Asia v America

sprinkles

This is prob not the right forum but its not a political statement, just my humble opinion.

Rant:

The terrible events that led to 150,000 dead, probably more, in Asia over the Christmas really put the events of September 11th in perspective.

Ok it wasn't a terrorist act it was a freak or nature but the shear devastation dwarfs that seen in New York 3 years ago. It really puts the Americans to shame. I mean the Thai or Indonesians are dealing with the horrible aftermath with out resorting to any moaning or whinging and the world is rallying to support them anyway. I for one would have had more respect for the americans if they dealt with september 11th in a similar fashion.


I don't mean to seem bad or anything but I also think its terrible that the american news networks and indeed sky news said on many occassions that the asians are calling this "Their 9/11". This is on a completely different scale altogether. How can you compare 3000 dead to 150,000 and counting with millions homeless, orphaned, injured etc etc.

The yanks should be ashamed! (by that I mean those in charge and the news execs)

Rant ended.

RobertFoster

oh, but you're forgetting - this happened outside American territory and didn't involve any oil, so why should they care?

impr0v

I think you are over-reacting to what would seem to me to be little more than an attempt by western media to relate the scale of the disaster to their viewers by using the closest comparable event that they would be familiar with. The shock of an unforeseen event is not directly related to the bodycount.

American reaction to 9/11 would obviously have been significantly different had it been a freak natural disaster, and since it wasn't, it's unfair to compare their reaction with that of the Thai and Indonesian nations to this occurance.

Sarky

The tsunami was actually started by filthy heathen freedom-hating Commies detonating a nuclear device on the faultline. Expect the bombing of Russia within a month.

monkeyfudge

The US has September 11th. Asia has the tsunami. And Ireland has Westlife.

I am MAN

A terrorist farted in the ocean causing the plates to smash together.

sprinkles

monkeyfudge wrote:

The US has September 11th. Asia has the tsunami. And Ireland has Westlife.

LOL

I can see a "War on the Ocean" coming!

Bottle_of_Smoke

Ok it wasn't a terrorist act it was a freak or nature but the shear devastation dwarfs that seen in New York 3 years ago. It really puts the Americans to shame

eh what? "puts them to shame" what the hell is wrong with you?

Would you be embarrassed if 1000 people were killed in an accidental fire in the point theatre because it was nowhere near as big as the Asian disaster?(assuming you're Irish)

It's like saying the size of your penis depends on how big a disaster your country has had. "puts them to shame" You lunatic.

ageary2003

Im gonna have to agree with bottle of smoke, 9/11 was attack by terrorists on innocent people, the tsunami was a horrible natural disaster (a reminder that earth isnt as safe as it seems) in my eyes they are two diffrent things. Are those 3000 people worth less because they didnt die with 147,000 others ? should every one have justed shrugged it off and kept going like nothing happend ?

Btw i think the reponse from america and other countrys was great, some news stations were say the us was being critcised at first for not donating enough money, but how the hell could they know the disaster was so great.

Doodee

How do we know that the tsunami that hit asia wasn't a terrorist attack by mother nature?

Pink Bunny

RobertFoster wrote:

oh, but you're forgetting - this happened outside American territory and didn't involve any oil, so why should they care?

Wha????

***************

Top World News
Powell Horrified At Tsunami Scene


"Destruction on Indonesia's tsunami-wracked Sumatra island is the worst U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell has ever seen, the battle-seasoned war veteran said as he prepared for a meeting of world leaders to coordinate history's largest relief operation.

"I can not begin to imagine the horror that went through the families and all of the people who heard this noise and then had their lives snuffed out by this wave," Powell said Wednesday after flying over flattened villages along Sumatra's northern coast, which was home to two-thirds of the nearly 150,000 killed across Asia.

"I've been in war and I've been through a number of hurricanes, tornadoes and other relief operations, but I've never seen anything like this."

So far $2 billion has been pledged to relief efforts in 11 countries hit by the Dec. 26 quake off the western coast of Indonesia that triggered waves causing deaths as far away as East Africa.

Requests for more U.S. aid keep coming, reports CBS News Correspondent Lee Cowan. The United Nations has asked for the use of at least four C-17 cargo aircraft, which can transport over 65 tons and are able to land on short runways.

The challenges are enormous, with millions homeless and threatened by disease. The United Nations said it will build camps on Sumatra for up to 500,000 people.


Powell was one of the first to arrive in Indonesia, where the international conference on tsunami aid is to be held Thursday in Jakarta. Powell and the other representatives at the conference will discuss coordinating relief efforts and the need to build a tsunami warning system for the Indian Ocean. One already exists in the Pacific.

