Written by: Richard Volzke on January 25, 2014

In the early 90’s, I visited Turkey while in the military. During my visit to Turkey, I witnessed an impoverished young boy steal a piece of fruit from a fruit stand and took off running. The vendor began yelling at the boy in Arabic, and as the vendor was yelling and running after the boy a Turkish military/police officer turned around and shot the young boy in the back of the head and killed him. As I was reading this week’s assignment, Collateral Damage, it reminded me of this particular event. This event profoundly affected me, in that it opened my eyes to fact that many in the world live in extreme poverty and most of us in the western world have no understanding of what this is like.  Even in the poorest areas of the United States, we don’t see those types of extreme problems.

Bauman’s introductory chapter discusses the inequality between the haves and the have-nots. The author used the term “collateral casualty” to explain that those living in poverty are more likely to suffer from man-made or natural disasters.   Bauman uses the hurricane Katrina disaster to demonstrate his theory that the poor are more strongly impacted when disaster occurs.  Many people ended up trapped for several days after hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans. The author stated that, “Not all, though, could act on their knowledge and make good use of the time available for escape. Some – quite a few – could not scrape together enough money for flight tickets. They could pack their families into trucks, but where could they drive them? Motels also cost money, and money they most certainly did not have.”  [1]  While I do believe that the poor lack needed resources in times of emergencies, I believe Bauman’s theory also sends a message that the poorest among us cannot take care of themselves. First of all, many of the people stranded in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina were there because they chose not to leave prior to the hurricane.  Being stranded had less to do with finances of individuals, rather had to do with their false sense of security and incorrect assumptions.  Past history showed that most hurricanes didn’t hit New Orleans nor did prior they create such distraction, so many people did not feel the risk was high enough to leave their homes or their possessions.

This book was very focused on the impact of poverty, and we should all be aware of the effect that it has on a society as a whole.  However, I am not sure that economic factors should be the only driving force when looking at a society.  In my experience, some of the richest people I have ever met didn’t have any money but had their needs met.   There are many positive and negative factors that influence a society.  Poverty can’t be fixed by money alone, and money alone can’t prevent poverty.

About the Author

Richard Volzke