Watching coverage of the tsunami following the 8.9 Richter quake in Japan, one small thing that struck me is how secure (perhaps delusionally so) are at least some people in developed countries like Japan. If a quake hits here in India, we'll drop whatever we're doing and just run! But the BBC/CNN footage shows people in offices in Japan swaying but holding on to things, not really trying to run (perhaps that's by training, Japan being the most quake-prone country in the World). A woman in a footage is actually talking on a (fixed) phone and trying to type on her computer keyboard, while crouching near her office desk! Commendable courage under extreme stress, or misplaced trust in man's power to withstand nature - your pick?
Showing posts with label Japan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Japan. Show all posts
Friday, March 11, 2011
Friday, January 28, 2011
Calamities all over!
I was watching BBC & CNN news last evening. Not something I do every day, admittedly, since most times one TV of ours is monopolized by my pre-teener in the evenings, and the other by the better half once she's home. Instead of the rushed, breathless soundbites from reporters, I much prefer to get my news the old fashioned way, through newspapers (and mostly hard copy, though sometimes online as well), where I can get news (free of 'first to the post syndrome') as well as considered views. Though I do admit that "A picture is worth a thousand words" (read on...), I feel the cacophony of pictures sometimes muddles the mind more than it is informative.
Anyway, so I was watching news, rare as it may be. What struck me is the multiplicity of natural disasters striking our beloved earth, seemingly all at the same time.
US: snowed over - heaviest snowing since 1925 at NY Central Park, reportedly.
Southern Africa - heavy rains leading to waterlogging/light floods (courtesy La Nina).
Jeddah in Saudi Arabia - in a desert country of all places, and God knows they're just not equipped to handle rain, let alone flood.
South East Asia: Heavy rains (though mercifully no floods).
Australia: The tragic floods continue, with the losses now expected to cross US$ 4 billion.
Japan: A volcano erupts.
Whassup, guys?! I'm sure the reporters logging in from different parts of the World don't see any patterns here. But don't the people who bring all of this together discern any pattern either. All the way from the West to the East, from the North to the South, a wide swathe, rolling in agony cause by natural disasters. And most of them caused by water in different forms (even the Japanese volcano, if you consider the steam columns rising up from the crater).
What could be behind it:
God's wrath? (Um, no - He'd be too busy managing so many Worlds, and he's already bequeathed the power of free choice to us humans, remember.)
A rare confluence of World weather patterns? (Maybe)
The nature striking back? (Hmmm... there may be something, with all the environmental degradation going on...)
Take your pick.
Meanwhile, to add to the natural disasters, (well, almost) a man made one. Reportedly, there was an explosion at Davos, near the hotel where all the World's leaders are gathered for a pow-wow on the World economy (no less).
And then a (double) disaster on the sports field: Nadal and (now) Federer are out of the Australian open (does this have anything to do with their eagerness to flee the flooded country? Hope not.). The commentators are calling it a 'change of guards'. Let's see...
Anyway, so I was watching news, rare as it may be. What struck me is the multiplicity of natural disasters striking our beloved earth, seemingly all at the same time.
US: snowed over - heaviest snowing since 1925 at NY Central Park, reportedly.
Southern Africa - heavy rains leading to waterlogging/light floods (courtesy La Nina).
Jeddah in Saudi Arabia - in a desert country of all places, and God knows they're just not equipped to handle rain, let alone flood.
South East Asia: Heavy rains (though mercifully no floods).
Australia: The tragic floods continue, with the losses now expected to cross US$ 4 billion.
Japan: A volcano erupts.
Whassup, guys?! I'm sure the reporters logging in from different parts of the World don't see any patterns here. But don't the people who bring all of this together discern any pattern either. All the way from the West to the East, from the North to the South, a wide swathe, rolling in agony cause by natural disasters. And most of them caused by water in different forms (even the Japanese volcano, if you consider the steam columns rising up from the crater).
What could be behind it:
God's wrath? (Um, no - He'd be too busy managing so many Worlds, and he's already bequeathed the power of free choice to us humans, remember.)
A rare confluence of World weather patterns? (Maybe)
The nature striking back? (Hmmm... there may be something, with all the environmental degradation going on...)
Take your pick.
Meanwhile, to add to the natural disasters, (well, almost) a man made one. Reportedly, there was an explosion at Davos, near the hotel where all the World's leaders are gathered for a pow-wow on the World economy (no less).
And then a (double) disaster on the sports field: Nadal and (now) Federer are out of the Australian open (does this have anything to do with their eagerness to flee the flooded country? Hope not.). The commentators are calling it a 'change of guards'. Let's see...
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