OP, based on your last name, I presume you are Asian (Korean to be more exact) and lived your whole life in the States. Have you ever been to East Asia? If not, I'd recommend it. Not just to tour for a week or two, but actually live there for a while and visit the towns and cities. Maybe teach English to schoolchildren to pay your way. I guarantee that you'll see yourself completely differently when you come back.
I'd love to see how this retard reacts if something tragic happen to his family. He might post something on here again with grieving topics such as " My mama, dada, papa, gaga, sasa, baba, all gone 
"
"Originally posted by: Solodays
I'd love to see how this retard reacts if something tragic happen to his family. He might post something on here again with grieving topics such as " My mama, dada, papa, gaga, sasa, baba, all gone
I probably will.
Family =/= Dead Chinese in China
Originally posted by: BoomerD
Originally posted by: m0mentary
Originally posted by: Xylitol
Originally posted by: PolymerTim
Hmmm, I would think that the vast majority of those killed had nothing to do with the running of their government or the decision to make low quality products (as opposed to just working in a factory and just doing what they are told to make a living).
I think it is a shame when anyone stops caring for human death and suffering, whatever the circumstances. But hey, if those excuses make you feel better about not caring...
For the suffering in China and many other places around the world.
They're just the possible reasons that could have made me callous to this. I don't know what
I think its just being selfish. If it doesn't affect/benefit you directly, you don't care.
OP, this doesn't have much impact on me either. I think part of the cause of the high death toll is the shoddy construction practices and corrupt building inspectors in China, combined with low quality materials, nearly non-existant building codes or enforcement of the ones they do have.
I built bridges for much of my working career. Almost every government entity we worked for forbid the use of foreign steel. In part to support American steel producers, but more, because of low quality products that came with falsified certifications.
For example: one major SF bridge retrofit I worked on 10 years ago bought bolts for the steel erection/connections from a contractor who ended up buying them from a Chinese company.
They came in with certifications that met Cal-Trans specs, every bucket of bolts & nuts had a similar cert attached to it, but when Cal-Trans set up their field test for the bolts, over 90% of them failed to meet shear tests, torque tests, and several others. Why?
Because they were poorly made, of sub-standard materials, and came with fraudulent certifications.
Needless to say, the company had to put in a rush order for replacement bolts, and it took them a couple of months to fill the order, causing delays in the construction process. This was not a small order of bolts/nuts BTW, it was basically for a full 40 foot semi load of specialized structural steel connectors...not the kind of thing you could run down to Home Depot and buy...oh wait, those would be Chinese made too...
They were going to sue the supplier but I never did hear how the lawsuit ended up.
Chinese companies have EARNED the reputation for turning out sub-standard, cheap quality junk. It wasn't given to them by the media, nor by the unions who represented displaced workers, they earned it by turning out sub-standard quality, cheap JUNK, some of it poisonous to the very consumers it was meant for.
There's a thread in P&N on the subject of the Chinese quake, and I opined much the same thing about building quality being at least a part of the cause of the high death toll, and got the following in my PM box:
"Hey buddy..your american buildings fare no better...what happened in that bridge a while a ago? Did it suddenly collapse..hmm..oh how about the 9.11? The so called superior american engineering and construction can't even withstand two little plane strike? Good grief and now you are saying Chinese building collapse at a 7.9 earthquake. So please STFU. "
Sounds like I struck a nerve.
I'm much older than most of the people here. I was raised to hate and distrust Communists. (Better Dead than Red, Kill a Commie for your Mommie, that sort of thing) and went to war against the evil Communists in Vietnam. We were also taught that the Chicoms were behind the North Vietnam aggression against the Republic of South Vietnam, and were our sworn enemy as well.
While I'm glad to see the Chinese government making some changes for the better, as with Tianamen Square, we're reminded that they are still the Evil Red Menace.
Enough P&N rambling
OP, like you, I'm somewhat surprised that I don't care more about this tragedy nor the one in Burma, nor the big Iranian earthquake a while back. I don't think it's a hate or dislike for their people, nearly as much as it is a hate and dislike for their government.
I usually hate reading long paragraphs, but that was an interesting post
Deeko
Lifer
- Jun 16, 2000
- 30,213
- 12
- 81
Having not read responses.....
I don't care either, but not for your reasons. I don't give 2 shits about their government or about their products. I just. Don't. Care.
