Here's one eerie similarity between the disasters in
New Orleans and
Chile. Just as more people died in Katrina not from the hurricane but from the broken levees, it may turn out that as many or more Chileans died from an under-reported tsunami than they did from direct damage from the quake.
And the Chilean Navy may bear some responsibilities in this by not having adequately warned those living along a 100 mile stretch of national coastline that a huge wave was headed their way.
John Dinges, former NPR news manager and someone who has followed and reported the Chile story for the last 4 decades has
the details here.
Meanwhile, nearly 72 hours after the quake the social crisis in Chile seems to be mounting instead of abating. Basic services are being restored but there's no clear answer how to offer relief for the approximately 2 million people who have been affected.
Sporadic looting by the poorer half of Chile has flashed in several cities and the vivid class hatreds that have fueled Chilean politics for so many decades are starting to resurface.
I've been increasingly alarmed by the vitriolic name calling on Twitter where too many Chileans have been too quick to write off all those involved in the sacking of goods as "delinquents...criminals...animals..scumbags" and worse. Calls are being made for the Army to shoot them down like rabbits. Others have called for a military coup.
It's all so damn predictable. On that subject, here's a relevant post from
News Junkie which argues that in times of catastrophe survival always trumps social order. That's without repeating one more time that much of what passes for daily social order is, in any case, nothing but legalized looting
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Here's one eerie similarity between the disasters in New Orleans and Chile. Just as more people died in Katrina not from the hurricane but from the broken levees, it may turn out that as many or more Chileans died from an under-reported tsunami than they did from direct damage from the quake.
And the Chilean Navy may bear some responsibilities in this by not having adequately warned those living along a 100 mile stretch of national coastline that a huge wave was headed their way.
John Dinges, former NPR news manager and someone who has followed and reported the Chile story for the last 4 decades has the details here.
Meanwhile, nearly 72 hours after the quake the social crisis in Chile seems to be mounting instead of abating. Basic services are being restored but there's no clear answer how to offer relief for the approximately 2 million people who have been affected.
Sporadic looting by the poorer half of Chile has flashed in several cities and the vivid class hatreds that have fueled Chilean politics for so many decades are starting to resurface.
I've been increasingly alarmed by the vitriolic name calling on Twitter where too many Chileans have been too quick to write off all those involved in the sacking of goods as "delinquents...criminals...animals..scumbags" and worse. Calls are being made for the Army to shoot them down like rabbits. Others have called for a military coup.
It's all so damn predictable. On that subject, here's a relevant post from News Junkie which argues that in times of catastrophe survival always trumps social order. That's without repeating one more time that much of what passes for daily social order is, in any case, nothing but legalized looting
March 1st, 2010 at 7:46 pm
I seems to me that you show two similarities here between the New Orleans and Chile events. In addition to the role of government failure, there’s the resurfacing of class hatreds.
March 1st, 2010 at 9:01 pm
jesus. the problem isn’t the Navy warning or the 3 stooges misinformation of the quakes epicenter…its basic civil education on the reality of Chile’s geological history.
If you live in a hurricane zone, fire zone, flood zone or quake prone zone then certain realities must be taught.
If you live in a coastal community of a region known for catastrophic seismic activity and tsunamis…if you feel the earth move you get to high ground you don’t wait for an official to tell you what to do.
Its about basic civil preparedness and education and people not waiting around for an “authority”.
In the 2004 disaster people were on the beach going ‘gee, thats odd’ as the water receded…this phenom is pretty well known but yet we live in times when all relation to nature’s signals are cut off. This is the real villain: our disconnect from nature. Where technology matters is that we now can warn of impending tidal waves that result from a quake thousands of miles away.
March 1st, 2010 at 9:07 pm
…getting inland or up, of course, depends on how much time you have and of course Chile’s quake struck when everyone was in the deepest of sleep so reaction time is slower. I don’t know what the time was between the quake and local resulting tsunami. Probably pretty small window.
March 2nd, 2010 at 12:28 am
A friend in Santiago said that he heard of people in Cobquecura (coastal town near Concepcion) who were awake when the quake hit, up late partying in some beach cabins. They ran for the hills and the cabins were wiped out.
March 2nd, 2010 at 11:12 am
whew. there you have it!
March 2nd, 2010 at 12:53 pm
Legalized looting is when 50+% of the population votes to have government forcibly take wealth from other people for themselves.
March 2nd, 2010 at 1:00 pm
Blame Bush for the Chilean earthquakes, because he did nothing to stop global warming. — CBS Pulls Unvetted Story Blaming Earthquakes on Global Warming Fake but accurate, maybe?
That’s a two-fer for Bush, as he also didn’t build up the New Orleans levees when Cliinton was president.
Government only works when radical left-wingers are in charge.
March 2nd, 2010 at 2:40 pm
It’s a bit shamefully off topic, but Woody helps us here.
