The End of Alert Retrieval Cache, but a Beginning of What Else?

There's no words that describe the outpouring of technological know-how accompanied with goodwill that accompanied Alert Retrieval Cache (ARC). Thoughtful, creative and technically knowledgeable people around the world aggregated in a way that could have only been made possible through the Internet.

The reason that the Alert Retrieval Cache project is being halted is simple: Other existing systems that do the same thing are out there, and within the project there was the question as to whether it should proceed as it was, or stop. Generally speaking, we've opted to stop work on the ARC. Some have gone off to lend their hands to other projects, and to them we wish them the best. Their heart is certainly in the right place, we have no doubt, and maybe they can help these projects that have been ignored for far too long.

Yet in the same token - as a person - I wonder. I wonder why these systems were not in place; not in a manner of fixing blame. Scapegoats don't save lives, and they certainly don't increase the quality of life for survivors of disasters. So some of us are continuing, researching, and trying to find answers to questions.

The bottom line is: We Want Something To Work. We don't want promises. We don't want political lies, we don't want to hear that a committee or working group is 'doing something'. No.

We want action.

Consider what Germany is trying to initiate (courtesy WorldIsGreen.com and Textually.org). Will this actually happen, or will this become some political issue that will remain unresolved?

Will I continue getting emails, or reading, hearing and viewing news explaining that 'things are being done', but when queried the claims cannot be validated? Do not treat us as fools, we are smarter than that.

In a world where words speed around the planet at astounding speed, the bureacracy has yet to catch up. The immortal words of Richard Feynman in his appendix to the Presidential report on the Columbia disaster:

For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.

We want the reality. We don't want public relations.

But what will we do? Will we sit and await the United Nations, governments and aid agencies to manage our lives? Will we sit and patiently wait, accepting the same rotten excuses the next time something happens?

Around the world, people have shown so much interest in ARC - not because it was a new playtoy. Because they recognized in it something that was concrete - and perhaps could have been more concrete in this last disaster - and something that showed that we, as human beings, are NOT paralyzed by the people we elect/expect to do the things that are in our best interests. Perhaps this is why the BBC was interested. Maybe they saw that people could feel empowered instead of dependant on some organizations which have increasingly failed us.

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.