Patrick McKenzie (patio11) on Japan Aid: Help for the Well-Prepared
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Re: Patrick McKenzie (patio11) on Japan Aid: Help for the Well-Prepared
#2At your discretion, how did you land this Patrick? Perhaps this can be better answered on your blog, but did the NYT contact you after coming across your article?
Original article submission: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2319629
Re: Patrick McKenzie (patio11) on Japan Aid: Help for the Well-Prepared
#3Boy, the commenters there don't seem to agree with him much.
Re: Patrick McKenzie (patio11) on Japan Aid: Help for the Well-Prepared
#4First comment in the article is disturbing:
One of my wife's relatives is working with those made homeless in her hometown of Ofunato, Iwate Prefecture, which was destroyed by the tsunami. She and many other workers along the coast would not agree with your assessment. The Western media have made the Fukushima nuclear plant the most salient aspect of this tragedy, not least because of the politics and economics of the King Kong vs Godzilla battle being waged by the US coal and nuclear power industries, and other sorts of political battles in Europe. The need for humanitarian aid remains huge. Moreover, this is something most Americans actually can provide -- unlike advice on stopping nuclear meltdowns.
Re: Patrick McKenzie (patio11) on Japan Aid: Help for the Well-Prepared
#5At your discretion, how did you land this Patrick? Perhaps this can be better answered on your blog, but did the NYT contact you after coming across your article? Original article submission: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2319629
He commented earlier on HN that lots of people from the news media had been contacting him. Here's a link to what he said:
Re: Patrick McKenzie (patio11) on Japan Aid: Help for the Well-Prepared
#6Weird reading comments with 10 year old technology. All you can do is "Recommend", "Report as inappropriate", or add you own comment without knowing where it will fall in the thread. Replying to someone else is basically useless.
Maybe I'm spoiled by Hacker News, but without the give and take of healthy debate, it's hard to learn much.
But then again, maybe that's the point.
Re: Patrick McKenzie (patio11) on Japan Aid: Help for the Well-Prepared
#7So, I know that the Japanese are well prepared for earthquakes - I watched documentaries on Discovery about it :)
But my God, this earthquake went off the charts. Then 500 other earthquakes of magnitude 5 to 7 happened. Every one of those earthquakes would have been a problem in my city, as we've got plenty of old buildings.
So it's really hard for me to believe that the Japanese are so well prepared. I also saw pictures of survivers and of various affected areas and the situation is rather not good.
The thing I admire Japanese for right now - they don't complain much and they don't go creating more mayhem on the streets.
But that doesn't mean they don't need help, and if I were in Patrick's shoes, I would be careful about stating such things - maybe because of this article, some poor neighborhood / city that has been badly affected won't receive help in due time, as public opinion does tend to have crazy effects like that.
Re: Patrick McKenzie (patio11) on Japan Aid: Help for the Well-Prepared
#8I'm starting to get feed up about patio11 and the all's well attitude and "we'll manage, thank you very much". The last head-count is seventeen thousand dead and rising. It is obvious that all is _not_ well and that people in the affected areas need help and fast.
Re: Patrick McKenzie (patio11) on Japan Aid: Help for the Well-Prepared
#9I'm starting to get feed up about patio11 and the all's well attitude and "we'll manage, thank you very much". The last head-count is seventeen thousand dead and rising. It is obvious that all is _not_ well and that people in the affected areas need help and fast.
Japan has a population of ~ 300 million and is one of the most advanced and wealthiest nations on Earth.
I am sure those affected need help but what makes you think others can provide help better/faster then Japan itself can?
Perhaps the US navy has lifting capacity that Japan could use, but what else?
Re: Patrick McKenzie (patio11) on Japan Aid: Help for the Well-Prepared
#10I'm starting to get feed up about patio11 and the all's well attitude and "we'll manage, thank you very much". The last head-count is seventeen thousand dead and rising. It is obvious that all is _not_ well and that people in the affected areas need help and fast.
>> I'm starting to get feed up about patio11 and the all's well attitude and "we'll manage, thank you very much".
(http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2318005) I appreciate the thought, but it takes $2k to bring you here, which is enough to put an out of work Japanese twenty-something on the project for a month. He's literate and can understand directions.
(note: I can attest from personal experience that people that don't speak Japanese can have difficulty getting around without assistance once they leave Tokyo)