JCC Typhoon Haiyan devastates Phillippines.

Bib, how in this day and age can you be so ignorant? It's indefensible, not just that you are ignorant but that you wear it as a badge of pride.

http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR100/RR118/RAND_RR118.pdf

All I did was use this new magical machine called Google.

 

Don't like the post, Bib. There's nothing ok with what you did.

Now, so we know you're not just a malodorous troll wasting people's time, can you please advise the amounts pledged in aid to SE Asia for the 2011 year?

If you answer is anything less than the correct figure can we conclude you're trolling and can the mods ban you for it?

 

Please, most of your foreign aid is either military assistance of CT capacity building. It's a joke.

 

I'm not saying it was ok what I did. I 'liked' the post, because I humbly accept my ignorance in this matter.

 

How come it's ok to take the "I cast a spell of Wishful Thinking" detour but not the China detour? Racist.

 

Don't know what your talking about

 

Oh, I meant asking the angry and hateful "being" who caused the earthquake to spare the people he smote in an exercise in futile circular logic.

 

Because I stated only that I had been praying that this wouldn't be as bad as it is. Did I ask you to pray? Did I ask China to pray? No? Then it wasn't derailing the thread.

And I created the damn thread. If I want to type out that I was praying, then I'm well within my rights to do so.

 

Super Saiyan!

 

As much as I agree with what you're implying and think it needs to be paid attention to in general, I think making a political potshot is a horrible way to show any sense of mourning for a disaster like this. Despite your "revel in our disaster porn" comment, the important thing here really is that people died (and a lot of them) and that people need to work to help their surviving relations and the immediate area.

That said I'm deeply sorry (and angry!) that such a thing like this happened, and (worse still) happens so frequently, and I'm sorry for every one of those people who died. These things shouldn't happen, period.

 

****'in JCC.

Will you people just shut up, donate if you can or help out in any other way and just be done with such mindless prattle?

******** humanity.

It's mother nature. These things will happen and will continue to happen. It's just another reminder that humanity is not in control of the world they pollute, abuse and constantly disregard.

 

Peeps: http://ushare.redcross.org.ph/ and http://www.redcross.org.ph/donate (first US, latter non)

It's super easy to donate. $10, 20, 50, whatever you want or are able to give. And Red Cross gets **** done. They're one of the few humanitarian organizations you can seriously trust.

 

Yep. 10k is pretty bad...but there have been much, much worse.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_natural_disasters_by_death_toll#Ten_deadliest_tropical_cyclones

 

I would agree, but I don't think he was trying to "mourn" at all. He was making an admittedly policy-related comment about things. Further, I don't think this quite qualifies as politicizing. Events are spurred by certain issues, and trying to understand what those issues are is a normal reaction. Even using the classic (and overly simple) "5 Stages of Grief" Model, it is important for both "Bargaining" and "Acceptance." This has to happen, leaving alone the fact that I think it's a positive thing.

Trying to talk through these issues is distinct from pure political point-scoring. Saying something like "Mission accomplished, Sarah Palin!" in the wake of the Arizona shooting was a clear example of the latter. It didn't really advance any policy debate sensibly, and was just a dedicated takedown of someone. By contrast, the discussion of gun control after Sandy Hook was really productive, because people were trying to create new rules that improved the safety of the community after seeing an example of how it could be unsafe.

 

DOWN with China!

 

This is absolutely awful.


The typhoon, not the thread.

 

Agreed, but I see that as a reason why it happens, not a justification. It still shouldn't happen regardless.

Engh. I kind of agree with you but at the same time I feel like these tragedies shouldn't be necessary for dialogue. I thrive on theory; I don't think something needs to be experienced to be properly analyzed and understood. I suppose my main issue is I feel like these kinds of conversations should be solely dedicated to the actual grief and discussion about what to do, i.e. a reaction to the event only, and not any larger picture. In general I always feel like death trumps all topics, regardless of their importance. Perhaps that's an unfair imposition of mine.

 

Political potshot. Right.

 

As psychological masturbation it probably works just fine.

As an attempt to influence something other than the one doing the praying? Not so much.

 

TIL talking about atmospheric sciences = political potshot

 

So the Philippine president made some comments saying that the death toll isn't nearly as high as 10,000...though his own estimate of 2,000-2,500 is being criticized for lowballing it too much the other way.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/13/us-philippines-typhoon-idUSBRE9A603Q20131113

 

But I was taking powerful hallucinogenic drugs as I was praying and saw Moses!