Disasterchannel.co,- Reading books is a fun activity for some people in Indonesia. However, in fact the reading level of Indonesians is still ranked 60th in the world. This is truly ironic for a large nation that regularly mumbles on social media. Therefore, on this occasion disasterchannel.co would like to provide an opinion regarding the role of books in disaster mitigation activities.
Disaster mitigation is an activity carried out to prevent, reduce risks, and carry out a series of disaster management. The aim of carrying out disaster mitigation is to reduce losses when danger occurs, in this case disasters, in the future, by reducing the risk of death and injury to residents and reducing damage to infrastructure and the public sector. Then the question is what is the role of books in disaster mitigation activities?
Books are one of the objects that have an important role in maintaining human civilization. According to Dr. Fuad Gani, S.S., M.A. in a public lecture with the theme “Books as Material Culture: Ideological Conflicts”, he stated that books are a form of material culture, where there are symbols and meanings in them. Still according to Dr. Fuad’s book itself is material culture, which we can consider as a whole artifact in a culture.
Looking at Dr. Fuad’s opinion regarding books, we can conclude that we can use books as tools or tools to support disaster mitigation activities. The reason is that with books we can store all information related to disasters. Starting from books that discuss disaster management theory, disaster history, disaster anthropology, to disaster novels.
With books, we can store all knowledge and disaster data, where the books can be read by our children and grandchildren later. This is because the book, which in fact contains knowledge, can be used as a reference tool for future disaster mitigation activities. One of the uses of books is as a decision making tool. This is because books contain information in a field or civilization.
If we look at the author’s opinion which has been explained in the previous paragraph regarding the role of books as a disaster mitigation tool. Book publishers should start including disaster issues as their main focus. If publishers in Indonesia start to be interested in printing books related to disaster issues, then the more references we will have for decision making related to disasters or disaster mitigation.
Even though interest in reading books in our country is still relatively low, books related to disaster issues must still be available. Because if one day our nation’s interest in reading books improves, of course our nation will have no difficulty in getting references related to disasters.
Author: Abdurrahman Heriza
Editor: Lien Sururoh
Translator: Nugrah Aryatama
Source:
“Menilik Fungsi Buku Sebagai Bentuk Kebudayaan Material.” Universitas Indonesia, February 28, 2019. Accessed September 9, 2023. https://www.ui.ac.id/menilik-fungsi-buku-sebagai-bentuk-kebudayaan-material/.
KOMINFO, PDSI. “TEKNOLOGI Masyarakat Indonesia: Malas Baca Tapi Cerewet Di Medsos.” Website Resmi Kementerian Komunikasi Dan Informatika RI. Accessed September 9, 2023. http:///content/detail/10862/teknologi-masyarakat-indonesia-malas-baca-tapi-cerewet-di-medsos/0/sorotan_media.
Wignyo Adiyoso, S.Sos., M.A., Ph.D. Manajemen Bencana Pengantar Dan Isu Isu Strategis. jakarta: Bumi Aksara, 2018.
