Data: 2009-07-09 13:41:06 | |
Autor: Me | |
ZAJRZYJCIE TUTAJ - OBAMA NIE ZABRANIAL SMIERCI BEZDOMNYM W CHICAHO | |
Fragment for the 'dead City on a hill " to latch to ( for empathy): never mind lawyers and judges now. "What weather phenomenon kills the most people in America? Hurricanes? Tornadoes? Floods? Add those up and they will still not total the deaths attributed to the real killer: heat waves. The other phenomena yield good pictures, and that is one reason you don't hear much about heat deaths. But according to Eric Klinenberg, an assistant professor of sociology at New York University, there is another, more subtle reason. Victims of a heat wave "are primarily social outcasts - the elderly, the poor, and the isolated - from whom we customarily turn away." In _Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago_ (University of Chicago Press), Klinenberg has looked at the week-long heat wave of July 1995, which killed over 700 people. (Another comparison: the famous Chicago fire of 1871 killed about three hundred.) In Chicago, the heat hit up to 106 degrees, with a heat index over 120. Cars broke down in the streets, and bridges, rails, and roads buckled. Even with the windows open, brick homes could heat up to 120 degrees. The heat killed, but it did not just kill randomly. In clear, objective, but often biting pages, Klinenberg shows the patterns of urban life that brought death to certain regions and certain social groups. One group was the elderly, clearly disproportionately killed by the heat. This might be attributed simply to their bodies having fewer physiological resources to protect them. Indeed, the government of Chicago tried to explain the deaths of elders this way; the heat only culled those who were going to be dying soon anyway. There is no medical evidence that this was the case; they simply were unconnected with society, and when they died alone in their rooms, it was long before absences were noticed. Klinenberg argues forcefully that the Chicago government, at different levels, did not respond to the disaster as it would have a big fire or a train wreck. When deaths mounted, Mayor Daley was able to frame the issue as a "debate" about the rising number of deaths, when there was no scientific controversy about the matter. Human Services Commissioner Daniel Alvarez did a classic move of blaming the victim, saying, "We're talking about people who die because they neglect themselves. SEE! We did everything possible. But some people didn't want to even open their doors to us." SEE - DEAD The media also come in for criticism. They took up the artificial controversy generated by the mayor about whether the heat deaths were "real" or not. There was little analysis about which regions were being the most affected and why, and the official city version of how little could be done against an act of God was repeatedly parroted. By the time the reporters did a comprehensive story, it was "old news" and didn't run. No one was more forgotten than forty-one victims whose bodies no one claimed or cared about. SEE They languished in the county morgue until August, when they were buried in a huge common trench in a potter's field. Visiting the site in preparation for the book, Klinenberg learned that a few reporters had come now and then to see it, but no Chicagoans and no family members. Social and governmental forces can't control the heat, he reminds us, but they can make deaths easy to overlook and forget. His book is a pointed effort to keep that from happening. SEE - they do not want to forget you, "dead city on the hill" " Eric Klinenberg's new book "Heat Wave" gives readers a tremendous insight into the Chicago heat wave of 1995. He approaches this tragedy from several fronts. He begins with an account of what happened during the several days of stifling heat and continues with a look at the social impact of living and dying alone, why certain neighborhoods lost more people than others and exposes a city ill-prepared to handle the mounting number of deaths. Klinenberg continues with an assault on the politics of Chicago, the response of the mayor and those around him and finishes with an adept look at the media's role and response to the deaths of over 700 people. Although at times the author writes in a dry style he nonetheless portrays the Chicago heat wave as a catastrophic failure on many levels. Klinenberg gets down to the root of some socio- economic problems that beset Chicago and tells us the "whys" of their causes. Many things stood out as I read this important and often scary book, but one thing kept coming through....although heat waves are discriminating killers the solutions are there if right decisions are made at the right times, by governments and citizens alike. A sad and ironic end to "Heat Wave" is told in the form of a senior editor at The Chicago Tribune who decided to relate this tragedy from both a human and social side. As Chicago cooled down his work went on. Unfortunately, only a small part of the story was ever printed as the paper decided that in the chill of November few readers would be interested in a story that had occurred during the blistering heat only a few months before. I highly recommend this book. It is a service to help us understand what happened during July of that year. As the author points out, this could happen again. " SEE , that is not Eric saying it. Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review › See all 17 customer reviews... " I first heard about this book on NPR, and the topic really disturbed me. When I got around to reading it, I found out there was much more to this tragedy than the ghastly... " " A detailed exploration from an unconventional perspectiv b Heat Wave was one of the required readings for my class on medical sociology, and it is almost single-handedly responsible for sparking my interest in public health. " A great expose into the frailty of our social structure. When asked about weather related events that incur the deaths of hundreds of people, most think of hurricanes, floods, of large tornado outbreaks. " A very interesting, if somewhat dry and academic, book On Thursday, July 13, 1995, the temperature in Chicago climbed to 106 degrees Fahrenheit. Over the course of the next week, while the city sweltered in the stifling heat, and... " " An Excellent Candidate for Course Syllabi The only think I would add to what has been said already is that this book should be strongly considered for courses that emphasize the interaction between medicine and public..." Published on February 25, 2005 by Buddie & Arthur Klinenberg's investigation of the conditions and outcome of the 1995 tragedy deals with issues of human interdependence and examines the importance of local and regional... Read more Published on December 17, 2004 by Michael Donahue .............................................................................................................................. ABOUT AUTHOR: Eric Klinenberg is Professor of Sociology at New York University. His first book, Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago, won six scholarly and literary prizes (as well as a Favorite Book section from the Chicago Tribune) and was praised as “a dense and subtle portrait” (Malcolm Gladwell, The New Yorker); “a remarkable, riveting account” (American Prospect); “intellectually exciting” (Amartya Sen); and a “trenchant, persuasive tale of slow murder by public policy” (Salon). A theatrical adaptation of Heat Wave premiered in Chicago in 2008, and a feature documentary based on the book is currently in production. (...) Klinenberg is currently working on two new projects. One, a study of the problem of urban security, examines the rise of disaster expertise, the range of policy responses to emerging concerns about urban risk and vulnerability, and the challenge of cultivating a culture of preparedness. The other project is a multi-year study of the extraordinary rise in living alone. He reported on parts of this research in a recent story for NPR’s This American Life, and is now working on a book, Alone in America, which will be published by The Penguin Press. .................. AND HERE HE COMES - THE SAVIOR ( HOW MANY TIMES WE HEARD THAT): "Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he was the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review. He was a community organizer in Chicago before earning his law degree. He worked as a civil rights attorney in Chicago and also taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004." THAT IS NOT A LEGAL ISSUE FOR OBAMA TO HAVE HIS FALKS DIE LIKE THAT. (I KEEP MISSIONG WHICH COMMUNITY KILLED WHICH AND WHY UNDERTHTA COMMUNITY ACTION BY OBAMA.; I AM NOT MISING THAT FOR LAWYER WHEN DEAD, NO CASE) |
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