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Typhoon Haiyan kills 10,000 in Philippines

theguardian.com

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Re: Typhoon Haiyan kills 10,000 in Philippines

#101

Post by lostlogin »

ck2 wrote: post #22
user24 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regarding 'just cash', I would like to quote the Red Cross: "The best way to help a disaster victim is through a financial donation to the Red Cross. Financial contributions allow the Red Cross to purchase exactly what is needed for the disaster relief operation. Monetary donations also enable the Red Cross to purchase relief supplies close to the disaster site which avoids delays and transportation costs in getting…

Do not freaking donate to the Red Cross. Find a local charity. The Red Cross is HORRIBLY inefficient and wasteful. Your money is buying them furniture.

It pays my neighbour who is a nurse to go and work in Syria. It doesn't get much more direct than that.

Re: Typhoon Haiyan kills 10,000 in Philippines

#102

Post by hrjet »

gexla wrote: post #5

Wow, that's an insane death toll. To put this in perspective, last year, another super typhoon, Pablo, killed close to 2000 I believe. The year before that another devastating typhoon, Sendong, killed something like 1200. The Philippines regularly gets hit with 20 typhoons each year and the typhoon season isn't over. Each of the above mentioned typhoons hit in December. This has to be among the deadliest in Philippin…

20 typhoons a year is a lot of typhoons! How did this land (through the course of history) ever become habitable? Or have the typhoons been increasing in frequency in the recent past?

Re: Typhoon Haiyan kills 10,000 in Philippines

#103

Post by noonespecial »

hannibal5 wrote: post #78
gexla wrote: post #5

Wow, that's an insane death toll. To put this in perspective, last year, another super typhoon, Pablo, killed close to 2000 I believe. The year before that another devastating typhoon, Sendong, killed something like 1200. The Philippines regularly gets hit with 20 typhoons each year and the typhoon season isn't over. Each of the above mentioned typhoons hit in December. This has to be among the deadliest in Philippin…

To put things into context. 1.3 million people die and 50 million people are injured in car accidents every year. Nature disasters are just side show in human life at this point.

If 10000 people died in a single highway pileup, everyone would assume there was a problem.

Re: Typhoon Haiyan kills 10,000 in Philippines

#104

Post by 3825 »

hannibal5 wrote: post #78
gexla wrote: post #5

Wow, that's an insane death toll. To put this in perspective, last year, another super typhoon, Pablo, killed close to 2000 I believe. The year before that another devastating typhoon, Sendong, killed something like 1200. The Philippines regularly gets hit with 20 typhoons each year and the typhoon season isn't over. Each of the above mentioned typhoons hit in December. This has to be among the deadliest in Philippin…

To put things into context. 1.3 million people die and 50 million people are injured in car accidents every year. Nature disasters are just side show in human life at this point.

This comparison is outrageous. Speaking of things out of context, fewer than three thousand people died in 9/11[0].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_September_11...

Re: Typhoon Haiyan kills 10,000 in Philippines

#105

Post by markus2012 »

hannibal5 wrote: post #93
nzealand wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds like their entire community and economy is devastated. If disaster taps on your neighborhood window, I suspect you would sing a different tune.

Precisely my point. This is localized catastrophe. For us, it has less effect than car accident happening to our neighbor. Because the people who died were poor, this accident adds net positive emotional entertainment value to the life of typical consumer.

'Adds net positive emotional entertainment value' ???

Seriously, WFT?

Re: Typhoon Haiyan kills 10,000 in Philippines

#106

Post by milkshakes »

hannibal5 wrote: post #93
nzealand wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds like their entire community and economy is devastated. If disaster taps on your neighborhood window, I suspect you would sing a different tune.

Precisely my point. This is localized catastrophe. For us, it has less effect than car accident happening to our neighbor. Because the people who died were poor, this accident adds net positive emotional entertainment value to the life of typical consumer.

What's your favorite Ayn Rand novel?

Re: Typhoon Haiyan kills 10,000 in Philippines

#107

Post by gexla »

hannibal5 wrote: post #93
nzealand wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds like their entire community and economy is devastated. If disaster taps on your neighborhood window, I suspect you would sing a different tune.

Precisely my point. This is localized catastrophe. For us, it has less effect than car accident happening to our neighbor. Because the people who died were poor, this accident adds net positive emotional entertainment value to the life of typical consumer.

Another point I made in my first comment is that in my area, typhoons were rare. Even though we get hit with around 20 per year, my area typically dodges all of them. Yet, in the past two years we have had two devastating typhoons. One was the equivalent of a cat 5 hurricane and the other was just as deadly with less winds but more flooding. Yolanda is was the most powerful storm in recorded history, which is obviously a rarity. If this all points to a trend, perhaps due to something like global warming, then we will all be affected. Perhaps this is just a preview of more to come in a far less comfortable world for everyone. Natural disasters and environmental problems may be moving from side show to center stage. The positive entertainment might take a turn to horror show.

Re: Typhoon Haiyan kills 10,000 in Philippines

#108

Post by late2part »

3825 wrote: post #104
hannibal5 wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To put things into context. 1.3 million people die and 50 million people are injured in car accidents every year. Nature disasters are just side show in human life at this point.

This comparison is outrageous. Speaking of things out of context, fewer than three thousand people died in 9/11[0]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_September_11...

Exactly wrong. The response to the acts of war on 9/11 are disingenuous, and not commensurate with the impact. The costs we as citizens pay for a false sense of security are orders of magnitude more than the risk presented. It is sad these people in the Phillipines died. We should help the survivors and we should help the survivors be able to withstand future problems by building better safer infrastructure and other methods. But, this is a normal event in human culture, the comparison is not outrageous, it is simply scientifically accurate. The author's choice of the word sideshow is callous, but objectively somewhat accurate. To those involved or effected by this - it's anything but a sideshow, which is where relative perspective comes in. We should have sympathy and help - but help in all ways.

Re: Typhoon Haiyan kills 10,000 in Philippines

#110

Post by anigbrowl »

ck2 wrote: post #3

US "news" is finally starting to cover this. I mean 10K, that is just beyond devastating, it should be front page news for months. We lost 1800 with Katrina.

Maybe that depends where you live? there's a lot of Phillippine people in the Bay Area, and it's been top of the news on NBC since Thursday night (ie before the storm made landfall).
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