Tsuanami - Tourist Disaster?

[Barbie]

There are lessons in the tsunami (http://www.macleans.ca/switchboard/columnists/article.jsp?content=20050307_101532_101532)

PETER MANSBRIDGE

Some random thoughts on disaster and growing older.

• After my return from South Asia, people have asked me why I thought the tsunami, more than any other recent disaster, touched so many hearts and pocketbooks on this side of the globe. Usually, I reply by asking why they responded. The answers often have nothing to do with the tragic death toll or the devastating scenes of post-tsunami destruction. Instead, most point to the first home videos taken as the enormous waves crashed ashore. They captured some of those trapped by the water, and that seems to have triggered emotions in so many here -- partly because they could imagine themselves in that situation. That is quite telling. Most of the initial videos came from Phuket, Thailand, and recorded the terrifying moments faced by tourists. In fact, while hundreds of tourists died that morning, the overwhelming number of those killed, tens of thousands, were nowhere near tourist resorts and nowhere near home video cameras. They were instead in relatively small communities mostly populated by the poor.


Last week, another disaster, not on the same scale, but a disaster nonetheless, hit Iran. A powerful earthquake there killed hundreds and wiped out entire villages. The world barely paused, which begs a question. If there'd been tourists in Iran with video cameras to record the terrifying first moments, would the world's reaction have been different?

Thoughts?

[SimpleSimon]

There are lessons in the tsunami (http://www.macleans.ca/switchboard/columnists/article.jsp?content=20050307_101532_101532)

PETER MANSBRIDGE



Thoughts?

Well, Barbie, why not tell us your thoughts to open the ball?

[Barbie]

Well, Barbie, why not tell us your thoughts to open the ball?


That's not how I work, and after 2 and some odd years, you should know that.

[SimpleSimon]

No harm in attempting to elicit a genuine response.

[Koliedrus]

Here's mine.

The quote Babs posted is a reasonable conclusion but not entirely accurate.

"Disaster" comes in many shapes, flavors, colors and combinations.

The world didn't pause when a good friend of mine died of cancer but I was devistated.
When four members of my hometown's college basketball team were mutilated by a drunk driver, you didn't hear about it but I was lead to the ambulance by my brother (one of the parameds) to see what can happen to people.

"Seeing is believing". That pretty much sums it up. If it's just a headline in a newspaper, it'll be scanned and quickly forgotten.

Visual images on the other hand are difficult to ignore or dismiss. Take a trip over to Ogrish.com and you'll agree with the phrase, "Some things can not be 'un-seen'".

Once you see it, that's all she wrote.

Teh Tsunami had impact because it wiped out people from top to bottom. The world is fortunate that tourists were both witness and victim. If it had been 300,000 remote villagers alone, the world would have gasped temorarily and gone on about its business with "Survivor" and its spawn.

I haven't looked up "PETER MANSBRIDGE" but he obviously didn't look at the pictures while he was reading comic books.

Whew! That felt good!

Next?

[Billyman]

Many years ago, Reba Mcintire lost her entire band in a plane crash. She did what we all do when we’re upset over a disaster……we get angry at the people who aren’t sharing in our broken hearts. She later realized that her broken heart was something she would have to deal with and it wasn’t other people’s problem.

Reba sings: …”the world ain’t gonna stop….for my broken heart…”.

Rest assured that Iran took no pause for sorrow or surprise on Sept. 11, 2001.

In fact, I’m pretty sure, if you listen closely on that day you would’ve heard a faint “w00t”.

[ms. bing]

i think a relative lack of tourists does affect global response. working in journalism, i have recently seen how that happens. i have been told "keep it local, the local is the only thing that matters."
this includes:
a shooting one county over that made the front page because it was a "slow news day"
a kid who brought a gun to school that made the front page because it was "our highschool"
a war in a foreign land that rarely gets a headline
a flag brought to the town from a war in a foreign land that got the lead story because it was "a hometown soldier"

when i started doing the web page i was told that only local stories go online. my editor says that we can't "write above our readership." so, in this hometown, the local readership can safely assume when watching peter jennings on the nightly news that all those things are happening to "them" and what's in our paper is what's relevent to "us."
i finally know where those terms come from, and who decided who that is. funny, i'd always wondered who "they" were.

[MAC]

white + christian + last 5 centuries = history

all other human variables in any and all fully financed equations are ignored

I dare you to disprove it.

[Barbie]

NEWS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Sumatran_earthquake)

The 2005 Sumatran earthquake occurred at 16:09:37 UTC (23:09:37 local time) on March 28, 2005. The epicenter was located at 2° 04′ 35″ N 97° 00′ 58″ E 30 km (18.6 miles) below the surface of the Indian Ocean, 200 km west of Sibolga, Sumatra, or 1400 km northwest of Jakarta, roughly halfway between the islands of Nias and Simeulue. Seismic recordings give the quake a magnitude of about 8.7, and effects were felt as far away as Bangkok, Thailand, a distance of 1000 km.

