Re: Indian Ocean Tsunami
Posted by fraggard on Sat Jan 1st at 10:57am 2005
I believe most of the finger pointing is because the US National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had advance warning of the
Tsunami (USAToday.com had an article). But since Sri Lanka, Indonesia,
India, etc were not members of an international disaster response
scheme, there were no fixed methods for calling in national alerts and
starting evacuation quickly. So the information never reached anyone.
Basically, the entire disaster was completely preventable except at the
immediate epicentre.
Our own administration failed as well. From the time the Andamans were
hit, till the time the mainland was hit, there was a 1 hour gap. Alert
systems went up, but the alerts went to the wrong people. The local
emergency teams did not have ways to contact members of the new
administration (our govt changed in 2004, the new contacts weren't
maintained).
All this was preventable, but there is no use now. All anyone can do is
to try their best to prevent future accidents like this. I feel it's no
use blaming anyone. Such a disaster was unexpected and considering the
state our economy is in, I doubt much could have been done even if any
emergency systems were in. It's totally pointless to claim that the US
is not being supportive enough.
Lots of people here share my views. In fact, I haven't heard of any of
the people in the affected areas blaming the US for a lack of aid
material.
I can understand why people are saying this though. The US
administration has been meddling constantly in Indo-Pak affairs, and
has recently supplied Pakistan with some heavy weaponry. This has been
a very sensitive issue of late. And then when the tsunami hit, the
official US response was pretty weak. It took a while for any major
funding to come in. Complaints were inevitable. And the US foreign
policy in this region has not exactly been helpful.
Note: I have no anti-Pak bias whatsoever. Might be tough to believe coming from an Indian, but it's true.
fraggard
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Re: Indian Ocean Tsunami
Posted by Nickelplate on Sat Jan 1st at 3:31pm 2005
they're predicting earthquakes now? I don't follow.
I don't like the fact that lots of ppl died, it makes me sad. But, There are other reasons that the US could have donated a smaller amunt initially and then a larger amount. As it turns out, Senate must be called into session before any funds can be appropriated for anything, The initial $35mil appropriated because reports were that 7,000 people were dead, that is back when we thought the death toll was very much smaller than it was. When we realized the full extent of the damage, there was a session called in the appropriations commitee and more money was sent. Our news here in the US is just s**t, so most americans are led to beleive that someone is trying o cover up and make themselves look better, that's not it at all.
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Nickelplate
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Re: Indian Ocean Tsunami
Posted by Nickelplate on Sat Jan 1st at 4:04pm 2005
oh. I sure didnt think they could predict them, but it would sure be nice if they could
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Nickelplate
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This should definitely bring to light that there's a need for some much improved coverage worldwide.
Thought hadn't even crossed my mind, to be honest.
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There was one felt back in Nebraska like a week later. I was scared. :X
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