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pece_annotation_1474835327

Andreas_Rebmann

Investigation after large-scale national tragedy is often contaminated with the many factors that surround that event. Since the attack on the World Trade Center was so deeply rooted in politics, culture, international relations and emotional connections, the investigation following the attacks failed to result in a dispassionate, scientific verdict. Instead, it became muddled in the many conflicting and intertwining interests that came with the attack. 

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wolmad
  1. "As a result, however, the stories were often quite ambiguous as to the nature of the illness, and it was often unclear whether the stories were "reports of experience" or were largely governed by a typical cultural form or narrative structure"
  2. "Stories, perhaps better than other forms, provide a glimpse of the grand ideas that often seem to elude life and defy rational description. Illness stories often seem to provide an especially fine mesh for catching such ideas."
  3. "much of what we know about illness we know through stories - stories told by the sick about their experiences, by family members, doctors, healers, and others in the society. This is a simple fact. "An illness" has a narrative structure, although it is not a closed text, and it is composed as a corpus of stories."

pece_annotation_1475581476

Andreas_Rebmann

According to the Center, due to a compelx system of policies and practices an epidemic of incarceration has occured that has impacted a large population of the United States, particulary those who struggled with addiction, substance abuse, or mental illness. The public health system, especially in relation to prison, has failed to address these issues properly over the past decades. Due to these systemic issues and their symptoms growing in impact and importance, the Center was created. (They didn't go into specific events or even specific issues, general policy and health problems.)

pece_annotation_1473780386

wolmad

Liberian emergency responders are portrayed in the film as being completely overwhelmed by the situation at hand and unable to cope with the nature of the illness, people's innitial denial to the extreme communicability of the disease, and the sheer number of patients. Most predominantly, first responders are illustrated by 2 abandoned ambulances on the side of a road and by the story of a woman saying that an ambulance was called to a dying pregnant woman and they ended up leaving her on the side of the road for an ebola crew to respond to, which came too late.

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wolmad

They confess that ‘survivors of sexual violence have generally been neglected in standard models of humanitarian aid delivery’.

To return to the story: with humanitarians effectively governing in crisis zones, it is not surprising that gender-based violence should become an issue; having been categorised as a human rights violation, one which garnered significant attention, it could not be easily ignored or brushed aside as a ‘private’ matter.

In this sense, gender-based violence makes it clear that the suffering body – while purportedly universal – requires certain political, historical and cultural attributes to render it visible and worthy of care.