Out of adversity comes opportunity
March 31st 2011 02:09
Cyclone Yasi
Graeme Newton is a busy man.
He heads the Queensland Reconstruction Authority, the body in charge of getting the Australian state back on its feet after twin muggings by nature earlier this year - widespread flooding in January was followed two weeks later by Cyclone Yasi, a storm so big we may never see another like it.
Graeme Newton and his team are in charge of cleaning up. The bill is expected to be about A$5.8 billion.
So he had plenty of other things to worry about recently when he was asked to take a phone call from the World Bank, a body involved in the permanent disaster area of global poverty.
"Could we," the World Bank asked Graeme Newton, "send a few people to watch what you're doing?"
"Why?" Newton replied, or words to that effect.
"Because," said the World Bank, "we think that what you are doing is cutting edge."
The World Bank may not have used the term "cutting-edge", but media reports today do use the term to describe how the World Bank saw the way Newton and Queensland were going about reconstruction.
Out of adversity comes opportunity. The observers are on their way and, hopefully, the World Bank will learn something which will be of use in its future roles in disaster management.
When it comes to disasters, every little bit helps.
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