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Author Topic: Japan  (Read 18949 times)

Mark D Segal

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Re: Japan
« Reply #40 on: March 15, 2011, 11:44:18 am »

Feppe, I agree. Haiti is a sad case. But Haiti's big problem is political. Take a look at the list of Haitian heads of state for the past 200 years: http://www.haiti.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=67&Itemid=114. Most have been overthrown or have "died in office." Beginning in the middle fifties the country was taken over by Papa Doc Duvalier, an out-and-out criminal, followed by Baby Doc Duvalier, a chip off the old block. Finally, another criminal, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, took over and shortly thereafter was thrown out by the people. Aristide came back in the middle nineties, finished a term, was reinstated by force by the United States, and was kicked out a second time by the people. Leadership over the past couple years has been weak at best, and Aristide is back in town, though not yet in office. Until Haiti is able to find something other than a kleptocrat to lead the country, aid is going to be futile and reconstruction simply isn't going to happen.


Yes, essentially what I meant in post 33, though I was not explicit about the facts of the situation which you correctly portray here. I would go further, however. You have stated a vital necessary condition - leadership. Of course it will not be sufficient. There is a whole legacy of social and institutional practices and attitudes built around the previous and current political structures which will need to be fundamentally rebuilt from the ground-up for sustainable change toward acceptable and effective governance to occur. That will take time, once there is a core leadership in place able and prepared to face it and do the needful. Meanwhile, what happens to all those suffering hundreds of thousands of people - not good.
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Mark D Segal (formerly MarkDS)
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Mark D Segal

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Re: Japan
« Reply #41 on: March 15, 2011, 12:30:52 pm »

Count me in too - and there are probably slews of us! I think even before issues of the skill set arise, just wrapping one's mind around all the requirements for doing it properly is the first hurdle to overcome. The thing that's attractive about Blurb, from what I've seen of their recent work, is that especially for B&W, the neutrality of the reproductions is really very good (in fact their colour reproduction altogether looks good too), and they offer a complete publishing and selling service right on the site along with the book preparation templates, which is pretty ease to use.
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Mark D Segal (formerly MarkDS)
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BernardLanguillier

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Re: Japan
« Reply #42 on: April 18, 2011, 09:03:26 am »


Hello my friends,

I was finally able to leverage an opportunity to try help a tiny little bit Northern Japan with my desperately weak arms.

Photography was not the purpose of the trip obviously so I couldn't do much, but the images linked below should convey the situation that remains one month after the distaster:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bernardlanguillier/

Cheers,
Bernard

Mark D Segal

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Re: Japan
« Reply #43 on: April 18, 2011, 09:10:00 am »

Bernard, thanks for sharing, and it is really good that you are able to lend a hand there. I am sure every little bit must be appreciated. It is really heart-breaking to see how badly disrupted are the lives of so many people.

Mark
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Mark D Segal (formerly MarkDS)
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Rob C

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Re: Japan
« Reply #44 on: April 18, 2011, 02:44:36 pm »

I've just reread the whole thread, and several things come to mind.

1. Media coverage: at the end of the day, the media know damned well that local life has to go on as usual; everybody apart from those personally connected would simply stop switching on were constantly available new tragedy to remain the only fare offered.

2. Haiti: as has been written/implied, gangsters rule. Check out parts of Italy to find more of the same. My mother was in Naples at the time of a volcanic eruption and the folks there suggested that people abroad stop sending blankets, clothes, that they simply send money in order to make it simpler for the Mafia who, in the end, control all of it. This is not a joke; it's for real.

3. Bahrain: I know people who live there. I'm told there is an unbelievable free health service, education and even university service where you are paid a salary just to attend. The real problem seems to stem from the fact, common to many parts of Europe too, that locals are too comfortable to do some of the more menial labor, so they import people from the third world who work for peanuts and then, after about five years, can get permanent permission to live there. This causes great local resentment there, again as in Europe, but the answer has to lie in making it worthwhile for the indigenous people to get their act together and do the 'low' work themselves. Pointless blaming the poor from abroad... It would seem that it's this resentment that causes the political storms to brew and become unfocussed. Or so I'm reliably informed. I suppose that the only way to make people do infra dig work is to lower benefits for doing nothing. But votes...

4. Safety of nuclear power: it isn't, but then neither is anything else. You simply have to weigh the risks of alternatives, and I'd suggest nuclear comes very low in the good side of danger!

Rob C

BernardLanguillier

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Re: Japan
« Reply #45 on: April 20, 2011, 05:31:30 pm »

For those interested, we have started to work on a blog with some friends:

http://team-nadia.org/

Cheers,
Bernard

Mark D Segal

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Re: Japan
« Reply #46 on: April 22, 2011, 03:44:30 pm »

For those interested, we have started to work on a blog with some friends:

http://team-nadia.org/

Cheers,
Bernard


Bernard, thanks for bringing this to our attention. I visited the link. I think it is important to support such organizations doing real, grass-roots volunteer work on-the-spot. Often they have the most intimate familiarity with the needs, effective methods and priorities, but they need the means to meet their expenses. I hope to be kept informed of the results of their efforts. 
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Mark D Segal (formerly MarkDS)
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ethanw

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Re: Japan
« Reply #47 on: May 04, 2011, 10:00:57 am »

It is really saddening how such could happen to a nation. And it just describes how we are at a level playing field in reality. It is really hard to stand up when something extreme has happened but I think that they are doing a pretty good job at it. 

I do not like however, the way they downplayed the real situation in their nuclear plant.  Many can go on thinking that everything is okay and suddenly go boom in the next minute. The people will find out eventually so have them know the truth so they could plan things and how they could go about their daily lives.
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BernardLanguillier

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Re: Japan
« Reply #48 on: May 05, 2011, 05:57:45 pm »

I do not like however, the way they downplayed the real situation in their nuclear plant.  Many can go on thinking that everything is okay and suddenly go boom in the next minute. The people will find out eventually so have them know the truth so they could plan things and how they could go about their daily lives.

This is a complex topic. I am not sure you'd have wanted to be the politician rushing 30 million people out of one of the largest cities in the world when in the end the fact remains that there was very little to no impact for Tokyo.

Cheers,
Bernard

Dick Roadnight

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Re: Japan
« Reply #49 on: May 05, 2011, 06:08:58 pm »

This is a complex topic. I am not sure you'd have wanted to be the politician rushing 30 million people out of one of the largest cities in the world when in the end the fact remains that there was very little to no impact for Tokyo.

Cheers,
Bernard

How low-lying is Tokyo? What would the effect have been if the worst of the Tsunami had hit Tokyo?
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Mark D Segal

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Re: Japan
« Reply #50 on: May 05, 2011, 06:48:59 pm »

This is a complex topic. I am not sure you'd have wanted to be the politician rushing 30 million people out of one of the largest cities in the world when in the end the fact remains that there was very little to no impact for Tokyo.

Cheers,
Bernard


I agree. It's not sensible to second-guess much about what happened from the outside. The authorities will do their investigations and make their assessments; I think we should all just chill-out on this topic and wait for informed analysis.
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Mark D Segal (formerly MarkDS)
Author: "Scanning Workflows with SilverFast 8....."
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