Imminent risk and fear among confusion, gossip and lies
Friday, April 3, 2009
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addition to circumvent the many hazards of technological origin, characteristic of our contemporary society, and so-called natural hazards has been increasing its frequency by the deterioration of our planet, we must confront other social for which we were not prepared. There are no institutions for the prevention and disaster caused by gossip, lies or misinterpretations.
Risks from confusion. The loss of orientation or ability to settle successfully in the world, in time and space, or the inability to correctly recall previous events is what we usually call it confusion. When the risk is imminent, there may be confusion, chaos, uncertainty and confusion among the population. In countries like ours, where the culture of risk management still is emerging, disasters can lead to a whole community into confusion and chaos. The disaster is growing by affecting the normal functioning of institutions, increasing the number of people affected.
The way you communicate the risk, on the other hand, it creates more confusion. Normal behavior in a state of emergency, consult the media. However, the media are not prepared for disaster. Arises, then, the opinion contrary to the objective information: "We believe ..." "... there is a suspicion," according to sources ... "" a ham radio informs us ... " are some expressions in the chaos and confusion.
But also, we risk confusing us. Several years ago I was walking with a friend for a street of my city. After a while we sat down to rest within seconds we were surrounded by police. They were! I heard amid the confusion. I was confused and, apparently, we were confused. Two boys aged 13 to 15 years we pointed as responsible for something that had happened. While a policeman was about to put us wives paraded through my mind scenarios of a crime committed ... Guys, we are confusing, obsérvennos it right, was a phrase repeated in vain. Yes they were! Confirmed our accusers. When all attempts to prove our innocence seemed to find no echo, there were two adults reporting that the perpetrators had been arrested with the stolen ... it was a robbery. The confusion had ceased, our prosecutors hid their faces to notice our look of reproach. However, I return home wondering: What would be our fate if the real culprits had escaped?, What would we be if instead of a theft had been a crime of great proportions, how many innocent people are serving a sentence because of confusion?
Risk gossip. One of the most important enemies with communities at risk is gossip or rumor. Pichon-Riviere in his Psychology daily quote: "The rumor is the mass media and diffuse, focusing on information that a feature made explicit not going to happen." As Kasperson states, the transmission through each node of the noise amplification, a distortion of the original information.
Gossips are partial information, sometimes false or poorly verified, sometimes mean-spirited or propaganda, that spread rapidly in a particular group or society. Risk situations, rumors are frequent and can create other risks. Gossip or rumors can lead to panic behavior. For example, some years ago a rumor circulated on the Internet announcing the bankruptcy of a financial institution. Because of this rumor, that institution was on the brink of disaster. However, not all gossip is malicious, or lacking in accuracy. Some organizations use gossip to circulate important information that can help prevent disasters. The truth is that rumors abound before or after any natural disaster, technological or social.
Listed below are four known cases in which gossip has played an important role
1. The 1929 crash . A purpose of the current financial crisis. The financial panic is one of the classic examples of gossip or rumor.
In March 1929 the increases were still strong, however, rumors began to circulate that the Federal Reserve was preparing measures that could counteract the effects of recessions and economic downturns. The nerves began to flow. Tycoons began to exit. The index fell 9.5 points. On Tuesday 26, the nerves were untied and sold what they could. Interest rates soared in one day up to 20%., however, Charles Mitchell, used the money from the Federal Reserve Bank to cover sales and that slowed the fall and had to regain confidence. Still, that second day of panic, the stock fell 15 points.
