Pondering the Israel, Gaza Situation.

The Idle Man has avoided posting on the recent Israeli Incursion into Gaza, primarily because my thoughts on the entire episode have been contradictary:

Before going further a map of the entire Gaza Strip:

• I fully understand why the Israelis decided to take military action. Having daily rocket attacks into your villages and towns requires action to stop it. As Hamas seems impervious to any diplomatic or economic pressure, military action was the only option left. As to whether the action was proportionate, is not a subject I feel qualified to judge. Unfortunately this has not stopped many just as unqualified as I, making pronouncements in Newspapers, or through Broadcast Media.
• I have immense sympathy for ordinary Palestinians who have been wounded, traumatised, lost love ones, homes, or livelihood.
• I intensely loath Hamas and its core agenda, but admit it has played its few cards extremely well and in many cases has trumped the incredibly slick and well organised Israeli PR Machine.
• I found the British Media's whining about the restrictions placed on them by the Israelis annoying, as none of them apparently tried to report from the Egyptian Side of the Gaza Border and the stalled supplies and medical volunteers stranded there, because Egypt for very good reasons kept the official border crossing closed. Maybe the Egyptians refused them access, if so they didn't mention this. Also none of them tried to get past the Israeli Naval Blockade on the Mediterranean Sea. Perhaps our fearless reporters felt that even if this didn't endanger their lives, it might endanger their careers as if caught they would never work in Israel again.
• In addition Western Media have an unfortunate tradition of endangering the lives of their own servicemen and women due irresponsible reporting and one can therefore understand the Israelis being reluctant to let them anywhere near the front line.
• I agree with the BBC and Sky refusal to broadcast the British Disaster Emergency Committee Appeal. Although this puts the BBC and Sky in a no-win situation, the decision is correct as this is not just another humanitarian disaster, but a political minefield. A minefield involving the fact that the Gaz Strip is governed by a Terrorist Organisation dedicated to the destruction of Israel and is anti-semitic and anti-christian. This coupled with the delicate political situation regarding the other Palestinian Enclave on the West Bank, plus Egypt, Jordan as well as Israel, means that any station broadcasting this appeal is sending a political message, that many will see as a statement of position, rather than simply a request for relief donations. I find it sad that ITV and Channel 4 have decided to Boradcast, but it is a free country, so it is up to them.
  
• At a personal level, whilst I accept that in many disasters some of the donations end up in the hands of the Corrupt, in this case, unless I receive a written guarantee that any monies donated will NOT be accessible by, pass through, or be paid to Hamas Officials, or Agencies, or Agents, then I will not be donating anything. I have never (at least knowingly) donated money, a proportion of which has ended up in the coffers of a Terrorist Organisation and I am not going to start now!
  
• The senior clerics of the Anglican and Catholic faiths in Britain have 'waded in' criticizing the BBC, yet they have been strangely silent over the plight of Palestinian Christians who have been persecuted for decades. I suggest that before having a go at the BBC and Sky, I suggest you start looking at what you should have been doing to help the Christians who live in a climate of persecution and abuse. He who casts the first stone..

Other Posts on Gaza in this Blog:
Hamas and Humanitarian Aid to Gaza, 06/07 Feburary 2008

Gustav and Civilian Telecommunications

This post is related to my more general comments on the
Handling of the Gustav Hurricane Emergency
Whilst in the US the Emergency Services, Police National Guard and Coastguard, have dedicated Radio Networks and Landlines to maintain their Communications, Civilians are dependent on their normal service providers.

As my interest in telecommunications is both professional and personal, my attention was quickly drawn to an article by:
Rajani Baburajan on TMC Net entitled Service Providers Step up to the Challenges Presented by Hurricane Gustav.

Most of this post is made up of comments on extracts from her article, which starts:

The strength and weaknesses of communications technologies are revealed during disasters. People depend on these technologies during emergencies, and during such times offering flawless services is of utmost concern to providers.

The impact of Hurricane Gustav is the latest example of such a situation. Maintaining telecom infrastructure during hurricanes is a difficult task, made more difficult by increased volume of calls from people checking on friends, colleagues and loved ones in the hurricane zone — volume that can result in overloaded networks.

Extremely well put, I wish I could write as clearly and concisely as Rajani. In the UK we tend to forget how easily Mobile Networks can be overloaded especially when a very large number of simultaneous calls are attempted from the same cellular cluster. In the US this can be exacerbated by operator coverage limitations, which in the UK are only experienced by a relatively small percentage of users regardless of operator.

As for Landline Telephony, both in the US and the UK, there is an almost religious belief we will be able to connect a landline to landline call, but actually this is NOT the case. Whilst landline networks normally have a large contingency volume handling capacity they can under certain circumstance reach this. Especially if there has been damage to local, or enroute network infrastructure. Whilst my limited knowledge of the UK Disaster procedures for Landline Networks is at least 15 Years out of date, I assume the Cascading Priorities still apply with at its most extreme only Government and nationally vital telephone numbers will be allowed to connect calls.

Back to the Gustav Emergency: The two dominant operators in the affect areas are the resurgent AT&T and T-Mobile. Again quoting from Rajani's article:

In anticipation of power outages and network jams that can occur during hurricanes, major service providers including AT&T and T-Mobile this weekend prepared their teams to deal with hurricane Gustav in a competitive manner.

