Blog Hope & Morons.
In protest of the India blog ban, I refused to blog yesterday. But thankfully today I can breathe (and blog) again. Thanks for the info Rad! (see comment to last post) It was allll a big mistake! I was really looking forward to SuperITman saving the day...oh but wait...it was allll a big "tech" mistake. Tsk Tsk. SuperITman was too busy practicing for the Aaranmula Boat Race (Aaaranmula Village, Kerala. August. Be there or be square.)
All we have heard in the last 48 hours is how people bypassed the ban, extreme outrage that our country would behave like "some others", the ineffectiveness of the ban (you could still post on blogger just not read anything) and even the formation of the 'Bloggers Collective Against Censorship'. We Indians are so good at forming committees I tell you.
What a bloggy mess!
I still see today's news reports reporting the ban (hello. old story now) but none on the ban being lifted. I just hope the letter to Sree is true. (see Rad's posting)
Speaking of uselessly under and mis-reported global news, I was shocked to read the Tsunami death toll in Java is now at 550! I feel like 24 hours ago it was 60. Why is no one talking about this? Instead of over-dramatizing the middle-east crisis and calling it World War 3 (I'm not saying it's not awful but is there any need to add fuel to the fire?) they might have spared a minute or two for poor Indonesia. Gosh, I just can't believe they got hit by a Tsunami again. And again, no warnings from the local disaster agency.
Here's the real scary part.
After losing 170,000 people in this 'pacific ring of fire' in Dec 2004, no Tsunami warning system has been set up for the southern Java coast. That's right. Nothing. Nada.
Why? Because "some" officials felt this area was less likely to be hit by a Tsunami than others in Indonesia. One of these "some" officials is now saying: "It turned out that our prediction was wrong. Now, we believe that there are no tsunami-free areas along the southern coast of Java."
Listen, you moron. Which part of 'Pacific Ring of Fire' don't you understand?
There are so many unavoidable tragedies in the world, can we please focus on the ones we can avoid?
2 comments:
One of the officials gave the following explanation to BBC news:
"It currently takes scientists up to 60 minutes to receive and analyse the data from 30 seismological stations and send out a warning.
With only a 20-minute interval between the magnitude 7.7 undersea earthquake and the arrival of the waves on shore, there was just no time to warn people."
However they don't even have a siren set-up to send a warning to people even if they did get and analyse the data in time. Those responsible seriously needs to get their act together...and fast!
When the 2004 Tsunami happened I remember reading about animals running in-land because they could sense danger ...and also local tribal folk who are trained to look out/listen for certain warning signs and were able to sense the Tsunami/danger and save themselves and their people.
Maybe we can't always rely on technology and we should go back to the basics.
Not having a siren is pushing their luck. A churchbell would even do the trick!
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