http://sobrehistoria.com/el-crack-del-29-el-mayor-desastre-bursatil-de-la-historia/
2. Y2K, the millennium . A few years before the end of the twentieth century, spread the rumor of a potential failure of computers for the date change. This apocalyptic prophecy spread rapidly around the world. The effect rumor 2000 (Year 2000 or Y2K) claimed that millions of computers block or stop functioning. The cause of the impending disaster was an old design error data. In computers of the time, the digits of the dates of the years worked with the last two digits. So, on 1 January 2000, the computer would not know if they were in 2000, in 1900 or 2100. According to rumor, he would take the date as 1900 and, if not corrected, installed programs incur calculations whose results would be disastrous. Emerged, then, possible solutions and computer technicians made a killing. I remember from programs offered eliminators Y2K bug (bug) to chips guaranteed zero error. Those who decide not to purchase preventive medicine, we use backup and wait for the new millennium. I remember that after giving the traditional "happy new year," my first act of the new millennium was turning on my PC ... After a few seconds ... my antiquated computer worked perfectly. I ran one other program, verifying that the famous Y2K was a false alarm. However, to justify a rumor, other rumors were published that were aware of failures of traffic lights in Jamaica, bank accounts in Japan and some other satellite clueless. But, to my knowledge, they were just rumors.
3. War against Iraq, amid rumors and lies. not say whether the rumor of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq was just that ... a rumor. However, oil interests in this country, modeled a new gossip or rumor, "Bush's lies." Sen. Ritter, at the time, stated: "We can not go to war based on rumors and speculation, before sending tens of thousands of American troops to fight, kill and be killed in our name we must be absolutely sure that there is a threat worthy of war, the sacrifice worthwhile. "
however, began war on the basis of rumor or, in my opinion, economic interests (oil). But watch, in my view, that is, I have no enough evidence to say that this is true. So I hope does not become another rumor or gossip.
4. Avian Influenza. For several years I've tracked the trends pandemic risk (see "In a pandemic outbreak," in http://rincondelriesgo.blogspot.com/2006/08/de-un-brote- la-la-real.html pandemic . At the end of this corner, it stated my concern about the virus:
" What most ignorant laymen is why scientists are concerned? The answer is simple, and the ravages of live H1N1 virus, which mutated in 1918, during the First World War, causing the epidemic of so-called English flu that killed between 20 and 40 million people. This number of deaths was higher than the war itself, than the famous Black Death. It was named so because in those years, Spain was one of the few countries in Europe where there was no censorship of the war, what was the English press first reported on the epidemic . "
While the H5N1 virus has not made as bleak scenario, scientists knowledgeable about the possible effects of a mutation, formed a common block that would stop the spread of the virus. The 1918 pandemic spread in three months in North America, approximate travel time by boat from Europe. In our time, would be in a few hours.
curious thing about this nightmare in the making, is that rumor has spread through for two reasons. The first is due to the few deaths that caused the pandemic (less than 200) and second, to avoid panic. However, it has circulated the net other rumor, which I make some comments:
Do you know that avian flu virus was discovered nine years ago in Vietnam?
False, there are different variants of influenza, one of 1918
Do you know who have since died just a hundred people IN THE WORLD ALL THESE YEARS? False
in part. If you want to report is the low mortality, suffice to say that few deaths caused by this virus. However, the fact that there are people dead, and few they may be, is of great scientific concern.
Do you know that it was the Americans who alerted us to the effectiveness of Tamiflu (antiviral human) as a preventative?
Do you know that TAMIFLU barely alleviates some symptoms of the flu?
You know that its efficacy against the common flu is questioned by many of the scientific community?
Do you know that against a SUPPOSED mutant virus such as H5N1, TAMIFLU barely alleviates the illness?
Do you know that avian flu, to date, only affects birds?
contradiction with the second statement
Do you know who markets TAMIFLU? ROCHE LABORATORIES
Do you know who bought the patent for TAMIFLU ROCHE in 1996?
And so on.
not know the purpose of this rumor. What we can highlighting is the power of the network as a spreader of gossip and rumor. Finally, I bring a bit of gossip:
Do you know that not everything that is said on the Web is true?
Do you know that gossip is a strategy to destroy the reputation of a person or an organization?
You know it's amazing the number of people who believe in gossip?
Worryingly the rumor is our ignorance about its veracity. Medellin has recently circulated a rumor about groups of social cleansing. According to rumor, after 10 pm is "settled" for young people who are in the street. Truth or lie?, What is the real purpose of the rumor? The truth is that many young people hesitate before leaving after 10 pm. That's the power of rumor ... sow seeds of doubt.
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