The Republican mantra right now is a lot of wise ass talk
about “blaming Bush”, the poor guy, he didn’t cause the
Hurricane. As if anyone suggested he did. He merely
had his head lodged up his ass during the emergency,
as he did during 9-11. Too bad, Woodster, this time
the country couldn’t be bullied into looking the other
way.
But just so you understand, for the record
and from someone who has been unsparing in his
negative review of Obama, you ain’t getting off that
easy, loser. In fact, you ain’t get off ever.
Here’s all you did, numbnuts. You put a fool
who had wrecked every business he ever touched,
sometimes with a stench of criminality, in charge of
the U.S. He started his term with record surpluses,
he ended it with economic disaster. All of which
he had the strongest possible effect on.
So he’s NOT going to get off easy or be
mythologized into competency like your other crap
President, Ronald Reagan. We will hold chumps like
YOU responsable for the misery you brought on
to the U.S. until the day you die. Count on it.
March 2nd, 2010 at 2:59 pm
I wait impatiently for Woody to die and leave the world a better place.
March 2nd, 2010 at 3:45 pm
lol.
March 2nd, 2010 at 5:20 pm
“Fuck Woody,” you should be ashamed of yourself. You too Anna, but we all already know you have none.
March 2nd, 2010 at 6:26 pm
dan o, get a life outside of the internet.
try it, sport.
March 2nd, 2010 at 6:49 pm
I Sergio is out for his daily routine of ankle biting.
March 2nd, 2010 at 6:54 pm
Fuck Woody, here’s how it’s done:
There was an old gasbag from Georgia
Who thought he was Cesare Borgia.
His utter lack of wit
Proved he was full of shit
And his comments merely bored ya.
March 2nd, 2010 at 7:29 pm
Hillary Clinton went down and met with Chile’s President, in person, to discuss what the US might do, concretely, to help out.
“Quelle horreur !!!”
Get the smelling salts for Sergio…
March 2nd, 2010 at 7:34 pm
“In economics, a negative income tax (abbreviated NIT) is a progressive income tax system where people earning below a certain amount receive supplemental pay from the government instead of paying taxes to the government. Such a system has been discussed by economists but never fully implemented. It was developed by British politician Juliet Rhys-Williams in the 1940s and later by United States economist Milton Friedman in 1962 in Capitalism and Freedom”
Sounds like Commie Bastard Milton Friedman was a proponent of legalized looting….
Woody’s punishment for co-existing with the rest of us on the planet is never being able to win an argument in the merits. Always has to resort to something totally asinine like “fag”, “child molester” or “taxation is legalized looting.”
March 2nd, 2010 at 8:33 pm
Dan O did you ever read Jane Eyre? You would have fit right in as the punishing Reverend. In fact your purse lipped, PC, admonitions have me envisioning you as someone more at home stoking fires at the stake rather than sitting in front of a computer. You are such a Protestant wind bag.
March 2nd, 2010 at 8:37 pm
I keep seeing you as someone in a black bonnet, big white collar and beady eyes lurking over pursed lips.
Oh…and perhaps a shawl.
March 2nd, 2010 at 9:01 pm
Anna and the surgester deserve each other. Such a septic waste.
Get cancer! Ha Ha. So funny. Have a stroke. Tee hee. Die–make the world better. Hardy har har. Go hang yourself. Lollers!
Never mind.
March 3rd, 2010 at 10:11 am
Dan, you are one of those people who has their noses poking between the blinds of your front window– running to check every noise you hear to see if you can condemn your neighbor for some slight to your delicate sensibilities.
There is no cure for lack of irony, wit or humor. Sorry mate, you are one of the damned…
March 3rd, 2010 at 3:30 pm
See Marc, vitriolic name calling isn’t a sign of democratic collapse, it’s evidence of a healthy and vibrant polity. Woody and Fuck Woody are a testament to the well being of our democracy.
March 5th, 2010 at 3:18 pm
you should be ashamed of yourself
I’m not ashamed of speaking the truth. Woody will die — we all do — and when he does the world will be a better place.
March 5th, 2010 at 3:22 pm
vitriolic name calling
I suppose “Fuck Woody” is vitriolic, but I didn’t call him any name other than “Woody”. Of course the same is not true of Woody, who does engage in considerable name calling.
As for Marc, he’s an enabler, or worse; he allows Woody to serially abuse his readers and then blames them for responding.
March 5th, 2010 at 3:45 pm
Get cancer! Ha Ha. So funny. Have a stroke. Tee hee. Die–make the world better. Hardy har har. Go hang yourself. Lollers!
I intended no humor, and I don’t care much how Woody’s inevitable death comes about, although I hope for as little expense to his family and the rest of society as possible.
December 31st, 2010 at 2:50 pm
Well. Not quite what I expected, but you’ve made me assume about this subject from an additional perspective. Wonderful job.