Formosa Ha Tinh Steel, Vietnam
A profile of the Formosa Ha Tinh Steel (FHS) plant in Central Vietnam.
Luísa Reis-Castro: mosquitoes, race, and class
LuisaReisCastroAs a researcher, I’m interested in the political, ecological, and cultural debates around mosquito-borne diseases and the solutions proposed to mitigate them.
When we received the task, my first impulse was to investigate about the contemporary effects of anthropogenic climate change in mosquito-borne diseases in New Orleans. But I was afraid to make the same mistake that I did in my PhD research. I wrote my PhD proposal while based in the US, more specifically in New England, during the Zika epidemic, and proposed to understand how scientists were studying ecological climate change and mosquitoes in Brazil. However, once I arrived in the country the political climate was a much more pressing issue, with the dismantling of health and scientific institutions.
Thus, after our meeting yesterday, and Jason Ludwig’s reminder that the theme of our Field Campus is the plantation, I decided to focus on how it related to mosquitoes in New Orleans.
The Aedes aegypti mosquito and the yellow fever virus it can transmit are imbricated in the violent histories of settler-colonialism and slavery that define the plantation economy. The mosquito and the virus arrived in the Americas in the same ships that brought enslaved peoples from Africa. The city of New Orleans had its first yellow fever epidemic in 1796, with frequent epidemics happening between 1817 and 1905. What caused New Orleans to be the “City of the Dead,” as Kristin Gupta has indicated, was yellow fever. However, as historian Urmi Engineer Willoughby points out, the slave trade cannot explain alone the spread and persistance of the disease in the region: "Alterations to the landscape, combined with demographic changes resulting from the rise of sugar production, slavery, and urban growth all contributed to the region’s development as a yellow fever zone." For example, sugar cultivation created ideal conditions for mosquito proliferation because of the extensive landscape alteration and ecological instabilities, including heavy deforestation and the construction of drainage ditches and canals.
Historian Kathryn Olivarius examines how for whites "acclimatization" to the disease played a role in hierarchies with “acclimated” (immune) people at the top and a great mass of “unacclimated” (non-immune) people and how for black enslaved people "who were embodied capital, immunity enhanced the value and safety of that capital for their white owners, strengthening the set of racialized assumptions about the black body bolstering racial slavery."
As I continue to think through these topics, I wonder how both the historical materialities of the plantation and the contemporary anthropogenic changes might be influencing mosquito-borne diseases in New Orleans nowadays? And more, how the regions’ histories of race and class might still be shaping the effects of these diseases and how debates about them are framed?
pece_annotation_1480203847
xiaoxGeo-coding technology support the app to get the location of the user when using the app. Double-encrypted to save the information.
pece_annotation_1480817635
xiaoxThe policy offer a way for EMS department staff to protect themselves on emergency calls, and especially they lack of assistance such as budget cut and reduced the staffing.
pece_annotation_1473741811
xiaoxSmart autoalarm guardrail is designed for helpping people emergency contact and remind the other drivers when car accident happen in remote area. People will drive on some remote area, or late night. If car accident happens, might be no one know the accident is happen. This design is help the litigant automatically make a emergency call, and send the location through the GPS when the car is crash the guardrail. As well as, it can turn on/flash the light within the accident area to warn the other drivers.
pece_annotation_1474093759
xiaoxDifferent areas and sub-headings are linked to a new page, and show more information. Resources are sorted to subtitle and tag. All the subtitle are work as a system, and linked together.
pece_annotation_1474842735
xiaoxOne hundred Eleventh Congress of the United States of America, at the second session is the policy for extend and improve individual’s protections and services, which is influenced by the terrorist attack to New York City on September 11, 2001, and other purpose. Further improve policies to help WTC survivors who were affected by terrorist attack in long term.
pece_annotation_1475372525
xiaoxWhen I see the movie, I was questioned that are the MSF are always keep helping one areas, and how long they can help. After research, I have found the projects that MSF closed are depends on the specific project and it is always a difficult decision. For example, some projects in Liberia are closed because of after many years, they had improved the emergency and health services.
There are also Medical issues offer by MSF, and they provide services within basic vaccination, maternal, pediatric care, fighting neglected diseases and complex surgery.
There are many ways to support MSF, within Foundation support, corporate support and so on.