The Logisitcs Of Relief
from the helping-out dept
Whenever large natural disasters occur, there are always stories about all the relief efforts of people, food and medical equipment being rushed off to the area. As you can imagine, these situations are logistical nightmares. SFGate is running a story about Lynn Fritz, who had built up a huge international shipping company that he eventually sold to UPS. Since then, he's been trying to take the logistics issues and technologies he knows about and applying them to emergency relief efforts. They've now come up with a software product for the International Red Cross to use to help them when needed. Of course, there are still plenty of questions about how well the software works. One problem with sudden disasters (by definition) is that you have no idea when they're going to happen or what they will involve. So, it's difficult to create a working model to handle the relief logistics ahead of time. There is also the issue of dealing with local negotiating customs. Still, it seems like a noble effort - and hopefully one that will be useful in the future.
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Outdated Model of Relief
A more appropriate model of relief coordination today would be to train the natives on how to help people. Having them throw packages of food at survivors is not helpful. But that's if the natives do not object to having Americans tell them what to do.
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