Governance

When Disaster Strikes 1 Part 1: Disasters Don't Create Inequality-They Reveal It 2 Part 2: Why Some Cities Burn (And Others Don't) 3 Part 3: The Sacrifice Calculus 4 Part 4: Elite Disaster Strategies 5 Part 5: Famine and Political Power 6 Part 6: Earthquakes and Governance 7 Part 7: Pandemic Politics 8 Part 8: Why We Forget ← Series Home Key Takeaways Disasters reveal, not create: Earthquakes, floods, and famines expose existing inequalities—they don't generate them from nothing. Vulnerability is political: Who lives in flood zones, poorly built housing, or food-insecure regions reflects political choices, not random chance. Response reveals priorities: How societies allocate rescue resources, relief aid, and reconstruction investment shows whose lives matter most to those in power. The window closes quickly: Disasters create brief opportunities for reform that almost always close before meaningful change occurs. The Myth of the Natural Disaster On the morning of January 12, 2010, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti. Within forty seconds, the capital city of Port-au-Prince was transformed into rubble. The official death toll eventually reached over 300,000—though some estimates run higher. ...

When Disaster Strikes 1 Part 1: Disasters Don't Create Inequality-They Reveal It 2 Part 2: Why Some Cities Burn (And Others Don't) 3 Part 3: The Sacrifice Calculus 4 Part 4: Elite Disaster Strategies 5 Part 5: Famine and Political Power 6 Part 6: Earthquakes and Governance 7 Part 7: Pandemic Politics 8 Part 8: Why We Forget ← Series Home Key Takeaways Cities choose to burn: Fire-resistant construction exists in every era. Whether it's mandated is a political choice. Codes follow catastrophe: Building codes are typically written after major fires, not before—and they're only enforced where political power demands it. The pattern of destruction: Poor neighborhoods burn more frequently because fire prevention requires investment that requires political voice. Reconstruction as opportunity: After great fires, some cities transform; most rebuild the same vulnerabilities that made them burn. The Fire That Rebuilt London On September 2, 1666, a fire started in Thomas Farriner’s bakery on Pudding Lane. By the time it burned out four days later, the Great Fire of London had destroyed 13,200 houses, 87 churches, and most of the buildings of the City of London. Miraculously, only six deaths were officially recorded—though the actual toll was certainly higher. ...

The Contested Circle – Part 5: The Mandate of Justice: Governance, Labor, and the Equitable Framework The Unspoken Cost of Circulation The Circular Economy (CE) is widely championed as a pathway to a sustainable and equitable future, promising significant job creation and environmental protection. However, critics argue that the mainstream agenda, often dominated by technical and economic accounts, has a critical blind spot concerning social and environmental justice (EJ/SJ). The focus on material flows and efficiency metrics frequently overlooks how the costs and benefits of circularity are distributed, creating an ethical and governance imperative that must be proactively addressed. ...

When Disaster Strikes 1 Part 1: Disasters Don't Create Inequality-They Reveal It 2 Part 2: Why Some Cities Burn (And Others Don't) 3 Part 3: The Sacrifice Calculus 4 Part 4: Elite Disaster Strategies 5 Part 5: Famine and Political Power 6 Part 6: Earthquakes and Governance 7 Part 7: Pandemic Politics 8 Part 8: Why We Forget ← Series Home Key Takeaways Famines rarely result from absolute food shortage: Most famines occur with adequate food supply somewhere in the system—the problem is distribution, access, and entitlement. Political systems shape famine vulnerability: Democracies with free press rarely experience famines; authoritarian systems suffer them repeatedly. Famine can be a tool of governance: Rulers have deliberately created or prolonged famines to achieve political goals. Food distribution reflects power relations: Who eats and who starves reveals society's real priorities, stripped of rhetoric. A Question of Entitlement In 1943, as World War II raged, Bengal experienced a famine that killed an estimated 2-3 million people. Rice was being exported from India to feed Allied troops. Winston Churchill dismissed appeals for relief, asking why, if conditions were so dire, Gandhi hadn’t died yet. ...

When Disaster Strikes 1 Part 1: Disasters Don't Create Inequality-They Reveal It 2 Part 2: Why Some Cities Burn (And Others Don't) 3 Part 3: The Sacrifice Calculus 4 Part 4: Elite Disaster Strategies 5 Part 5: Famine and Political Power 6 Part 6: Earthquakes and Governance 7 Part 7: Pandemic Politics 8 Part 8: Why We Forget ← Series Home Key Takeaways Earthquake mortality is a measure of governance: Well-governed societies experience the same earthquakes but far fewer deaths. Building codes are political documents: They represent the balance between safety, cost, and political pressure—often favoring developers over residents. Earthquakes reveal hidden corruption: When buildings collapse that shouldn't have, the gap between law and practice becomes literally visible. Seismic events can catalyze political change: The 1755 Lisbon earthquake helped birth the Enlightenment; modern earthquakes continue to reshape politics. The Governance Test On February 27, 2010, an 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck Chile—one of the largest ever recorded. Despite its enormous power, the earthquake killed approximately 500 people. ...

