Gisli Olafsson Interview

Gisli Olafsson is currently a Disaster Management Technical Advisor at Microsoft Corporation.  He is also Team Leader of the Icelandic Search and Rescue team which operates internationally, and a Disaster Management Expert Member of UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination team.  Mr. Olafsson holds a Bachelor's degree in computer science and chemistry from Københavns Universitet. 

Interview Introduction

Ky Luu's Questions:

1.  Now, can you, by way of introduction here, just explain how you got into this field, and how did it become that you’re a member of the Microsoft team, that you’re a member of the UNDAC team, you’re part of the leading efforts for the Icelandic Search and Rescue Team.  Hear Gisli Olafsson's response

2.  That’s a good lead-in to the next question I have here, which has to do with your motivation to stay engaged. This is a very difficult environment to work in, moving from one disaster to the next, obviously dealing with the pain, the suffering, the complexity of disasters. What keeps you going, what allows you to stay focused with regards to this job?  Hear Gisli Olafsson's response

3.  Now you have recently come back from Haiti, and it’s all in the press now, it’s in the news, it’s one of the largest catastrophic events, that not only hit the island of Haiti, but in terms of its impact to a single nation, to a people, there really is not too many comparisons out there. How do you see the current response unfolding, from your views at the field level?  Hear Gisli Olafsson's response

4.  Whose job is it to coordinate all of this? I mean, we hear whether we’re talking about the tsunami, we’re talking about other catastrophic events, coordination, as you pointed out here, has always been thrown out as something that either when it works, we see some of the immediate positive impacts, but when it doesn’t work, we also obviously see the negative ramifications. But whose job is it to coordinate, and what is effective coordination, and what is bad coordination?  Hear Gisli Olafsson's response

5.  At the time of this interview we are about to approach the third week, in terms of when the earthquake occurred, and as you noted the overwhelming amount of urban search and rescue teams that arrived in the first week, the amount of organizations, you had mentioned perhaps over 500 that were registered and countless many others that have arrived. How do we make sure that as the systems unfold that we stand up the operations for immediate relief efforts that we are able to stay focused on the mid to long term recovery needs of Haiti, because Haiti has been in this situation before. This earthquake comes on the heels of four hurricanes last year where the entire country is still reeling and the infrastructure is devastated. How do we make sure that those organizations that have arrived, not only make sure that the people of Haiti survive this earthquake, but that they have the ability to thrive to look towards their future.  Hear Gisli Olafsson's response

6.  With regard to donors, it is an unfortunate fact that in the aftermath of disasters, pledging countries that are stood up, that when, as you point out, the cameras have left, that the promises are not fulfilled. We’ve seen this in Liberia. We’ve seen this in the Bam earthquake and other catastrophic events. What can we do? I mean, we hear now that there are reports and focus on language access, we need to focus on long term recovery. We’re hearing the right things, but somebody with your experience, somebody who just came out of Haiti, how do we hold our politicians, how do we hold people’s interest so that this time we get it right?  Hear Gisli Olafsson's response

7.  Looking at the future here and your role in it with regard to, whether it’s the UNDAC teams or the Icelandic USAR teams that are deployed, what impact do you want to have?  Hear Gisli Olafsson's response

8.  Gisli, who are your heroes and why?  Hear Gisli Olafsson's response

• Read the Interview Transcript 
• Download the Audio or Video (coming soon)
• Subscribe to the podcast (coming soon)
• Browse resources and links related to this interview