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Quakey sorts of thoughts
Mar. 17th, 2011 10:27 am1. Like everyone else, I'm still thinking about Japan, praying for the people there and hoping especially that they can shut down the nuclear reactors and keep any further problems under control. The plant workers make me think of the people in the one 9/11 plane who took it down knowing it would end their own lives, but knowing they needed to make that sacrifice. In the meantime, so many people have such great needs. Even if you don't have much to share, consider donating what you can. There are many organizations you can donate to. My personal choice is the LDS Humanitarian Aid Fund, which works to bring as immediate relief as is humanly possible, with materials prepared in advance for any upcoming disasters. 100% of the funds are used for the victims, with no overhead. They work heavily with the Red Cross. There are many such organizations, so if at all possible, consider donating through whichever outlet you prefer.
2. I have mentioned before, but I was a missionary for a year and a half in Chile when I was college-aged, and my sister did the same thing in Japan. She later taught English for a year there, and even later, married a man from Japan. So both this earthquake/tsunami/nuclear extravaganza and last year's earthquake/tsunami are particularly vivid for me. I'm really struck by two things: 1) Even if you don't think you have much money, you can still prepare for unknown difficulties. Chile is a fabulous country, certainly not third world, but not Switzerland, either. I knew people who lived in luxury mansions, but I also knew people with dirt floors. Even so, when their earthquake hit, I found it remarkable that they already had a fund for such events. They had been saving up as a nation for some time , knowing full well what might occur, and preparing for it. So while yes, they needed some help, it was nothing compared to what another country may have needed. I think we could all as individuals prepare ahead for times when things aren't going well. At the least, a 72 hour emergency kit. 2) I always thought that one large difference between eastern and western culture was the idea of absolutes. That in the west, there is belief in some things being absolutely right or absolutely wrong, and that in Asia, the issue was more of honor and relativity, that it's not so much a question of absolute right or wrong, but of being caught and what that does to your honor. Well, I'm thinking that whole notion is wrong, because over here we get a big hurricane and suddenly it's all looting, and people are stocking up on guns because we gotta defend ourselves from marauders, and yanno, who trusts the government, even? (Er, maybe I've lived in a few too many red states lately, or read too many on line comments...) Yet in Japan, with a triple disaster, no one's looting. Significant, isn't it? You never know until you're faced with a real-life situation, I guess, but I would hope to be more like the Japanese in such a situation. I suspect, much like the economic preparation of Chile, it's something you figure out before you're in that situation, though.
3. In a less-philosophical note, I find that living in a house full of boys has made me like raw data a whole lot more than I used to. Two interesting sites:
Live geiger counter Tokyo, where you can see what the radiation readings are right at this very minute. Which is kind of nice, because sometimes the news...has a way of being very contradictory, you know? Right now it's reading 14.18 cpm, which is pretty low/normal. Let's hope it stays that way.
Also, the USGS earthquake site. Here you can see all the earthquakes from the past seven days bigger than 2.5 in the world. Well, I think the US ones are 2.5 and above and the worldwide ones might start higher. But it's very interesting. Just so you know, it is normal to have a lot of small quakes around the world every day. Most of the ones on this page are Japan aftershocks, but you'll see that there are plenty of other smaller--and not so smaller--ones that don't even make the news. In Chile we had 6's all the time and no, people didn't like it, but it wasn't like the apocalypse or anything. Just because you don't hear about them doesn't mean it's a government conspiracy or anything. Curiously, a TON of the little ones are centered in Arkansas, where some questionable mining practices have been going on for some time. It's our only earth, people. Keep it clean!
2. I have mentioned before, but I was a missionary for a year and a half in Chile when I was college-aged, and my sister did the same thing in Japan. She later taught English for a year there, and even later, married a man from Japan. So both this earthquake/tsunami/nuclear extravaganza and last year's earthquake/tsunami are particularly vivid for me. I'm really struck by two things: 1) Even if you don't think you have much money, you can still prepare for unknown difficulties. Chile is a fabulous country, certainly not third world, but not Switzerland, either. I knew people who lived in luxury mansions, but I also knew people with dirt floors. Even so, when their earthquake hit, I found it remarkable that they already had a fund for such events. They had been saving up as a nation for some time , knowing full well what might occur, and preparing for it. So while yes, they needed some help, it was nothing compared to what another country may have needed. I think we could all as individuals prepare ahead for times when things aren't going well. At the least, a 72 hour emergency kit. 2) I always thought that one large difference between eastern and western culture was the idea of absolutes. That in the west, there is belief in some things being absolutely right or absolutely wrong, and that in Asia, the issue was more of honor and relativity, that it's not so much a question of absolute right or wrong, but of being caught and what that does to your honor. Well, I'm thinking that whole notion is wrong, because over here we get a big hurricane and suddenly it's all looting, and people are stocking up on guns because we gotta defend ourselves from marauders, and yanno, who trusts the government, even? (Er, maybe I've lived in a few too many red states lately, or read too many on line comments...) Yet in Japan, with a triple disaster, no one's looting. Significant, isn't it? You never know until you're faced with a real-life situation, I guess, but I would hope to be more like the Japanese in such a situation. I suspect, much like the economic preparation of Chile, it's something you figure out before you're in that situation, though.
3. In a less-philosophical note, I find that living in a house full of boys has made me like raw data a whole lot more than I used to. Two interesting sites:
Live geiger counter Tokyo, where you can see what the radiation readings are right at this very minute. Which is kind of nice, because sometimes the news...has a way of being very contradictory, you know? Right now it's reading 14.18 cpm, which is pretty low/normal. Let's hope it stays that way.
Also, the USGS earthquake site. Here you can see all the earthquakes from the past seven days bigger than 2.5 in the world. Well, I think the US ones are 2.5 and above and the worldwide ones might start higher. But it's very interesting. Just so you know, it is normal to have a lot of small quakes around the world every day. Most of the ones on this page are Japan aftershocks, but you'll see that there are plenty of other smaller--and not so smaller--ones that don't even make the news. In Chile we had 6's all the time and no, people didn't like it, but it wasn't like the apocalypse or anything. Just because you don't hear about them doesn't mean it's a government conspiracy or anything. Curiously, a TON of the little ones are centered in Arkansas, where some questionable mining practices have been going on for some time. It's our only earth, people. Keep it clean!
