Asian Tsunami Disaster

[Capntastic]

www.cnn.com

I'm interested in how my fellow RPGWWians feel about this.

I myself feel pretty upset about the loss of life, and all of the orphaned.

Edited by: Capntastic  at: 12/30/04 5:37

[KingOfDoma]

Indeed. It was a great tragedy, and from what I've heard, it could have been, at the very least, lessened with a little information going out to the people. And that kinda pisses me off.

One other thing pisses me off. Extra, that celebrity culture/ass show, did nothing but scavenge this horror like a vulture for anyone even remotely famous to have been affected by it. The time would have been better spent seeing how those rich folks wanted to use their money to help out... but hey. I'm probably expecting too much of them... <p>--------------------
And remember kids, SMOKING IS WRONG...

Get in character you. it's rainy and twilightly and shit.

-Vampire Jester Jinx</p>

[Choark]

The aftershocks were detected in America but they had no clue as to where they come from. Sorry for.. defending *shivers* .. American stuff for once but they did what they could. Besides, by the time they had detected the aftershocks who and where were they meant to warn and how much time would they have had? The waves had been formed by that point and were on there way. The beach could of ben cleared.. maybe... but the cities? Homes? All those miles in land the waves went? Not a bloody chance.

As for thoughts.

Well, it sucks. A friend of my mothers Son is out there somewhere in Tailand. not sure which part, but no news has been heard from him since the 22nd so no clue as to where or whats going on with him.

No one to really blame in this either. Its a tragedy plain and simple which, at least, makes it somewhat easier for some.. or harder for others cause they can't blame someone or something other then luck (or God depending). Even so - its hard to think anything other then... Damn. That sucks.

Also:

It was a 9 on the scale - 5/6 miles underground from what I heard. People were freaking lucky it wasn't higher or it could of been worse. Thats some Quake as far as Quakes go. A real big one.

I mean though...

Bloody Hell - its not like the countries have enough to deal with as it is. Just wait until the after effects of this kick in - like desease and whatnot...

... Poor Bastards. <p><div style="text-align:center"> </div>
<div style="text-align:center"> </div>
<div style="text-align:center"> Something cute plots your death </div></p>Edited by: [url=http://p068.ezboard.com/brpgww60462.showUserPublicProfile?gid=choark>Choark</A]&nbsp; at: 12/30/04 12:12

[Jak Snide]

I've also heard what Cha said; a quake that big would have been easily detected. Why wasn't anyone informed?

As for how I feel, I gotta admit I feel pretty neutral. Don't know anyone who's been affected by it myself, and thus I'm feeling quite distanced from the entire thing.

[Kai]

What pissed me off was that FoxNews (and a couple of other channels, just to be fair) kept emphasizing the number of Americans who were over there. All I could think was, "Yeah, because you don't matter unless an American woman squeezed you out of her uterus." <p>-------------------------
Wise man say, "forgiveness is divine, but never pay full price for late pizza."

"Fat is a waste of meatspace."</p>

[Jak Snide]

It's the same with the new over here, although I'm not certain the BBC was emphasising the number of Brits dead or just pointing it out. After all, for the most people the fate of your countryman ranks higher than that of someone else, all other things being equal. Then again, I'd like to think the BBC does a good job of reporting the news in a fair way.

[Choark]

The reason they're telling you fellow countrymen have died is to

a) Tell families and friends of people whats going on with there son/friend/father/whatever who is over in the country

b) To drive home the fact this has effected more then just the countries that have been hit, that its effects are felt everywhere and every country has some stakes in what has gone on.

Personally I'm rather proud of what our country is doing to go out and help and the amount of money being given by people. Not sure what its like around London but a lot of people are going out of there way to help in Corby and surrounsing area's. So thats good... shows people will do something at least. <p><div style="text-align:center"> </div>
<div style="text-align:center"> </div>
<div style="text-align:center"> Something cute plots your death </div></p>

[Kai]

I like that they're trying to get people to care about this, since many people do, unfortunately, only care about their own. It just disturbed me a little that apparently a lot of folks are only going to care about something if it affects a certain number of 'people like us.' <p>-------------------------
Wise man say, "forgiveness is divine, but never pay full price for late pizza."