When Disaster Strikes 1 Part 1: Disasters Don't Create Inequality-They Reveal It 2 Part 2: Why Some Cities Burn (And Others Don't) 3 Part 3: The Sacrifice Calculus 4 Part 4: Elite Disaster Strategies 5 Part 5: Famine and Political Power 6 Part 6: Earthquakes and Governance 7 Part 7: Pandemic Politics 8 Part 8: Why We Forget ← Series Home Key Takeaways Pandemics reveal social structure: Who gets sick and who dies follows social fault lines that are normally invisible. Disease response is political: Quarantine, treatment, and resource allocation all reflect and reinforce existing power relations. Pandemics can shift power: The Black Death transformed European labor markets; COVID-19 is reshaping work and social provision. Health systems embody political choices: Universal vs. market-based healthcare produces radically different pandemic outcomes. The Great Equalizer? “The coronavirus doesn’t discriminate,” officials declared in early 2020. It was meant to be reassuring—we’re all in this together. ...

The Secret Life of Ordinary Objects ← Series Home Introduction: From Innovation to Instinct Disasters Don’t Create Inequality—They Reveal It Natural disasters possess a chilling duality: they are, on one hand, indiscriminate forces of nature—unpredictable and overwhelming tests of human resilience. Yet, viewed through the lens of history, they are never “purely natural.” The seismic shockwave, the surging flood tide, or the creeping drought often selects its victims with unnerving precision. ...

The Secret Life of Ordinary Objects ← Series Home Cities, those immense, crowded artifacts of human civilization, are often hailed as triumphs of permanence and order. Yet, viewed across the sweep of history, they are profoundly fragile constructs, perpetually vulnerable to the chaos of nature and, more often, to the failures of human governance. The most immediate and brutal threat to any urban center, short of warfare, is fire. A city that burns repeatedly does so not primarily for technical reasons, but for political and economic ones. Fire policy, in its enforcement and its neglect, serves as a ruthless barometer, revealing precisely which lives, which properties, and which segments of the population matter—and which can be sacrificed to the flames. ...

Reflections on Development 1 Reflections on Development - Part 1: What 'Development' Truly Means 2 Reflections on Development - Part 2: Beyond GDP - Measuring Material Progress and Well-being 3 Reflections on Development - Part 3: The Human Element - Investing in the 'Creativity of the Poor' 4 Reflections on Development - Part 4: The Cultural Context - Institutions, Values, and Sustainable Change 5 Reflections on Development - Part 5: The Synthesis - Turning Reflections into Collective Action ← Series Home Key Takeaways The Cultural Code: Just as DNA dictates biological growth, culture dictates how a society functions—imported solutions often carry incompatible “codes.” Tradition as Resource: Traditional knowledge is a reservoir of wisdom that has survived centuries because it works. Weaving, Not Assembling: Development should intertwine new threads with old ones to create continuous fabric, not replace the old carpet with plastic. Institutional Harmony: Institutions must reflect community values like solidarity, resourcefulness, and respect for nature. The Dual Society Problem: Modern institutions often disconnect from informal street-level reality, creating dysfunction. We have built the philosophy, the economic engine, and the human workforce. But why do so many development projects in the Arab world still fail? Why do “modern” systems often collapse or become corrupt when applied to our reality? In this fourth step, Dr. Hamed El-Mously points to the missing link: The Cultural Context. He argues that you cannot simply “copy-paste” a Western institution (like a specific management style or a legal framework) into a developing society and expect it to work. ...

Key Takeaways Practical Over Theoretical: The Yasa addressed real problems of steppe life and imperial governance. Universal Application: The same basic laws applied from Korea to Poland. Harsh but Clear: Punishments were severe, but rules were understandable. Religious Neutrality: The Yasa protected all religions equally. Meritocratic Values: Law reinforced promotion by ability and collective responsibility. Every empire needs law. Armies can conquer; only law can govern. When Genghis Khan unified the Mongol tribes around 1206, he faced the challenge of binding diverse peoples under common rules. His solution was the Yasa (also spelled Jasagh) – a legal code that would govern the largest contiguous empire in history. ...