The last two words which I have highlighted caused me to raise an eyebrow! Dealing with a disaster of potentially massive proportions in a competitive manner, hmm, surely this is a typo, obviously this should be cooperative manner.

No it wasn't a mistake as the next few paragraphs relating to AT&T revealed:

AT&T on Sunday announced the availability of more than 2,000 GoPhone devices with $15 airtime to people who were ordered to evacuate. The phones were made available on a first-come first-serve basis to residents who live in areas where mandatory evacuation was ordered.

AT&T distributed the phones through its retail locations in Houston and San Antonio, Texas, where a large number of evacuees from Louisiana and southeast Texas were staying. AT&T said it planned to make the phones available as early as Monday evening.

Chris Penrose, vice president and general manager for AT&T's wireless unit in south Texas, said this initiative will help people connect with family and friends or take care of critical needs in times of crisis.

This is what I consider to be 'a nice gesture', but with more than one eye on the PR value than actually being a good corporate citizen and now surely having got that out of the way, AT&T will tell Rajani what they have been doing to maintain service to customers!

Apparently not, as Rajani moves onto the practical efforts being made by T-Mobile inc (part of T-Mobile International AG, the mobile communications subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom AG) to deal with the emergency:
T-Mobile deployed an incident command team to Birmingham Command Center and locations throughout the Southeast and in Texas, to mobilize its team of engineers and technicians in case the hurricane affected networks. The company said it fortified its network switch operations that serve the Gulf Coast. Additionally, it planned to beef up its microwave radio equipment and send out Cell-on-Wheels (COWs) teams to facilitate wireless communications affected areas.
Good practical engineering and command control planning and implementation. No instant PR value, but what I would expect a reputable Telecommunication Provider to do in a Disaster Situation. Well done T-Mobile.

This good corporate citizen stuff is followed by some practical (and what I consider commonsense) advice to evacuees which I hope was made available via PBS, Public Service Advertising and handed out on the Evacuation Buses:
Service providers also requested people to adopt wise communication strategies to help them serve better during such crises. For example, instead of making voice calls to their friends or relatives, providers suggested using text messages, which use fewer network resources. Providers also asked customers to use landline phones as a backup since they do not require electricity to operate.

Finally Rajani covers what the Web (providing access is available) can do to help:
With advanced Web communication technologies such as Google Maps, weather, news, and alerts available on mobile phones, customers can utilize these resources to determine the status of weather conditions and handle emergency situations wisely. Examples of such services include AT&T’sMobiTV, AT&T Mobile TV and My-Cast Weather. Wireless data devices such as Apple’s iPhone and BlackBerry smartphones allow sending of messages to large groups of people simultaneously. However, these services are available under special subscriber plans and limited to a few subscribers.
All good practical stuff.

For More Articles by: Rajani Baburajan<

For Related Articles in this Blog See:

• Handling of the Gustav Hurricane Emergency
• Katrina has wiped out by Communications - Inveneo and friends to the rescue
  
• Preparing for a visit by Rita - Gosh She is here!
• Shock & Awe by Katrina

Handling of the Gustav Hurricane Emergency

Sitting on my hilltop in West London safe in the UK, I watched the BBC and ITN News coverage of the build up of the emergency evacuation plans for New Orleans and thought this is a text book example of both how it should be done and American organisational and operational capability at its best. Effectively the complete opposite of the situation that existed prior to the arrival of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, when along with almost every Commentator I was scathing about the emergency plan and its implementation (see: Shock & Awe by Katrina ).

Disaster Planning on this scale with the co-ordination of so many agencies Federal, State, City and Parish is one of the most difficult and complex civilian tasks to undertake. But the 'acid test' of any plan however carefully constructed is when it has to be implemented and whilst I am sure in the careful analysis in the coming months there will be a few changes made and unfortunately some people with 'personal agendas' will highlight any shortfall, I have to say as an interested but uninvolved observer it was incredibly well done!

Every plan of this nature depends on effective Command & Control Communications and as this is only mentioned when it falls down, the implication is that it didn't and as Command Control is vital, I think those responsible should be lauded.

The 'sharp end' of any plan is those who's duty is to stay behind and British coverage at least, has not really touched on the courage of the Emergency Services, Police and National Guard who had to remain in the danger zone to protect the lives of those who would not be evacuated and guard property against those in any society see disaster as a criminal opportunity. I hope those in authority acknowledge their role.

In my article on Katrina I wrote:

After the ritual bloodletting in the political arena, hopefully wise men and women will learn and build on the lessons so painfully taught by Katrina. But in New Orleans it appears the problems encountered in the aftermath of the 1993 Floods were forgotten, so I cynically suspect will the lessons of Katrina by 2017.

Well Wise Men and Women did take the lessons of Katrina to heart and build a disaster plan that worked and hopefully they will continue to 'tweak', update and maintain the plan and the resources required, so that even if not required again in New Orleans until 2017 it will be ready and waiting to be implemented.

Related Articles in this Blog:

• Gustav and Civilian Telecommunications
• Katrina has wiped out by Communications - Inveneo and friends to the rescue
• Preparing for a visit by Rita - Gosh She is here!
• Shock & Awe by Katrina