For those of us unfamiliar with geological terminology, it may come as a shock that the Chilean quake, rated 8.8 on the Richter scale, was roughly 500 times more powerful than the Haitian quake in January, which rated 7.0. Yet in Haiti, probably more than 200,000 lives were lost; in Chile, the number of dead is estimated at about 800. While that is still a terrible tragedy, the Chilean death toll is far less than 1% of that in Haiti.
The two disasters were different in ways that certainly explain at least part of the huge disparity in loss of life and property damage. The tectonic shift that hit Haiti was much closer to population centers, and of course Chile is a wealthier and more developed country, with a functioning government, a literate population and a recent history of coping with earthquakes. In 1960, the largest quake ever recorded struck near the Chilean city of Valdivia, killing thousands there and stimulating a tsunami that damaged coastal cities in Hawaii, Japan and the Philippines.
But that big quake in 1960 also led the Chileans to think about how they should cope with the threat of another such disaster—as a nation. To strengthen new construction against earthquake damage, they legislated a strict revamping of building codes. And when democracy returned to Chile after two decades of military dictatorship, those regulations were rewritten, in 1993, to make them even more stringent. The seismic requirements demand that every structure use a "strong column" design to ensure that it remains standing even in a severe quake.
Government-Provided Safety Measures
In a society with sane politics, rules and regulations needed to safeguard life don't provoke much debate, even on the furthest ends of the ideological spectrum.
Everyone realizes that there are certain dangers to which anyone can fall victim; protecting and insuring against those dangers is a social responsibility, a government function and a measure of human progress.
Here in the United States, however, anti-government ideology is a pandemic mental tic that has now developed into a virulent disorder afflicting a large number of citizens—including many of our self-styled conservatives. Infuriated because their party cannot permanently control the White House and the Congress, they have gradually persuaded themselves that all government is evil, that all taxation is theft and that all regulation is tyranny. Or at least that is the tone of their rhetoric.
If the Chileans had adopted this kind of manic and reflexive attitude, many more of them would undoubtedly be dead today. The "free market" extremists who call themselves conservative probably wouldn't worry much about the loss of life, because they are far more concerned with ideological consistency than with practical effects. But the rest of us might consider the wiser approach of Friedrich von Hayek, the Austrian economist whose work is often cited by the extremists when they claim to be defending freedom.
In The Road to Serfdom, perhaps his most popular work, Hayek explained that he saw no reason why "the state should not assist individuals in providing for those common hazards of life against which, because of their uncertainty, few individuals can make adequate provision. Where, as in the case of sickness and accident, neither the desire to avoid such calamities nor the efforts to overcome their consequences are as a rule weakened by the provision of assistance, where, in short, we deal with genuinely insurable risks, the case for the state helping to organize a comprehensive system of social insurance is very strong."
To Hayek, there was "no incompatibility in principle between the state providing greater security in this way and the preservation of individual freedom."
It is worth noting, not so incidentally, that the great philosopher of the market was writing about health care rather than earthquakes or tainted food or untested drugs in the passage quoted above. But the principle is the same—and ought to be remembered whenever we hear the preposterous din of the Tea Parties and their corporate sponsors.
2010 Creators.com
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Chile and Haiti are both exploited regions suffering under US imperialism's boot and facilitated by BOTH republicans and democrats.
While the democrats ruthlessly attack entitlements and the working class as a whole, they're hijacking small countries like these with soft and hard power turning natural disasters into humanitarian ones.
Rightfully, the blame belongs squarely on the policies currently being pushed by the democrats, not republicans. But the larger indictment is against the criminal capitalist system and power structure.
Enter deep politics...
Truth Amidst the Rubble in Haiti: The U.S. Is the Problem, Not the Solution
http://revcom.us/a/191/Haiti-en.html
An Unnatural Catastrophe: The U.S. Crucifixion of Haiti, Part 1
http://takingaimradio.com/mp3/takingaim100119.mp3
An Unnatural Catastrophe: The U.S. Crucifixion of Haiti, Part 2: The Destruction of the State
http://takingaimradio.com/mp3/takingaim100202.mp3
The Ongoing War Against the Haitian People
http://takingaimradio.com/mp3/takingaim100209.mp3
Re: The Politics of Earthquakes
Let me share with you the FLIP SIDE to the Politics of Earthquakes;
Remember the 2009 L'Aquila Italian quake? And the guy, according to wikipedia, Italian lab technician Giampaolo Giuliani, who went on Italian TV predicting the quake, a month BEFORE it happened. It was also supposedly reported that he went around neighborhoods with a loud speaker warning people and was detained by police.
Unfortunately for the 300 who died, the Italian Director of Civil Defense, Bertolaso, accused him of being an alarmist, and The Head of the Italian Geophysics Institute, Enzo Boschi, declared, according to wikipedia, that "its just not possible to predict earthquakes."
The man that accurately predicted the quake, Mr. Giampaolo Giuliani was a scientist and used the increase in radon gas levels, he was proportedly monitoring as a theory for his predictions.
I feel Mr. Giuliani's pain, as I too have predicted earthquakes for many yrs., although I'm not a scientist, I am very sensitive to the Pacific Rim, as well as other regions, and predict through my senses.
I contacted the United States Geological Survey, (USGS) prior to the 2004 Indonesian quake/tsunami and was laughed at. Was even told that (the ability to predict quakes) "may be important to you, but not to us." Oh really...
Tell that to all of the survivors and victims who where swept away from the arms of their loved ones as the tsunamic hit in Indonesia. I'm sure they would of appreciated a two week warning, as would the Haitian's, the Chilean's, the Japanese, The Mexican's, etc. etc.
I sent an email warning (all documented) TWO WEEKS PRIOR to the quake, to a renowned seismologist featured in a scientific magazine with reportedly, one of the greatest inventions of the year, (a 20-second warning).
I had been sending this seismologist earthquake warnings for a year to establish credibility, and in early Dec. 2004, sent him the warning, naming Indonesia as an area of concern. This individual did absolutely nothing with the information two weeks prior, and when asked why, responded with a detached "I don't know any civil defense people." Two weeks is plenty of time for even the most basic emergency evacuation plans.
There will always be earthquakes and it's up to our civil engineers & architects to attempt to design safe structures, and cities, govts to have responsible development, but we CAN also, at the very least, warn people in advance.
The problem with govt is the overburdening amount of bureaucracy, not being able to reach the right people, and with science (or at least some scientific minds), its the conventional, outdated wisdom they cling to that has become a major hindrance to the evolution of humanity, progress and society. We need to develop and implement a new way of doing business.
I have documented hundreds of quake predictions over ten yrs., have contacted too many to count international earthquake agencies, govt.'s, and scientists, for only three to respond.
Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of people have died needlessly, and billions of dollars are spent every year to restore countries.
If only there were a group of brave, intelligent, open-mined individuals with vision that could get involved. Our overreliance on govt agencies and waiting for the stamp of approval from unconscious scientific groups to implement change is not working. Remember Katrina?
The Japanese have already taken action through the coordination of their major cell phone companies and their civil defense agencies to alert people of quakes. Their only problem is that they give the warnings only seconds prior to the event, not weeks, days in advance, which would provide time to coordinate a basic emergency plan.
Imagine our society if people were warned well in advance of pending earthquakes, if missing children were found in a matter of hours, if most crimes were solved, people healed by a touch.
Just think how politics, or law enforcement, would be revolutionized because we would really know who was telling the truth. These are very real abilities humans are capable of, its up to the rest of humanity to catch up.
Believe it or not this is the future of mankind, will it materialize in our lifetime? Only time will tell. I hope so.
CW