reality check

Yes, we continue to be fine.
For the record, Tokyo is over three hundred kilometers away from Sendai. The earthquake in Tokyo was big and bad, but thanks to some of the most stringent building codes in the world, anything built in the last 20 years in Tokyo is utterly safe.
But enough about me, let's talk about YOU, and what YOU need to do; two very important things:

  1. Stop wasting precious communication resources. Electricity is lacking and phone service is still quite sketchy. I know that sounds terribly harsh, but no more harsh than a 9.0 earthquake and 10 meter-high tsunami.
    There are thousands of people whose location and status are unknown. THEY need the cell connection more than you. There are literally millions of people with little or no electricity (and no water because the pumps are electric, no gas because the meters are electric, etc.) so stop wasting it.
    If you need to find someone, check the google person finder.
  2. Instead of sending "thoughts" or "prayers" or anything else that makes you feel good, send money. As much as possible, directly to the Red Cross or any other similar agency that turns that money directly and efficiently into saved lives. Again, harsh? My family and I are fine, tens of thousands more are not. Your thoughts don't help, sorry. Send money. Now. As much as you can.
And finally, stop worrying about the imminent nuclear meltdown. It simply won't happen. I am a huge seller of nuclear power, but really it isn't and won't be that bad.
Though it may in fact give birth to Godzilla, the nuclear reactor tragedy will not irradiate Japan. Read this, then read it again. Then filter all the crap on the news through a thick lens of fact, reality, and physics.

Then go donate more money; you have plenty of it, and several thousand families now have nothing but mud and broken dreams.

1 comment:

Auntie Em said...

Hear ya loud and clear -- Donations made to Doctors Without Borders and Red Cross.