During a CNN debate at the height of the GOP primary, Mitt Romney was asked, in the context of the Joplin disaster and FEMA's cash crunch, whether the agency should be shuttered so that states can individually take over responsibility for disaster response.
One way to accomplish that is to rely on Internet-hosted applications to begin with, offloading the responsibility for disaster recovery.
The examples reveal a complex landscape characterised by insufficient resources at the local level, and lack of willingness among public at risk to share responsibility for disaster risk management with authorities.
Romney is on record for stating (read: soon denying) his conviction that FEMA and all federal emergency aid should be cut for being immoral and that the responsibility for disaster relief should be shifted to the all-knowing states -- because they are so much better equipped to take care of their own.
Although responsibility for disaster prevention lies primarily with the Member States, the European Union can make an important contribution.
So far, senior management and boards of shipwrecked U.S. financial firms have not publicly accepted much responsibility for the disasters on their watch, almost uniformly holding "unpredictable market turmoil" responsible.
Responsibility for such disasters is widely shared in Mumbai, formerly Bombay and the capital of Maharashtra State.
Past refusals to take responsibility for military disasters - such as the sinking of the nuclear submarine Kursk last year and the accidental shooting down of a civilian Korean Airlines Boeing 747 in 1983 - have dented the credibility of official Russian denials.
"I want TEPCO to make this presentation to the Japanese public," said Hiroyuki Yoshikawa, an engineer and former president of University of Tokyo who in the wake of the disaster has pondered the scientific community's responsibility for the disaster.
