You may think the media and the social networks have told you all that needs to be known about conditions on the ground in Japan, but hearing it first hand gives you a far greater understanding. In the days following the massive earthquake and tsunami, Karamoon contacted me from his home in Tokyo. He wasn’t sure how much longer he could remain in his home, or on the other hand, if he wouldn’t have to stay in doors for two weeks to avoid radioactive winds.
In the following podcast he describes his experience and the concerns going forward. He also goes into details about his survival preparations and options on an island where many people face difficult choices in the aftermath.
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And just now I received an update, Tokyo Hacker Space is taking action for quake relief in Northern Japan but they need your help. (link has been down occasionally today)
I went with an obscure movie/reality post title today, but I’m going to talk about neither the new treasury secretary of the US nor the film.
I’m also not going to talk about the Iranian president’s interview with Der Spiegel that D-Rock just pointed out to me. Not yet.. I’ve something special planned for it in my podcast in the coming days.
Instead, today I have to turn my attention to Indonesia. Several days have now passed since the 6.5 earthquake and the death toll of over 5,000 continues to rise. And to further complicate things a volcano is now spilling lava within the earthquake’s area. Of course, as of this morning, 27 countries had already offerred help in the form of people/stuff/money. But it is such a difficult part of the world, not only because of what seems like a large amount of natural disasters, year after year, but because despite its wealth in natural resources and the fact that the clothes on your back are probably made there – it is still the under-developed world, where the average person has little in the way of emergency measures and options and the government certainly doesn’t seem to make it priority number one that their nation be equipped to handle various levels of natural disaster emergencies.
For the willing and able, I refer you to the Java Earthquake Relief Wiki, where you may find some role you can play as a citizen of the same planet. And to best keep up to speed via blogs, use the WorldWideHelpTeam.