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Nepal Continued — Why Now?
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Nepal Continued

by Bryan

Both the Australian and Canadian media are following the story closely and providing slightly more up-to-date information than the other news outlets.

The aftershocks are really rattling people’s nerves and keeping them outside, away from the structures that still exist. This is coupled with logistics problems that are hampering the distribution of relief supplies to the population.

There is only one international airport in Nepal and it is overwhelmed. Many of the staff at the airport are missing, and the airport shuts down when there are aftershocks. Search and rescue teams, and other specialists are stuck at airports in surrounding countries waiting for flights in. They really need helicopters and air drops of supplies.

The current count on the dead is over 4000, but there are many areas with which there has been no communication since the quake.

4 comments

1 Kryten42 { 04.28.15 at 1:07 am }

It’s a huge tragedy. I contributed what I could and hope it helps. Sadly, I’ve seen devastation first hand and it’s frustrating that I can’t actually be there.

OT: I’m just getting through my emails (I get over 600/wk on 4 accounts) and found this just to show how insane and out of touch our current Gov is!

The Australian Government recently announced they would contribute $4m for Danish climate contrarian Bjorn Lomborg to establish a new “consensus centre” at the University of Western Australia.

In the face of deep cuts to the CSIRO and other scientific research organisations, it’s an insult to Australia’s scientific community.

As the Climate Commission, we were abolished by the Abbott Government in 2013 on the basis that our $1.5 million annual operating costs were too expensive. We relaunched as the Climate Council after thousands of Australians chipped in to the nation’s biggest crowd-funding campaign.

It seems extraordinary that the Climate Commission, which was composed of Australia’s best climate scientists, economists and energy experts, was abolished on the basis of a lack of funding and yet here we are three years later and the money has become available to import a politically-motivated think tank to work in the same space.
…

It should be amazing, but isn’t. *shrug*

Another is a petition I signed a couple weeks ago to stop the morons from deporting a 9 yo boy to Indonesia despite his mother having lived here for over 10 years (he was born here) and has recently finished studying to be a nurse and trying to become a naturalized Australian for several years, because the boy has Autism! The good news is that it has reached over 130,000 signatories and is heading for 250k! Not even our morons in Canberra can ignore that!

What country am I living in??!

Bah!

2 Bryan { 04.28.15 at 8:07 pm }

I sent money because that is more useful than I would be.

I noticed both of the stories you highlighted. Lomborg has figured out that not joining the actual consensus on climate change is worth a lot of money. Abbott is just displaying how much his party is owned by the fossil fuel sector.The longer governments wait to take action the more expensive it becomes.

I was taken off guard that people born in Australia aren’t automatically citizens, which is the case in the US. Having spent his entire life in Australia, I can’t imagine the difficulty he would have adjusting to Indonesia, even if he wasn’t autistic. We can hope that the bureaucrats come to their senses.

3 Kryten42 { 05.01.15 at 1:09 am }

Here’s an update on the deportation:

We’re now home after a very long and emotional day delivering the petition to the Minister’s office yesterday – but it resulted in incredibly hopeful news.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said in an interview with ABC News that this “may be a case where we would be able to help the family”. He is going to review our case over the next week or two. I’m so nervous waiting for a final decision, I’ve only being granted a temporary bridging-visa until then. At this stage, the minister’s intervention isn’t guaranteed.

I need your help one last time. While Mr Dutton decides, it would be really useful if we could remind him that thousands of people are watching and waiting.

Typical isn’t it? Politicians only care enough to even think of doing something in these situations when they are pressured by numbers. It takes over 100k people signing a petition just to get a politician to even look at the problem. It should be a no-brainer… then again, they have no brains… or souls… so… *SHRUG*

What a World.

4 Bryan { 05.01.15 at 9:27 am }

If there isn’t an election looming, politicians don’t care. They rig the system so bureaucracies can only say no, so that they get the credit for saying yes, but only say yes when they need votes. Current democracies are really a mess. Almost no one in government actually wants to do the right thing for the people, they serve to help themselves and their friends.

I suspect the only reason the US Constitution passed and came into effect is that we didn’t have any political parties.