301–310 of 560 posts
What is the typical return date for Chinese living in Europe and the US regarding CNY? It is my understanding that the CNY was not cancelled and many will have gone back to visit family in China, at least outside the highly affected areas. When will they fly back?
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Katrina was when I realized how silly it is to think our government would ever deal effectively with a major disaster and how vulnerable we are.
"Katrina was when I realized how silly it is to think our government would ever deal effectively with a major disaster" It's funny because the very idea that 'the government will save us from a big disaster' is a fairly new concept. Some governments are 'kind of' prepared for some kinds of problems - i.e. the Swiss are prepared for some kinds of invasions, surely the Dutch have preparations for floods. But for unfore…
Credible sources, including FEMA, predicted that one years in advance.
Check out the October 2004 issue of National Geographic:
> The storm hit Breton Sound with the fury of a nuclear warhead, pushing a deadly storm surge into Lake Pontchartrain. The water crept to the top of the massive berm that holds back the lake and then spilled over. Nearly 80 percent of New Orleans lies below sea level—more than eight feet below in places—so the water poured in. A liquid brown wall washed over the brick ranch homes of Gentilly, over the clapboard houses of the Ninth Ward, over the white-columned porches of the Garden District, until it raced through the bars and strip joints on Bourbon Street like the pale rider of the Apocalypse. As it reached 25 feet (eight meters) over parts of the city, people climbed onto roofs to escape it.
> Thousands drowned in the murky brew that was soon contaminated by sewage and industrial waste. Thousands more who survived the flood later perished from dehydration and disease as they waited to be rescued. It took two months to pump the city dry, and by then the Big Easy was buried under a blanket of putrid sediment, a million people were homeless, and 50,000 were dead. It was the worst natural disaster in the history of the United States.
> When did this calamity happen? It hasn't—yet. But the doomsday scenario is not far-fetched. The Federal Emergency Management Agency lists a hurricane strike on New Orleans as one of the most dire threats to the nation, up there with a large earthquake in California or a terrorist attack on New York City. Even the Red Cross no longer opens hurricane shelters in the city, claiming the risk to its workers is too great.
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> being stuck in my apartment, nowhere to eat, drink, or even walk without an appropriate face mask As someone who never been there (or in China for that matter), is "face mask" a synonym for something or you mean literally a face mask? Don't think it's mandatory to wear face masks, just that a lot of people do it, right? If someone knows better, please correct me
Synonym is the wrong word here. A synonym means another word that means exactly the same thing. So the synonym of a face mask would, by definition, also have to be a literal face mask. You mean to ask if this is slang for something else. Which, in this case, it is not. It's a mask over your face which is extremely common in China.
Here's the definition from Merriam Webster: "one of two or more words or expressions of the same language that have the same or nearly the same meaning in some or all senses."
But, even more importantly, words can have nuances! Here's a nuance: "a word or phrase that by association is held to embody something (such as a concept or quality)."
In both cases, the notion of identical meaning is absent. It would also completely vitiate its common usage. Synonym is best thought as simply a similarity in meaning.
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There's a huge difference between "manufacture of consent" type propaganda, in which the citizenry is complicit in its own indoctrination, and Soviet-style propaganda where there was no free press and people were killed and jailed for criticizing the government. Wondering aloud if the Soviet system might not be better "because at least people were aware of it" is shocking and cruel.
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As a Californian, I would love if we were mismanaged in a way that produced excess housing!
If you love mismanagement that produces excess housing, you should move to Detroit.
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China is a place where you can be locked to a chair and interrogated by police for social media comments critical of the state. Don't try to tell me it isn't a government ruled through fear. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6uy12RpqQc
Okay? And the US is a place where I can get brutalized, shot, and killed by the police based on.. nothing. The fact of the matter is that the vast majority of Chinese citizens are living lives thinking and worrying about the same kinds of things we do. Not cowering in fear bemoaning their lack of freedoms.
The vast majority of people aren't brutalized and shot by the police. If it does happen, it goes through a trial and the court systems.
The vast majority of people talking out against the Chinese government will be jailed or re-educated in China...that's the difference.
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Katrina was when I realized how silly it is to think our government would ever deal effectively with a major disaster and how vulnerable we are.
By "our government" do you just mean the Federal government? Or do you mean all levels of government? The mayor of New Orleans had parking lots full of empty school buses and claimed he had no way to evacuate citizens. The governor of Louisiana whined and wrung her hands instead of doing anything. The Federal response was far from perfect but it was much more effective than the state or local response.
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By "our government" do you just mean the Federal government? Or do you mean all levels of government? The mayor of New Orleans had parking lots full of empty school buses and claimed he had no way to evacuate citizens. The governor of Louisiana whined and wrung her hands instead of doing anything. The Federal response was far from perfect but it was much more effective than the state or local response.
> parking lots full of empty school buses and claimed he had no way to evacuate citizens That just sounds like a sensational headline lacking in context and details. For example, with Hurricane Harvey in Houston they had to weigh calling mass evacuation against the ability of the road system to handle that much traffic. It doesn't matter how many buses you have in a parking lot if they can't leave the city. I'm not s…
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By "our government" do you just mean the Federal government? Or do you mean all levels of government? The mayor of New Orleans had parking lots full of empty school buses and claimed he had no way to evacuate citizens. The governor of Louisiana whined and wrung her hands instead of doing anything. The Federal response was far from perfect but it was much more effective than the state or local response.
exactly, USA is _united_ states, crisis like Katrina really should be dealt by the local governments first-hand, with federal help on its way. it's very different from China's system, where everyone has to get approvals from the central government.
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So I'm 100% in agreement with everything you said, but it still sounds like it's a decent idea for people in really crowded areas to wear masks to: 1. Not infect others during the period while they feel fine but are actually spreading the virus 2. As a more effective means of preventing spread via coughing and sneezing.
I agree with you, but if people in China are spending hours in line trying to get a mask, they're almost certainly not altruistically trying to improve the public health situation -- they've been misinformed about what the mask is going to do for them. Let's be realistic here -- when the public is in a panic, their behavior gets worse, not better.