Post week two Humanitarianisms Conflict

Let me start off by saying you and I are both going to find out what I am writing at the same time. I don't know about anyone else but yesterday's class made me head want to explode. I thought I was only a little confused going in and now I am certain I am somewhere between lost and hopeless but we will see.

Humanitarianism is one of the best things humanity has going so naturally it needs to go to hell. It is being attacked on all sides: from a political aspect, to a technological aspect and even on a personal level. I sit here writing this post with national geographic on in the background and their 24/7 week long coverage of the 10th anniversary of 9/11 and I can't help but wonder where did it all start to go wrong.

When did the synergy of the world put politics on top and turn everything into a political pissing contest and how in the name of all that is good did we as the human race let Humanitarianism and its groups get dragged into it?

I personally can not wait till we find these bright places where we just want to help our fellow man instead of further our own agendas be it as a country, a political party or personal. I know the Dr. Seuss image might no be apropos but I still think back when I was bright eyed and bushy tailed, idealistic and full of hope that I could change the world. The world is a jaded place where helping our fellow man is not always first priority. Humanitarian organizations in and of their very nature were made and for a while were that bright place that showed us what humanity was capable of when faced with the worst kind of adversity. Unfortunately due to lack of funding and political agendas they also have been tarnished. It is a lot like the Robert Frost poem "Nothing Gold Can Stay."

For all of the good that these organizations have done and for all the people they have helped they have entered a dark age. They still help people and still do so much good but they are conflicted and are currently questioning their own identity. This is a watershed moment for the Humanitarian organizations of all sorts because as we saw from all the pages of myths there are a lot of myths about disasters and the same is true for identity crises.... MYTH: we live in an age where it is possible to be politically neutral.

Disagree with me if you will but with 9/11, the recent natural disasters and most of all how plugged in everyone is it is impossible to hide from the microscope of public scrutiny and until these organizations deal with this and evolve they will be forever at the forefront of the scrutiny. It is easy to be politically neutral when no one is over analyzing your every move but in the age we live in that unfortunately is not possible anymore.

People still do want to help as is proof by all the aid for Haiti and other disasters of that nature be it humanitarian organization or other third party non-profit brought about by new technology. Until those two groups of people learn how to work together in harmony there will always be a problem. The advent of technology has also been a huge problem for Humanitarian organizations because it has enabled widespread scrutiny from all sides.

I apologize if this seems like a lot of disjointed rambling but it is how I can best rationalize what I feel is one of the main problems for Humanitarian organizations. New technology has to find a way to be incorporated and the Humanitarian Organizations themselves need to figure out where they stand in this ever evolving increasingly technological and more wide open world. There is a certain lack of privacy with the new technology and they need to be able to adapt to it and figure out how they will fit in and be able to have staying power and expand in the future. I don't see how they can be neutral so they must figure out where they stand and how they can best help the most people because that is really what they are all about.


Fun link for the day to http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index2.php a cool global view of natural disasters.

Allow Me to Introduce Myself

Before I get to me allow me to explain the hopefully clever title of my blog. Zeros and ones at least to me is something I think about when I think about technology and how much information is stored in such a simple way and also how vital that information can prove to be. Sixes and sevens is British slang for crazy, so i guess the title could be interpreted many ways. It's crazy how much we rely on technology, the world is crazy and technology makes it simple or that the technology we use nowadays is crazy, take your pick I suppose.


Now on to myself, Thomas Brent Rooney, I am 22 years old from Philadelphia, PA and am a fifth year senior at Penn State University studying Security and Risk Analysis: Social Factors and Risk Option. I suppose to understand how I came to be involved in SRA in general and more specifically involved with this class I need to open up with you and tell you way too much about my life. I know not too much fun for either of us but seeing as how that's part of the assignment here goes nothing.

My birthday is on tax day and who knew how much money would drive the decisions I would make later on in my life. My grandmother got sick while I was young and my dad got injured unfortunately these situations made me aware of how expensive medical care was and also a little thing I like to call life triage. There are two or three things you could really use or need and can only afford one, make your choice and deal with the other two. My father eventually left, my grand mom passed away and  my mom and sister and I struggled to get by.

I was the first one in my family to come to college and then money became an even more pressing concern because we went from scraping by to heaping amounts of debt and I had to choose a major that had a good job market and I had a future in. I came across the college of IST and its high placement rate and I fell in love immediately. It seemed like the cutting edge and a place where I could get a footing, end up with a high paying job with good benefits to help my mom and sister out.

I love the variety of classes and how much different stuff they teach us but at times it feels like what we do doesn't really help anyone. It all seems reactionary and people have already been injured or hurt by something that could have been prevented if we had had the foresight to do something about it. I understand that Crisis Informatics is also reactionary but the incident that caused it was something natural and entirely out of our control. Somehow this makes me feel better about it and also makes me feel like whatever we can do will just be purely to help our fellow man in a way, there is no monetary gain out of it directly.

Sorry for the rambling I hope this explains well enough how I came to be in SRA and more specifically in this class. If not I will try to get better at this whole blog thing and don't worry you will see me in class where I can try and explain it more clearly. Thanks for taking the time to read this if you made it this far, I swear all of my posts wont be so gloomy.

Here's a happy thought to leave you on, one of my new favorite websites is http://thoughtcatalog.com/ . It is a really fun website with people posting random musings on everyday events in a unique way.