Earthquake in Japan....9.0...ouch!

Todge said:
If we had a massive disaster here would you prefer if no-one helped us out because we can afford to deal with it ourselves? That money isnt helping the Japanese govt, its helping individuals who's lives have been shattered.
Click to expand...

If we had a massive disaster here I don't see anyone much donating to help us out... generally the British are one of the biggest donators as a country worldwide when it comes to disasters too.
 
Originally posted by Drunkenmaster:
Something I'm finding really, irritating is Japan and news networks asking for donations.

If, INdonesia has a massive Tsunami, or Haiti a massive earthquake, they can't afford to pay for the thousands of tents, ratios, medical equipment, fuel, etc, etc required to help out, happy to donate.

Japan, how many billions of dollars have they pumped into the economy to prop it up.

Okay so in the Uk theres some company paid by charities to provide shelter kits, think tents, sleeping bag, blankets, bottles of water and some basic emergency ratio type food I think. Yes, it cost money it needs to be paid for and donations to charities help pay for it, more donations, more kits they can afford.

The problem is, Japan CAN afford to pay that company directly for the stuff, infact they can easily afford to pay for basically all the emergency supplies.

Thing is if I can only afford to donate £50, is it better off going to help genocide victims in africa, or help pay to get emergency supplies for Japan, when they can pay for it themselves? If they were broke, fine, if they weren't pumping hundreds of billions of cash into the economy to keep it strong, fine, but they are, pump 2 billion less in and start paying for supplies and emergency shelter kits.

Its strange, I got right to the point of signing up to donate on red cross when I just felt wrong about doing it.

They've raised very little, not sure if thats because from the outside they appear to be under control to a degree, or because people see Tokyo basically perfectly fine and compared to Haiti or Indonesia the obvious need for donations isn't apparent.

But I feel guilty for not donating, yet it feels wrong to donate cash to a country that can easily afford to pay for the stuff being sent.
Click to expand...

You have a good point, but the way I think of it is we should donate to any country that needs our help right now, despite what money they have, so today we should donate to japan, if something happens in england tomorrow we'd want all the help we can get? and same for africa etc, I dont think you should look at how rich the country is, I think we should just donate to whoever needs it, and from what the people are saying that live in those areas at the moment on the news, they're saying they hardly have any food, so obviously they need more, I've seen them being handed out balls of rice? what the hell...I go to gym and eat 8 meals a day, so I cant imagine how I'd feel if someone gave me a ball of rice...I think that fact alone means they need more money.
 
Originally posted by Rroff:
If we had a massive disaster here I don't see anyone much donating to help us out... generally the British are one of the biggest donators as a country worldwide when it comes to disasters too.
Click to expand...

Ya know what, I've seen some statistics before that show which countries donate the most and am sure we came 4th or something which is impressive in it's self but at the time when I saw this in the documentary I was watching I thought but wait a second, we're tiny compared to other countries that were above us so therefore in my opinion we're the number 1 most charitable country in the world!

Long live Great Britain!! lol:D
 
Todge said:
You have any idea how big Japans debt is? 190% of GDP. As of 2009 they were only second to Zimbabwe at 300%. Thier budget deficit isn't actually as bad as a lot of countries but they need every damn penny thet can get.

How many milions were donated to the US after 11/9? over a BILLION dollars. They certainly didn't need any help.

If we had a massive disaster here would you prefer if no-one helped us out because we can afford to deal with it ourselves? That money isnt helping the Japanese govt, its helping individuals who's lives have been shattered.
Click to expand...

Well said Todge.
I can't believe you actually wrote what you did DM!
 
The question is though, given the certainly gargantuan repair costs and their already massive debt, can they actually afford it? I'm sure they could certainly use the help.
 
AGD said:
Ok, our airline is offering to change our flight to go to osaka instead of tokyo. They question is would you go to osaka right now? We change in seoul so have the alternative of going to south korea instead or flying to beijing and seeing around there and shanghai. What would you do?!! There doesn't seem to be any danger in osaka but would you not go out of respect, and will it be rammed with people travelling from tokyo/north?
Click to expand...

There isn't any danger in Tokyo either? :confused:
 
Japan, how many billions of dollars have they pumped into the economy to prop it up.
Click to expand...


The japanese government is broke in theory. They owe more then 200% of the countrys entire annual wealth.
Many japanese people are rich however many are not and obviously are now homeless
 
SkScotchegg said:
Originally posted by Drunkenmaster:


You have a good point, but the way I think of it is we should donate to any country that needs our help right now, despite what money they have, so today we should donate to japan, if something happens in england tomorrow we'd want all the help we can get? and same for africa etc, I dont think you should look at how rich the country is, I think we should just donate to whoever needs it, and from what the people are saying that live in those areas at the moment on the news, they're saying they hardly have any food, so obviously they need more, I've seen them being handed out balls of rice? what the hell...I go to gym and eat 8 meals a day, so I cant imagine how I'd feel if someone gave me a ball of rice...I think that fact alone means they need more money.
Click to expand...

