![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Late to the party
Earlier I linked to a David Brooks column in the NYTimes of Jan 15, 2010 as a direct part of this post. However, it's been pointed out to me that even though we start at the same point, his final conclusions are sufficiently objectionable that attempting to relate the two arguments causes confusion. To that end, I have removed the reference, since it is irrelevant to the final post I made. I am leaving the rest of the post as-is to preserve the original source of the argument, although I am putting it under an LJ-cut since this is getting long. I should repeat that this affray was entirely my fault for not making myself clear.
The Chinese sometimes had an odd theory about their emperors, the idea that in the time of bad emperors, those who focused on their own pleasures rather then running their country, the divine mandate of heaven would fall. And as the Emperors fell from favor, China would suffer from increased crime, lawlessness, and worst of all, natural disasters that would level entire provinces. Most of us no longer believe that every natural disaster is a direct message from God, but there may be truth behind what it says about government.
Haiti was just devastated by a quake that registered a 7.0 on the Richter scale. Like many thousands of other Americans, I have experienced, and survived, a 7.0 quake, in my case the 1989 Loma Prieta quake. The Loma Prieta quake struck in the middle of the heavily populated San Francisco Bay Area, the Haitian quake next to the heavily populated city of Port-au-Prince. The Loma Prieta quake killed 63 people, the Haitian quake and its after-effects will be lucky if it only kills 63,000. Despite the huge bridges, the overpasses, the dangerous coastline, the high-rise buildings, the Loma Prieta quake hit a first-world country, with modern building codes enforced by city agencies, with clear streets and well-mapped utilities, where emergency services were standing by, where people had been trained what to do, and where heavy equipment was on hand only minutes away from disaster zones. Port-au-Prince had a sky high population density with none of the benefits, a disaster waiting to happen. The Bay Area was capable of getting on with its business in days, Port-au-Prince may be destroyed for years to come.
And this should remind us of one thing. Earthquakes are preventable disasters. You can't stop the earthquake, but there's no reason that an earthquake should be anything other then a moderate inconvenience. If you want to stop tragedies like this, don't invest so much in the disaster relief teams that come by later to clean up the mess. Invest in the countries vulnerable to them. Earthquakes, like fires, floods, famines, hurricanes, plagues, and all other natural disasters, can be handled by competent, efficient governments with much reduced loss of life. Haiti doesn't need hundreds of millions of dollars worth of disaster relief now, it needed just millions of dollars to nurture a stable and capable government before the earthquake happened. Remember that when you look at where disaster might strike next.
ETA: Since it's not clear, I wrote this as an indictment of the US, and the first world's, foreign aid policy. Several generations of short-term planning, along with that particular US conservative bent, have changed things to follow the same idea as conservative health care - no preventative care, only disaster relief. The point is that we need to send millions to Haiti now, but what we really should have done was send millions to Haiti earlier, and they might not need this level of relief. I'm hoping that this whole incident will serve as a warning for the future, and for how we deal with foreign aid to other nations.
The Chinese sometimes had an odd theory about their emperors, the idea that in the time of bad emperors, those who focused on their own pleasures rather then running their country, the divine mandate of heaven would fall. And as the Emperors fell from favor, China would suffer from increased crime, lawlessness, and worst of all, natural disasters that would level entire provinces. Most of us no longer believe that every natural disaster is a direct message from God, but there may be truth behind what it says about government.
Haiti was just devastated by a quake that registered a 7.0 on the Richter scale. Like many thousands of other Americans, I have experienced, and survived, a 7.0 quake, in my case the 1989 Loma Prieta quake. The Loma Prieta quake struck in the middle of the heavily populated San Francisco Bay Area, the Haitian quake next to the heavily populated city of Port-au-Prince. The Loma Prieta quake killed 63 people, the Haitian quake and its after-effects will be lucky if it only kills 63,000. Despite the huge bridges, the overpasses, the dangerous coastline, the high-rise buildings, the Loma Prieta quake hit a first-world country, with modern building codes enforced by city agencies, with clear streets and well-mapped utilities, where emergency services were standing by, where people had been trained what to do, and where heavy equipment was on hand only minutes away from disaster zones. Port-au-Prince had a sky high population density with none of the benefits, a disaster waiting to happen. The Bay Area was capable of getting on with its business in days, Port-au-Prince may be destroyed for years to come.
