The difference in Haiti and Japan.

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Grand58742, Mar 15, 2011.


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  1. Grand58742

    Grand58742 Monkey+++

    And the current troubles therein.

    Haiti was hit by a 7.0 earthquake. Roughly the energy of a 474 kiloton bomb was released.

    Japan was hit by an 8.9 earthquake. Roughly the energy of a 592 megaton bomb was released.

    On the scale, the Japanese earthquake released approximately 1200+ times more energy.

    Haiti did not have to deal with a significant tsunami and had rioters in the streets immediately after the quake was finished.

    Japan was hit by a major tsunami and we still have yet to see any rioting, looting or civil disobedience from their population.

    15 months after their earthquake, Haitians are still sitting with their hands out waiting for the rest of the world to bail them out. They complain we don't do enough for them. Their rubble is still not cleared, a good majority of the victims are still living in tents and they have no plan to rebuild their country.

    Less than 15 days after the Japanese earthquake, recovery efforts are still underway but the citizens are already starting to clear the rubble. Japanese have not specifically asked for help, but are gracious the rest of the world is providing it. But even so, their disaster relief teams are working alongside the rest of the world's instead of sitting on the sidelines waiting for someone else to do it for them. They are already starting to dig themselves out and will probably start to rebuild as soon as the debris are removed. Their citizens haven't looted, rioted or sat around waiting for the rest of the world to provide everything for them.

    I just found the situation curious. Japan was hit by a much larger devastation less than a week ago and yet they already appear to be ahead of the Haitians...

    Just some thoughts I had. No specific point to make, just the ramblings of someone who watched both incidents with a close eye.
     
  2. Seawolf1090

    Seawolf1090 Retired Curmudgeonly IT Monkey Founding Member

    We Americans sometimes view the Japanese society as too strict and regimented, but in a situation like this, it works well for them. They work together for the common good, instead of copping the 'me, me, me!' attitude!
    I commend them, and know they will emerge from this disaster the stronger for it.
     
  3. Nadja

    Nadja RIP 3-11-2013 Forum Leader

    The Japanese are very well disiplined and take care of themselves. They do not live on govt. handouts. They ask for nothing and provide everything. If they get in bad situations, they get help from their families, not the govt. Honor is everything with them, something a lot of people in this country just don't have. They will come out of this as they have before and we will not have to rebuild their country like Hati and so many others before them
     
  4. RightHand

    RightHand Been There, Done That RIP 4/15/21 Moderator Moderator Emeritus Founding Member

    I think your observations are correct and I agree. However, one cannot compare the culture and infrastructure of a third world country to that of a highly industrialized country like Japan. Responsibility is one of the foremost components of Japanese culture so of course, each member of that society, from the youngest child to the eldest of it's citizens, will participate in rebuilding their lives.
     
  5. UGRev

    UGRev Get on with it!

    I disagree. The Japanese got there for a reason. That reason perpetuates as do the reasons for the apathy in Haiti.
     
  6. ghrit

    ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

    That begs the question, "What would the US do if (say) the New Madrid fault slipped and wrecked St. Louis?"
     
  7. RightHand

    RightHand Been There, Done That RIP 4/15/21 Moderator Moderator Emeritus Founding Member

    There was a time when I would have thought our mindset toward responsibility would have been similar to the Japanese but then Katrina hit.......
     
  8. UGRev

    UGRev Get on with it!

    Katrina was a massive example of the bystander effect. Everyone watching the person dying in the street thinking to themselves, "Someone else will fix it".
     
  9. Grand58742

    Grand58742 Monkey+++

    I would say we are about halfway in between Haiti and Japan. Katrina hit and we were able to pull ourselves out...at least half the country helped out. The other half? Not so much as the NOLA victims sticking their hands out saying "give me mine because you owe it to me" or the rest of the liberal crowd saying "you have to help them and give them what they want because they have been oppressed!" or some such nonsense. Or for looting "they are doing it because they NEED the stuff." But none of them can explain why exactly they (generic they, not a slur) need big screen TVs, Nike shoes, Heineken beer, designer clothes...I could go on.

    What would happen if St Louis was to get hit? Probably much the same as LA after the Rodney King decision (which wasn't so much as a natural disaster, but rather an excuse to go out and destroy the city) and NOLA after Katrina. Or Chicago, Detroit, Seattle, Miami, New York, Dallas or pretty much any metropolitan area would be after a natural disaster and before the Guard rolled in.

    And you would still have people sitting around their destroyed houses saying "you owe me and I'ma gonna get mine" while asking when someone is going to tear down the old and build them something new...and without ever raising a finger to help.
     