Scubascorpion said:
Well said Todge.
I can't believe you actually wrote what you did DM!
Click to expand...

Yet, they pumped in BILLIONS and billions into the economy, yes, some of it needed doing, but pumping 50billion dollars, of 49billion dollars won't have a drastic difference, its a lump sum to make people less worried, but 1billion on food, aid, shelter, blankets, its more than they'd need.

As for donating to america, I honestly don't know where the donations went to. Donations to the firefighters/police funds, I donated to that, donating to companies that provide food and shelter would seem a little pointless, they have access to both and can afford to move things around.

Likewise, a fund set up to help rehouse and get victims back on their feet long term I'm all for, but Japan CAN afford to order everything it needs short term.

If you'd notice, I didn't say donating would be wrong or bad just that, theres lots of other things going on in the world, places that can't borrow a billion dollars, places where genocide is going on, where horrific things happen and my £50 could do a heck of a lot more.

As for the Japanese government asking for aid, I didn't say they did, but news seems to be running the odd article every couple days talking about how low the donations for help have been. As I said, if Haiti(another place I donated) had stories running in the press about low donations thats one thing, but at the moment the price seem to be pushing this "woe is them" angle, along side stories of them plunging 10's of billions into the economy.

Yes, I'd expect help if England had a disaster, rescue teams, countries with stockpiles of anything we need, but, we can pay for it, we're in debt but if something needs paying for it gets paid for and our debt increases slightly.

I didn't say the idea of sending them money sickened me, I was just caught in two minds, horrible situation, apocalyptic isn't a bad description with everything hitting in one go.

Logistical help is one thing, no country can have enough rescue teams and choppers and equipment etc ready for any disaster, I think its one of the few things the world gets together on and acts as "humans" rather than countries. Disasters happen and EVERYONE helps, its great to see, meh, the only other thing we get together and group together on are wars, but theres usually at least one country thats not happy about it.

But I'm in debt, this country is in debt, when I donate if feels like its doing more going to Haiti, Sudan and the worst places off in the world.

I think ultimately donations for great causes started, but now theirs a default "donate to cause" situation without thinking about why.
 
AGD said:
So people are leaving tokyo and taking their kids away for no reason? Not being sarcastic but serious, have scientists said there is no risk possible to tokyo in terms of meaningful radiation levels?
Click to expand...

It all depends, theres a little radiation but not much, but will it get worse, if it gets horrific very quickly what could happen. But really the big problem could be the length of time this could drag on. The rods in the spent fuel pools could have taken some serious damage, but unlike the ones in the reactor theres a good deal of them just open to the air, getting them covered up and stopping radiation leaks is going to be fairly difficult and I wouldn't be surprised if, even after cooling is established, the buildings aren't safely covered for a good while.


Theres really been very little info coming out lately, the radiation numbers are all over the place, one day they are saying 3millSv at the gate, the next day its 0.3milliSv, the day after one person is saying 0.3millsv and another is saying 2500-3500microSv, and it would seem none of these are the numbers actually by the reactor but almost all numbers by the main gate.

How bad are the spent fuel pool rods getting damaged, no ones sure, how much water is getting in and not immediately being burned off as steam, who knows, will the cooling equipment in reactor 3/4 actually work when its hooked up to power, who knows. At this point its a lot of unknowns and if X works then Y might get better soon.

At the moment Tokyo really shouldn't be in any danger.
 
drunkenmaster said:
Theres really been very little info coming out lately, the radiation numbers are all over the place, one day they are saying 3millSv at the gate, the next day its 0.3milliSv, the day after one person is saying 0.3millsv and another is saying 2500-3500microSv, and it would seem none of these are the numbers actually by the reactor but almost all numbers by the main gate.
Click to expand...

2500-3500microSv is equal to 2.5-3.5mSv, pretty much spot on the other person's figure.

Yes, those are figures away from the reactors but in their neighbourhood.

Such low radiation isn't harmful at all.

Now imagine how far Tokyo is from Fukushima (135 miles) and think about people who panic and run away as far as they can. For all we know, there isn't any measurable risk to their lives (at least not at the moment). I would be concerned if there was any major explosion, there's nothing to indicate a danger now.

The plant workers are the only people in real danger right now, maybe not so much from radiation as that must be low even at the max limit for them (250mSv) as they only really spend minutes around reactors themselves. Where they work there is not much radiation at all, considering their safety suits that stop alpha radiation and buildings in the plant that are secured themselves. It is dangerous to work in the plant at any time though, risk of explosion and/or significant exposure to radiation persists.

Afaik the peak radiation measured was 400mSv but that had to be inside the reactor and isn't anywhere near as high in the surroundings. It was also reported to lower significantly to some 200mSv or so.
 
drunkenmaster said:
I think ultimately donations for great causes started, but now theirs a default "donate to cause" situation without thinking about why.
Click to expand...

you spout some serious drivel at times but I do completely agree with this. I'm jaded when it comes to donating for anything these days due to the way people go on.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom