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“I was thinking we might hear from the company about a fund raising (I am still working for Japanese trading co) effort, but I imagine Red Cross is a reasonable place to give money.â€
Serious question: does Japan really need our $10 contribution when its central bank is injecting money into the system? Or does that money only go to stabilize the financial markets there and not to relief and rebuilding?
Salvation Army is a great choice- they spend around 80% of every donated dollar on disaster relief, not admin costs. I have the utmost respect for their disaster response.
I agree with MM and BHS. Especially after talking to first responder friends who were in New Orleans. A lot of misinformation is out there and comparisons do nothing to help the Japanese.
benson- I can’t even begin to imagine how horrible it must be in Japan right now. But I have read that they will be able to recover better than Haiti did because of their building codes- do you believe that is the case too?
I was thinking we might hear from the company about a fund raising (I am still working for Japanese trading co) effort, but I imagine Red Cross is a reasonable place to give money.
“the post Katrina situation in New Orleans was very complex, and any attempts to compare it with a single other disaster or to assign blame to one or two groups will fall far short of the truth.”
THANK YOU.
Hopefully, we won’t try. Instead, let’s find charities or aid organizations that we trust to get aid to the area, and give what we can. Talking about who will, or did, suffer more is heartless, pointless, and useless.
The area northeast of Japan consists of a coastal plain that varies in width from 5 to 10 miles, enclosed by a rugged mountain range. Given the scarcity of flat and arable land in Japan, all of the agriculture, cities and industry are crammed into the coastal plain. The main highway weaves its way through the mountain range, via a system of tunnels and bridges. The main railroad line (called the Joban line) is set in the coastal plain, quite close to the shoreline.
I suspect that the Joban line has been rendered useless by the tsunami, while the main highway has probably suffered earthquake damage. Hence, the two main land-based thoroughfares for sending in supplies to this region have been knocked out, making the logistics that much more complicated. The authorities in Japan realy have their hands full, considering that they also have to deal with a possible nuclear catastrophe.
Most of the population of Japan is in Tokyo and Osaka. I think that a lot of people now are meditating on their own mortality and being grateful that if they had to have an 8.9 earthquake, the epicenter was not further south.
“I was thinking we might hear from the company about a fund raising (I am still working for Japanese trading co) effort, but I imagine Red Cross is a reasonable place to give money.â€
Serious question: does Japan really need our $10 contribution when its central bank is injecting money into the system? Or does that money only go to stabilize the financial markets there and not to relief and rebuilding?
Salvation Army is a great choice- they spend around 80% of every donated dollar on disaster relief, not admin costs. I have the utmost respect for their disaster response.
I agree with MM and BHS. Especially after talking to first responder friends who were in New Orleans. A lot of misinformation is out there and comparisons do nothing to help the Japanese.
benson- I can’t even begin to imagine how horrible it must be in Japan right now. But I have read that they will be able to recover better than Haiti did because of their building codes- do you believe that is the case too?
I was thinking we might hear from the company about a fund raising (I am still working for Japanese trading co) effort, but I imagine Red Cross is a reasonable place to give money.
“the post Katrina situation in New Orleans was very complex, and any attempts to compare it with a single other disaster or to assign blame to one or two groups will fall far short of the truth.”
THANK YOU.
Hopefully, we won’t try. Instead, let’s find charities or aid organizations that we trust to get aid to the area, and give what we can. Talking about who will, or did, suffer more is heartless, pointless, and useless.
Correction: I meant to write: “the area northeast of Tokyo”.
The area northeast of Japan consists of a coastal plain that varies in width from 5 to 10 miles, enclosed by a rugged mountain range. Given the scarcity of flat and arable land in Japan, all of the agriculture, cities and industry are crammed into the coastal plain. The main highway weaves its way through the mountain range, via a system of tunnels and bridges. The main railroad line (called the Joban line) is set in the coastal plain, quite close to the shoreline.
I suspect that the Joban line has been rendered useless by the tsunami, while the main highway has probably suffered earthquake damage. Hence, the two main land-based thoroughfares for sending in supplies to this region have been knocked out, making the logistics that much more complicated. The authorities in Japan realy have their hands full, considering that they also have to deal with a possible nuclear catastrophe.
Most of the population of Japan is in Tokyo and Osaka. I think that a lot of people now are meditating on their own mortality and being grateful that if they had to have an 8.9 earthquake, the epicenter was not further south.
I don’t think the Japanese head of state has said, “heck of a job!” to the person in charge of disaster response.