Earthquake

• RBB Bancorp (NASDAQ: RBB ) and its subsidiaries, Royal Business Bank ("the Bank") and RBB Asset Management Company ("RAM"), collectively referred to herein as "the Company", announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase program.
• Under the repurchase program, the Company may buy back up to 1,000,000 shares of its common stock, or approximately 5% of its outstanding shares, through March 31, 2026.
• The repurchase program does not obligate the Company to purchase any particular number of shares.
• RBB Bancorp is a community-based financial holding company headquartered in Los Angeles, California.

• View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240208593644/en/
  Humble Bundle has raised more than $250 million since its inception in 2010 to help out charities around the globe, furthering its mission to be a force for good.
• (Graphic: Business Wire)
  Founded in 2010 by Jeff Rosen and John Graham, a couple of gamers seeking a new way to raise money for various charities, Humble Bundle pioneered the game bundle-for-charity model.
• Since then, the company has expanded its offerings and grown its focus on doing good, integrating it into every aspect of its business and operation.
• Taking on Global Warming: Humble raised more than $1 million last year for charities committed to addressing some of the biggest contributors to climate change.

• There is no doubt that some of these recent and future events are the result of an increasingly unstable climate.
• Despite these evolving challenges, our emergency management systems remain strongly rooted in civil defence practices developed during the Cold War.

Disasters cost billions

• Natural and technological disasters represent a significant financial burden on citizens, businesses and governments.
• Disaster response actions and associated recovery assistance funds have cost approximately $5.75 billion over the past 10 years, according to Public Safety Canada.
• But that’s not likely going to be effective in managing disasters in an uncertain social, economic and environmental future.
• In the 1950s, the provinces created “civil defence” systems against enemy attacks, with the option to use such systems in the event of natural disasters.

Changing the Emergencies Act

• Public welfare emergencies cover natural and technological disasters, while public order emergencies involve civil unrest, as was the case of the Emergencies Act’s use in February 2022 to end the so-called Freedom Convoy’s occupation of Ottawa.
• The public welfare section of the Emergencies Act is clearly inappropriate and redundant considering provincial jurisdiction over emergency management.
• Provincial laws and systems cover the same range of special powers, and the Emergencies Act prevents the government of Canada from interfering in the provinces’ responses.

No clear role

• The current emergency management system, designed around the division of roles, responsibilities and powers between federal and provincial governments, does not have a clear role for a national response agency.
• The resources required in times of disaster go beyond the traditional 911 emergency services to include utilities, private and not-for-profit agencies and a greater role for citizen involvement.

Jack Lindsay is affiliated with the Canadian RIsk and Hazards Network and the International Association of Emergency Managers

• In the early hours of February 6 2023, the south-eastern region of Turkey was rocked by a series of powerful earthquakes.
• One year on, large parts of Hatay, the worst-affected province, remain in ruins.
• A total of 9 million people have been affected, including 1.7 million refugees who had fled the civil war in Syria.
• The devastation has exposed deep societal scars, and the task of rebuilding is still immense.

Economic ramifications

• The quakes rendered around 220,000 workplaces unusable, leading to a 16% reduction in working hours.
• Particularly hard-hit provinces such as Hatay, Kahramanmaraş and Malatya lost more than 10% of their combined industrial capacity.
• The Turkish government has recently launched a programme to help people return to employment in the region.

Fractured society

• The earthquakes shattered not only the region’s economy but the very fabric of society.
• More than 850,000 buildings collapsed in the initial quakes and the thousands of aftershocks that followed.
• This exposed inadequacies in construction practices and a widespread lack of compliance with building regulations.

Roadmap for recovery

• Its stated aim is to construct cities and communities that are more resilient to any such shocks in the future.
• This is commendable (provided it does in fact happen), but it’s crucial that efforts to recover go beyond mere reconstruction.
• The government’s response to the disaster has, for example, largely failed women and girls.
• However, the nature of this alignment – whether the president meant cooperation or political ideology – remains unclear.

Ufuk Gunes Bebek does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.