I have no reason to feel empathy. If it doesn't affect me, the plight of others is irrelevant to me, just as I'd expect others to not care about my problems.
Call me insensitive or an asshole, I just really don't care.
I don't care either, but not for your reasons. I don't give 2 shits about their government or about their products. I just. Don't. Care.
I have no reason to feel empathy. If it doesn't affect me, the plight of others is irrelevant to me, just as I'd expect others to not care about my problems.
Call me insensitive or an asshole, I just really don't care.
Locut0s
Lifer
- Nov 28, 2001
- 22,205
- 44
- 91
If you don't feel bad specifically because of the reasons you mentioned then yeah maybe you are a bad person. But if you simply don't care because you don't know someone personally involved, it's just another disaster, then welcome to being human. I didn't feel personally upset that much when 9/11 happened, shocked and interested in the story yes but personally I was not affected in any way so I didn't feel bad. Despite what the media might have you believe that's the natural healthy human response to such incidents. We evolved to have emotional responses to those we personally have an emotional stake in.
MmmSkyscraper
Diamond Member
- Jul 6, 2004
- 9,472
- 1
- 76
Mo0o
Lifer
- Jul 31, 2001
- 24,227
- 3
- 76
A lot of polar emotions going on in here. It's a tragedy and i feel bad about people dying but i dont care enough to do anything about it. Feel about teh same as 9/11 or any other human tragedy that doesn't affect me directly. Maybe if it happened close to where I live, I would go volunteer but it's too far for me to take action
iskim86
Banned
Read the following WSJ article and THEN tell me you still not feel bad...
A Mother's Search
For Trapped Son
Goes Unaided
Family Digs for Days
After China Earthquake;
Crews Won't Lend Hand
By GORDON FAIRCLOUGH
May 15, 2008; Page A1
WUDU, China -- For two days after Monday's earthquake demolished her house and those around it, Deng Yizhen and her family tried to claw through the rubble and rescue her only child, 34-year-old Deng Yujian.
They tried to flag down rescue crews and cranes. None stopped to lend a hand, they said. All were rushing elsewhere to grapple with the disaster.
For the first few hours, Mr. Deng called for help. He spoke from under a deep pile of broken concrete slabs to his mother and his wife, Qin Ke. "I told him I would get him out," says Ms. Qin, whose legs were gashed as she dug in the debris. "But he said he was too badly hurt. He said he wouldn't make it. He told me not to wait for him."
1
Gordon Fairclough
In the home of 52-year-old Deng Yizhen, family members and neighbors were near the end of a frantic two-day search to reach her son, 34-year-old Deng Yujian. Click to see more images from two reporters' trip north of the epicenter Wednesday.
Overwhelmed by the scale of the damage, China's emergency workers have engaged in triage, focusing resources on flattened schools and other places with large concentrations of casualties. That has forced many in the quake-ravaged region such as Ms. Deng largely to fend for themselves, relying for assistance only on that bedrock institution of rural Chinese society: the extended family.
When the quake hit, Ms. Deng, 52, was playing mah-jongg with friends on the first floor of her house. They got out before the building caved in. Her husband, a truck driver, jumped out a second-floor window, seriously injuring his back, and was taken to the hospital in a private car. Her son, a building contractor, was stuck inside.
Her son's wife was headed home from dropping their 6-year-old son, Deng Peng, off at school. She rushed to the family's house. The school wasn't as badly damaged, and their son was all right, though he said one of his classmates had been killed.
Ms. Deng and Ms. Qin managed to hail one group of rescuers, they say, but the men said that they had been ordered to a collapsed school. Ms. Qin's mother and aunt gathered to try to help. But the steel-reinforced concrete used to build the houses on the edge of their small village was too heavy to lift. "No one helped us. It was only family," says Ms. Qin's mother, Wang Yilin.
Ms. Qin says that she spoke with her husband at 5:30 p.m., three hours after the quake, urging him to hold on. When she called out to him again at about 6 p.m., there was no response.
The family began to fear the worst. They kept struggling into the night. Rain started falling and eventually became so heavy it was dangerous to dig. They slept in cars and under a tarp pitched in front of the house.
On Tuesday, the rain worsened and the temperature plunged. Family members huddled together for warmth. Ms. Qin tried to console her 6-year-old. Relatives sought unsuccessfully to commandeer passing cranes that could help lift the debris. They kept trying to dig.
