Earthquake
By savypat
@savypat (20216)
United States
January 15, 2010 1:23pm CST
I don't think the one in Haiti is not unusual, in the past several years there have been many quakes in different countries that have cost a large loss of human life. China has had several, but we don't get much news out of there and Turkey has a big one every couple of years, these seem to be headed toward Istanbul, their capital city.
Let's face it when human being faces falling building due to earthquake or an other reason most humans are not going to survive. Haiti is our earthquake, here in the Western Hemisphere and we have easy access to it for news value. But these things happen around the world and one would think it would be wise to have an earthquake plan in place where experts could go into any country and set up help, supplies and repair, someone needs to be in charge that knows just how to do this and then the work and money could flow from other countries, sending help into a place that has no plan is madness and waste money, time and effort. No one who survives one of these terrible quakes should be made to go without food, water, health care and shelter.
It's just a shame that in the 21 century man cannot work together well enough to make this happen. What do you think?
2 people like this
8 responses
@masay7 (89)
• Gambia
16 Jan 10
I was in Taiwan way back in August, they have observatory sites, which have high tech devices that are position to sudy and give analytics of the pressure under the sea bed rocks, they often advise on such natural disasters. lIKE THE TYPHOONS, SO People can be evacuated in time. im not too sure if this is true of earthquakes, pls do a reserch on this topic
@paula27661 (15811)
• Australia
19 Jan 10
I agree with you that surely there could a better plan in place but I guess it’s easier said than done. Whenever I hear of tragedies like this and the huge human suffering caused by these natural disasters as well as the general state of a lot of the third world countries and the sickness and starvation going on there I have to consider that in this day and age in our comfortable lifestyles it is so difficult to fathom how hellish other human beings’ existence is due to disasters or lack of basic necessities. It does not hurt to give these individuals our thoughts and prayers at least.
1 person likes this
@savypat (20216)
• United States
19 Jan 10
I feel shame that in this 21st Century there are humans subject to all the lacks in the 3rd. world countries, In fact why are there even 3rd world country, cannot we not care for all the people? Are the few that cause crime and hungar for their own beneifit not answerable to us. Are we so selfishly involved in our own lives that there is no room to consider others? I don't have the answers but some one must.
@Pose123 (21635)
• Canada
16 Jan 10
Hi savypat, I agree that we should be able to do better - and of course we can if we will just get our heads out of the sand. When are we going to realize the importance of all human life? Let's encourage our governments to work together so that we can have something in place to assure this doesn't happen again. Blessings.
1 person likes this
@jakill (835)
•
16 Jan 10
Recent years have seen many diasters, including earthquakes, that's for sure. And it is despicable that politics so often gets in the way of a cooperative effort to alleviate the suffering. Will we ever learn, I wonder.
Re the Haiti diaster, I've been reading about the difficulties of getting aid to the right place. I haven't yet heard of a helicopter solution, which seems strange to me as it's the most obvious answer.
1 person likes this
@savypat (20216)
• United States
16 Jan 10
We have Erickson helicopter here and the local news said that they had offered the service of the two that they have available. These are heavy lifting helicopters, I have heard no more about this.
@taraelocin (1138)
•
15 Jan 10
It is terrible what's happening there, but unfortunately it is quite hard to always be prepared for all eventualities. Most countries have sent help quite quickly, but it is never going be enough. The damage is so massive that it will take a long time and a lot of help to get even close to how it was.
1 person likes this
@alsyed (2)
• Malaysia
16 Jan 10
I agree. Food, water and basic necessities are the prime needs of Haiti earthquake victims. What we saw was a natural disaster or some may say God's wrath of Biblical proportion (or Quranic). We need to stop all human calamities by being caring to the rest of humanity. We cant be engaged in wars in some parts of the world, its just a waste of human lifes. As much as earthquake destroys life, so do wars!
1 person likes this
@savypat (20216)
• United States
16 Jan 10
One could say that it is human fault that we insist on inhabiting areas of fault
lines, but I would not be able to blame this in God in what ever form you worship.
The earth is what it is and it is moving all the time. It is totally our responsibility to move out of the way. I watch them building in places like Los Angeles and Japan, two places known to be highly subject to fault problems and they state the new building are earthquake resistant, even the builders don't dare say Earthquake proof. Why, when we know the risk do we insist on living there? It is a folly of mammoth proportions. who will come to our aid?
@dawnald (85146)
• Shingle Springs, California
15 Jan 10
Of course, Haiti was one of the worst possible places that it could happen too. Too many people crowded together, substandard building codes, etc. But sure it's a shame. It's a shame that children are starving when there's more than enough food in the world to go around. And it's a shame that people die of diseases that are curable. We could do a whole lot better cooperating to eliminate these and other 'fixable' problems.
1 person likes this
@PeacefulWmn9 (10420)
• United States
16 Jan 10
Wouldn't that be wonderful? I think several things make it difficult...finances would play a role, distance, foreign laws in some areas, organization...many things play a role. Look at how badly we ourselves botched Katrina?
But we should learn from such things, and yes, become united as a global community to help in such crises.
Karen
