We need to study and prepare for natural disasters in order
to predict when they will occur and to minimise damage to
people and property. But John C. Mutter goes further to
blend the natural sciences he studied with social science.
THE DISASTER PROFITEERS has the chilling subtitle of How
Natural Disasters Make the Rich Richer and the Poor Even
Poorer.
John starts by using Hurricane Katrina and the Haiti
earthquake as examples. The poorest people suffered most,
he says, both in the event and in the days which followed.
Natural disasters are not themselves harmful to a nation or
an economy. Japan suffers various disasters regularly and
has an enormous and modern economy. However, Haiti had not
suffered an earthquake for 200 years prior to 2010, and it
has one of the worst economies and poorest peoples in the
world. John explains a philosophy of creative destruction,
which means that new buildings, products or factories
replace outdated ones after a disaster. Long term, economic
studies indicate a process of renewal after disaster.
For individuals, a rebuilding grant and cause to use it can
be a positive force. A poor person's home may be worth very
little, but he has less income with which to rebuild than a
rich person. Apply this principle to a whole country, and
we can see why some nations rebuild quickly and better, and
some nations cannot. Aid agencies and the World Bank may be
called upon for funding. John tells us that there are three
phases - before the disaster, when plans should be put in
place; the event and its immediate media coverage; and the
long post-event phase of regrowth. The example John uses is
the deaths of schoolchildren in China when an earthquake
flattened schools not built to appropriate standards.
Earthquakes don't kill people, buildings do, is the adage.
Wealthy people choose to avoid dangers, living in secure
homes with good transport links away from flood risk zones
or mud-covered steep mountainsides. Poor people don't have
a choice. This is why, John says, poor people suffer
disproportionately. High income countries put money into
science, such as earthquake warnings, risk planning and
avoidance, so poorer countries suffer more from similar
disasters. High income countries also have more resources
and trained people to work with survivors in short and long
term. Overall, high income countries have 30 percent of the
deaths of low income countries for the same type of
geophysical disaster. Authoritarian lands like North Korea
do not allow relief teams to count bodies, so the world has
to go on official, probably understated figures. Other
countries hoping for aid may exaggerate the numbers of dead
and injured.
John gives an excellent economics lesson, helping us see
that an expensive disaster in a wealthy country has very
little effect on the nation's GDP, while a poor land has a
dead economy and worthless housing. Countries climbing out
of poverty have no reserve. An earthquake can kill more
people in a city, and cities are growing in risk zones.
John also shows us a map of where earthquakes occur, one of
where cyclones occur, and a NASA image of countries lit by
night - the greatest indicator of wealth. Photos and
diagrams are excellently illustrative.
I was already impressed by the clear, straightforward
presentation of the book and then I learned how profitable
contracts are given to rebuild in a hurry. John repeats a
fact I've read elsewhere; the 85 wealthiest people in the
world today own half of the world's wealth. These are among
the people who profit from disasters. They own building,
shipping and telecommunications firms; they supply goods
and know government officials tasked with handing out
contracts, or they buy up land cheaply. Corrupt
profiteering is well known around the world, in conflict
zones, after natural disasters and with large volumes of
aid money. Local government officials may be bribed, or
feel obligated, to ensure buildings are replaced fast,
whatever the continued risk. John tells us that in Haiti,
of the relief fund contracts awarded worth $195 million,
only 2.5 percent went to firms based in Haiti. Thus local
people did not get work or income. Law and order often
break down, but poor people, particularly women, suffer
violent attacks more than the well-guarded minority of
rich. Haiti is contrasted with Chile.
The good news is that while we are more conscious of
disasters occurring these days due to various media, we
actually suffer less than we used to. Far fewer people die
in disasters each year than used to be the case. THE
DISASTER PROFITEERS by John C. Mutter is extremely well
worth reading to understand how our world works, in terms
of natural events and economies. Anyone interested in
geopolitics, aid work, natural science or journalism will
be fascinated, as well as those just interested in the
news.
Natural disasters don't matter for the reasons we think they do. They generally don't kill a huge number of
people. Most years more people kill themselves than are killed by Nature's tantrums. And using standard
measures like Gross Domestic Product (GDP) it is difficult to show that disasters significantly interrupt the
economy.
It's what happens after the disasters that really matters-when the media has lost interest and the last
volunteer has handed out a final blanket, and people are left to repair their lives. What happens is a stark
expression of how unjustly unequal our world has become. The elite make out well-whether they belong to
an open market capitalist democracy or a closed authoritarian socialist state. In Myanmar-a country ruled
by a xenophobic military junta-the generals and their cronies declared areas where rice farms were
destroyed by Cyclone Nargis as blighted and simply took the land. In New Orleans the city was re-shaped
and gentrified post Katrina, making it almost impossible for many of its poorest, mostly black citizens to
return.
In The Disaster Profiteers, John Mutter argues that when no one is looking, disasters become a means by
which the elite prosper at the expense of the poor. As the specter of increasingly frequent and destructive
natural disasters looms in our future, this book will ignite an essential conversation about what we can do
now to create a safer, more just world for us all.
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