...and a fascinating event, and thank you for the interest you've shown in joining us here on this website. My name is Eric Rasmussen and I've been the director for the Strong Angel series for the past seven years. In Strong Angel I lead a remarkable team of people, both the returning core and our new participants. Their efforts - as will be seen within the demonstration in August - will challenge and expand our common understanding of what's possible in disaster preparation, community resilience and humanitarian response.
Strong Angel is an unusual team. We have no formal structure, no dedicated staff, and no official tasking, yet we have a track record that argues that these rare Strong Angel demonstrations have been quite worthwhile. We have, in a few small ways, altered policy, teaching, procedures, and perspectives in several areas around the globe, with ripples that have affected a wide swath of those populations in need since 1999.
This time, for the week of 20-26 August, we'll again have an exceptional collection of very smart, experienced, and impassioned people, flying in from around the world to pursue solutions to complex and persistent problems that really matter; problems that have recurred again and again within both natural and man-made disasters.
It is worth noting that members of the Executive Committee have deployed to more than 20 disasters over the past few years, including the South Asia tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, the Kashmir earthquake, the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, and for the genocide in Darfur. While deployed to these tragedies, we've seen that a poor performance of those tasks we've listed in the Objectives section may cause lives to be degraded, and sometimes lost, through circumstances that might be avoidable.
So, based on recent disasters to which the Executive Committee has responded, we have collected a set of tasks we think need to be performed better when lives are at stake. To be honest, we'll probably perform most of them within the first day or two of the demonstration. From that point on, however, the complexity will increase and resources will be removed, so the challenges will expand considerably. We will work with our teams to devise methods for synthesis and synergy, optimizing our capabilities in each of the response areas we've found important.
It might also be interesting to note that we offer from this work everything we possibly can as a gift to the world, releasing anything that we, ourselves, create to the public domain. That way, a portion of the work so creatively performed during Strong Angel can live on without restriction, available to anyone on the planet, especially those with very limited resources . While we certainly value the proprietary contributions of our many partners and participants, we are very deeply interested in how we share resources (power, water, shelter, software, and news...) effectively with those who have very few; those who are living on the edge and at the margins, most in need of these ideas and capabilities. We should also note that, within the Strong Angel teams, we work aggressively to maintain our own sense of corporate responsibility, carefully respecting copyrights, patents, and intellectual property, while we also, at the same time, strive to develop free and open-source capabilities where we can. It's an unusual approach, but we've found it effective.
On a small side note for those coming to San Diego: If you're willing to take a few moments while you're there, I'd like to personally thank each of you for your contributions. You're all aware that we have very little money, and yet you've each done absolutely astonishing work. It has been terrific to watch. So, if you can, please drop by Building 557 during Strong Angel just for a few moments. You'll find me on the balcony, left side, watching the remarkable events unfold...
Warm Regards,
Eric Rasmussen, MD, MDM, FACP
Director, Strong Angel
