Typhoon Haiyan

[dugdeep]

When 3000 died in the WTC attacks, the world virtually stopped.

10,000 are dead in the Philippines and not one -flick- is being given. News organizations are only reporting on it because it would seem insensitive not to mention it and because no other big news stories going on right now are "NEW".

It's amazing how little anyone cares. I think, even if 5 Asian countries were wiped off the map totally, as long as they didn't include China, South Korea or Japan, no one would even mind.

Even in US, there is lot of coverage. check CNN. We all know that main stream media has agenda's. Is this agenda is fixed set of overt rules like race?. Mostly not. WTC attacks is part of monstrous agenda. So I don't think comparison is valid.

Although the distribution of psychopathy among the races is an interesting question, I think seek10 is right here. At the end of the day the psychopaths don't give a hoot about race. They'll use race as a means of manipulating us and keeping us at each others' throats, but when it comes down to it, they'll bulldoze over anyone in their way, regardless of race. OSIT.

 

[Paragon]

Fwiw Sven, I have been in the Philippines for 30 days and have just recently left, so was there for Typhoon Yolanda (local name).

Where I was specifically on Cebu island (near the south), it was pretty timid. Nothing apart from some heavy rain and gusts that any storm would produce. Some broken branches and leafs had been blown around by the end of it, and that was it.


The same can't be said for Leyte. Total destruction of Tacloban (capital of that island). Bodies are still lying in the streets. It looks like the aftermath of a tsunami ( and effectively in a way it was, the storm surge resulted in water levels of up to 15 feet and went inland a fair bit). Locals were looting the stores because aid was so slow (still is too slow) in getting to them. The military had been stationed there to help in the aftermath but many of them died in the resulting surge.

In Northern Cebu, Malasapcua Island, I was there about 14 days ago. Beautiful, picturesque tropical island where many dive shops are located and the main income for the locals (I think..May be wrong, it's at least a big portion). Now that was only say maybe 70 km more or less to the north of where I was, and well, Malasapcua was flattened. Most of the homes have been destroyed and it will take a few months at the least to get the dive shops running again.

I'm sending some money to the relief efforts there. Not to red cross or any similar organisation, but directly to the dive shop I was at and they will spend the money on essentials and building material for the locals homes. I don't particularly trust folks like Oxfam and Red Cross to spend my money wisely so I opted for the direct option.

Also, there are many remote and varied Islands in the Philippines, that have been effectively 'wiped out'. And since local infrastructure in some of these places are basic and lacking, then there is no way of knowing the total death toll. I expect it to be well above 10,000, personally.

I have been quite emotionally effected by the whole thing and it has brought up some interesting things which hammer home the machine like nature of my being. If I hadn't of been here and spent time with the locals, in the culture, experiencing the country etc, then I don't think I would have been as motivated to donate money to help. It made it 'real' for me when I seen the suffering. Personal. So, I'm not happy that's what it takes for me to 'do' something ( and I'm sure this can be extended to most, if not all things, in my life), but there it is.