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Middle German Chemical Triangle

Chemiepark Leuna von Bad Dürrenberg aus gesehen, im Vordergrund die Saalebrücke der Bahnstrecke Leipzig Hbf-Weißenfels

This collection includes case study research and civic archiving about the Middle German Chemical Triangle (or chemical triangle). 

Notes on "Everyday Exposure"

-denial of environmental heath issues, blaming the sick
-box ticking ans cover up, red tape bureaucracy
-"sensing policy": embodied, place-based,relational, responsible

Safe Side Off the Fence

EfeCengiz

The documentary is missing because the documentary is as safe as the fence it mocks in its title.
In the beginning we are asked to bear witness to the construction and use of the most devastation weapon of indiscriminate death the world has ever seen, and all the harm the construction of such a tool, yet its construction and its use is justified near instantaneously by repeating the same old propaganda.
In continuation, we are asked to bear witness to the continuous production of similar weapons and the devastation caused by the mishandling of the waste that accumulated in their production, yet why such a production took place is not only left unquestioned, but simple hints of cold war propaganda is left in their places for safekeeping.
In the end, we are asked to bear witness to a sombre victory, same spectres of patriotism and nation-of-God watching over our shoulder, yet how the pitiful situation of being forced to celebrate even such a small victory is never explored.
To sum up, we are shown people, good people, who struggle against the symptoms of a disease, yet this disease itself never named, nor challenged. It could not have been challenged, as it would force a complete change in their discourse.

If we sincerely would like to critique how the bodies of these workers were made disposable; used, harmed, dislocated and discharged as deemed necessary; if we wish to explore this topic as the necropolitical issue it is, we cannot stop halfway through. This inability to stop chasing connections, relationalities wherever it fits our ideology, is not a call for “objectivism”, it’s a call to respect the term of Anthropocene with all its rhizomatic connections.

An investigation of nuclear waste, that does not factor the use of its product, the socio-political effects of said product, and the historical conditions that even led to the possibility of producing it in such ways and such quantities, are of no use for us.  It cannot penetrate the barrier of capitalist realism. If it could, at least a single mention of workers unions would have existed. Instead, it has confessionals by atomic weapons lawyers whose heart goes out to these workers.
An America that refuse to face up to the fact that it is what it is by the great necropolitical project it led for hundreds of years, I struggle to accumulate sympathy for, what I can easily accumulate is rage however, which this documentary is missing..
Wish the documentary would have at least attempted to say something radical, instead of praising these disposable bodies for being patriotic about it. There are lives who never had false fences built as idols for safety, the collective idols of old America, the patriotic nation under God were built upon their broken bodies, what would you ask of them?

pece_annotation_1474157491

Sara_Nesheiwat

-I looked up UN response efforts in Liberia during the time of this outbreak. Doing this, I was able to learn about the process that was taken in an attempt to decrease the transmission of the disease. I also learned about specific numbers in terms of confirmed cases as well as deaths. The UN was mentioned but not explicitly talked about in the film, so I wanted to further my understanding of the actions and role they played during this outbreak. 

http://ebolaresponse.un.org/liberia

-I wanted to research the general healthcare in Libera and see if there is a lack in healthcare in this area, which may have aided in the severe devastation caused by the outbreak. As mentioned, the civil war really effected many outcomes of the country, one of them being healthcare. Communicable diseases were a factor that was already a topic of concern in this area before the outbreak of Ebola. Currently healthcare in Libera is being reformed, yet after reading this report, it is easy to see why the government and public health workers struggled so much to contain this outbreak.

https://csis-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/legacy_files/files/publi…

-I wanted to learn more about the Ebola virus in general but also learn more about the diagnosis and the symptoms that those infected would display. I also wanted to learn more about the progression of the virus after being infected as well as the incubation period. I researched the virus on the World Health Organization website. Here I was able to find all this information out from the virus' origin to the diagnoses process and symptoms.

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs103/en/

pece_annotation_1480823587

Sara_Nesheiwat

This paper has been cited and discussed in 7 different articles according to Google Scholar. Many of the papers it has been cited in have to do with the effects of social media on opinions of opioid use, gun violence, vaccination rates and more. The papers all have to do with public perception and education on certain topics, very similar to this study.

pece_annotation_1474777041

Sara_Nesheiwat

Emergency response is addressed in terms of post disaster investigations rather than immediate on scene response. The political and social analysis of these city areas, as well as the social aspects of the disasters are analyzed. Discussing why the events occurred, how to prevent them, as well as the political aspects such as power and public factors are also discussed. Investigations mainly showed that more needed to be done in terms of preventatives and safety that could have possibly minimized the amount of disaster in some of the situations.