Chinese Earthquake

[Ibby]

I'm surprised the government publicized those. A few years back, they wouldnt have.
Theyre improving though, i suppose. Just look at how Burma is blocking (almost) all aid... five, ten years ago, that would have been China too. Now, the government has programs in place to actually help the populace recover from this. The government is trying to help them, and in many cases actually succeeding from what i've heard. Theyve got a long way to go towards recovery, but the government is helping to facilitate, not block, that recovery.
On the other hand, it's government and quasi-governmental-companies that caused much of the problems. See how most buildings were left standing, while some utterly disintegrated? Corruption caused that, plain and simple. If all the buildings were to spec, and followed regulations, they wouldnt have fallen. Instead, shoddy materials were used, corners were cut, money was embezzled, and palms were greased... and that's what killed these people. When China tightens its controls on corruption, things will vastly improve.

[xoxoxoBruce]

7.8 is one hell of a quake!
I wonder why the guys in the red suits have CHINA, in English, on their backs?

[Elspode]

So many children in those pictures...so many bodies. My god. How horrific.

Its times like these when I wish I had a big bag of money to give away. These poor fuckers. And Myanmar is a complete travesty. There's no other explanation for what's going on there other than the ruling junta *wants* its subjects to die horribly. The reports that are coming out of there are unbelievable.