I'm starting to get feed up about patio11 and the all's well attitude and "we'll manage, thank you very much". The last head-count is seventeen thousand dead and rising. It is obvious that all is _not_ well and that people in the affected areas need help and fast.
>> I'm starting to get feed up about patio11 and the all's well attitude and "we'll manage, thank you very much".
I don't know that he ever said that they don't need help. One thing he did say is that you are not going to BE much help if you come and don't speak Japanese.
(http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2318005)
I appreciate the thought, but it takes $2k to bring you here, which is enough to put an out of work Japanese twenty-something on the project for a month. He's literate and can understand directions.
(note: I can attest from personal experience that people that don't speak Japanese can have difficulty getting around without assistance once they leave Tokyo)
All is not well, but Patio11 is writing a contrarian article -- an article that goes against conventional wisdom.
I am at loss to explain this in a way that does not sound callous. Just be assured that these things are perceived in a cyclic manner by the public. Right now, and for the next few months, the MSM and the mob has decided that it is time to panic, rant and rave.
That's fine. It's a terrible disaster, and our minds are ill-suited to deal with anything of this scale. My heart goes out to the Japanese and I'll do anything I can do to help. At the same time, however, it's not a very productive attitude to sit around moaning and talking about how terrible things are. Everybody doesn't have to follow the mob and feel exactly the "right" way that you or I think that they should. Conforming to some black-and-white, over-the-top view of the world is an indulgence that we can have because we are so far away. The Japanese have work to do, and that involves taking an honest look around and reminding themselves that there is a huge amount of stuff that is not broken.
I enjoy contrarian articles - both writing them and reading them -- because it reminds me how easy it is to cut corners and go from "horrible disaster" to "all is lost!" Crowds always overreact, and the media tries their damnedest to make money off of this phenomenon. Quite frankly it's digusting. I don't know what's worse, watching this disaster slowly unfold or watching the news outlets "break" news every few minutes and do their best to rehash old stories with a sense of forboding and panic. blech.
So until you live 300 miles from a disaster like that, you might want to cut Patio11 a bit of slack. Hell, even if you live in the middle of it, you might want to cut him some slack, because getting along with each other is the right thing to do. Let people deal with things in the way that they are best suited. A little more understanding and a little less attitude.
> Patio11 is writing a contrarian article -- an article that goes against conventional wisdom
Yeah patio's polemic is "cool" and all, but when the ship starts to sink after it has hit the iceberg and you still insist that all is well because "this ship cannot sink" then its not so cool anymore. The people affected need help and for them the plans obviously does not work and situated actions are called for. They need, food, shelter, medicin etc. and fast.
The question is not whether all is well, or help is needed. The question is whether or not the help that we could provide would be a net benefit, or an overall drag on the existing disaster relief system.
Help volunteering isn't free (even ignoring the cost). It requires coordination and organization of where and how to allocate resources, which must be inserted into the existing plans. It diverting supplies that could go to displaced people in order to sustain the volunteers trying to help them. In many cases, it requires training, which takes away time from the people with skills that can be immediately applied.
Patio11's contention, which I have no expert opinion about but I'm willing to take him at face-value, is that the overhead required to extract value from a volunteer off the streets is greater than the value extracted. The Japanese need more help, but people who might be interested in volunteering are ill-suited to give help. A further point implied in the title but not the article is that the military could give humanitarian aide; I would be willing to believe this, as they have their own coordination, supply, and training already in place and would therefore not be a drag on Japan's relief resources.
No offense Patrick, you're a great dude, but I'm somewhat put off by that attitude. It's easy to say when you are in Nagoya; do you guys even have the electricity problem in the 60hz zone of Japan?
To clarify, I am still in Tokyo, working in Yokohama at the moment, and I don't think Tokyo has a problem. (I am worried about _long term_ exposure to elevated radiation, but that is neither here nor there.) I do think the foreign media has been blowing things out of proportion (to the point where I told my mom I had relocated to Yamanashi to calm her down).
However, these irritatingly smug articles about how everything is "alright", and not to "panic" are ridiculous. I keep getting such sanctimonious messages on my Twitter feed about how nothing's wrong; I suspect quite a few are infowar soundbytes meant for American consumption. With a lack of clear, trustworthy information, it is entirely logical to assume the worst and ride out the tide while waiting for objective sources of information (geiger counters, etc..) to prove things one way or another.
I "panicked" and bought 15 kilos of rice, canned foods and lentils. (Not to mention batteries, etc..) I filled up my bathtub with water, and stored as much as I could in safe places. (I also did it before the powerplants blew.) Most likely nothing will happen and I won't have to do food shopping for another 3-6 months. However, in the odd chance that things really do go south (another earthquake, etc...), I have an improved chance of getting out alive.
I don't begrudge anyone for feeling that there is more than meets the eye at play, and for leaving. Seeing the "macho posing" on twitter and facebook is stupid; no one is more masculine because you are still here. (I'm here, but only because my company stupidly decided to keep working when its entire staff is demoralized. BTW, if anyone wants a Python/Django engineer and project manager with a B.Sc, I'm willing to relocate. ;) )
