Description
Natural Disasters
Can you comment on the effect that natural disasters have on the economy?
Well, although from one perspective, natural disasters devastate the economy to a large extent, businesses are destroyed, etc., therefore people lose their jobs for a period of time. However, it's also been argued that it stimulates the economy in some ways, for example, you know building contractors will be hired, and it often causes an increase of investment by the government to try and help the area to develop again.
And could you suggest some ways we can help those affected by natural disasters?
Well I think first and foremost, people obviously need to make sure they have somewhere to live, if they have lost their homes, sorry, they will need sufficient shelter, you know medical attention. But also quite importantly I think is, you know psychological help, people can often be rather traumatized after these kinds of events, I think some kind of counselling is often quite important.
Could you compare the severity of natural disasters to man-made disasters?
Well, it's a difficult question really, because you know man-made disasters could be worse than natural disasters or vice versa. For example, Chernobyl which was the nuclear power plant in Russia melted down and caused and still is causing a great deal of damage to the environment and people. However, you know smaller incidents have occurred which probably aren't as devastating as say, earthquakes which have happened in places around the world, you know in New Orleans the flooding, hurricanes. However, it could be argued that, you know a man-made disaster is global warming. You know that is actually causing all of these natural disasters, so it is difficult to actually determine where to draw the line between natural and man-made disasters.
Charities
Could you outline what kind of support charities provide in these times?
Well, I think in these times, yeah mainly they would provide material support. You know as mentioned earlier maybe shelter in the form of tents, emergency supplies, medical care, and possibly also counselling, I would say.
And how effective do you think charities are in providing such support?
I think it's difficult to generalize. It has been argued obviously that a lot of money given to charities is often wasted on buying materials, you know expensive cars, Range Rovers to travel to certain places. Also you know that people receive high salaries from them, and sometimes that the work that is actually done is not even that necessary, you know maybe they decide to do some project, but it takes 3 or 4 years until they can actually put that plan into action, and by that time it's no longer of any use, the area has different requirements, so yeah I think it depends.
Would you agree or disagree that volunteer work should be part of the school curriculum?
I think if it was at the expense of more important subjects, then maybe not, but I think it certainly does have its own merits. You know it would encourage people to see the benefit of helping others, to see how actually it's quite a rewarding thing in itself, and maybe to open people up to the possibility of gaining some kind of satisfaction in life other than just making money for themselves.
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