Montreal QC–Yesterday I wrote on my Facebook page that I believe the entire current emergency management/homeland security consultancy paradigm needs to be shoved out the window on the top floor of a very high building.
Where’s the fidiciary responsibility to the citizens? Where’s the transfer of any real-world meaningful knowledge? All I see is the same old crapola with the same old dollar signs attached…
The initial replies posted expressed genuine concern. “Bad day, Hal?”
No, actually it was a pretty darned good day. I wanted to air some thoughts and I did. However, I do appreciate the concern.
As to what prompted this status statement – jeez – I’m surprised it took me this long to properly formulate the phrase. It’s 2010 and where are we?
How is it frigging possible that one intelligence agency didn’t talk to another intelligence agency and maybe share what they knew with a third?
How is it possible that tens – maybe hundreds – of millions of dollars have been spent on countless supplies that not only have a finite shelf life but are stuck in a system that wasn’t designed to actually get them to the people who need them in a timely manner?
Why are our governments providing grants worth, literally, millions of dollars to organizations whose ties to emergency preparedness are so tenuous that they need to reach out to real emergency managers to get the work done?
Why are RFPs being awarded to firms who don’t have any real-world experience in emergency management – and who then turn to people who do – paying them a fraction of their real value to deliver the goods?
How is it even possible that grassroots organizations that specialize in community outreach and have proven trackrecords of making a difference when it counts are being budget-starved while there’s an ongoing feast at the funding trough?
Clearly concerned that I had decided to out myself as a heretic in the open social media world, there were more posts urging me to “Hang in there my friend” and an offer of a cold beer in an even colder city – Winnipeg.
What’s up here? I don’t need to ‘hang in there’.. I want to change the way I interact with the system – and perhaps even change the system itself.
I’d like to see organizations and agencies – and more important – the people they serve – get the guidance they require instead of deliverables designed primarily to register the greatest profit margins…
I’d like to see some aspects of social entrepreneurship incorporated into the business model for emergency management consultancies.
I’d like to see RFPs that require consulting firms to deliver a portion of their guidance services to community-based grassroots advocacy organizations.
I’d like to see ‘check the box’ compliancy scrapped in favour of ensuring ordinary people have been empowered to do extraordinary things in times or crisis.
Clearly, I’m really not interested in more of the same
That being said, Guy, I’ll take you up on your offer of a cold beer if it still stands.
Be well. Practice big medicine.
Hal