The quake, believed to be a heavy aftershock from the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, lasted for about two minutes in total, longer than most of the aftershocks felt to date. It was so large it has had its own aftershocks, including magnitude 6.0 and 6.7 earthquakes (see below) recorded in the region soon after the first one. At 8.7, this is the second largest earthquake in the world since 1965; only the December 26, 2004 earthquake in the Indian Ocean was stronger.

The earthquake was felt across the island of Sumatra, and caused widespread loss of power in the Indonesian city of Banda Aceh, already devastated by the December 2004 tsunami, and prompted thousands to flee their homes and seek higher ground. In the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur, high-rise buildings were evacuated.

On the Indonesian island of Nias, off the coast of Sumatra, hundreds of buildings are reported to have been levelled by the quake, with dozens possibly trapped in the rubble and 290 people reported dead.

Although many governments were concerned about the threat of a tsunami, and evacuations were carried out in coastal regions of Thailand, Malaysia, and Sri Lanka, no major tsunamis have been reported. A "small tsunami" is reported to have struck the Cocos Islands south of the epicenter.

Aftershocks
Following this earthquake were two aftershocks which occured at 16:38:43 and 18:30:43 UTC, also on March 28, 2005. Their coordinates were located at 1° 17′ 53″ N 97° 17′ 40″ E and 0° 43′ 30″ N 97° 38′ 40″ E with magnitudes 6.0 and 6.7, respectively.


Tsunami risk
Tsunami warnings have been issued by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)and by the Thai government. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center released an information bulletin about 20 minutes after the earthquake stating that there is no anticipated threat to Pacific coastlines, but warning of the possibility of destructive tsunamis on waters near the earthquake's origin. Experts from the PWTC announced shortly after the earthquake that they expected any tsunami effects to be directed primarily south of the quake's epicenter.

By about three hours after the initial shock, no significant tsunami activity had yet been reported in the vicinity of Sumatra, which would be the first area to be struck by any such activity. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center had announced, in its initial bulletin, that "authorities can assume the danger has pass if no tsunami waves are observed in the region near the epicenter within three hours of the earthquake." Although tsunami warning systems have been actively discussed since the December 2004 earthquake, none have yet been implemented in the Indian Ocean, and so no data was available directly from the Indian Ocean. The PTWC did announce, however, that a "small tsunami" was reported at the Cocos (Keeling) Islands due south of the epicenter. The islands of Mauritius, Rodrigues, and Madagascar in the South Indian Ocean may also lie within the range of further tsunami activity, and their governments have issued warnings to the population.

Portions of Thailand's southern coast were evacuated as a precaution, and NOAA ordered an evacuation of 600 miles of coastline in Sumatra. Evacuations also occurred in the northern Malaysian states of Penang and Kedah, as well as the eastern coast of Sri Lanka. Many of the southern states of India were also put on high alert. It has been reported that difficulties due to heavy rain and the fact the earthquake occured in the late evening may hamper evacuation. In addition, local communities were not expecting aftershocks greater than 7.0 magnitude and were not prepared for this event.

The United Nations talked with the Indonesian government to take further actions to prevent a possible catastrophe after the strong earthquake, and the US State Department has announced that it will help countries affected by a possible tsunami.

[Pianomahnn]

Well, Barbie, why not tell us your thoughts to open the ball?

Nearly 1 month goes by and still no personal thoughts from the original poster.

Waiting. . . http://www.thehypertribe.net/forum/images/smilies/smilies/popc1.gif

[Asmodeus]

She's researching...

*dons devil's advocate hat and cloak*

I had a few days during the december fiasco when I had a twinge at the old heartstrings/emotions. I know a guy who was on his way to Phuket the day of the tsumani. But, his flight was canceled at the last moment- probably saved him.

So, other than that, I had no reaction to the tsunami- well, very little. My reaction went like this: "Damn, that sucks for them." *changes channel* "Oohh, Star Gate SG-1."

I know no one who was in it. I know no one who was killed by it. So, except for the general, that sucks sentiment, what am I supposed to feel? Yeah, it sucks. Thousands of people died. It sucks. Deal with it. Or is it if I send a dollar everytime I see that bearded wonder on TV, my ONE dollar will prevent tsunamis and tornadoes and wars and what all else from happening? Is that it?

The world is going to hell in that proverbial handbasket. I've got ringside seats but you gotta bring yer own beer and smokes. *shucks hat and cloak*