>> Hi. I'm Brendan Walsh
and I run the Office
of International
Affairs here at Stanford.
My background is as a researcher
but I also spent five years
at the Department of States
and it sends literary thousands
of people abroad and
brought thousands of people
to the U.S. The reason why I get
to do the response in a crisis
because that's one of the things
my office does is we coordinate
university's response plan.
And the one thing I
want you to think about,
if you can take one thing
away from what I say today is
that when you're abroad you're
your own first responder.
You know, things
happen on campus.
There are so many different
layers of support systems
that kick into action
immediately.
A lot of those layers
are still going to kick
into action while you're away.
Student Affairs is still going
to be concerned about
your safety.
Your mentors, your academic,
your professors are still going
to worry about whether you
can continue your program.
But there are big
differences when you're abroad.
There's the issue of time.
But if you need to get where
you, you know, if you're sick
and you need to get
to a hospital again,
you're your first responder.
We don't have access to you
when you're abroad the
same way we do on campus.
So that's why you have to
be your own first responder.
And information, we
don't have access
to information about
to as quickly.
Even Morgan was talking
about medical situation
that she had when
she was abroad.
I actually helped
respond to that
and it took us probably
good three days to figure
out what was actually going on.
And it wasn't just as trivial
as the power had gone out
and we couldn't communicate.
We actually found out in
the middle of that situation
that power had gone out and
the hospital couldn't send us
test results.
All right.
So, you know, that's a
really important thing
that you have to think about.
And what John talked about
with planning is really key.
You need to have a plan.
And the health coverage
issue is not trivial.
If you're abroad and your
health insurance doesn't cover
international health
services, you know,
the hospital may
ask you for cash.
That's a really big issue.
So if you don't know whether
you have health coverage,
figure it out.
And if you don't have
it, find a way to get it.
And if you can't afford it,
talk to somebody on this panel
and we'll figure it out for you.
We'll find a way.
Make sure you have your
international SOS card.
As John said, International
SOS is not health insurance,
it's your last resort.
You know, it's your last
resort for a medevac,
it's your last resort
to get out of a country.
It's your last resort
to get to a safe place.
Again, those critical moments
when you need to respond,
you are the first responder.
The other thing I'll say is
part of your plan in responding
to a crisis is make
copies of everything.
If you have an invitation letter
from somebody you're
doing research with,
make sure you have copies
of it in case you lose it.
Make copies of your passports,
make copies of your visas,
make copies of both sides
of your credit cards
if you're going to have a
credit card for an emergency.
I had a really experienced
colleague
from the State Department
who always copy everything
but never copied the
back of the credit cards.
And one time got
their wallet stolen
and by the time they were
able to get to a place
where they could
access the 800 number,
all their credit cards
have been maxed out.
So that 800 customer
service number is on the back
of your card, all right?
So it's one thing, don't forget.
And make sure you do that
consult with me then.
You want to make sure that
you have the right medications
so that you're prepared
when you go abroad.
Not just for infectious
diseases but also if you're
under the care of
a doctor right now.
For any kind of condition,
you want to make sure
that you're consulting with
those people before you go
because more than anything
we want you to succeed.
You spent a lot of time
getting to this point,
developing a project, getting
approved and getting funding.
We want to see you succeed.
So first point, you are
your own first responder.
That should be empowering
though.
That shouldn't make
you feel alone.
I want you to feel empowered.
The second thing I want you
to take away is minimize risk.
And I'm not saying don't
have fun but if you want
to read a really great article
that captures this point,
it would be Jared
Diamond last year,
right around this time he
wrote an article called
"That shower can kill you."
And he's 75 years old
now and he's writing
from the perspective--
as a person who's
been out in the field.
He said when he first went
to New Guinea, thinking back
in his childhoods he
always pitch the tent
when he went camping underneath
like the tallest nicest
tree he could find.
And when he first went to New
Guinea, he started to, you know,
put his bed roll down in
his camp and they're trying
to pull him away from the
tree and he said, "Well,
what was the problem?"
and they said, "Well, these
are very tall trees with lots
of dead branches in them
and they fall frequently."
And if you sleep under a tree
all the time, eventually one
of those is going
to fall on you.
He said, "I never really
thought about that."
And, you know, now
as I'm getting older
and I take more frequent
showers, you know,
when you get older people
slip and fall in the showers
and that causes a lot
of health complications.
So, read that article, I don't
want to go into all the things
about minimizing risk.
