China earthquake, disaster response, etc...
I remember chatting online with my friend who lives in Chongqing, China, next to Sichuan province, on the day of the Earthquake. We just started chatting when she told me she felt an Earthquake about 30 minutes before, the building she worked in swayed quite a bit and she felt shaken up.
Now its about two weeks later, and we know that the death toll in Sichuan has reached about 80,000 people. Staggering numbers. This is just after the disaster in Myanmar (former Burma) that killed an estimated 100,000 people.
You can see how governments in different countries react to the disasters, and get a feel for how much they care about their people. I have to say, I thought the Chinese central government's response to the earthquake in Sichuan seemed pretty good, but of course we have to realize that coverage of the event is one-sided.
I think shoddy construction is a key cause of the death toll. This is an area that developing countries are going to have to improve to avoid seeing more of these kind of human disasters. It's easy for me to say that, living in the US, fortunate enough to have quality building standards and protections in place.
On the work and life front, I need to continue to be patient and flexible. I am hoping several things will come together which will add up to a higher quality of life for me, but in the meantime, patience is required.
Hawaii doesn't seem to have the energy it had when I was here before. I have heard many people say that tourism is down, mismanagement at the government, local and business level is rampant, coupled with worldwide economic slowdown, things are just slow. One of the major local airlines, Aloha Air, also went out of business recently. The atmosphere around my hotel is also very uninspiring, but it's cheap and convenient!
I heard that drugs also took their toll on Hawaii, that especially methanphetamines really spread among locals, and destroyed many people's lives and families.
Can you believe the price of oil today? Over $130 a barrel. I heard an expert on business news talk about $6 a gallon for gas in the not so distant future.
Well, we should have guessed that it would come to this eventually. I only wish I would have invested in alternative energy sooner. I have been trying to learn for a long time, among all the different alternative energy products available now, what would utimately be the best substitute for fossil fuels? It seems that wind power is going to be one of the big winners of the future. I understand that wind turbine manufacturers are already backed up for the next 6 years. T. Boone Pickens the famous oil man, wants to turn hundreds of miles of land in western states into wind farms. Wind turbines are simply more efficient at generating energy than solar at this time.
Now its about two weeks later, and we know that the death toll in Sichuan has reached about 80,000 people. Staggering numbers. This is just after the disaster in Myanmar (former Burma) that killed an estimated 100,000 people.
You can see how governments in different countries react to the disasters, and get a feel for how much they care about their people. I have to say, I thought the Chinese central government's response to the earthquake in Sichuan seemed pretty good, but of course we have to realize that coverage of the event is one-sided.
I think shoddy construction is a key cause of the death toll. This is an area that developing countries are going to have to improve to avoid seeing more of these kind of human disasters. It's easy for me to say that, living in the US, fortunate enough to have quality building standards and protections in place.
On the work and life front, I need to continue to be patient and flexible. I am hoping several things will come together which will add up to a higher quality of life for me, but in the meantime, patience is required.
Hawaii doesn't seem to have the energy it had when I was here before. I have heard many people say that tourism is down, mismanagement at the government, local and business level is rampant, coupled with worldwide economic slowdown, things are just slow. One of the major local airlines, Aloha Air, also went out of business recently. The atmosphere around my hotel is also very uninspiring, but it's cheap and convenient!
I heard that drugs also took their toll on Hawaii, that especially methanphetamines really spread among locals, and destroyed many people's lives and families.
Can you believe the price of oil today? Over $130 a barrel. I heard an expert on business news talk about $6 a gallon for gas in the not so distant future.
Well, we should have guessed that it would come to this eventually. I only wish I would have invested in alternative energy sooner. I have been trying to learn for a long time, among all the different alternative energy products available now, what would utimately be the best substitute for fossil fuels? It seems that wind power is going to be one of the big winners of the future. I understand that wind turbine manufacturers are already backed up for the next 6 years. T. Boone Pickens the famous oil man, wants to turn hundreds of miles of land in western states into wind farms. Wind turbines are simply more efficient at generating energy than solar at this time.
posted by Mark at
10:51 PM
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