Final Paper

Discipline: Contemporary Themes

Teacher: Alexandra Oanca
Name: Lucas Ghilardi Saatkamp
ID: 609876
Date: 03/07/2018
Applying the Case
Arriving into the case I have studying during the previous papers, seems that the
economy has a lot to do with an analysis of disaster in general. In addition, it tends to grow
with the years, in addition of rising gap between poor countries and the rich ones (Cohen,
Werker 2008). As I could present my theory, the idea of disaster for human society can be
usually related to a intermediated thing, called economy. I relate intermediate to economy
because it does not causes anything but it has very sensitive feelings. This thing stays
between the causes and the result. This result could be distinguished in two things as said by
Anderson (1985) on A Reconceptualization of the linkages between disaster and
development. For the author, “disasters a r e indicators of t h e fai l ur e of development”
and “development is the process of reducing vulnerability to disasters.” (1985).

Dismantling what was said previously, is always important to try to understand how
the effects of these phenomena affects our society. Considering that our society is over a
platform of a constant change, so, analyze such a natural or social disaster is a challenge.
(Tierney 2017). Especially when analyzing the case through a socio-economic and risk
management perspective of disaster.
As said previously on this paper, disaster are not so-natural, and attributing them to
“manmade” events is not equivocated. Following this thinking, we realize that growth
theories could relate with this analyses.

“Extreme weather events like hurricanes often become problems

because of the ways society has changed the environment, such as locating
cities in areas at risk of flooding, filling in wetlands for development, and
building homes on eroding coastlines. Government policies are also major
 factors in where, why, and when an event becomes a human disaster because
development policies have contributed to creating risky areas while
response plans are often inadequate.” (Kojola 2016).

Diving into this concept, we can include to this paper the concept of vulnerability,
according to Finan and Nelson (2001), while analyzing the case of Brazilian drought on state
of Ceará. The Northeast region defined by them;
“Its semi-arid hinterland, the sertão, is known as the infamous
‘drought polygon’, which has recorded 5 centuries of periodic crisis. In a
‘normal’ rainfall year (about 750 mm for the Northeast), the winter rains
arrive in December or January and diminish in May, with the heaviest
precipitation occurring from February to April.” (2001).

This study comprehend six cities and shows how the vulnerability concept applies to
the economy of a poor region, especially to the lack of development towards agriculture,
since, “approximately 40% of the economically active population is employed by agriculture
and resides in rural areas.” (2001). But, “Even under a normal scenario, these families
experience difficulty in procuring basic necessities during part of the year”. To present how
these situations affects all parts, the great landowners, called as fazendeiros have trouble to
feed themselves and their animals.
Northeast have been suffering the effects of these natural events since the Portuguese
have arrived there, (2001). And through the time, several studies and actions were made,
whether public of private, trying to change the circumstances. Accordingly to the authors, on
the 1887’s drought, “imperial government spent large sums of money to purchase food from
other regions to distribute to the affected population of the Northeast.” Charactering the
acceptance of responsibility from the public authorities and the begin of many initiatives to
promote solutions, unfortunately not so successfully implanted, as:

 “The creation of CHESF provided the energy for industrial development in

the Northeast, and between 1950 and 1970.” (p. 101).
 “CODEVASF installed a major irrigation program along the São Francisco
River.” (p. 101).
  “BNB was created to provide the financing, much of it under subsidized credit
programs.” (p. 101).
 “SUDENE provided the overall management apparatus to oversee the
different development initiatives.” (p. 101).

And after that, in the 80’s and 90’s, a series of World Bank investment to integrate
agricultural economy, with the intention to reduce vulnerability of the Northeast region;

“These intensive efforts specifically targeted smallholder

agriculture and involved the institutional collaboration of SUDENE (as
manager), BNB (as financing agent), and DNOCS (for technical support).”
(p. 102, 2001).

However, political divergences through the governments and the complexity of local
economy were sufficient to the failure of all these initiatives.
The scenario started to change with the foundation of FUNCEME in 1972. A public
organ responsible to scientific study of drought. Soon the reputation of the organization hits
international attention of science community.

“That year FUNCEME issued forecasts of drought and the then

governor of Ceará traversed the state urging farmers to plant drought-
resistant varieties of bean and corn seed—provided by the government.
According to this account, while precipitation was significantly lower than
the historical annual average, crop production dropped only slightly.” (p.
102, 2001).

With a the reputation gained from the international scenario of researchers, FUNCEME were
introduced to a large cooperation with the government and other institutions, to, in general
back up its efforts on promotion of rural credit and economy. However, was not enough,
because the bureaucracy and the “local power hierarchy” (2001), reinforced the drama of
drought industry (industria da seca) in a place surrounded by corruption and political
manipulation.
“Evidence abounds of work fronts clearing land or building dams
 on private fazendas (large landholdings), of phantom workers registered on
the fronts, of non-existent tanker trucks contracted to deliver drinking water,
of families not included in the program because of their local political
affiliations.” (p. 103, 2001).

The strategies studied by the author to supply food, income and water are, in most
cases out of the hand of state. In Northeast, the food solution pass through looting. Family
and no-family member have established a way to collaborate with other to avoid reduce the
necessity of money. The necessity of income could be full filled accordingly to Finan and
Nelson (2001), is specializing activities according to the families’ talent. It include livestock,
tools, wood goods etc. However depends on disponibility of time and raw materials, which
unfortunately is directed link with climatic conditions. Finally, water can be considered the
major problem, and unfortunately the poorest households depend on too many circumstances
that’s impossible to create a general solution, such as dams, rivers, reservoirs, and even
cactus. Instead of rich farmers and landowners, whose can buy their own water, and ration to
fulfill the cattle.
For concluding, is plausible to say that vulnerability is a hard constant when analyzing
climate crises or disaster, such the case study of drought on Northeast Brazil. Through many
different solutions, which were presented, and different theories in the previous sections, we
can notice that vulnerability does not applied just for natural phenomena, but for “manmade”
events, as said before. The main article used in this analysis were clear on how the
participation of public system have affected the early initiatives and the way that works today.

Bibliography
Shabnam, Nourin. “Natural Disasters and Economic Growth: A Review”. June 2014, Volume
5, Issue 2, pp 157–163. Available from <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13753-014-0022-5>.
Access on 10 June 2018.
Kojola, Eric. 2016. “Not so Natural Disasters”. Available from:
<https://thesocietypages.org/trot/2016/10/19/not-so-natural-disasters/>. Access on 10 June 2018.
Cohen. Charles, Werker. Eric: “The Political Economy of Natural Disasters”. 2008. Availabe from
<https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Publication%20Files/08-040.pdf>. Access on 29 June 2018.
Finan. Thimoty J, Nelson. Donald R. Nelson: “Making rain, making roads, making do: public and private
adaptations to drought in Ceará, Northeast Brazil”. (2001). Available from <https://www.int-
res.com/abstracts/cr/v19/n2/p97-108/>. Access on 29 June 2018.