"Fat is a waste of meatspace."</p>

[Shinigori V2]

In the defense of the American media, I heard a snippet of radio news this morning, going through my dad's office to grab something out of his car, in which the DJ listed numbers reported missing from quite a few countries, and put quite a bit of emphasis on Sweeds. He also encouraged his listeners to donate what they could to the Red Cross.

As for feelings...Beyond "Holy shit", there's not much I can really say. <p>

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<div style="text-align:center">
Why Barius has no Christmas</div></p>

[Kai]

It could very well be a FoxNews thing. That's what my stepfather insists upon watching most of the time because it's more 'balanced.' <p>-------------------------
Wise man say, "forgiveness is divine, but never pay full price for late pizza."

"Fat is a waste of meatspace."</p>

[NebulaQueen]

http://www.livejournal.com/users/kobold/322987.html

Why am I linking to an <s>angst</s>Live Journal entry? Because this entry has information on how people can help (specifically through donations. But hey, that's really the only thing most of us here can do).

Y'know, in case anyone here is interested.

EDIT: The same info can be found on the front page of Something Positive under the news entry "Aftermath of an 8.9". Nice to know that someone with relative net fame is spreading the word. <p>

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*Megaman sounds like a little girl*-Uncle Pervy, on the Voice Acting in MM8

"Well, we've made it to Leeds without being robbed or violated. We win at time traveling!" - Shelley, Scary-Go-Round</p>Edited by: NebulaQueen at: 12/31/04 0:14

[EKDS5k]

Well it is all over Fark.

As far as warnings go, it's hard to blame anyone. Currently, the process of "detecting an earthquake" involves waiting for one to happen, reading the instruments, and then waiting for the aftershocks, which may or may not happen. And then minutes later, the coast of Sumatra was flattened by the wave. Not a lot of time for warning there. Also, there's no instruments directly in that part of the world, so the effects have to be measured elsewhere, and then figure out what happened.

And for the tsunami itself, there is no warning system in place in that ocean, so nobody had any idea that one had even formed, much less which way it was going to go. There's also really no reason to have a warning system in that oart of the world, given that this is an unprecedented event.

At any rate, a terrible loss of life. I've watched the news here, and they do mention how many Japanese people killed, but I can't tell if they're emphasising it, or just mentioning it for information. As soon as I get a real job I'll donate some money towards the aid efforts.

[Kai]

I don't know how many of you have seen these home videos from the tsunami, but a couple of them are really... I don't know. They're on ebaumsworld, so God only knows what site they really came from, but I was sent this link and thought I'd pass it along. <p>-------------------------
Wise man say, "forgiveness is divine, but never pay full price for late pizza."

"Fat is a waste of meatspace."</p>Edited by: Kai at: 1/1/05 14:28

[TheLorax21]

From what I've read in the news, they're having quite a bit of trouble getting aid into the more remote areas, especially the Aceh province in Indonesia. That bothers me a little, but I'm sure they're doing their best.

I think the thing that has affected me most regarding this disaster is the pictures. There was one that really got to me. It was a shot of the water, and mixed in with all the driftwood were bodies, lots of bodies, just floating in on the tide. I can read the death tolls, but I can't really imagine or see how many people are really gone. I doubt I know two thousand people, and the death tolls are up around seventy times that.

As far as warning goes, I'm not sure there was a whole lot that could have been done. Maybe the countries that were farther away and hit later could have been warned, but evacuating the people wouldn't stop the wave from destroying the houses, villages, and cities. I've heard about plans to set up a warning system in the Indian Ocean similar to the one in the Pacific Rim, to warn in the event of future disasters.

My heart goes out to all those who are suffering because of this tragedy.

[Wolfbelly]

<span style="color:red;font-size:large;">WARNING: AWFUL LINK IN THIS POST</span>
Yeah, www.bangedup.com has some video footage as well. Best way to find that is to go to the big board, and then flip through to see if there's anything tsunami related. There's a really neat realplayer video titled "Hey, let's stand around at look at the huge wave coming!" for the Jan 3rd board. In case you ever wanted to see what a wall of water speeding towards you looks like.

As for the tragedy itself, yeah it's bad. Life goes on though.

Edited by: Wolfbelly at: 1/3/05 14:07