Shock catastrophic events are treated popularly as the highlight of disasters, making them attractive to media, and easy to be embedded in the collective mind. They are easy to sell, and easy to forget. The "hard" part of the cycle that maintains interest on the disaster is short. It is well known for instance how important it is to target fund raising efforts at that time, or generate a momentum to change policy that will help with the recovery and will prepare to avoid similar circumstances. Soft disasters most often do not even have the privilege of this peak of media attention. They are "soft" not in their severity, with the opposite often being true, but soft in lacking a shock impact to be aware of them. They are soft in being typically persistent, where the disgrace grows bigger and bigger over a prolonged period of time, to the point that it would seem that they are difficult to look at. Droughts, heatwaves, and epidemics are the type of soft disasters that unless create a gruesome event or fact, seem to become secondary. The situation in Somalia is unfortunately too good an example.

Long and extreme famine, drought, and a war that few care to resolve outside the region make very difficult not only to raise attention to the catastrophe but to retain international interest with any hope of finding solutions, and crafting a course of action. In that context, efforts like those of the Red Cross are the ones that may offer a constant push to raise awareness through action. Their recent report on the situation in the country did just that, in a commendable display of how to make primary news through secondary means. Because the news is in great part not only picked up because of the severity, which the Red Cross had to highlight very clearly to support the case, but because the Red Cross becomes the source, the attractive authority that without any catastrophic event, without any "hard" peaks, is pointing to the severity of this "soft" plateau.

Moreover soft disasters, or the soft phase of a hard disaster for that matter, often presents the most enduring hardships and complexities. The catastrophic event offers almost a biopsy of what went wrong. But understanding the preceding process and having the will to look at the increasing complexities in the aftermaths are constant elements of soft disasters. Somalia's disaster is deeply interdependent on the import of food and fuel and the worldwide crisis and speculation in this sectors is only making the situation worse:

"Hundreds of thousands of Somalis face life-threatening food and water shortages due to the escalating armed conflict and the effects of the recent severe drought in central Somalia. High inflation and the worldwide rise in commodity prices, especially for key imports such as food and fuel, are aggravating the situation."

"We are witnessing the worst tragedy of the past decade in Somalia", said Pascal Hundt, head of the ICRC's delegation for Somalia. "The living conditions for many families are extremely difficult. People are completely exhausted from the non-stop struggle to survive. Amidst the ongoing armed conflict and other violence, finding water and food for the family is a daily challenge. Shelter and medical attention are also increasingly difficult to obtain."

When disaster becomes routine, is shaped as daily life, horror poses no shock, and life loses its value, understanding, claiming and responding to soft disasters becomes essential. A pillar of change is going to be not to confuse catastrophic events with the actual disaster of which they are part, and keep on recognizing conditions that without media peaks are still structural wounds in the global fabric that need to be healed.

More on the IRCS work and their recent efforts and strategies in Somalia
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Top image courtesy of the Feinstein International Center. Bottom image courtesy of the ISN Security Watch.