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Preparing for the Worst
By Marc Bergman, U.S.A.
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Four years ago, I made what some called a risky decision to
leave my job in a business consultancy in Tokyo, and move
halfway around the world to Washington, D.C., to pursue a
second graduate degree and a
completely different career field, that of emergency
management and international security.
My interest in this area developed in large part from many
years of experience in heading up teams of people
responsible for the safety and smooth running of large SGI
meetings, while living in the U.K., the
U.S. and Japan. These activities always involve cultivating
a spirit of service toward people and protecting others. I
took the final decision to take up a career that expressed
these values following the 9/11 terrorist attacks on
America, and in the midst of a family crisis that required
me to bring forth a lot of courage from my life.
After completing my graduate studies, I began working in the
field of disaster management and security for the U.S.
government. Part of my job here has been to help coordinate
my agency’s participation in
disaster and counterterrorism exercises. I also belong to
the cadre of people on alert status to respond to actual
disasters.
Creating cooperation and building relationships are critical
components in this field. Without such collaboration, it
becomes almost impossible to effectively help people when
responding to natural disasters or preventing terrorist
attacks.
An important aspect of our work is running large-scale
exercises to deal with crises on a national level. A recent
exercise dealt with the simulated response to the setting
off of radiological dispersal devices,
or "dirty bombs," in several American cities. At other
times, the scenario has been a strong hurricane pounding the
U.S. coastline or an earthquake crippling the nation’s
infrastructure. We have a saying
about doing these exercises, which is to "play like you
fight and fight like you play." The purpose is to "play" the
roles as if it was really happening, so that when we do have
to "fight" against these natural
or manmade disasters, we are ready to respond in the most
optimal way.
Central to this effort is building relationships with the
people that you’ll be working with and gaining cooperation
with numerous other agencies on a national and local level
so that as little time as possible is wasted and as few as
possible obstacles exist when we respond to an actual
crisis.
Lessons Learned
Many look to the response to Hurricane Katrina in New
Orleans as an example of how not to do it. The truth is that
a lot of people put everything they had into helping the
victims of this catastrophic
disaster, but the "system" on a local, state and national
level broke down due in part to a lack of cooperation and a
"perfect storm" of failures over a long period of time.
My Buddhist practice has had a big influence on the way I
approach my work and has been a great advantage to me in
carrying it out effectively. The words of Nichiren, the
founder of this school of Buddhism in 13th-century Japan, to
"be diligent in one’s concern for other people," are a core
inspiration, as is SGI President Daisaku Ikeda’s consistent
encouragement to pursue dialogue at all costs and to find
common ground.
This has helped me in my efforts to develop cooperative and
trustful relations, particularly in a recent challenging
experience of liaising with another federal agency where
people in both groups were expressing increasingly
intransigent positions. Now, for the first time in years, we
have been able to reach a degree of consensus on how we
would work together during a crisis. This may mean the
difference between a confused response and an effective
response in any future disaster situation.
It’s no exaggeration to say that I’ve had to deal with my
own share of crises during my life, but the experience of
being able to overcome these with my Buddhist practice has
given me the courage and
determination to protect people through my work. It has also
equipped me with the strength required to do this and
enabled me to face challenges with a feeling of joy
throughout.
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