And this should remind us of one thing. Earthquakes are preventable disasters. You can't stop the earthquake, but there's no reason that an earthquake should be anything other then a moderate inconvenience. If you want to stop tragedies like this, don't invest so much in the disaster relief teams that come by later to clean up the mess. Invest in the countries vulnerable to them. Earthquakes, like fires, floods, famines, hurricanes, plagues, and all other natural disasters, can be handled by competent, efficient governments with much reduced loss of life. Haiti doesn't need hundreds of millions of dollars worth of disaster relief now, it needed just millions of dollars to nurture a stable and capable government before the earthquake happened. Remember that when you look at where disaster might strike next.
ETA: Since it's not clear, I wrote this as an indictment of the US, and the first world's, foreign aid policy. Several generations of short-term planning, along with that particular US conservative bent, have changed things to follow the same idea as conservative health care - no preventative care, only disaster relief. The point is that we need to send millions to Haiti now, but what we really should have done was send millions to Haiti earlier, and they might not need this level of relief. I'm hoping that this whole incident will serve as a warning for the future, and for how we deal with foreign aid to other nations.
no subject
It's very much beside the main point, but I was wondering if you had seen or heard anything concerning how the tendency of the far right to criticize other people for having too many children* (i.e. those poor and/or non white/non North American people of course) is reconciled with their own anti-abortion, anti-birth control and pro-large family stances within the United States? Is it pure double think? I'm removed from this situation (not in the U.S.), but it's something that I completely don't understand. (Then again, I'm a supporter of women's rights in general and the ability to control fertility is pretty critical.)
no subject
The best way to understand them is to watch what they do, not listen to what they say. I have not ever been to an abortion clinic, but I hear from many, many sources that the "sidewalk counselors" will get in the faces of white women with the "Don't kill your baby!!" guilt trip. They will never, ever go up to a black woman, Native American woman, or Latina and do the same. (Not sure about Asian women.)
no subject
no subject
This is not, by and large, a country of people comfortable with differences. At least not outside of a limited number of urban areas, and even sometimes not within them.
in spite of being reasonably fluent in English I find there's still a "language" barrier that's more cultural than linguistic.
I'm not really surprised, especially in specific reference to the fundie xtian subculture, because they use and mis-use language in distinct and purposeful ways. Are you familiar with "dogwhistle" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog-whistle_politics) as a political metaphor? It refers to coded language understood by an in-group but no one else. In the U.S., it tends to have racial connotations, but it can also have religious ones (see the 2nd paragraph under "United States" in the Wikipedia article).
In case you ever have the time and curiosity, I would recommend browsing the blog of Fred Clark (http://slacktivist.typepad.com/), a liberal Christian who keeps tabs on the fundies. He's best-known for his deconstructions of the odious Left Behind (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left_Behind) books, but his posts on other religious matters are also informative.
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
The problem is not that people aren't having large families. The problem is that white people aren't having large families. When they are amongst themselves, you will occasionally here them muttering darkly about racial extinction.
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
I am afraid to ask, but why is everything pink? Do I want to know?
no subject
no subject
no subject
...
I'm sorry, it's too easy to hit certain targets.
no subject
You know, I do not understand the logic behind that term "Born Again" in the religious sense. I know they mean it as "washed free of previous sins, freshly embarking on a religious life", but this collides directly with the other doctrine that all humans are inherently born sinful, and just creates cognitive dissonance for me.
no subject
I have no idea how it's treated for those who already were in that life, except that they may have to indulge some sings to get through, but it always felt to me like you were expected to be sinful as a youth (which is sort of logical, because restraining that is hard). Part of it is that the movement spread through adults who had been in other churches for years before being 'born-again', which made the distinction easier to understand.
no subject
Personally, I prefer "born right the first time"
no subject
(*) They might be renting and have no control over the décor. They probably own the couches, though, which are truiy awful.
no subject
no subject
I can believe that they may not have much control over the decor, but that doesn't explain why the women are also wearing matching shades of pink (including the inexplicably bathing suit clad lady with the waist tattoo), or why both boys are also clad in that shade.
I suspect there's something going on -- if it's not deliberate symbolism, someone is far too fond of pink.
no subject
But since they are color coordinated, maybe they like it? Well, tastes are beyond my ken normally.
no subject
(I also have a personal bad association with this. The funeral parlor where I helped make arrangements for my grandmother's funeral was all a rose shade very similar to this. Rose carpet, rose walls, gilt and cream ornaments and framed pictures of roses. It's meant to calm and soothe, I think, but I would have hated it even if I wasn't there under very sad circumstances.)