Japan 3 months later

[StormKnight (1)]

Pictures after the tsunami and earthquake and now. Edited June 11, 2011 by StormKnight

[phee]

Resilient people x 10

[Enishi]

Very impressive! O.O

[Troy Spiral (13)]

Can get a lot done in 3 months if there's money/effort.

Unfortunately the nuclear containment/waste issue is STILL in a very , very scary state despite it falling off the news cycle radar. Its amazing how important "new" is to the "news", well and just add the general appathy of the west in particular to reality vs. entertainment.

[candyman]

Can get a lot done in 3 months if there's money/effort.

Unfortunately the nuclear containment/waste issue is STILL in a very , very scary state despite it falling off the news cycle radar. Its amazing how important "new" is to the "news", well and just add the general appathy of the west in particular to reality vs. entertainment.

Well if I helps we have a fleet over there that is helping and they are doing as much as they can. Who cares if the media isn't covering it! That doesn't mean that nothing is being done about it. Shit, it keeps people out of the way if it isn't an issue. I mean some people might even throw a fit if they knew who was helping...

From what my buddy says things are getting better...but water production is still low and the fleet only has so many pumps so the workload is kinda heavy...which would make it awesome if other countries decided to help.

[Troy Spiral (13)]

You could be right, but generally as far as I've observed the less the public is aware of something , far less gets done than would get done if there were more people that cared, especially in the longer-term with things like preparedness, number of people that get involved in certain industries (especially longer term, say generational) and such and were the long term (and lack of) grant money gets spent. That is more of a comment about sociology rather than just this one specific instance, not to diminish this at all or the efforts that ARE being done.

[candyman]

You could be right, but generally as far as I've observed the less the public is aware of something , far less gets done than would get done if there were more people that cared, especially in the longer-term with things like preparedness, number of people that get involved in certain industries (especially longer term, say generational) and such and were the long term (and lack of) grant money gets spent. That is more of a comment about sociology rather than just this one specific instance, not to diminish this at all or the efforts that ARE being done.

Yes awareness can be a good thing. However, the last thing they need is a song for them done by a bunch of celebs who really don't donate shit to the cause. I am about to go on a "mission" when I return that is in support of Homeland Security. If we told everyone about it what do you think they would say? Would they be pleased? Its all Engineers, Signal, Medical, and other helpful groups but people don't see that anymore. They see a "waste" of money and stuff like that...Katrina really didn't help the image of the government coming to help even though the help was basically told to fuck off until it was a little too late.

My opinion...let it stay silent. The people, you people, are donating to the cause enough. It isn't really the money at this point because it doesn't cost that much extra for a carrier group to run its water purification system since...well...they always do anyways. The military doesn't need donations to open up medical sites and get more supplies. Nor do we need anything extra to run many of our vehicles. Using Africa as an example I will say that being aware of the situation and throwing money at it is just treading water at best. These people actually need help and they are getting it.

I would also like to point out that once again NATO has failed as it has YET to make a decision on sending forces in numbers that would make any difference at all...we are really the only nation besides Russia that has the amount of equipment and manpower to get anything done. Yep...Russia is helping too...

[Troy Spiral (13)]

I understand the frustration there and I agree, I also am in agreement that at some point (wherever we want to draw the line) too many chefs fuck up the stew. I think we are just sort of talking about slightly different points. In any case I'm glad YOU give a shit enough to at least comment / think about such things, that in and of itself is deserving of respect.

But somehow I don't want to say that because people have screwed things up in the past (and we know they will continue to screw things up) that there isn't room for improvement, and over the longer term, room for improvement due to more involvement. Often there are decent plans avaialbe but just not enough resources to put them into place, which, generally is due to lack of awareness/interest. Not everything, but many things.

Katrina was a good example but in a different way. If "the plan" had been clearly laid out , like many (not heard) voices had been saying for decades, it would have been far, far less of an issue. It was that sort of rushed no-real-plan (and lack of physical preparation) that was the especially nasty culprate there not just the various governmental (especially local) screw ups that were long predicted due to the aforementioned shortfalls. The problems with that were so well predicted ahead of time (and not heeded) basically due to lack of people caring. It was already too late as soon as that thing formed. The time to prepare was the decades preceding it. They often call Katrina a "man made disaster" sardonically, just for that very reason lack of interest/focus (and therefore money also) until after the fact.

If people were more interested in reality, a lot of time/money/energy/planning would get done that might otherwise go into lady gaga concerts.

[Troy Spiral (13)]

Oh and yeah "just" awareness isn't enough , it also takes action. But usually if the awareness is widespread enough, there are enough people that will get (effectively) involved, although again, we are bound to screw things up. I guess that's sort of a language/definition thing there.

[candyman]

Oh and yeah "just" awareness isn't enough , it also takes action. But usually if the awareness is widespread enough, there are enough people that will get (effectively) involved, although again, we are bound to screw things up. I guess that's sort of a language/definition thing there.

What I think would be a good thing to do...but maybe not...is have more organization. I see THAT as a major factor that is crippling efforts in other areas. How, well...again the military comes into play. Love it or hate it the military has great response to these types of situations...I mean look at all the recent disasters around the world...and with our resources we are able to get up and running in very little time. And then comes the private sector. The soldiers here in the Dominican Republic were there for that and worked with our military and alot of what they did was try to get supplies in for private charities and such. None of them asked for help. Their shipping got lost, stuck in ports, and if it got the the shore then there was the problem of people stealing it and then actually getting it to where it needed to be.

Now, when we set up our dental and medical clinics here a few private organizations asked to help...and they helped a ton especially with donations because, well, nobody actually donates to our relief efforts really...we sent stuff in for the entire Beyond the Horizon mission with is in multiple countries but nobody ran any sort of add except for a newspaper in Alabama. I doubt that all those magazines, TV stations, and major newspapers missed all of that and a few of the assholes called and said they couldn't run it for some reason or another. If a private party runs under the military wing for relief efforts they lose nothing. They get to operate in any way that they feel like operating...but we handle their supplies and would provide power if necessary...as I am tasked to do in the upcoming mission if necessary.

Voices and money are great...but in a crisis you can't expect things to go smoothly if you don't have a plan of action. In war the military won't work with you...but in relief efforts the door is wide open and if you can help you can ride. It happened with Katrina...the reserve unit here was tasked to help with evacuation but they mayor on New Orleans left the plan too long. They waited with convoys all the way through and the engineering group ended up having to salvage what was left of all those empty, formerly running buses that were provided for evacuation. That and other situations give me the feeling that either people don't know about the help...or the are unwilling to accept it in that form for some reason.