Catastrophe
Subtropical
Today I finally managed to meet my sister and three of her seven children in Modi’in, halfway between her settlement and Tel Aviv.
On the way back in the taxi I was struck by a diarrhea attack. Being struck by such an attack in a taxi in a subtropical country might be called a catastrophe.
Well no, losing your leg is a catastrophe.
With an acquaintance of mine in Lebanon I had a small discussion about the question when something can be actually called a catastrophe.
Hiroshima was a catastrophe.
The war in Lebanon was a catastrophe.
The shooting on the Virginia Tech campus was a catastrophe.
The killing of a young Dutch soldier in Afghanistan was a catastrophe.
Are there any limitations to the meaning of the word catastrophe? Or are we entitled to compare anything to let’s say Hiroshima?
Definition of catastrophy
A catastrophy can be defined as: "A result of a series of events that causes that a system can't function normally within it's environment for a certain period of time".A system can for instance be a computer, a car, a person or a group of people. The environment can be a computer operating at house or controlling a nuclear power plant. The environment of a person can be at home, or a pilot operating an aircraft.
The severity of a catastrophy is determined by the time it takes for a system to recover and to what extent a system can't function normally anymore. An example: When a person (the system) is at home (the environment) and has diarea (the event) for half an hour (the period), the catastrophy has low severity. When an entire city is bombed, a whole group of people is killed which causes they can't funtion normally for ever (because they are dead). This is thus a catastrophy with high severity. Jan Thys gave an example of this.
In this way we can talk about a economical catastrophy, personal catastrophy, computer catastrophy ecetera.
This definition can be used recursively. That is, a system together with it's environment, can be defined as a super-system and a certain event can be called a catastrophy. We then see that a catastrophy (event) can lead to another (bigger) catastrophy. A small series of events, for instance local conflicts, can cause that two groups of people, for instance Catholics and Protestants, can't live together normally for a long period of time. This can be seen as a long lasting series of relatively small catastrophies.
Hope this helps.
p.s.: Have some thea with sugar and some plain white rice.