Ms. Deng mobilized more family. Mr. Deng's uncle flew in from Harbin in distant northeastern China, where he works for an air-conditioner company, arriving late Tuesday night. Other relatives also gathered. Food and water in the village were getting scarce.
Wednesday morning, as the skies cleared, a handful of men, accompanied by Ms. Deng and Ms. Wang, started trying to pull away the rubble of the Dengs' house with pickaxes and pry bars.
Next door, in the ruins of another home, 30-year-old Li Xinwei and his family were still searching for his mother, trapped inside like Mr. Deng. "It's been two days, and the rescue people haven't come. They just keep driving past," said Mr. Li, who had flown from the southern city of Shenzhen and hitched a ride on an army truck to help the search. "We have no tools. How can we get them out?" As he dug, a strip of red cloth, a sign of mourning, fluttered from his shirt. In the afternoon, Mr. Li's family managed to get a crane to stop and lift out some concrete, but only for a few minutes. Then the crew insisted it had to move on.
At about 3 p.m., there were shouts from Mr. Deng's house. The family had caught a glimpse of his body under the rubble. He was dead. After about another hour, they were able to pull him from the wreckage.
Mr. Deng's mother and wife sobbed as his broken body, disfigured and covered in white concrete dust, was carried out by his uncle, mother-in-law and other relatives. They placed him on a striped bedsheet scavenged from the wreckage.
"So many people died here," cried Ms. Deng. "The government doesn't care. But I care. He's my son." She took a wet cloth and cleaned the dust from his face.
No car was available to carry Mr. Deng's body away for burial. The family placed him on a board, strung some salvaged cable around it and slung it from two wooden poles. Four men carried the poles on their shoulders.
A small procession of relatives followed Mr. Deng's body, covered in a traditional shroud along with the blue, green and yellow-striped sheet. They picked their way past wrecked farmhouses and stepped onto a path leading through fields of newly planted rice. They made their way to the family's ancestral farmland and the tombs of Mr. Deng's grandparents, with the craggy mountains that ring Wudu visible in the distance.
As some of the men dug a grave, other family members reflected on the tragedy. "If someone had helped in those first few hours, I think he'd still be alive," said Ms. Qin's aunt, Qin Shaohui.
Ms. Deng, her clothes covered in dust, was more circumspect now. "The government has to think about other things," she said. "I was only thinking about my son." As she was speaking, a strong aftershock struck, sending waves through the fields and shaking the trees. Ms. Deng barely flinched. "I'm too tired to be afraid anymore," she said.
Mr. Deng's widow said, "I need to be strong. I have two mothers to take care of now, and my son."
The late Mr. Deng and Ms. Qin are both only children, as is their son -- a consequence of China's policies restricting many families to one child. That can make family life precarious, observed Ms. Qin's aunt. "If you can have more than one child, if one dies, as a parent at least you can get some consolation," she said.
As the sun began to set, Mr. Deng's body was lowered into the grave. Family members cobbled together a rough coffin around him: planks from a broken wardrobe pulled from the village ruins, topped by a wooden door. Relatives heaped on dirt, lighted incense and candles and burned paper money, a ritual meant to ensure Mr. Deng's happiness in the afterlife.
"You died so young," said Ms. Deng, addressing her son. "You should blame me. I'm sorry I couldn't get you out in time."
A Mother's Search
For Trapped Son
Goes Unaided
Family Digs for Days
After China Earthquake;
Crews Won't Lend Hand
By GORDON FAIRCLOUGH
May 15, 2008; Page A1
WUDU, China -- For two days after Monday's earthquake demolished her house and those around it, Deng Yizhen and her family tried to claw through the rubble and rescue her only child, 34-year-old Deng Yujian.
They tried to flag down rescue crews and cranes. None stopped to lend a hand, they said. All were rushing elsewhere to grapple with the disaster.
For the first few hours, Mr. Deng called for help. He spoke from under a deep pile of broken concrete slabs to his mother and his wife, Qin Ke. "I told him I would get him out," says Ms. Qin, whose legs were gashed as she dug in the debris. "But he said he was too badly hurt. He said he wouldn't make it. He told me not to wait for him."
1
Gordon Fairclough
In the home of 52-year-old Deng Yizhen, family members and neighbors were near the end of a frantic two-day search to reach her son, 34-year-old Deng Yujian. Click to see more images from two reporters' trip north of the epicenter Wednesday.
