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Earthquake Post
By Paul Midler | May 15, 2008
While the earthquake is a major tragedy, I am not sure about those who are pitching this one as the disaster to end all disasters. What is remarkable is not how much damage has been caused, but how relatively little. Earthquakes that register as high on the Richter scale have done far more damage. A link that came my way: “Deadliest Earthquakes On Record”.
Topics: China |
May 15th, 2008 at 7:18 pm
Yes, let’s not forget there is a place called Burma (Myanmar) nearby…
May 15th, 2008 at 8:21 pm
It was lucky that the earthquake wasn’t centered on Chengdu. The city is over 100 miles away. The damage hit mostly smaller towns. Would have been much different if the earthquake hit a bigger city more direct.
May 15th, 2008 at 9:36 pm
Similar to the close-minded blinders-on mentality no-basis-nationalistic-pride that we have seen recently during the torch run, as well as the western-reporters-always-lie theory, it is no surprise that the largest tragedy ever would occur in China. I’m not being cold or negative but the reaction is over-whelming and seems inappropriate.
May 15th, 2008 at 9:40 pm
Images of buildings that suffer no structural damage don’t sell newspapers, and if the world knew that Chengdu was back to work, they wouldn’t believe it anyway! People make news by playing up tragic events, not by keeping them in perspective.
A China blogger this week suggested that “America has never known mass tragedy on this scale”. It’s not an accurate statement. The destruction of the World Trade Center towers on 9/11 was most certainly a greater tragedy, even if fewer individuals died. The psychological impact was nationwide, if not global, and while it would not be very liberal of me to say so, a lot of human capital was lost that day.
On economic loss, China’s largest insurance carrier is wringing its hand over having to pay out $20 million in claims. American insurance carriers suffer greater losses over spilled hot coffee. Give me a break. The destruction caused by the 9/11 terrorist attacks was in the order of billions. The financial effect was actually incalculable. Meanwhile, China’s economy has not missed a beat in this recent quake.
If body count is how we measure tragedy, it should be noted that the U.S. has seen worse. The Civil War claimed over 620,000 lives, and while that tragedy was spread out over several years, discrete periods of the war saw higher casualties than what has been experienced this week in Sichuan. I don’t mean to take away from anyone’s personal suffering, but the earthquake has been exaggerated by some who suggest that what they are doing is placing the event in proper perspective.
What has occurred in Burma is certainly a bigger tragedy in terms of lives lost. Not only have more died, it happened to such a small country. Some might say that Burma matters less because it is less developed, but the same thing could be said about West China.
There is no doubt in my mind that the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 was a larger loss, if we want to do only a quake-by-quake comparison. San Francisco was an increasingly important port city, one that had a lower population base. It was the West Coast’s most promising city when it burned to the ground. At least the Chinese had the sense to build out of concrete and brick.
May 15th, 2008 at 10:02 pm
2 more points: 1) why is there a need for China to compare their tragedy against others? Why is it always ours-is-better or ours-was-worse or we-grew-faster. Ugh. 2) I mentioned this over at the Peking Duck and it burns my goat - doctors won’t tell pregnant ladies the sex of their unborn children in the fear that the girls will be aborted, how can people with this mentality truly in their hearts believe this earthquake was such a huge tragedy? There is little caring for human lives much less children much less about people they don’t know and who are not relatives. Too much hypocrisy going on this week.
May 15th, 2008 at 11:54 pm
It was their own chose to live in cheap housing. If you ask them in 12 months whether they want to pay $100,000 for a flat which is earthquake proof or $60,000 for one that isn’t guess which one they will buy. If they government forces them to make higher quality, they will revolt.
May 16th, 2008 at 1:20 am
There are literally thousands of people from Sichuan Province who are working illegally in South China. Some of these are reportedly children.
Some of the children should have been at those schools that collapsed in the earthquake. You think that some who are off working in another province will be claimed as lost?
May 16th, 2008 at 4:32 am
Some of the children should have been at those schools that collapsed in the earthquake. You think that some who are off working in another province will be claimed as lost?
If the government is offering compensation for the dead, yes. Welcome to post-disaster fraud.
May 18th, 2008 at 11:57 pm
@Yokie: China is a compare at all costs society these days. Look at how people are trying to show one another up at the charity “donation” till (still not knowing if the cash will reach the intended recipients).
@Paul: yes, I saw in some reports that their stock market actually went UP in some cases immediately after the quake.
Luckily the China we know and love did not change right after the quake, though. An article (NY Times, I believe) quoted one trapped survivor as saying when a rescue squad reached her and realized she was not of their danwei, they moved on to find others…