On the edge, Staring down at worn sneakers Barely on the concrete, Fingertips hovering on rusty rails. How many other souls stood here too? Contemplating the plunge of life and death, A simple breeze the wrong direction. Then suddenly, you're hurtling toward the end. Perhaps they never hesitated. Yet somehow, we all know they did. Each one stood and debated the pros and cons Justifying their next move toward oblivion. Despite all being tainted with the same darkness, We insist that alone is all we'll ever be. Gulping desperately at fresh air, only to find Mildewed hopes and dreams abandoned Revolted with ourselves, We allow that final push Into Death's warm embrace.
An instant New York Times bestseller, Booki Vivat's Frazzled is the first installment of a funny middle grade graphic novel series about a girl who is always in a tizzy. “Hilarious.” (NPR’s All Things Considered) "Honest, sweet, and laugh-out-loud funny. Fans of Smile and Diary of a Wimpy Kid will appreciate this debut." (Brightly.com) Meet Abbie Wu. Abbie is in crisis—and not just because she’s starting middle school or because she’s stuck in a family that doesn’t quite get her or because everyone seems to have a Thing except her. Abbie Wu is always in crisis. From author and professional doodler Booki Vivat, Frazzled dives right into the mind of this hilariously neurotic middle school girl as she tries to figure out who she is and where she belongs. Akin to Smile by Raina Telgemeier, Frazzled is heavily illustrated, embarrassingly honest, and sure to appeal to anyone in the middle of figuring out how to survive the everyday disasters of growing up.
The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami caused immense destruction and over 170,000 deaths in the Indonesian province of Aceh. The disaster spurred large-scale social and political changes in Aceh, including the intensified implementation of shari‘a law and an end to the long separatist conflict. After the Tsunami explores Acehnese survivors’ experiences of the deadly waves and the subsequent reconstruction process through the stories they tell about the disaster. Narratives, author Annemarie Samuels argues, are both a window onto the process of remaking everyday life and an essential component of it. Building on long-term ethnographic fieldwork, Samuels shows how the everyday work of recovery is indispensable for any large-scale reconstruction effort to succeed. Recovery is an ambiguous process in which grief remains as life goes on, where optimism and disappointment, remembering and forgetting, structural poverty and the rhetoric of success are often intertwined in individual and social worlds. Such paradoxes are key and form a thread through the five chapters of the book. Addressing post-disaster reconstruction from the survivors’ perspectives opens up space for criticism of post-disaster governance without reducing the discussion of recovery to top-down interventions. Individual histories, emotions, creativity, and ways of being in the world, the author argues, inform the remaking of worlds as much as social, political, and cultural transformations do. After the Tsunami is a provocative and highly significant contribution to studies of humanitarian aid and disaster, psychological anthropology, narrative studies, and scholarly studies of Indonesia and Southeast Asia. Its elegant style, pointed theorizing, and moving ethnographic descriptions will draw readers into Acehnese lifeworlds and politics. Its narratives attest to Acehnese ways of living with loss, within and across a history of colonial and postcolonial violence and suffering and a present of political uncertainty and hope.
The author of Men Explain Things to Me explores the moments of altruism and generosity that arise in the aftermath of disaster Why is it that in the aftermath of a disaster? whether manmade or natural?people suddenly become altruistic, resourceful, and brave? What makes the newfound communities and purpose many find in the ruins and crises after disaster so joyous? And what does this joy reveal about ordinarily unmet social desires and possibilities? In A Paradise Built in Hell, award-winning author Rebecca Solnit explores these phenomena, looking at major calamities from the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco through the 1917 explosion that tore up Halifax, Nova Scotia, the 1985 Mexico City earthquake, 9/11, and Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. She examines how disaster throws people into a temporary utopia of changed states of mind and social possibilities, as well as looking at the cost of the widespread myths and rarer real cases of social deterioration during crisis. This is a timely and important book from an acclaimed author whose work consistently locates unseen patterns and meanings in broad cultural histories.
THE LATE FRED ROGERS, BELOVED AND GENTLE HOST OF PBS' Mister Rogers' Neighborhood for over 30 years, once said: "When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.'" Helpers and heroes shine brightest in darkness. Disaster Heroes recounts the stories of ordinary men, women, and children who have done extraordinary things to help respond, rebuild, and recover from catastrophes around the world. Did you know it was an American from Pennsylvania who ultimately saved the lives of 33 Chilean miners in 2010? Or that the state of Louisiana donated a fire truck, the Spirit of Louisiana, to FDNY following 9/11, all because of a spur-of-the-moment outburst from one Louisiana man? Or that a landscaper from Florida helped save thousands of lives after the 2010 Haiti earthquake? Former journalist Suzanne Bernier, now an award-winning crisis management consultant, instructor and speaker, was first inspired to write Disaster Heroes while participating in her first New Orleans volunteer rebuilding effort following Hurricane Katrina. After hearing so many inspirational stories of help, hope, and healing, she decided to find and profile everyday heroes involved in responding to some of the world's most significant recent disasters. These stories shine a light on everyday heroes who led and inspired others following disasters such as 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, the Chilean mine collapse, the Haiti earthquake, and the Japan tsunami. Many of these stories cross cultures, countries, and continents, highlighting the fact that there are no borders when it comes to helping others. We're all in this together. Regardless of our background, where we're from, or what we do for a living, these inspiring stories remind us that there's a hero in each of us.
This guide focuses on planning for disasters as part of everyday life; it provides organizing tools like shopping lists, storage ideas, evacuation plans. etc.
From the creator of TheSurvivalMom.com comes this first-of-its-kind guidebook for all the “prepper” moms keen to increase their family's level of preparedness for emergencies and crises of all shapes and sizes. Publisher’s Weekly calls Lisa Bedford’s Survival Mom an “impressively comprehensive manual,” saying, “suburban mom Bedford helps readers learn about, prepare for, and respond to all manner of disasters. . . . From 'Instant Survival Tip' sidebars to a list of 'Lessons from the Great Depression'. . . Bedford's matter-of-fact yet supportive tone will keep the willies at bay.”
Two years after Hurricane Maria hit, Puerto Ricans are still reeling from its effects and aftereffects. Aftershocks collects poems, essays and photos from survivors of Hurricane Maria detailing their determination to persevere. The concept of "aftershocks" is used in the context of earthquakes to describe the jolts felt after the initial quake, but no disaster is a singular event. Aftershocks of Disaster examines the lasting effects of hurricane Maria, not just the effects of the wind or the rain, but delving into what followed: state failure, social abandonment, capitalization on human misery, and the collective trauma produced by the botched response.
A century ago, governments buoyed by Progressive Era–beliefs began to assume greater responsibility for protecting and rescuing citizens. Yet the aftermath of two disasters in the United States–Canada borderlands--the Salem Fire of 1914 and the Halifax Explosion of 1917--saw working class survivors instead turn to friends, neighbors, coworkers, and family members for succor and aid. Both official and unofficial responses, meanwhile, showed how the United States and Canada were linked by experts, workers, and money. In Disaster Citizenship, Jacob A. C. Remes draws on histories of the Salem and Halifax events to explore the institutions--both formal and informal--that ordinary people relied upon in times of crisis. He explores patterns and traditions of self-help, informal order, and solidarity and details how people adapted these traditions when necessary. Yet, as he shows, these methods--though often quick and effective--remained illegible to reformers. Indeed, soldiers, social workers, and reformers wielding extraordinary emergency powers challenged these grassroots practices to impose progressive "solutions" on what they wrongly imagined to be a fractured social landscape.
