Richard Grabowski

Massive Disaster Hits Your Hometown – here is your plastic sheet

I remember one year as a young boy spending a week at survival camp and needing to live in a lean-to my partner and I put together.  What doesn’t make sense if that we can provide the same materials 10 year old boys used on a summer vacation 40 years ago as real survival material for millions of people every year.

I remember one year as a young boy spending a week at survival camp and needing to live in a lean-to my partner and I put together.  Although; this wasn’t really needed to survive because if things became too rough we would just head on down to the main camp cabins and get what we needed.  40 years later I can recall that summer camp with fond memories.  As a matter of fact my friend and I took first place for our little tent made out of clear plastic sheets.

The interesting thing is that that summer camp was really about having fun.  It didn’t matter if the condensation built up on the plastic sheets during the day or the side melted because we got the sterno stove too close.

Unfortunately; I look at the world today and I am taken back by the fact that we use these same materials as primary survival tools around the world.  There is something strange about the notion that we, as adults provide the same materials 10 year old boys used on a summer vacation 40 years ago as real survival material for millions of people every year.

This is worse than asking our kids to watch black and white television.  Yes I remember that also.  Just image if we kept more things the same like the high beam light switch on the floor of our car or freezers inside the refrigerator that needed defrosting once a month. 

I make mention of these things because of all the change in our lifetime some things haven’t progressed at all.    As a matter of fact, in some cases a plastic sheet is more than what people do get in times of disaster.  In recent years there have been reports of people in Pakistan surviving in caves and people in Haiti receiving corrugated sheets to use as a roof.

I contend that we must change this condition.  It is unforgivable that in today’s modern age, with all of our technology and revolutionary breakthroughs we can’t find it in ourselves to give disaster victims in the Developing World more than an inadequate sheet of plastic.  Oh, and of course some duct tape. 

Article Tags: Plastic Sheet

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