Today starts the 3rd day of the EcoDDR summer classes, and after a bright and not-so-early wake up, I went to prepare myself for another great day and lectures to look forward to. It first started with such a great breakfast that i had, before me and my friends walked together, while discussing among ourselves about the topics that we learned on day 1 and 2. We arrived at the faculty building like after 10 minutes of walking, and went into the lecture’s hall, and waited before our first class starts.
2017
Day three of the Eco-DRR summer course 2017. The participants have surely had a bit of time to adjust to the daily routines by now. First of to start the first session of the day was Dr. Bevaola Kusumasari, enlightening the students about Disaster and Public Policy. On the example of what to do with the problem of people throwing away rubbish in Indonesia, she tried to explain the purpose and meaning of public policy. The main topic of the lecture then crystallized to be the response of the central government to the major disaster in Indonesia during the 2000s which comprises several steps taken towards a disaster management law and disaster management agencies such as the BNPB. Nevertheless, in the light of this development Bevaola Kusumasari pointed to the importance of considering local capacity. This also includes attention given to local culture, making local people appropriate to take action. Another interesting fact presented in relation to this is the religious or spiritual interpretation given to disaster, with the potential of influencing the response.
Day two of the summer course could be introduced with the two key terms “urban planning” and “case study”. These describe the broader content of all four lectures today dealing with the context of Malaysia, Thailand, Japan and Indonesia. Another interesting thing to notice was the included definitions of key words such as disaster, risk, vulnerability and capacity in most lectures. This makes sense though, if one considers that there exists several kind of definitions and people use different ones.
Yogyakarta, 15 August — On the second day of the summer course on ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction, the participants, after having a sumptuous breakfast at the Cakra Kusuma Hotel, proceeded directly to Building E of the Universitas Gadjah Mada to begin the series of general lectures for the day. Having a good night’s sleep and a full stomach, the delegates from the global network of universities faced the day with such enthusiasm and joy: ready to tackle a whole new plethora of topics and bring with them a bucketful of knowledge back to their home countries.
As a step to educate the upcoming generations on environmental issues, a workshop on Ecosystem-based Disaster Risk Reduction in Tropics was held in collaboration with UGM and its global network of universities. The great course of this program was for students from different background to mingle and share their knowledge, interest and culture in a positive light.
A warm welcome gesture by the organizers, 14th August 2017 officially marked the first day of EcoDRR program. An opening ceremony was held in the Faculty of Geography’s auditorium upon welcoming all the participants of EcoDRR 2017, followed by a small photo session. It was very delightful to see so many new faces as I was quite shocked with the numbers of the actual participants in total. It was shocking, because I only thought the participants are those who were staying at the Cakra hotel so it was a funny misunderstanding.