Powell is leading a fact-finding mission for President Bush along with Mr. Bush's brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. The two, whose mission is to figure out how to best focus U.S. aid for the tsunami zone, got their first glimpses of destruction Tuesday as they toured the Thai resort of Phuket.

Powell toured an office where American forensic experts are helping Thai officials identify thousands of bodies that washed ashore and said afterward he will recommend expanding U.S. forensic assistance.

Thailand's foreign minister, Surakiart Sathirathai, said told the U.S. delegation that the thing the Thai government would welcome U.S. technical assistance to build an early warning system to guard against tsunamis in the Indian Ocean and South China Sea.

"We'll do everything we can to contribute," said Powell.

Discussing U.S. aid in general, Powell said, "The United States has made a significant financial contribution, but we have done much more than that." He cited millions of dollars raised in private donations in the United States even before President Bush announced Monday in Washington that his father, the first President Bush, and former President Clinton, will spearhead a fund-raising drive.

Powell also noted the massive U.S. military assistance now swinging into high gear that is delivering food, water and supplies and evacuating wounded.

"I think we have demonstrated in recent days our willingness to provide support, not only financial support - but the military support that our Pacific Command is now providing," he said.

"We are in solidarity with you as you deal with this crisis," Powell said in Bangkok Tuesday. "The aftermath of the tsunami is a tragedy for the entire the world, and the United States will certainly not turn away from those in desperate need."

Jeb Bush also spoke of solidarity with tsunami victims, noting that his home state of Florida was battered by four hurricanes in 2004.

"We share this experience," said the Florida governor, emphasizing that the American people want to offer a helping hand.
***************

There's a lot of things you can find wrong with the US, (since that seems to be the goal of the original poster in this thread), but at least pick something that's not so easy to prove totally unfounded.
Sheesh...... :rolleyes:

Alun

I partly agree ... it's sometimes as if the way in which people are killed, or who they are somehow makes their deaths both more newsworthy and more worthy of sympathy.

What about 3,000 people a day that are killed by malaria, for example?

Sleepy

Doodee wrote:

How do we know that the tsunami that hit asia wasn't a terrorist attack by mother nature?

Maybe it was Mother Nature's reaction to 6litre engines being used for school runs and the failure of some to sign the Kyoto accords?

Kingsize

Despite the fact that theyve turned up on a fact finding mission nearly 3 weeks after the occurence of the earthquake he was hardly gonna show up straighten his tie look into the camera & say "actually ive seen worse" was he??

Pink Bunny

Glad to see that's all you got from the article, Kingsize.

Cactus Col

Kingsize wrote:

Despite the fact that theyve turned up on a fact finding mission nearly 3 weeks after the occurence of the earthquake he was hardly gonna show up straighten his tie look into the camera & say "actually ive seen worse" was he??

has it even been 2 weeks?

DadaKopf

And the scale of the tsunami dwarfs the scale of death that occurred in Bangladesh in 1970:

So far this is not the worst such disaster in modern times - the cyclone and storm surge that hit the coast of Bangladesh in 1970 killed at least 300,000 people. As that disaster showed, many of those killed are poor, and living in places with weak record systems: we will never know the full extent of the loss of life.

[Source]

Added to this is the fact that the world's most horrendous disasters in the last century have been created by mechanised armies. The post-WWII reconstruction plans were the biggest relief/reconstruction efforts in history.

I think you make a fair point. The Yanks should get things into perspective, nuts.

Kingsize

sorry meant to say two weeks Which i think it is today or tomorrow still very late to be on the spot if you pride youself on being global cops as the u.s. does.
Of course this would provide an ideal oppurtunity for the us industrialists & would also help their (usa) long term military plans.
maybe im being too cynical but a lot of quality U.S. branded products are made in the affected countries so its good for business more than anything else.i.e.the sooner the aid arrives the sooner the kids can get back to their sweatshops.

David19

The reason to why the americans acted like they did to september 11th was not due to the number of people dead but due to them being attacked by terrorists. America is a very proud and also militaristic society, they don't like to be messed with. Also they had no real problems with terrorism until then. America was changed to some extent after the attack. You cannot compare a terrorist attack to a natural disaster.
The asian people aren't "moaning or whinging" as much because it was a natural disaster, they couldn't do much about it.
Also the fact that it didnt happen in america is a factor, unlike september 11th. If it had happened in Ireland we'd have a much bigger reaction to it.
Thirdly, the media in america and europe is huge compared to that part of the world. If it had the same influence here there probably would be more "moaning and whinging".

sprinkles

Bottle_of_Smoke wrote:

eh what? "puts them to shame" what the hell is wrong with you?

