Issues & Experts >
Issues & Experts Archive > Sri Lanka, tsunami aid, Palestine, lasers - Issues and Experts
Sri Lanka, tsunami aid, Palestine, lasers - Issues and Experts
Document Tools
January 18, 2005
Researcher heads for Sri Lanka…Associate geography professor Jennifer Hyndman had planned since October to travel to Sri Lanka to follow up on a study she began five years ago, on the issues faced by people displaced by war. Displacement has taken on new meaning since the tsunami, says Hyndman, who leaves for the region Feb. 3. She concedes her research may sit on the back burner as she prepares to offer her services as a former relief worker (in Somalia and Kenya). “The needs and well-being of the people involved are my primary focus,” says Hyndman, who can help by conducting needs assessments or undertaking community consultations on reconstruction. She expects to remain in Sri Lanka, whether or not her research is carried out, for the month of February.
The group dynamics of giving…Trucks of fuel, clothing and tents, and helicopter airdrops of supplies continue to flow into tsunami-ravaged Asia. Aid commitments secured by the United Nations will surpass $717 million (US) over the next six months. It's the first time the United Nations has collected so much money in such a short space of time after a disaster. SFU psychologist Steven Wright, an expert on inter-group attitudes, can explain the phenomenal giving directed at Asia. “I have heard people say that these disasters demonstrate 'our shared humanity' and it is this sense that we are all one big group that motivates us to give,” notes Wright. “I think this is entirely incorrect. It is precisely that we are not part of the group of tsunami victims that compels us to give.”
Path to peace in Palestine…Will the election of a moderate, Mahmoud Abbas, to succeed the late Yasser Arafat as the head of the Palestinian Authority and Israel's new coalition government finally be a recipe for peace in Palestine? SFU sociologist Heribert Adam can offer a unique perspective on this question. In Seeking Mandela, a new book he is co-authoring, Adam argues “the ongoing violence, despair and paralysis among Israelis and Palestinians resemble the gloomy period in South Africa during the late 1980s.” In their soon to be published book, Adam and UBC education professor Kogila Moodley suggest the evolution of South African politics can be compared to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for two purposes. “One is to showcase South Africa as an inspiring model for a negotiated settlement. The other is to label Israel a 'colonial settler state' that should be confronted with strategies (sanctions, boycotts) similar to those applied against the apartheid regime.” Adam and Moodley speculate on what would have happened in the Middle East had there been what they call “a Palestinian Mandela” providing unifying moral and strategic leadership in the ethnic conflict.
Lasers no danger to aircraft…SFU engineering science professor Glenn Chapman wants to dispell the concerns over the danger of lasers to aircraft, following a case in the US with terrorist implications.. A New Jersey man was arrested last week and charged under the Terrorist Act for allegedly aiming a laser at an airplane. Chapman says a simple calculation shows that by the time a laser light beam reaches an airplane typically a kilometer away it has expanded from about one millimeter to a much larger area. “At that beam size, the power density at the plane would be less than 1/500th the level damaging to human eyes,” he surmises. Chapman, who can explain the physics behind lasers, says while laser pointers will not cause physical damage at such distances, they should not be pointed at people or moving vehicles in case they distract the operater.
- Jennifer Hyndman, 604.291.5465; jennifer_hyndman@sfu.ca
The group dynamics of giving…Trucks of fuel, clothing and tents, and helicopter airdrops of supplies continue to flow into tsunami-ravaged Asia. Aid commitments secured by the United Nations will surpass $717 million (US) over the next six months. It's the first time the United Nations has collected so much money in such a short space of time after a disaster. SFU psychologist Steven Wright, an expert on inter-group attitudes, can explain the phenomenal giving directed at Asia. “I have heard people say that these disasters demonstrate 'our shared humanity' and it is this sense that we are all one big group that motivates us to give,” notes Wright. “I think this is entirely incorrect. It is precisely that we are not part of the group of tsunami victims that compels us to give.”
- Steven Wright, 604.291.4342, scwright@sfu.ca
Path to peace in Palestine…Will the election of a moderate, Mahmoud Abbas, to succeed the late Yasser Arafat as the head of the Palestinian Authority and Israel's new coalition government finally be a recipe for peace in Palestine? SFU sociologist Heribert Adam can offer a unique perspective on this question. In Seeking Mandela, a new book he is co-authoring, Adam argues “the ongoing violence, despair and paralysis among Israelis and Palestinians resemble the gloomy period in South Africa during the late 1980s.” In their soon to be published book, Adam and UBC education professor Kogila Moodley suggest the evolution of South African politics can be compared to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for two purposes. “One is to showcase South Africa as an inspiring model for a negotiated settlement. The other is to label Israel a 'colonial settler state' that should be confronted with strategies (sanctions, boycotts) similar to those applied against the apartheid regime.” Adam and Moodley speculate on what would have happened in the Middle East had there been what they call “a Palestinian Mandela” providing unifying moral and strategic leadership in the ethnic conflict.
- Heribert Adam, 604.228.8369 (h), adam@sfu.ca
Lasers no danger to aircraft…SFU engineering science professor Glenn Chapman wants to dispell the concerns over the danger of lasers to aircraft, following a case in the US with terrorist implications.. A New Jersey man was arrested last week and charged under the Terrorist Act for allegedly aiming a laser at an airplane. Chapman says a simple calculation shows that by the time a laser light beam reaches an airplane typically a kilometer away it has expanded from about one millimeter to a much larger area. “At that beam size, the power density at the plane would be less than 1/500th the level damaging to human eyes,” he surmises. Chapman, who can explain the physics behind lasers, says while laser pointers will not cause physical damage at such distances, they should not be pointed at people or moving vehicles in case they distract the operater.
- Glenn Chapman, 604.291.3814; glennc@cs.sfu.ca