Probably just like most of you I have spent this morning doing little work and gaping, open mouthed, at the video feeds coming from Japan. It is a well-worn cliche that Japan is a politico-socially stable society in a geologically unstable area, but nothing brings home the sheer power and force of this earthquake like the footage of houses, ships, trucks, and towns being lifted and smashed by the force of the tsunami generated by the quake. It is simultaneously deathly horrifying and shockingly astounding. Living in Taiwan and Japan I adopted a blasé attitude to earthquakes, but it will be hard for me to be so cold-blooded ever again.
For the moment, I merely thank god (or whoever) that everyone I know in Japan and Taiwan (which the tsunami also hit) is safe and well. The dead are only just being counted, but it is hard not to believe that they will greatly exceed the 6,434 people killed in the 1995 Kobe earthquake, although modern construction should ensure that the toll will not approach the 100,000 killed in 1923 Great Kanto quake.
[Picture: An earthquake-damaged refinery blazes out of control in Ichihara, Chiba Prefecture. Picture taken by Danny Choo and made available on a CC-by-SA license, 11th of March 2011]
7 comments:
FOARP is Gilman Grundy
No point in trying to hide it now it's out there, eh?
But if there're people out there who want to use this information to threaten me, think twice. I'm not Ryan, I'm not Wang Jianshuo, I really don't give a fuck if you want to threaten a law suit, or make false accusations to the police, or do all the other things that Chris Devonshire-Ellis and his ilk like to use to pressure people.
If you have a good case against me, bring it. If you don't, shut up.
So you still defame other people - folk who use their real names - unlike you. What power and hatred you hold.
@Anonymous. Not another tosser on a Mission from God?
There are enough monomaniacs on the net. Get a life or start your own site.
(The only troubling aspect to your outing is that FOARP lasted so long at Shane English Schools.)
KT
Don't worry mate. You'll be getting a visit. Call it a "show of support". A few of us had a whip round for the fare from Warsawa. Fancy a beer?
Defame? No.
Like I said, bring it - you don't have a leg to stand on.
Ignore the psychopath commenter, people. This is a post about Japan, and the country deserves sympathy, just as expressed by the author, and international support.
Hopefully there will be no meltdown at Fukushima.
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