March 2011 Tohoku Earthquake

[disturbman]

Yes. That's the classical problem with "media" and one of the reason why I don't own a TV. I think I have quite a good idea of what's going on in the rest of Japan since I can follow my friends living in Kansai discussing what they can do to help Tohoku. Normal life with a twist of "let's do something to help our compatriots and make Japan stand again".

 

But the situation in Fukushima is still worrysome and is not going to improve anytime soon.

[Tenorikuma]

There was a very good "Iama" thread on Reddit posted by a nuclear emergency planner who explains what's going on and is fairly optimistic about the outcome in spite of everything.

 

[keitaro]

A friend of ours is hosting a girl from sendai. But her visa expires on wed next week when asking the immigration dept to extend for 3 weeks they refused. How lame is that.

 

Anyway here home is fine but she wanted to wait a while longer as the family are having very hard time to get food and power etc.

[ShinCanadaSen]

Hy guys, I got the following email from Gmat:

 

"I'm in Tokyo, so aside from much of my junk falling down in my room and having to walk back from Uguisudani Station, next to Ueno to Shinjuku Station, things are fine. My computer went Tango Uniform so I have to use my wife's Japanese Window computer. It'll be a while to get it fixed, so I'll be out of the loop for a while.

Thank you again for your concern.

Best wishes,

Grant"

[marknewton]

Very glad to hear you're okay, Grant.

 

Earlier in this thread there was a link to another site where it was claimed that "there is apparently another train on the Sanriku Railway Minami-Rias Line...that is still lost." Was that true, and if so, has that train been found?

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[Tenorikuma]

The last NHK news item I saw on the subject said all trains had been accounted for and their passengers rescued.

[Bernard]

Hy guys, I got the following email from Gmat:

 

"I'm in Tokyo, so aside from much of my junk falling down in my room and having to walk back from Uguisudani Station, next to Ueno to Shinjuku Station, things are fine. My computer went Tango Uniform so I have to use my wife's Japanese Window computer. It'll be a while to get it fixed, so I'll be out of the loop for a while.

Thank you again for your concern.

Best wishes,

Grant"

 

If you hear from Grant again that is if he can't get on to the forum....tell him we are all thinking about him.

[Bernard]

The problem with today's media is that everyone is in a rush to get the information out first. What might be true at the moment, but in 5 minutes time the situation might have subsided. In NY we've heard lots of conflicting reports about the nuclear reactors....1 min. there is a containment problem and then 5 min. later we hear it's under control. You're at the point you don't know what to believe.

The media needs to let situations develop a bit before reporting them otherwise they create panic without all the facts....but sad to say, they are in competition to be "first on the scene" with little regard to the lives they might be effecting.

[Martijn Meerts]

Yeah, it seems it's more important to be out first and spread half-thruth (and sometimes downright lies) rather than wait a bit and actually figure out what's going on first.

 

I check out the news on CNN, a Dutch online paper, and 2 Norwegian online papers. They all report different things. 1 paper practically claims that the cores have already melted down, others say it's not so bad ... Of course, with the internet and the blogging rage, everyone seems they think they're a reporter.

 

What's the most annoying though, is all the comments from readers who have no clue what they're talking about, or all the racists or religious fanatics. I try never to read the comments, but sometimes I glance at them, and they annoy me just as much every time.

[Tenorikuma]

It's very much a game of telephone, isn't it?

 

Overworked and incredibly busy power plant technicians → statements by Japanese officials → reports by Japanese media → translations by Western outlets that may not understand Japanese well → repetition by laypersons who don't understand the issue

[grumbeast]

I haven't responded to this thread till now because I had no idea what to say..

 

I still don't except that I'm keeping the Japanese people in my thoughts constantly, and more tangibly, I think the money I've been saving for my next j-train purchase would be so much better going to Medicene sans frontiere and the relief effort

 

I have great belief in the resilience of the Japanese people to rebuild from this, and like the rest here, I do wish the media were a bit more, well professional about the reporting.

 

Graham

[Tenorikuma]

I haven't responded to this thread till now because I had no idea what to say..

 

I still don't except that I'm keeping the Japanese people in my thoughts constantly, and more tangibly, I think the money I've been saving for my next j-train purchase would be so much better going to Medicene sans frontiere and the relief effort

 

You have my utmost gratitude if you donate. Although even buying J-train makes a small contribution to the Japanese economy. :)

[scott]

I've been wondering how to contribute effectively. There are lots of organizations that say there are "standing ready if needed," but it sounds to me like donations to them would just go into their general funds.

 

From what I saw on an MSF page, the real problem (leaving out the nuclear plants) is not lack of supplies or medical personnel, but the difficulty of distributing the supplies to hundreds of thousands of peoples in 2,500+ shelters. This is very different from a place like Haiti where they just don't have any supplies to distribute.

 

So what's the best way to contribute and actually have it do some good?

[disturbman]

Maybe to send it to a japan based organization or see what the japanese governement recommends to do.

[scott]

Good point. I see that google has a page where you can donate to the Japanese Red Cross.

[cteno4]

 

I've been wondering how to contribute effectively. There are lots of organizations that say there are "standing ready if needed," but it sounds to me like donations to them would just go into their general funds.

 

From what I saw on an MSF page, the real problem (leaving out the nuclear plants) is not lack of supplies or medical personnel, but the difficulty of distributing the supplies to hundreds of thousands of peoples in 2,500+ shelters. This is very different from a place like Haiti where they just don't have any supplies to distribute.

 

So what's the best way to contribute and actually have it do some good?

