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“...of this activity diverges, in multiple ways, from the notions
of spontaneous egalitarianism that are often associated
with ‘resilience.’
This article explores the anatomy of‘aftershock’—as a
social and political phenomenon rather than a seismic one.
In the wake of disaster, as relief aid and reconstruction
funding has poured into Nepal, a multitude of political and
economic, as well as personal and social, transformations
are taking place. Following disasters in other times and
places, people often refer to this ‘aftershock’ as a ‘second
earthquake’ or a ‘tsunami after the tsunami.’ As such
expressions indicate, the magnitude of these post-disaster
changes is easily perceived as being on par with that of
the disaster itself. The aftershock speeds up, intensifies
and—sometimes—alters the existing social structures and
processes of change. To give one obvious example, after
seven years of political deadlock, the aftershock environ-
ment facilitated the making of a new, and controversial,
c...”
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Page 5
“...predictable ways than what
is imagined here. Disasters do not provide clean slates.
They are substantially shaped in the image of the societ-
ies they impact. The aftershock interacts with past power
structures, but it does not necessarily replicate them in a
one-to-one fashion. Novel opportunities for fundraising
and the increasing inflow of resources following disaster
accelerates and intensifies ongoing processes of change
and may heighten the stakes of how political games play
out in existing social structures. In the aftershock, oppor-
tunities and misfortunes are created in a shifting playing
field of complex negotiations of position. The aftershock,
in other words, shakes things up in ways that cannot be
adequately articulated through mainstream notions of
disaster assessments, reconstruction or compensation.
A Note on Positionality
My starting point for writing this article is personal. It
had never crossed my mind that I would, suddenly, be
reflecting on disaster and doing research...”
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Page 6
“...of terrain, infrastructure and
the possible ‘throughput’ of resources. While these were
obvious and legitimate issues in a Himalayan environ-
ment, they largely overshadowed other social and political
concerns among many of the responding actors. Although
the past half century of Nepali history vividly attests to
the fact that ensuring a fair and productive distribution of
foreign development resources is a massive challenge rife
with the potential for persistent unintended consequences
(Pigg 1992; 1993; Bista 1991; Fujikura 2001; Bennike 2015b),
in the aftershock of disaster all concerns with the issues of
‘giving’ seemed suddenly to have been swept away.6 The
urgency and moral imperatives of post-disaster human-
ism superimposed flat, universal notions of suffering (and
resilience) onto a political and social landscape that was, if
anything, even more complicated than before the quake.
Some twelve days after the first quake struck the
Himalaya, my friend Nyima had raised funds from a group...”
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Page 8
“...partners
approached this operation with clear professionalism; for
instance, employing a professional film crew to document
their work9 and producing a ‘subway map’ that specifies
‘staging areas,’ ‘transportations corridors’ and a ‘through-
put’ measured in metric tons per month (MT/mth).
Nonetheless, the whole operation was framed exclusively
as a matter of most efficiently pouring resources into the
area across an incredibly challenging physical terrain;
all reflections about the complicated social, political and
economic landscapes into which these resources were
inserted seemed wiped away.
Apart from this disregard for the local complexities of
patronage politics, the operation held the potential for
unintended economic consequences. As part of the WFP
operations, the main trail through the Manaslu area was
surveyed by a Swiss/Nepali team some weeks after the
earthquake. The geologist’s conclusion was clear: the
main trail was situated on a fault line in the landscape
and highly prone...”
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Page 10
“...with opportunity, bias and
unintended consequences. As the aftershock continues to
reverberate in the political, economic and social fabrics
of Nepali society, no strict conclusions can be drawn from
the present moment. What is evident, however, is that
a whole lot of different things take place ‘in the name of
reconstruction’ (Simpson 2013: 267)—even when the state
ostensibly does nothing. As the moral imperatives of disas-
ter encourages a major inflow of resources to towns and
villages across the Himalaya, local politics are infused with
new stakes. Opportunities arise for those who happen to
be in the right position or manage to seek that position in
the aftermath. Others might be bypassed by the new trails
of development or fall between the cracks of compensation
schemes. Disparate factors such as religion, occupation,
education, language skills and social networks—even local-
ity during an earthquake—can affect this. As scholars and
interested observers of Nepal and the Himalaya,...”
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Page 11
“...was quoted salaries between Nrs. 25 and
30,000 for work amounting to an average of one day a
week.
12. .
References
Albala-Bertrand, J. M. 1993. Political economy of large natural
disasters: with special reference to developing countries: Oxford
University Press.
Bennike, Rune Bolding. 2015a. Distribution Day. Himal
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Bennike, Rune Bolding. 2015b. Textbook Difference: Spatial
History and National Education in Panchayat and Present-
day Nepal. Indian Economic and Social History Review 52 (1):
53-78.
Bista, Dor Bahadur. 1991. Fatalism and Development: Nepal’s
Struggle for Modernization. Madras: Sangam Books Ltd.
Childs, Geoff H. 2004. Tibetan diary :from birth to death and
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Cohen, Charles, and Eric Werker. 2008. The Political
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Dixit, Kunda. 2015. Operation Mountain Express. Nepali
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Fujikura...”
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Page 12
“...Mechler, Stefan Hochrainer-
Stigler, Adriana Keating, and Keith Williges. 2014.
Revisiting the ‘disaster and development’debate—Toward
a broader understanding of macroeconomic risk and
resilience. Climate Risk Management 3: 39-54.
Nelson, Andrew. 2015. Classquake: What the global media
missed in Nepal earthquake coverage, accessed 8 March.
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Pigg, Stacy Leigh. 1992. Inventing Social Categories
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