JC Gaillard, a charismatic french academic from Auckland, wanted us to sing karaoke. The room shifted nervously. He played a song which was a karaoke simple love song and then the actual video, which was from the soundtrack from a disaster movie. He reflected that the video portrayed all the behaviours that we know don’t happen, panic, looting etc. He also noted that there was nothing diverse about the scenes.

He then showed us a song, based around Hurricane Katrina which demonstrated the vulnerability of the african american family, due to structural issues of where they were living. But they also showed agency in being able to survive.

The typical approach to risk, we focus on hazard x exposure x vulnerability. But we must add capacity. It will be much easier to enhance capacities than addressing the root causes of vulnerabilities. We can work on capacity, root cause of vulnerability must be addressed by those in power.

In the Sendai Framework, it is an improvement, where inclusiveness is mentioned, and certain groups are included, but there is no framework to bring them together, and address the intersectionality. This would be as a result of intense lobbying by interest groups. And also some groups are not mentioned.

There is also the challenge of is inclusiveness culturally appropriate. Can you reach marginalized groups without disrupting power structures and ultimately putting marginalised groups more at risk. He doesn’t have an answer to this perplexing question.

Music is also an empowering tool, such as this video.

He finished up with the man in black