Overwhelmed by the scale of the damage, China's emergency workers have engaged in triage, focusing resources on flattened schools and other places with large concentrations of casualties. That has forced many in the quake-ravaged region such as Ms. Deng largely to fend for themselves, relying for assistance only on that bedrock institution of rural Chinese society: the extended family.
When the quake hit, Ms. Deng, 52, was playing mah-jongg with friends on the first floor of her house. They got out before the building caved in. Her husband, a truck driver, jumped out a second-floor window, seriously injuring his back, and was taken to the hospital in a private car. Her son, a building contractor, was stuck inside.
Her son's wife was headed home from dropping their 6-year-old son, Deng Peng, off at school. She rushed to the family's house. The school wasn't as badly damaged, and their son was all right, though he said one of his classmates had been killed.
Ms. Deng and Ms. Qin managed to hail one group of rescuers, they say, but the men said that they had been ordered to a collapsed school. Ms. Qin's mother and aunt gathered to try to help. But the steel-reinforced concrete used to build the houses on the edge of their small village was too heavy to lift. "No one helped us. It was only family," says Ms. Qin's mother, Wang Yilin.
Ms. Qin says that she spoke with her husband at 5:30 p.m., three hours after the quake, urging him to hold on. When she called out to him again at about 6 p.m., there was no response.
The family began to fear the worst. They kept struggling into the night. Rain started falling and eventually became so heavy it was dangerous to dig. They slept in cars and under a tarp pitched in front of the house.
On Tuesday, the rain worsened and the temperature plunged. Family members huddled together for warmth. Ms. Qin tried to console her 6-year-old. Relatives sought unsuccessfully to commandeer passing cranes that could help lift the debris. They kept trying to dig.
Ms. Deng mobilized more family. Mr. Deng's uncle flew in from Harbin in distant northeastern China, where he works for an air-conditioner company, arriving late Tuesday night. Other relatives also gathered. Food and water in the village were getting scarce.
Wednesday morning, as the skies cleared, a handful of men, accompanied by Ms. Deng and Ms. Wang, started trying to pull away the rubble of the Dengs' house with pickaxes and pry bars.
Next door, in the ruins of another home, 30-year-old Li Xinwei and his family were still searching for his mother, trapped inside like Mr. Deng. "It's been two days, and the rescue people haven't come. They just keep driving past," said Mr. Li, who had flown from the southern city of Shenzhen and hitched a ride on an army truck to help the search. "We have no tools. How can we get them out?" As he dug, a strip of red cloth, a sign of mourning, fluttered from his shirt. In the afternoon, Mr. Li's family managed to get a crane to stop and lift out some concrete, but only for a few minutes. Then the crew insisted it had to move on.
At about 3 p.m., there were shouts from Mr. Deng's house. The family had caught a glimpse of his body under the rubble. He was dead. After about another hour, they were able to pull him from the wreckage.
Mr. Deng's mother and wife sobbed as his broken body, disfigured and covered in white concrete dust, was carried out by his uncle, mother-in-law and other relatives. They placed him on a striped bedsheet scavenged from the wreckage.
"So many people died here," cried Ms. Deng. "The government doesn't care. But I care. He's my son." She took a wet cloth and cleaned the dust from his face.
No car was available to carry Mr. Deng's body away for burial. The family placed him on a board, strung some salvaged cable around it and slung it from two wooden poles. Four men carried the poles on their shoulders.
A small procession of relatives followed Mr. Deng's body, covered in a traditional shroud along with the blue, green and yellow-striped sheet. They picked their way past wrecked farmhouses and stepped onto a path leading through fields of newly planted rice. They made their way to the family's ancestral farmland and the tombs of Mr. Deng's grandparents, with the craggy mountains that ring Wudu visible in the distance.
As some of the men dug a grave, other family members reflected on the tragedy. "If someone had helped in those first few hours, I think he'd still be alive," said Ms. Qin's aunt, Qin Shaohui.
Ms. Deng, her clothes covered in dust, was more circumspect now. "The government has to think about other things," she said. "I was only thinking about my son." As she was speaking, a strong aftershock struck, sending waves through the fields and shaking the trees. Ms. Deng barely flinched. "I'm too tired to be afraid anymore," she said.
Mr. Deng's widow said, "I need to be strong. I have two mothers to take care of now, and my son."
