Truly devastating footage, images and stories to come out of Japan in the last five days. The scale of the quake and what has followed is just not possible to grasp. It's especially miserable how reminiscent some of the scenes are of disasters in New Orleans, Haiti, Chile, and New Zealand, all unhappily in recent memory.
This isn't really the right place to discuss such an awful event, but I'm sure it has been on everyone's mind given the love and respect in this place for Japan. Which seems like a trite thing to be typing out, as it sounds quite superficial, but I don't think it really is. I hope anyone here with friends and relatives in Japan are all doing ok.
It's amazing how social networks have been the backbone for support and information. I found these glimpses of how people in Japan are dealing with the quake:
https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1oR7mRBNCog-FeVrtl0dD4Suoi2hL0XE4YOoAPdCyZ3w&pli=1
gives a welcome alternate view to what has been happening. Some of the tabloid coverage by contrast has been shameful.
I find it extremely difficult to read or watch anything regarding the disaster. I'm not able to deal with it, I have friends out there and friends here who have family there - it's all so messed up. My heart goes out to the people there, nobody deserves this shit.
Natural disasters, at least on this scale, simply cannot be helped.
People are getting looked after as far as we know, which is the main thing.
I've been genuinely moved by events. There's also a lot to admire in terms of how the Japanese have been coping with these terrible times.
The western news coverage on the other hand has been absolutely bloody awful. Shameful to see the suffering of others turned into a political attack against nuclear power. There was a good counterpoint article on the register about this, which made more sense than the 3 inch high "MELTDOWN" headlines in the tabloids.
2 of my friends were on honeymoon in Japan when the quake hit. Thankfully they're OK and managed to get out of the country.