 

best thing i think that can be done is look for the orgs that have a very high percentage of money going into the programs and less going into marketing and overhead. With every disaster i look for orgs that are effective for that disaster and high bang for the buck and am surprised how much of the money in some well know orgs go into non program costs. having worked with non profits a lot and being involved with a few fund raising campaigns of different ilks (inside managed and outside managed) you can see where lots of the money never gets to the intended targets... i really like the smaller smart orgs that do very targeted and cost effective programs. after the last tsunami one i found had a great efficiencies with gathering medical supplies (not drugs) that were like 1 year from expiration. hospitals tended to have policies to not keep things that close to expiration and also distributers would get rid of these cheap or free as they would have a hard time selling them. the org had a very good system to get stuff out to various places (always a disaster needing supplies like this somewhere in the world) very fast so they would get used fast while still useful.

 

i think the big support will have to be more in the long run for the areas affected and all of japan to move into a positive rebuild and not a bad economic downward spiral.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[cteno4]

we got word today from JRM's sister club in Iwatetsu that all their members that lived near the coast have been accounted for and are alive. there are still some that have not yet checked in, but they lived well inland, so it is hoped they are ok. nice to hear some good news for once in all this.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Guest ___]

I really would like that news feed coming from the Fukushima power plant to stop getting worrisome. Everyday brings new bad news. The fourth reactor is now on fire and releasing radioactivity in the atmosphere. It also seems that the situation is worsening in the fifth and sixth reactors...

 

It's the media that makes it more worrisome than it might be. They do seem to like blowing things out of proportion. Obviously, the radioactive clouds are a problem, but the amount of radioactive particles in them isn't insanely high, certainly not high enough to label the thing "Wind of Death" as they do in the Netherlands. So far, everyone still agrees a meltdown is highly unlikely (apart from the anti-nuclear crowd of course)

 

Still, it remains to be seen how severe it's going to be.

 

Agree completely, but don't forget the media is not about keeping people informed, it's about making money. If I go to my editor with two pictures, a man being savagely beaten and sodomized by an exhaust pipe from a 72 El Camino by MS-13, or a fire fighter saves a small child from a burning house fire, the first one goes on page one while the second story on page two. FOX has done a great job on over hype till I saw CNN's continuing coverage on Daiichi hosted by anti-nuclear activists for an hour and a half. I do like how law enforcement issue on the spot took a rough guess on the spot of 10'000 possible dead with no field intel from damage assessment teams to support this and the wires ran with it as an official count for 12 hours.

 

 

Good point. I see that google has a page where you can donate to the Japanese Red Cross.

 

I lost most of my faith in Red Cross twenty years ago when I left the ARC where I was a volunteer in disaster services (I was active volunteer during college, as I needed CS credits)  I could notwork for a group that had a 90% administrative cost. (I have not looked in a while to see what it is ow, but I suspect it has not changed) How could I be part of a group that paid it's local director $90'000 and provide her with a 50'000 Lexus as part of her contract. (Montgomery County, MD Chapter). Granted my chapter here in Frederick County did not see that kind of money, but you should see our office costs. Don't even get me started about what they did with the money that came in from 9./11 and where large chunks of it was spent.

 

EDIT: Consolidated replies

[keiman]

Like Graham(Grumbeast) I have not posted about this natural disaster,or the problems with the power plant.

I work in the Search and Rescue support industry and would much rather make a comment based on solid facts from scources I feel I can trust rather than the Broadcast and web based media.

My only comments are :

Our prayers (whatever religion/creed you are) are with the people of Japan at this sad time.

[marknewton]

The last NHK news item I saw on the subject said all trains had been accounted for and their passengers rescued.

 

That's great to know, thanks for that. Hopefully none of the traincrew were injured or killed, either. My sympathies are with everyone involved, but I especially feel for the crews. I 've been involved in a few bad situations throughout my career on the railway, but nothing even comes close to what those poor buggers must have experienced.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[marknewton]

I think the money I've been saving for my next j-train purchase would be so much better going to Medicene sans frontiere and the relief effort.

 

Bloody good idea! I'll be doing the same.

 

On that subject, the Australian Tax Office has announced it will make donations to disaster relief funds tax-deductible.

 

http://ato.gov.au/nonprofit/content.asp?doc=/content/00273031.htm

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[scott]

Well, all I can do is take the best choice of what's possible. Vince's idea about contributing directly to a Japanese organization made sense. If I flubbed, I flubbed, but since I can't go there to help, a donation seemed like the only way to help. I'll just have to hope that the Japanese Red Cross is better than the "bad old days" of the American Red Cross, United Way, et. al.

 

I figure I've gotten a lot of cultural benefit and enjoyment from Japan ever since I was a kid (we had a Japanese cultural center nearby), so it felt right to do something.

[disturbman]

Sorry. I'm still reading the news and, as it appears, the French governement is now publicly evoking the possibilty of scenario worse than Tchernobyl at Fukushima.

[Martijn Meerts]

Well, every country reports different things. Some say it's as bad or worse then Chernobyl, others say it won't be anywhere near as bad as that.

 

The anti nuclear power protests need to stop though, because most protesters don't have a clue what would happen if all nuclear power plants were to shut down...

[Nick_Burman]

Speaking of the media, a question...does anyone know if civil society (individuals and organizations) in the unaffected areas of Japan are mobilizing themselves to help, or are they just standing and waiting for the government to act? One commentator yesterday hinted that the Japanese government was being incompetent in its handling of the emergency as a whole and that the rest of the country was oblivious to what is happening in the north because they expect the government to handle everything. True, false or plain "telephone" (or simply plain media BS)?

 

 

Cheers NB