The late Mr. Deng and Ms. Qin are both only children, as is their son -- a consequence of China's policies restricting many families to one child. That can make family life precarious, observed Ms. Qin's aunt. "If you can have more than one child, if one dies, as a parent at least you can get some consolation," she said.
As the sun began to set, Mr. Deng's body was lowered into the grave. Family members cobbled together a rough coffin around him: planks from a broken wardrobe pulled from the village ruins, topped by a wooden door. Relatives heaped on dirt, lighted incense and candles and burned paper money, a ritual meant to ensure Mr. Deng's happiness in the afterlife.
"You died so young," said Ms. Deng, addressing her son. "You should blame me. I'm sorry I couldn't get you out in time."
I currently live and work in China, and yes I do care. I just donated 10% of my monthly salary for this cause (not that much, but I hope it helps)
you don't feel bad because you don't know enough about the situation. if you've read and truly understood the scale of the calamity and the lives it affected and took, you'd probably be heartbroken. You simply can't imagine the severity and immensely depressing nature of what's going on. As such, I would imagine it wouldn't be any different for you even if these were Americans we're talking about. the fact is that news reports about disasters can never begin convey their true impact.
Originally posted by: RaistlinZ
Wow, those pictures are horrible. I can't believe there are people out there who really don't give a damn even when seeing pictures like that. Damn shame really.
http://cryptome.org/cn-quake2/cn-quake2.htmapparently, the boy was trying to save his classmate under a collapsed school
more
I think the most saddening part is all the schools collapsing, with all the children, man, its a killer feeling. there are hundreds upon hundreds of these type of photos all over the internet. one with a woman holding her dead son's covered body. and another with a mom holding up a sign with the names of her missing children, etc.
a college student managed to get a video in his dorm room in Chengdu after the quake started. Something like 90km from the epicenter. He jokes, initially saying 'i love you' to someone, then he tells his friend 'stay under the table'. Announces the date/time among other things. Cant tell if translations are accurate.
pretty long quake
Best post in this thread
I dont have anything to do with it, why should I care? I wouldnt even care if it was in my home country, I just care if loved ones are affected or not
But you should know in ATOT everyone is a saint (which goes hand in hand with the asshatery we see online... oh wait)
DangerAardvark
Diamond Member
- Oct 22, 2004
- 7,559
- 0
- 0
A lot of people don't really care about it. The difference between them and you is that you made a thread to tell us exactly how little you care. And why do you have to be a "saint" to care? Just caring about something and not doing anything is the same as not caring at all. In fact it's probably worse. And that's crux of the issue: you either don't care about any of the suffering in the world and as a result do nothing to help alleviate it, or you do care, but are just too lazy to do anything. Or you are doing something. But that's clearly not the case, because if it were you wouldn't be on ATOT trying to get people to corroborate your lack of compassion.
GTaudiophile
Lifer
- Oct 24, 2000
- 29,767
- 33
- 81
The death of innocent people is never something to be happy about.
Think of the nutjobs in Palestine, Iran, etc. who danced and fired their guns in the streets when 9/11 happened.
Do you want to be synonymous with them?
Hating Chinese government and economic policy is one thing. Hating its people is another.
Think of the nutjobs in Palestine, Iran, etc. who danced and fired their guns in the streets when 9/11 happened.
Do you want to be synonymous with them?
Hating Chinese government and economic policy is one thing. Hating its people is another.
Anubis
No Lifer
im not HAPPY about it, i just simply do not care at all
100000k people dead in burma is simply mother natures way of population controll
Capt Caveman
Lifer
- Jan 30, 2005
- 34,543
- 651
- 126
And that's just your opinion.
Many people are affected emotionally but these latest natural disasters. There are people that are constantly trying to keep up to date with the status of things there. There are people that are attempting to find ways that they can offer assistance.
Do you do any volunteer work? Give money to charity? I'm guessing not, b/c that would mean caring for or willing to help people that don't affect your life.
i totally disagree with that 1 person is too much, now think of what's happening there in china plus Burma, we have a word wide crisis of over 120,000 dead and the number rising because they are getting hit by another cyclone.......
Anubis
No Lifer
the world is over populated
mother nature is striking back
honestly if i woke up tomorrow and found out that 2 billion people were now dead in asia i wouldent even blink an eye, id make my coffee and go to work like i always do
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