A Story Club: Global Politics S2 E8
streamed live on FB from the US (San Francisco), India (Dehra Dun) and Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean, Thursdays 12pm EDT | 9am PDT | 9:30pm IST
repeated Friday on the UNC Network in Trinidad and Tobago 6pm AST

For the past 18 months, the world has been dealing with a global pandemic that has caused an unprecedented global shutdown of economic and social activity.

Although this has been an international emergency which the whole world has had to face, each country has had to face it nationally, in its own way, with its own resources and capabilites. 

Some countries have had expriences with national disasters of various types in the past: natural, political, economic, military.

Now is a good time to reflect upon how countries have dealt with these National Emergencies in the past.

How have these past emergencies compared to the current covid crisis? What lessons can be learned from these past experiences?

Today we loook at national emergencies which gained international attention: the 2005 Hurricane Katrina in the United States, the 2014-6 ebola crisis in West Africa, and the 1990 Jamaat al-Muslimeen coup d'état in Trinidad and Tobago.

We are privileged to be joined by Ron Millington from the United States and Dr. Bhoe Tewarie from Trinidad and Tobago.

Ron Millington served in the U.S. Armed Forces where he received the Global War on Terrorism service Medal and a former Department of Homeland Security Tactical Law Enforcement Officer. He was involved in FEMA's Hurricane Katrina relief efforts and also managing the ebola crisis in West Africa.

Dr. Bhoendradatt Tewarie is a distinuished academic, educator and politican in Trinidad and Tobago. He was a former Cabinet Minister in two administrations, including in 1990 when a small, radicalised group of insurgents took over Trinidad and Tobago's Parliament for 6 days, held MPs and the Prime Minister hostage, putting the entire country in a state of chaos and uncertainty.