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[Aqizzar]

He's on the House Subcommittee on Immigration.

The living definition of bipartisanship.  God I love politics; guys like him and Robertson are the reason I wake up in the morning.

[xdarkcodex]

No matter how hard we try to kill each other whether it be murder, war, business or just plain insanity mother nature always shows us who's the boss when it comes to killing stuff.

[Leafsnail]

"It never ceases to amaze me that in times of amazing human suffering somebody says something that can be so utterly stupid," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

This is some of the least diplomatic language that's ever come out of such a high up office.  It's completely true though, of course.

It's probably not that America has any more people like him than other places, but just that they're a hell of a lot more visible.

[Armok]

People are dying from earthquakes.

215,197 people have died from earthquakes in Haiti, Iran, Kashmir, and China...in the past decade alone (I'm assuming 30,000 people died in the Haiti earthquake). The disaster in Haiti showcase that earthquakes are traumatic events that can have dire consequences, and that, without proper rapid aid, people can suffer greatly.

I think that, therefore, as a confidence-building measure based on Haiti awareness and gaining international goodwill, the United States should declare a War on Earthquakes, in much the same was the US declared War on Drugs, Poverty, and Terror. Basically, just devote more money towards earthquake detection and rapid transfer of aid to those that need it most. By doing so, the United States will lessen the disasters caused by earthquakes. Innocent people are being harmed by earthquakes. We must not let another 200,000 people die again.

Brilliant! now we only have to wait for Obama to visit the DF forum and see this...

Oh, wait.

[Servant Corps]

Yeah, I'm sure Servant Corps is pretty pissed off about this.  What y'all need to realize is that humor is the only reactionary mechanism we cynics have.

It's not really humorous. The United States does spend a lot of money trying to win the War on Terror, presumably to save lives, but there is no war on earthquakes, even though such a war could save even more lives. A War on _____ is merely a propaganda tool to rally support for a cause, and the earthquake in Haiti seems like a perfect time to use such a propaganda tool, considering that real people did suffer.

I don't know, it's really the only way I can express sympathy towards those that died in earthquakes.

[Jude]

Basically, just devote more money towards earthquake detection and rapid transfer of aid to those that need it most

All joking aside, this ^^ isn't half bad of an idea. Given that seismologists usually have a good idea of when quakes are coming, and they certainly where quakes are likely to happen, there's a lot that can be done to prepare, both in  terms of building non-shitty buildings and infrastructure (which hopefully will happen in Haiti with the whole world chipping in) and getting people ready to deal with it

Also, just as many if not more people are going to die of dehydration after the fact than are dying directly from the earthquake because supplies can't be moved in fast enough.

[Cthulhu]

My greatx7 Grandpa was actually there when Satan kicked the French out of Haiti.  Apparently Satan looks exactly the way Diablo was depicted in, well, Diablo.  Further evidence that Blizzard is managed by demons.

[Vester]

Yeah, I'm sure Servant Corps is pretty pissed off about this.  What y'all need to realize is that humor is the only reactionary mechanism we cynics have.

It's not really humorous. The United States does spend a lot of money trying to win the War on Terror, presumably to save lives, but there is no war on earthquakes, even though such a war could save even more lives. A War on _____ is merely a propaganda tool to rally support for a cause, and the earthquake in Haiti seems like a perfect time to use such a propaganda tool, considering that real people did suffer.

I don't know, it's really the only way I can express sympathy towards those that died in earthquakes.

Maybe it's a logistics thing? As far as I know, we still have difficulty predicting storms, because they're so -random.

[KaelGotDwarves]

My greatx7 Grandpa was actually there when Satan kicked the French out of Haiti.

Well, at least France had a real reason for surrendering that time. derp.

[Judas Maccabeus]

Maybe it's a logistics thing? As far as I know, we still have difficulty predicting storms, because they're so -random.

Yes, but we still know that, say, Oklahoma is more likely to be hit by a tornado than Vermont, or Ontario is more likely to be hit with heavy snow than Arizona; this lets us get the logistics in place to prepare for a storm that seems likely to hit and react to one that has, and it works fairly well most of the time.  Earthquakes are, if anything, easier, since it's almost absolutely certain that damaging earthquakes only occur in certain locations.  Haiti, for example, has been hit with large earthquakes before, and thus would already have been part of any such program.  It's certainly doable and doable without taking too much money, in my opinion.

[Aqizzar]

About a decade ago, there was an Earthquake in Missouri.  If you're on the planet Earth, you are at risk of earthquakes, and even limiting it to faultlines is a damn huge area to cover.

Besides that, I don't even know what Servant is arguing for.  That the United States should have a giant army of rapid-response disaster relief personal on station for the entire world all the time, just because we can theoretically foot the bill better than other countries?  First of all, what gives you or anyone the right to demand that country prop another state it has nothing to do with?

Secondly, the US already does that.  Within 48 hours, thousands of National Guard and special relief personnel were swarming all over Haiti.  Logistical problems are just a fact of reality (you can only move a box so fast), and most of the hangups and on Haiti's end.  Port-au-Prince has exactly one dirt airstrip that the entire world's relief effort has to land on, and the earthquake destroyed pretty much everything else.  Which wasn't much anyway, which is exactly why Haiti is in such dire straights.

[Judas Maccabeus]

About a decade ago, there was an Earthquake in Missouri.

...Which has been known as an earthquake-prone area for two centuries now.  I'm not sure what that proves.

The point isn't that we can do things perfectly, but we certainly can do things better.  A place like Haiti can't afford to keep up good building codes and infrastructure on its own, it needs the help from outside.  Plus, improved infrastructure helps the place in any case, and might make it so that it eventually becomes prosperous enough to maintain earthquake readiness on its own.  I'm not saying that the United States needs to do everything for, say, Italy, which can and does prepare for earthquakes on its own, but for places that can't, someone has to.

[Aqizzar]

And I'm saying it already does.  America is and has long been Haiti's principle source of aid.  There's just only so much economics and logistics can accomplish.  Definitionally, everyone can always do "something" and do better at it, but unless you've got a specific suggestion, you're just going to have to concede that we live in the real world with all its practical hurdles.  Disasters are called disasters for a reason.

[Judas Maccabeus]

Well, that's just the thing.  It'd be more directed rather than just "throw money in their vague direction".  It'd be building houses that are better able to withstand earthquakes.  It'd be expanding and reinforcing sea- and airports.  These are things that help with the stated goals, have other positive effects, and shouldn't require intervening in the country's politics and society.  It certainly wouldn't help in, say, a 9.0 earthquake, but in medium-size earthquakes it could potentially have quite an effect on the number of lives lost and the amount of suffering afterwards.  At the very least, an organised group dedicated to the matter would be best able to figure out where it would be most cost-effective to do so.

It's not perfect, but it's something that I think could be very good if the details are worked out correctly - though that's something more for geologists than for me, obviously.

[Aqizzar]

So what are you saying then?  That because people in Haiti can't afford to build better house's it's the US's responsibility to go down there and pay for everything to meet California building codes?  Look, if you want industrial nations to out-of-pocket absorb poor countries into charity states, then just say so, but quit dancing around saying somebody has to do something without saying what.