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worryingly jolly batman ([personal profile] labellementeuse) wrote2004-12-27 07:08 pm

(no subject)

:-/ 14 thousand people killed, and growing, in India, Thailand, Bangladesh, Myanmar, malaysia, the Maldives, elsewhere.

Tsunamis are in many ways my greatest fear, in terms of natural disaster, in a practical sense. Tornados? We don't get 'em. Cyclones? Sometimes the tail-end of one, that's all. Drought? Yeah... but Sydney's across the Ditch and that tends to give one a senseof perspective every January. Flood? Sure, but not dramatic. Earthquake? Hey, I live in Wellington, I'm cool with them.

...tsunami? NZ is an island- okay, three islands- and we are low. All our cities are ports, pretty much. And this tsunami was caused by an earthquake offshore of 9.0 Richters. Just last week we had, down south, an 8.4 or 5 richter. It's not all that far off. >.<

So, well, I'm thinking a lot about the people in Southern Asia. it's so surreal, it's like some movie or something, this idea that on the other side of the planet thousands and thousands of people just died. All at once.
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[identity profile] labellementeuse.livejournal.com 2004-12-27 08:42 am (UTC)(link)
I know- it's kinda frightening a disaster of this magnitute. In Thailand, apparently, a lot of the islands the worst affected were the tourist islands where 80% of people are non-Thai- that's going to really affect them, I mean economy-wise.

Although i despise the way media is so hung up on that. I can understand NZ media caring if NZers were involved, but beyond that, hello, tourists or he local dairy owner, the death is the same.

[identity profile] mandor700.livejournal.com 2004-12-28 12:26 am (UTC)(link)
Yea, and I was just thinking, about the impact didn't it take like 6 months in Papua New Gunea just to assess the damage? Now it wont be nearly as bad in these countries because they are all in all more developed but over the next month or so with little clean water...
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[identity profile] labellementeuse.livejournal.com 2004-12-28 06:19 am (UTC)(link)
Well, you just need to look at the way the death tolls keep rising... :-/

are the countries more developed? India? It's still a thrid-world country, and I would pick that as maybe the most developed in the bunch (except the tourist bit of Thailand, i suppose. Dunno about the rest of it.)

[identity profile] mandor700.livejournal.com 2004-12-28 09:12 pm (UTC)(link)
Yea but its on the coast of India and the coast is generally the most developed part (What d'you know? 5th form Geo did pay off for something).
But in the context on New Gunea they're quite developed by comparison.
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[identity profile] labellementeuse.livejournal.com 2004-12-29 06:20 am (UTC)(link)
You reckon? hmm, I guess. It's not like I know even one thing about socio-economic growth and developement in South Asia, after all.... :P