  10. Seacowboys

    Seacowboys Senior Member Founding Member

    A significant demographic, post Katrina, did 99% of the looting, 99% of the rioting, 99% of the complaining that nobody was rushing to help them. I was there "helping" so I know what I am talking about in spite of liberals taking issue with it. I also had a camp near ground-zero, in Pass Christian. The demographics were considerably different than in N.O. but there was no looting, no complaining, no demanding help. These folks set tents where their homes had stood and started rebuilding. They did not ask for help, but were very grateful for any given. The difference in demographics? In New Orleans, there was a significant portion of the population that had always lived on the system; it wasn't the working man that stayed and caused all the problems, it was the social dependent. In Pass Christian, the demographic was working people, fishermen, people that never recieved a subsistance check from our tax dollars. They worked for what they had and they worked to salvage and rebuild their lives.
     
  11. RightHand

    RightHand Been There, Done That RIP 4/15/21 Moderator Moderator Emeritus Founding Member

    I believe that those working people SC talks about are in the majority - we just hear more about the "have nots"
     
  12. Brokor

    Brokor Live Free or Cry Moderator Site Supporter+++ Founding Member


    Will you old timers stop already with this class-envy mind control propaganda? Your "tax dollars" pay for exactly NOTHING, ZILCH, ZERO, NADA, NULL --NOTHING. Every single penny collected from Federal tax revenues is wholly absorbed by the interest on the deficit (a debt that can never be paid off) and on bank transfer payments...what doesn't get shipped to the Vatican by the PRIVATELY OWNED INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE, a corporation NOT belonging to any government agency. Your "tax dollars" is a scheme devised to pit one class of people against another, invigorating the classic communist manifesto of class envy. The longer you remain IGNORANT and choose to willingly accept these lies, the more you will continue to HATE and LOATHE your fellow man --thus, be made into yet another mindless clone who will serve the collective corporate cartels who serve only to PREY UPON YOU and your weakness. They know the majority of people are GOOD and DECENT and KIND...and they do everything they can to change this every day.

    SO PLEASE STOP with saying "My tax dollars pay for..."

    Because you are just another $&!&(@*^ SLAVE in the same 5#@!-stained world we all inhabit.

    (Sea, this isn't directed solely at you. I am sick and tired of this nonsense, though. I know we can't expect to teach an old dog new tricks, but come on, people. You have been taxed and controlled for so long now that you are beginning to do most of the slavemaster's work for him, and this is just plain sad.)
     
  13. Seacowboys

    Seacowboys Senior Member Founding Member

    I have to disagree with you Brokor. It may well be true that it is just a drop in the bucket, but I could sure use the dollars they with-hold for taxes and someone pays for those on the public role. The government has no money of their own. The reality is that my tax dollar, for whatever reason, is justified by the needs of those that do nothing to contribute to the system. Yes, I agree the math doesn't add up but it changes nothing in the reality of a working man's existance.
    Further more, I have been shot at during these class wars by my "fellow man" and it wasn't property owning, tax paying, employed people contributing to their community that was pulling the trigger.
     
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  14. On a border op after katrina I had Border Patrol Agents tell me they were sent to Orleans because the nat. Guard helos were getting shot at by gangs and they were not allowed to shoot back. So the BP Agents had to man the door guns to return fire out one side while food and water were dropped out the other.
     
  15. Falcon15

    Falcon15 Falco Peregrinus

    OK ladies and gentle men. Three things to consider about the differences between the Japanese and the Haitians:

    1: The Japanese have had a civilization of great sophistication for thousands of years. The Haitians have had a "civilization" for a couple of hundred.
    2: The Japanese are accustomed to quakes, Tsunamis, Tai-Fun, and all other problems nature throws at their island. They - the Japanese - have been dealing with these problems for, again, thousands of years. The Haitian people are all transplants from Africa and Britain (for the most part).
    3: While the Japanese are not standing with their hand out, and instead being industrious comes from their culture and their society, pure and simple. The same goes for the Haitians - their lack of industriousness comes from their lack of a culture and society as a whole.
     
  16. cool hand luke

    cool hand luke Monkey+

    Another startling difference is the level of devastation. The Japanese engineers and building codes performed incredibly well. I have heard that the vast majority of buildings damaged were from the water not the quake, compared to the poorly constructed buildings in Haiti. J thinkthis gives a huge moral boost to the Japanese where as n Haiti when every building you see is leveled would make
    Anyone more apt to throw there hands ip and quit
     
  17. Seawolf1090

    Seawolf1090 Retired Curmudgeonly IT Monkey Founding Member

    Looking at the Google Map of Haiti pre-earthquake and post-earthquake - one thing stands out - the shantytowns were as bad BEFORE as AFTER. The majority of real damage was to the Government buildings and what little infrastructure the cesspit still had.
    Basically, the earthquake hit a rusty junkyard.......

    Japan was a totally different set of circumstances.
     
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