the environments and those around the reactor. Hundreds of thousands of people had to evacuate and to this day it remains to be an issue. Due to this controversy that still surrounds this disaster, the IAEA, FAO, UNDP, UNEP, OCHA, UNSCEAR and WHO created the Chernobyl Forum. They generate "authoritative consensual statements" on the environmental consequences due to the radiation exposure. Ultimately they and this event in Chernobyl are what called for this report. 

Reading this article caused me to do a further, in depth research on Fukushima and what actions led to what happened as well as what transpired during and after the disaster. I also looked into what the emergency response standards are today which led me to look at the IEAE website. I also looked at some of the author's other works that she wrote as well as explored and researched the WANO site. I read into their operating experiences and read about their pledge to "Prevent events by learning from others." I found out they have implemented "significant operating experience reports" as well as "significant event reports" and numerous other safe guards. 

This article mainly notes on the influences of culture on patients and their depiction of their medical history. The way a patient describes a narrative of their illness depends on their beliefs, set of morals, culture and customs in which they are used to and identify with. There is a correlation with the physicality of an illness and how it is perceived by their culture along with the way they depict it to professionals and pursue alleviating the issue. The importance of doctors recognizing this cultural influence and perhaps raising of stigmas is also reported since it can deeply impact the way a patient is taken care of and treated. 

I researched the statistics and numbers of HIV and and information about demographics as well as prevalence in areas such as Rwanda and Haiti. I also researched the PIH and its efforts globally while browsing their website and read about their Priority Programs, as well as countries they assist. I also researched the authors and took a look at the main author's other articles that he cited this paper in. 

I further researched the history of sexual violence and its role in times of war, since its use as a weapon was mentioned. I also researched the background of sexual violence and stigmas that are associated with them in the countries mentioned in the article, in order to better understand underlying meanings and cultural struggles aside from the obvious atrocities of the violent act. Also since Medecins Sans Frontieres kept being cited, I did further research on them since much of the study was based off their findings, this lead me to further study Doctors Without Borders, which is what it is commonly known as in the US.