But, you know, there is sort
of a cumulative effect
to low level risk.
And I'm talking about, you know,
things that you do on campus,
I mean if you like to go out
and you like to, you know,
have a night in the town, it's
different when you're abroad.
Your awareness of money, how
many drinks you've bought?
How much food you've bought?
People are aware of these things
and they're observing you.
You are foreigners.
So, you have to be
aware of that, you know,
do you go running at the
same time everyday in places
that might not be safe?
It safe on campus, again there's
a whole network of people
who are watching out
for you but you're
on your own when you're abroad.
So, think about these
kinds of things.
When could I exercise?
How should I dress?
And talk to the people
that you're working with.
Find out what's acceptable.
Find out what is safe.
So, this is another
issue that comes up.
The thing that we most
frequently deal with abroad
when people have a
crisis, it's always--
its personal health is probably
90 percent of what we deal with.
If you look at all the
travelers around the world,
aside from personal
health, the next thing
that causes the most distress to
travelers is actually driving,
its traffic accidents.
So, I do not recommend
driving abroad.
Don't rent that motorcycle
that drive over the hills
to the beach or something
like that.
You know, renting
cars, this is--
Has a huge liability
potentially for you in country.
There's, you know, there's this
concept of no fault insurance
in other countries,
it's not the same.
The laws are different.
If you cause an accident, if you
hurt somebody, it can be very,
very challenging situation
for you and for us to deal
and understand as well.
So, if you can do it, find
ways to have somebody drive you
if you really need
to get some place
and you can't take
public transportation.
My experienced in most
places I've been to
and my colleague's
experience is that somebody--
Almost always somebody
knows a driver
that they trust whether it
be a taxi driver or a friend
or a brother or something
like that, you know,
rely on your local
contacts information.
And if it means that you have
to pay a little bit extra
to be safe to get back from
a place at night you have
that number to call or you
know you've told them already
where you want them
to pick you up.
Trust me it will
save you a lot of--
It will lower your risk
for fall substantially.
The other thing about minimizing
risk is I would say, you know,
setup a communication plan.
And there are kind of--
There are three levels of
the communication plan.
There's an in country
communication plan, you know,
who is going to be the
person, who is your point
of contact in that country?
If you're going off into a place
that you're not familiar with,
you're going to some
place that's really rural
and you're going to be doing
interviews for a few days,
you might want to say
to somebody, "Hey,
I'll text you when I'm leaving.
I'll text you when I come back.
If you haven't heard from
me in three days, you know,
these are the people I
want you to contact,"
or "This is how I want you
to try to reach out to me."
That's a very important thing.
You want to have people looking
out for you wherever you are.
I would say, you should also
have a communication plan
with your mentor here.
You know, you may not have a lot
of time abroad while
you're doing your research.
When things start to go a little
bit wrong or you're starting
to feel uncomfortable with your
progress, you want to be able
to reach out to your
mentor and you say,
"Hey, I'm having a problem.
I can't get access to data
I need to do these things."
It may not seem like a
personal emergency right now.
But when you're in the
field and you're starting
to feel the pressure of
succeeding in your projects,
you do want to have people to
communicate with back here.
And then create a communication
plan with your family
or whoever is helping
you back here.
You know, if you've made
copies of all your documents
and you haven't really
established a plan for people
to get them to you in the
field if you lose them.
If you've been posting to
Facebook and blogging everyday
and suddenly you stopped
blogging for seven days
because you've gone into a
national forest somewhere
where there's no
connectivity, people are going
to start worrying
about you, right?
So make sure you have
a plan with them,
especially when you're
under crisis.
They may not-- They
maybe concerned if all
of a sudden they hear from me
calling and say, "You know,
your son or your daughter is
having a medical emergency."
You should explain to
them that, you know,
if I'm having emergency,
I'm going to be contacting
this people first
in country they're going
to contact Stanford
and Stanford will contact you.
We want them to understand
how you're going
to be reaching out to them.
OK. And so the last thing
is, again, having a plan.
You know, when you're in
country, your ability to respond
in a crisis is clouded by
sort of the mental options
that you have available to you.
And you don't want to be trying
to figure things out when you're
in the middle of a crisis.
And I'll only tell
one story here
which I thought was
actually really interesting.
We had a student in Tunisia
in my last year when I was
in State Department and this
was right at the beginning
of the Arab Spring and
he had had a briefing
with the regional
security officer
and the regional security
officer said, "You know,
make sure you have enough cash
on hand to get to the airport
if you need to get a taxi.
