pinkozcat
Full Member
Remember - pillage first, THEN burn.
Posts: 233
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Post by pinkozcat on Dec 31, 2004 1:14:01 GMT -5
The Australian state and federal governments have pledged almost $42 million to aid the countries devastated by the tsunami and we are a very small country population-wise.
That does not include donations by individuals and corporations.
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Post by RobertGraves on Dec 31, 2004 21:51:23 GMT -5
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Post by Wyndham on Jan 1, 2005 2:12:50 GMT -5
How do you blame anyone for a natural disaster? Blame the people who live on sandbars, same as you could blame those who live on flood-plains, or those who build houses over a fault. Plain truth is that Mother Nature shrugs, and we make room or die. I once saw the ice in Lake St. Clair start to move (it connects lake Huron with Lake Erie, through the Detroit river). No word of a lie -- an ice sheet, fifteen feet thick (and several hundred miles wide and deep) suddenly decided to move about a hundred meters South. I don't know what it did over in Detroit, but in Windsor Ontario, it sheared off several dozen houses at the foundation as if they were so many twigs. Moved inland two city blocks -- and that in seconds -- before it even began to crack.
I can only imagine a tidal wave.
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Post by RobertGraves on Jan 1, 2005 3:59:05 GMT -5
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Post by RobertGraves on Jan 1, 2005 15:05:16 GMT -5
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Post by Tenarke on Jan 1, 2005 20:14:54 GMT -5
Doggone it Robert, you beat me to it. I came in all set to post a link to the NY Times article, however you got there first.
I have to agree, however, that it appears to be very well researched and well written. I also suggest that if one has the time and patience the interactive graphics are worth the trip.
It doesn’t appear that the tsunami can be blamed on any one’s party or politics. Mother Nature just hiked up her skirts and let go, as she is wont to do from time to time.
The President, however, definitely blotted his copy book with the original $35 M aid offer. This seems to fit the pattern of this administration’s tendency to be a day late and a dollar short in reacting to the unexpected. Before he was able to fix it by adding the extra zero a critic pointed out that the aid amount was less than what he would be authorizing for his inaugural celebration.
Perhaps now the communications and seismological networks now in place to give tsunami warnings in the Pacific will be extended to cover the Indian Ocean as well.
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Post by RobertGraves on Jan 1, 2005 20:32:46 GMT -5
Yes, I found the interactive graphic worth the effort too. There's some footage from resorts in Thailand shot by amateur videocams at the BBC site worth watching if you have broadband.
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Post by Tenarke on Jan 1, 2005 20:41:10 GMT -5
Nope, no broadband.
There have been many of the amature videocam pictures shown on our TV newscasts however. I agree - shocking!
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Post by Aravis on Jan 2, 2005 15:12:37 GMT -5
The Pentagon wants to keep the prisoners of detainment centers imprisoned forever, though they have no evidence to try them with. Some senators are, thankfully, fighting this. |
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Post by Aravis on Jan 2, 2005 15:14:29 GMT -5
You can find some very powerful photos of the tsunami here. |
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Post by RobertGraves on Jan 2, 2005 15:15:45 GMT -5
The National holiday road toll in Australia is 36.
I think? I posted the other day the stats that since 1977 15 000 people have been killed on the roads in Victoria and one death only by shark. It seems so crazy the individuals are frightened by sharks and terrorists when cars are the most likely cause of violent death.
Humans are sooo illogical - or maybe it is best to not mention this when most of us need to commute daily by car???
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Post by RobertGraves on Jan 2, 2005 15:26:34 GMT -5
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Post by RobertGraves on Jan 3, 2005 1:19:47 GMT -5
It had to happen...
Asia begins work on tsunami warning system
Indonesia's President says Asian countries have begun work to establish an early warning mechanism to prevent a repeat of the huge death toll from last week's devastating tsunami.
"With other countries, we are currently developing an early warning system for natural disasters and tsunamis," President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said.
He says he has summoned Indonesia's state Agency for Research and Application of Technology, the Meteorology and Geophysics Office and other related institutions to work on the mechanism.
"This is also to prevent massive loss of life and to handle future earthquakes and natural disasters as well as to take preventative action," the President said.
Experts say a tsunami warning system to match one in place in countries bordering the Pacific, could have saved many of the more than 140,000 lives lost on shorelines around the Indian Ocean.
Indonesia sits on a geographically unstable area where several continental shelves impact with massive subterranean force.
It has a chain of hundreds of active volcanos and is prone to frequent eruptions and earthquakes.
The December 26 earthquake less than 150 kilometres off the coast of Sumatra island measured 9 on the Richter scale.
President Yudhoyono said natural disaster ranked along with terrorism and communal conflicts as continuing threats to his nation in 2005.
Indonesia has suffered several major attacks from Islamic extremists in the past few years.
"Terrorism continues to be a threat and the Government will take steps to deal with terrorism," Mr Yudhoyono said without elaborating.
"Horizontal [communal] conflict and the threat of natural disaster also remains."
On Sunday, Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda said an emergency summit of regional and world leaders in Jakarta on Thursday would also look at setting up an Indian Ocean warning system and post-disaster strategies.
-AFP
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Post by RobertGraves on Jan 4, 2005 16:42:22 GMT -5
Thailand sacks chief meteorologist
Thailand has fired its chief meteorologist and opened an investigation into why his department failed to issue a tsunami warning last month which might have saved thousands of lives.
"When a quake measured at 8.9-9.0 on the Richter scale struck in Sumatra, it was widely known tsunami can happen," Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said.
"But why weren't there any alerts? I really want to know the truth."
A day after deadly waves devastated the country's Andaman Sea coast, the Meteorological Department's chief, Suparerk Tansriratanawong said Thailand had not been hit by a tsunami in more than 300 years and had no reason to expect one.
But the English-language Nation newspaper quoted an unnamed member of the department last week as saying a tsunami alert was not issued for fear of hurting the important tourist industry at the peak season if it turned out to be false.
During the investigation, to be led by Information and Communications Technology Minister Surapong Suebwonglee, Mr Suparerk will help set up a national early warning system for all natural disasters, a government spokesman said.
No Asian country issued a warning of the December 26 tsunami.
Hotels on Thailand's Andaman Sea coast were packed when the tsunami hit, killing more than 5,100 people, including more than 2,400 foreign tourists.
ABS online JUST IN
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Post by RobertGraves on Jan 6, 2005 4:28:49 GMT -5
It has been reported that the US Army Reserve is rapidly turning into "a broken force" and may not be able to meet its operational requirements in the future.
The comments by Lieutenant General James Helmly came as the US Congress prepared to consider another multi-billion-dollar request for financing the war on terror and was expected to raise new questions about the sustainability of the war in Iraq without reintroducing the draft. The draft - gee that'd be popular.
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