"when the going gets tough, the tough get going" Attila Nyikos

On Wednesday, the JSBPers enjoyed a nice presentation from Attila Nyikos. Nyikos works for a branch off of the Minister of Interior called the National Disaster Management. He has previously served a Presidency position. Disaster management is a law enforcement and has a special fire and civil protection system including firefighters. 

The thing I was most interested about in this presentation was kind of finding out what he had to say about prevention efforts because I wrote a paper on what makes for effective prevention measures and what should be changed in them if they are not proving to be effective. I was quickly excited to be able to ask the question because Nyikos said something that sort of grabbed my attention. He explained how at the end of each disaster the team realizes that there is something new to be learned by using their mistakes. This sort of grabbed my interest because I wondered if that mean there is always a new change they can make, especially in the area of preventative methods. So I asked him if they do use that information to change their methods and specifically, if things were changed from the Red Sludge disaster. Nyikos said that several things have been modified in preventative efforts and they are using new technology. He explained how they are now using space images of other dikes and watching whether they move or they don't move. He says if it is moving too much, an alarm will sound. That is one way they can keep a better on things. One thing that I found interesting was that he said the dam broke at noon on October 4th, yet that morning it had been checked. So my question is, how more preventative can you be? The dam as checked that morning.... Are you going to sit by it all day? I found this very interesting. Leads me to wonder even with the best preventative measures, can they even be that effective? Of course not, not all the time, but it just poses an interesting situation for me. 

Here is a diagram that was on his powerpoint- it explained the steps of handling their work with environmental disasters. Prevention is where they make plans on how to avoid/minimize risks. Then they send them to budget in hopes of getting it approved. As for response, this is very basic- when the team responds with necessary measures, whether that be supplies or sending their firemen, they do whatever they can to stop the disaster and help the victims. The recovery stage is when they rebuild the homes and re-establish public services. 

As a psychology major, I am always on the look out for discovering things about psychology and its relationship with other topics. So when I learned that psychological reasons had a lot to do with people's decisions as to their new living arrangements, I became quickly intrigued. Nyikos said that the victims who lost their homes were given 3 options. 1) they could have a new house built for them 2) they could buy a new house in the same county or 3) they could buy a flat in another area of Hungary. He said that most people picked option number 3, PER PSYCHOLOGICAL REASONS. This to me is very interesting because its clear what an impact the disaster had on people past just physical loses. Clearly, their state of mind was effected a lot and the psychological damage was just as great, if not greater, than the physical. I am sure these people thought getting out of that county and being far away was the best thing they could do for themselves. 

 

the psychological damage could outweigh the physical.
(taken from the Christian Science Monitor)

The last piece of wisdom I will share with you from Nyikos was his quote about the US and the EU working together. "They are like two big elephants marching side by side." Such an interesting thing to see, that he believes the US acts as too big a powerhouse to work with the EU. However, the EU is acting the same so it is very interesting. He gave the example of Haiti and said that nothing could be done with cooperation because the US just came in and "did their own thing". He also said that the US acts more military and the EU acts more civil. Nyikos believes that the impression of the US is that she is always resolving matters on her own and rarely asks the EU to assist because it has very big "qualities" on its own. Its like two big families working side by side. (Hope one of them isn't Greek... 1 let alone 2 big Greek families is never a quiet, clean situation.) I thought this whole section of discussion was interesting because I really enjoy seeing outside impressions of the US.

this is an article where Nyikos gives his input on the red sludge disaster 4 days after it has happened and is sharing the ideas for clean-up. 

http://www.eutimes.net/2010/10/one-year-to-clean-toxic-spill-in-hungary/

Good luck to Nyikos controlling the lives of 465 million people through that iPhone. Like Kurk says,  I hope it stays charged!

See ya fools in Geneva!