Myanmar in 2008: Hardship, Compounded

Asian Survey ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 166-173 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald M. Seekins
Keyword(s):  
Natural Disaster ◽  
The State ◽  
Overwhelming Majority ◽  
Cyclone Nargis ◽  
Peace And Development

Cyclone Nargis struck Burma's Irrawaddy Delta on May 2––3, 2008, and claimed as many as 140,000 victims, the largest natural disaster in the country's history. However, the State Peace and Development Council proceeded with a referendum on a new constitution on May 10 and 24, which it claimed was approved by an overwhelming majority of voters.

Law on Natural Disasters

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ki-Gab Park
Keyword(s):  
Natural Disasters ◽  
International Cooperation ◽  
Natural Disaster ◽  
International Community ◽  
The State ◽  
Efficient Tool ◽  
International Solidarity ◽  
Cooperation Mechanism ◽  
Prior Consent ◽  
Humanitarian Crises

The chapter argues that natural disasters are common concerns in the international community. At the same time, the current international cooperation mechanism, based on the principle of equal sovereignty, require prior consent by the state affected by a natural disaster. Unfortunately, this is not always an efficient tool for the protection of victims. The globalization of problems and the proliferation of humanitarian crises make the veritable solidarity of the international community increasingly necessary, and therefore another high value, namely international solidarity or community obligations, should create direct and immediate obligations for all members of the international community. The main object of this chapter is to discuss the future-oriented direction of the law on natural disasters. This means, first, to ascertain the lex lata, especially customary rules. The chapter further offers some suggestions on possible ways for the international community to provide more effective relief for victims of natural disasters.

scholarly journals Rapid Assessment Method of Flood Damage Using Spatial-Statistical Models

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 46
Author(s):  
Abdul Hamid Mar Iman ◽  
Edlic Sathiamurthy
Keyword(s):  
Natural Disaster ◽  
Damage Assessment ◽  
Flood Hazard ◽  
Rapid Assessment ◽  
Assessment Method ◽  
Flood Damage ◽  
The State ◽  
Property Damage ◽  
Rapid Assessment Method ◽  
Spatial Approach

Attention to damage assessment is always a priority especially in cases of natural disaster. The state of Kelantan is known to be one of a few Malaysian states with noticeable natural disaster, in particular, flood. In December 2014, an extraordinary magnitude of flood – nicknamed as yellow flood – struck the state causing hundreds of million ringgit of damage to properties. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate a spatial approach to estimating property damage incurred by flood. By selecting a badly affected area, GIS was used to map geo-referenced flood-hit location in Kuala Krai, Kelantan. Flood hazard was modelled and superimposed on estimated property damage. GIS spatial technique was then employed to estimate the flood damage incurred. This study, however, did not make a complete damage assessment of the properties but rather focusing on the methodology of damage assessment to show how it can be implemented. In conclusion, GIS spatial technique can generally be used to provide flood damage rapid assessment method.

scholarly journals Beyond "natural-disasters-are-not-natural": the work of state and nature after the 2010 earthquake in Chile

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin A. Gould ◽  
M. Magdalena Garcia ◽  
Jacob A.C. Remes
Keyword(s):  
Political Ecology ◽  
Natural Disaster ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Socioeconomic Conditions ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Historical Factors ◽  
Media Reports ◽  
Post Disaster ◽  
State Nature

Since the 1970s, human ecologists, geographers, Marxian political economists and others have insisted that there is no such thing as a 'natural' disaster. This assertion opened a space not only for exploring socioeconomic conditions that render marginalized populations vulnerable to natural hazards, but also for the formation of a field, the political ecology of hazards. A few political ecologists further interrogated the idea of a natural disaster, asking how different notions of 'the natural' circulate in post-disaster politics and with what effects. This article extends the latter approach by documenting how interconnected categories of 'nature' and 'state' were mutually constituted by narratives of politicians and elites after Chile's 2010 earthquake and tsunami. Drawing on media reports, we identify three distinct pairings of state/nature: (1) nature as manageable and the state as manager; (2) nature as out of control and the state as a police state; and (3) nature as financial opportunity and the state as prudential. Influenced by socioeconomic and historical factors, these state/nature pairings contradicted and reinforced one another in the disaster's aftermath and were deployed to reinforce top-down—rather than democratic—strategies of post-disaster reconstruction. This case offers an unusual approach to disaster politics by tracing how entwined and power-laden categories of state and nature condition the governance of disaster reconstruction processes.Key words: disaster, state, nature, socionature, political ecology of hazards, media disaster, earthquake, Latin America, Chile, 27F

The Legal Politics of Jurisdiction: Understanding ASEAN's Role in Myanmar's Disaster, Cyclone Nargis (2008)

2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karin LOEVY
Keyword(s):  
Natural Disasters ◽  
Foreign Aid ◽  
Natural Disaster ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Successful Intervention ◽  
Emergency Powers ◽  
Limited Perspective ◽  
Classic Theory ◽  
Cyclone Nargis

This paper exposes the limited perspective that we have over the problem of jurisdiction in emergencies. In the classic theory of emergency powers, sovereign control over borders is assumed, and jurisdictional problems are acknowledged when threats come from outside those borders or when they are handled outside. However, what characterizes many emergencies is not the exercise of sovereign jurisdiction but rather contestations over problems of jurisdiction and competing jurisdictional claims. To illustrate the need for a broader perspective over emergencies’ jurisdictional politics, this paper tells a multilayered story about a successful intervention by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in one of Myanmar's natural disasters (Nargis 2008). ASEAN's role in its Member State's disaster should be understood in view of its unique regional solution to the jurisdictional problem that this disaster raised—the problem of access by foreign aid to a domestic area affected by a natural disaster.