And make sure that
you have another way
out of your apartment.
Make sure you have little
food and things like that."
He said, "Because things are
changing a little bit right now
and you want to be able
to get out quickly."
Well, when things started
to change in Tunisia,
the student woke up one morning
and there was an angry
crowd outside of his house.
And he didn't really
know what was going on
but immediately he
thought I've got 200 bucks
in local currency stashed
in a cushion in his--
in one of the chairs
in his apartment.
And he had some food and
he said, "I know if I go
out the back, I can go
out through my neighbor's
apartment."
And this was something that
he hadn't really, you know,
spent a lot of time
planning but, you know,
when he was sitting in
his apartment one day,
he was thinking yeah, that
that's how I would get out
and that's exactly what he did.
And you know, he said, "I
didn't think about it for more
than about 10 or 15 seconds.
I just did it."
And actually when he walked
out, he walked through the crowd
and it turns out that, you know,
he may have perceived that as,
you know, they knew that there
was an American in there.
But it was actually they didn't
like the politician who own
that house and everyone
in the neighborhood knew
that politician own that house.
And they were coming
to take the house
because they didn't
like the politician.
Unfortunately, the student
happened to be living there.
But he had a plan and it wasn't,
you know, a big elaborate plan.
It was just like, yeah, that's
what I would do if that happened
and he was successful.
So it can be really
as simple as that.
One last point, I guess we've
all gone to four points so.
Find a way to protect
your data and find a way
to protect whatever you're
carrying to store your data.
You know, this is
part of having a plan.
One of the students who spoke
about being invited to go
to a place he wasn't familiar
with a really expensive camera
that had all of his, you
know, all of his film,
everything he recorded
for the summer.
Well, as part of your plan,
you should think, well,
does this fit in to the
sort of the situations
that I have set up for myself?
Do I want to carry this
expensive camera to a place
that I'm really not
familiar with a bunch
of people I'm not familiar
with and it has all
of my summer's research on it?
That's something you might
think carefully about.
You might want to think,
you know, can I afford
to buy a new one or can I
recover this data in any way?
In some places, it's a little
more insidious than that.
There are some countries
where people are definitely
interested in getting your data.
And as soon as you
get on a network,
your data is their data.
So, you might want to find, you
know, be putting your data not
on to your phone or to
your laptop, you might want
to be backing that up on to
something like a thumb drive.
You might want to
encrypt the thumb drive.
You should be aware
of these things.
You should look
on the Information
Security Office here.
They also have a lot of advice
in how to protect your laptops
and how to protect those stuff.
So when you come back, your
data is not compromised
and people aren't able
to very easily get
into your credit cards
and your banking accounts
and things like that.
The last thing I'll say, if
you don't need your wireless
or your bluetooth, shut it off.
Because once your device
is discoverable in lot
of other places where the
networks aren't secure,
people are into your computers.
OK. So, if you needed
to connect, turn it on,
but as soon as you're
done, just turn it off.
Along with that, very clever
hackers have figured out,
you know, those USB charging
stations in airports,
in public places like that?
Well, they've actually
figured out a way
to transfer data just using
your regular two-pronged plug.
So, I wouldn't use any
of those kiosks anywhere.
If you can find a plug in
an airport, a regular plug,
use that, but don't use any of
those public charging stations
because once you
do that you might
as well just throw
away your phone.
Not to be dramatic.
But so my three points,
you know,
you are your own
first responder.
Just remember that.
Minimize risk where you can.
Read Jared Diamond article,
"A shower could kill you"
or "That shower could kill
you" I think it's called.
And the third one
is have a plan.
Think of the most
likely scenarios
and try to plan around those.
All right.
Thanks.
[ Applause ]
Any questions on that point?
Yeah.
[ Inaudible Remark ]
Yeah. Stanford has an
Information Security Office
and they have some advice
on things you can do
to protect your data
while you're traveling.
Yeah. In some countries, you
may actually want to think
about having a thumb drive.
You can actually do a hard
boot from the thumb drive
and your computer can only be--
You can only access
your operating system
if you plug in that thumb drive.
Some places, it's
not a bad thing.
I went to China recently
as an example
and I followed all
the ISO guidelines
and when I came back my
passwords were still all hacked.
So, it was an interesting
experience.
We found that a lot of new
things, new technology that's
out there that we weren't
aware of before so.
All right.
Thanks.