Would you be embarrassed if 1000 people were killed in an accidental fire in the point theatre because it was nowhere near as big as the Asian disaster?(assuming you're Irish)

It's like saying the size of your penis depends on how big a disaster your country has had. "puts them to shame" You lunatic.

Puts their reaction to shame. They still go on about the fact they where attacked and manage to remind us of it nearly everyday. I just thought it was a bit full of themselves to compare a disaster on this scale to a terrorist attack on the us thats all. And it wasn't just the media that compared the two, Bush mentioned 9/11 twice in a speech on the tsunami. Why do they have to make out that they are still the victims? So they where victims of terrorists, they reacted (albeit over the top) and yet they still go on about it even when some thing that eclipses that tragedy occurs.

StupidLikeAFox

i find it amazing that a tsunami hits asia, and everyone is focusing on americas reaction to 9/11.

I know americas administration is far from perfect, but they are doing a lot, so can ye not just appreciate/be grateful for that?

flyz

What I don't get is why Ireland , Britian and other countries had a day of mourning for the victims of 9/11 and all the Asians get is a 3 minute silence.


This is putting all monetary donations aside obviously. Personally I am overwhelmed by the generosity of the World as a whole.

It'll be another 20 years before Americans will let us forget about 9/11.

Horsefumbler

mother nature is a terrorist? part of the axis of evil? You damn well know it

CuLT

'America is proud an militaristic'

*CuLT scribbles down notes for next time he plays Civ3.

David19

flyz wrote:

What I don't get is why Ireland , Britian and other countries had a day of mourning for the victims of 9/11 and all the Asians get is a 3 minute silence.


This is putting all monetary donations aside obviously. Personally I am overwhelmed by the generosity of the World as a whole.

It'll be another 20 years before Americans will let us forget about 9/11.

AFAIK only Ireland had a national day of mourning. Tbh that was just over reaction by our government mixed with a bit of american ass kissing. I don't think the tsunami victims need us to have a national day of mourning anyway.
I agree, the worlds generosity is nice to see though.

Ajnag

This is the begining of a New World Order. Today we are beginning a War on Nature. This war may well be indefinite, and It has no timeline but we know this....We cannot afford to lose. So I say this...You are either with us or you are with the ecologists. If you are an ecologist or an ecologist sympathiser we wil hunt you down...There is a poster in my part of the world that says....Wanted dead or alive...well I tell you this...WE WILL GET MOTHER NATURE.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

Flukey

monkeyfudge wrote:

The US has September 11th. Asia has the tsunami. And Ireland has Westlife.

We've also got Daniel O'Donnell.

Apparently some of the shock jocks in the US are giving out because there was not as much aid sent to hurricane hit areas in America, conveniently forgetting that there is a difference between the death tolls and also between the wealth of the effected nations.

Capt'n Midnight

sprinkles wrote:

How can you compare 3000 dead to 150,000 and counting with millions homeless, orphaned, injured etc etc.

9/11 only amounted to a few weeks of road accidents/murders in the US, bit like the carnage on our roads over the chrismas season.

other recent stuff that seems to have slipped by in comparison..

several hundred thousand died in Iraq as a result of UN sanctions
a million died in rwanda in 1994
three million die each year from malaria
up to 10 million non-combatants have been killed by US military since world war two
and all the other stuff ongoing in africa

I suppose that unlike the tsunami most of those were preventable.

Then we get into the old us vs. them on the value of lives...

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

MicraBoy

What i want to know is why this disaster is being played out like some sort of competition. The media is playing the aid relief like some sort of league table, we're the best, no we're the best!

Now we're having a competition about which is the greater tragedy.

The body count is also starting to go this route too.

And at the end of the day people only give a crap coz a bunch of tourists from their countries got killed.

Makes me wanna puke.

David19

MicraBoy wrote:

And at the end of the day people only give a crap coz a bunch of tourists from their countries got killed.

Makes me wanna puke.

I don't think thats true at all. I certainly don't think that.

sprinkles

CuLT wrote:

'America is proud an militaristic'

*CuLT scribbles down notes for next time he plays Civ3.

HEHE touche

Blisterman

I don't remember there being nearly as big a fund raising operation as there is for this. I don't remember any actually. They seem to be raising a huge amount of money.

OfflerCrocGod

Sleepy wrote:

Maybe it was Mother Nature's reaction to 6litre engines being used for school runs and the failure of some to sign the Kyoto accords?

I hope you are kidding? How can pollution have anything to do with an earthquake deep in the ocean?