scholarly journals "Business as unusual": Pandemic concentration of executive powers in Croatia

Pravni zapisi ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-122
Author(s):  
Đorđe Gardašević
Keyword(s):  
Natural Disaster ◽  
Executive Branch ◽  
The State ◽  
Proper Sense ◽  
Constitutional State ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Adopted Model ◽  
Emergency Actions ◽  
Law Making

Faced with the Covid-19 pandemic, countries around the globe responded with a wide range of special measures. Whereas some of them resorted to their constitutional emergency rules, others opted to act through legislation. The author argues that the effects of the legislative approach to the epidemic in Croatia actually resemble the state of an emergency in the proper sense of the word, although the authorities try to present the whole case as a situation of "legal normalcy". More precisely, the author claims that in practice the adopted model produces concentration of power in the executive branch far beyond what one could expect in ordinary times. To prove that, the author analyses the Croatian legal anti-epidemic framework through several elements (declaration of emergency, law-making powers, overview of executive emergency actions, parliamentary sittings). Finally, the author argues that the constitutional state of natural disaster in Croatia should have been proclaimed.

scholarly journals Does the Type of News Coverage Influence Donations to Disaster Relief? Evidence from the 2008 Cyclone in Myanmar

2009 ◽  
Vol 4 (6) ◽  
pp. 499-505
Author(s):  
Philip H. Brown ◽  
◽  
Po Yin Wong ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Natural Disaster ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Charitable Giving ◽  
Disaster Relief ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Charitable Contributions ◽  
News Stories ◽  
Cyclone Nargis ◽  
Relief Efforts ◽  
The Relationship

This paper examines the relationship between media coverage of a major natural disaster and charitable giving for disaster relief, focusing on three questions: first, was media coverage of Cyclone Nargis in May 2008 correlated with charitable giving to disaster relief in Myanmar? Second, were charitable contributions earmarked for disaster relief in Myanmar impacted by the occurrence of a second major natural disaster — the May 2008 earthquake in Wenchuan, China? Third, how did different types of news stories affect same-day charitable giving to disaster relief efforts in Myanmar? These questions are analyzed in a rich multivariate regression framework, and results show that charitable giving is indeed correlated with media coverage, that donations to disaster relief in China appear to compete with those to disaster relief in Myanmar, and that “event-driven” news stories strongly and positively influence the level of giving whereas news stories classified as “institutional” or “human-interest” do not have any discernible impact.

scholarly journals Stany nadzwyczajne stan wojenny, stan wyjątkowy, stan klęski żywiołowej w konstytucji Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej

2016 ◽  
Vol 106 ◽  
pp. 19-27
Author(s):  
Marcin Miemiec
Keyword(s):  
Crisis Management ◽  
Natural Disaster ◽  
Legal System ◽  
The State ◽  
Public Order ◽  
Martial Law ◽  
State Of Emergency ◽  
Emergency Situations ◽  
States Of Emergency ◽  
Democratic State

EXTRAORDINARY MEASURES MARTIAL LAW, STATE OF EMERGENCY, STATE OF NATURAL DISASTERThe Constitution regulates the organisation and functioning of the most important organs of the state, the rules governing the relations between the state and citizens, as well as basic rights, freedoms and duties of citizens. The Constitution allows for restriction of these laws only by legislation, and only when it is necessary in a democratic state for its security or for the protection of public order, environmental protection, health and public morality, for the rights and freedoms of others. It is unacceptable to violate the essence of freedoms and rights. The restrictions are subject to police laws’ regulations. When the police measures are insufficient, applicable are legislations on extraordinary measures: martial law, state of emergency, state of natural disaster. The Constitution defines the following rules for the implementation of these states: uniqueness, legality, proportionality, purpose, protection of the legal system basics, protection of the representative bodies. They are the directives of interpretation of other regulations of the discussed Chapter of the Constitution and the regulations of statutes on emergency situations. A kind of competition for legislation on states of emergency may be provisions of the Act on Crisis Management.

Human and Civil Rights and Freedoms in a State of Natural Disaster and Epidemic Emergency

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 133-142
Author(s):  
Robert Socha ◽  
António Tavares
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Natural Disaster ◽  
Civil Liberties ◽  
World Health Organisation ◽  
The State ◽  
World Health ◽  
State Of Emergency ◽  
States Of Emergency ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Republic

On 11th March 2020, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared a state of pandemic. In turn, on 21 March 2020, the Minister of Health, by way of a regulation, declared a state of epidemic in the territory of the Republic of Poland. At the same time, the decision resulted in the introduction of many restrictions concerning, inter alia, freedom of movement, assembly and trade. At the same time, discussions started on the constitutionality of the introduced restrictions on civil liberties. Having the above in mind, the aim of this article is to present the correlation in the sphere of limiting or suspending civil liberties in a state of emergency, such as a state of natural disaster, and in “non-emergency” states, such as a state of epidemic threat and a state of pandemic. Although the word “state” appears in the three mentioned legal situations, the state of natural disaster, as one of the three constitutional states of emergency, creates a different legal and socio-political situation than the state of epidemic threat or the state of pandemic. A common feature of the above-mentioned events, however, is that they became a fundamental disruption of the social context of individual and group functioning in connection with the occurrence of a human infectious disease.

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