What is Digg?76 Comments
- votamli, on 05/09/2008, -1/+48It was Asia's Hurricane Katrina"? What? Did 100,000 people die during Katrina? No, less than 2,000 fatalities in the US.
How many people died during the Boxing Day Tsunami in Asia? Over 220,000 people in multiple Asian countries.
The cyclone is a second Boxing Day Tsunami. Hurricane Katrina, despite all of the suffering and shame it brought to the US, is nothing and I say absolutely nothing compared to amount of lives and cities losts during the Boxing Day Tsunami nor the cyclone in Myanmar.
Please check your history before saying something ignorant. - canewediggit, on 05/09/2008, -10/+33so you're saying there wasn't a gay pride parade scheduled? huh, who'da thunk it?
- doctechnical, on 05/09/2008, -0/+20A dictatorial government that forces the people at gunpoint into poverty. If a the people were free to enjoy the fruits of their own labor (instead of making some warlords rich) they might be able to afford a communications system that could give them early warning and save tens of thousands of lives.
- mimigins, on 05/09/2008, -0/+18The sad part is National Geographic said it, not the submitter...
- inactive, on 05/09/2008, -2/+19Why is the USA the only country in the world that calls Burma, "Myanmar"? Am I splitting hairs here, or is this incredibly annoying?
- simplicityiskey, on 05/09/2008, -1/+17Why do people always have to compare things like this to other events? "Asia's Hurricane Katrina"--less than 2,000 people died in Hurricane Katrina compared with a possible 100,000. Can't events like these be unique to their own situation? Katrina might have caused more monetary damage, but only because there isn't 80 billion dollars worth of stuff to destroy on Myanmar. I'm not trying to downplay Katrina or anything like that, but please, don't compare apples to oranges.
- dinot, on 05/09/2008, -0/+13Agreed. I've lived in Thailand for 6 years and occasionally went across to Burma for travel. It's amazing the amount of difference separated by a river.
Cheap cigarettes though. - republicker, on 05/09/2008, -7/+19Houses made of leaves.....
- rebotfc, on 05/09/2008, -8/+20Because George Bush doesn't care about black people
- thedogfatherx, on 05/09/2008, -2/+13No. No he didn't say that. You can not like the guy but don't make ***** up about him because you don't agree with him. Anyone can do that. Your mother told me you were born with a vag and she hates you. It's true. Thats what she said.
- inactive, on 05/09/2008, -1/+11So the US govt. calls it Burma, but NPR calls it what the oppressive military dictatorship wishes it to be called? Yep, we live in bizzaro world.
- geneticlone, on 05/09/2008, -3/+12It only took a week for this to get to the front page?
- vroom101, on 05/09/2008, -0/+9Via "Burma" at https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world ... (www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bm.html): since 1989 the military authorities in Burma have promoted the name Myanmar as a conventional name for their state; this decision was not approved by any sitting legislature in Burma, and the US Government did not adopt the name, which is a derivative of the Burmese short-form name Myanma Naingngandaw
Via "Background Note: Burma" at http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/35910.htm (www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/35910.htm): Although the SPDC changed the name of the country to "Myanmar," the democratically elected but never convened Parliament of 1990 does not recognize the name change, and the democratic opposition continues to use the name "Burma." Due to consistent support for the democratically elected leaders, the U.S. Government likewise uses "Burma. - sleepykit, on 05/09/2008, -0/+7I can't argue numbers, but I think they meant that it was hurricane Katrina not in its deadliness so much as in where and how it hit. Supposedly, much like Katrina, it ended up hitting the delta that was at sea level and thus causing much more harm than had it landed somewhere up the coast. Not only did the hurricane sweep through but the waves it brought along caused a fair bit of damage, much in the same fashion as the flooding at New Orleans.
- stack3r, on 05/09/2008, -1/+8Low lying area, uninformed and ill-prepared people, dodgy shacks for housing. These are the main reasons so many died. Climate change people are full of crap, this is a general cyclone, a australian town was hit with one about 2 years ago, 200km/h winds with gusts upto 320km/h and killed no one.
People need to prepare for the risks of living on a coast line. I would really hate to be there at the moment :( - cypriss9, on 05/09/2008, -0/+6One major reason these storms are so damaging now is because the forests in the delta were removed and replaced by rice farms and the like. Similarly with Katrina, the wetlands are being destroyed because silt is being diverted from the mississipi river out to sea. These storms need to be softened up by natural barriers like these, and human activity is removing these protections. It is this, probably more than global warming, that will result in even more damaging storms in the future.
- wastelander, on 05/09/2008, -0/+5The storms themselves were apparently similar. The death-toll in Louisiana would have been much higher if it had been heavily populated with people at sea level in grass huts, virtually no roads or infrastructure and no warning or even capability of evacuating.
- JeanNarH, on 05/09/2008, -6/+12First, Glenn Beck is the biggest douchebag of the universe, uncontested, well, maybe a bit by Nancy Grace (yea, somehow, they both have the same mental hillness...prly some junky parents or some *****)
Second, "It was Asia's Hurricane Katrina" WTF? Well your image is right, for an hurricane is an hurricane, but it's like comparing 911 to Ruanda's massacre or something.... the image is very, VERY light....Katrina was NOTHING compared to what's going on Myanmar, come on.
I know you need american fellows to understand, but using that image might be a slight understatement.
Kudos tho.
JNH - inactive, on 05/09/2008, -0/+5"Atiq A. Rahman, executive director of the Bangladesh Center for Advanced Studies and a disaster specialist, said Myanmar's death toll would have been lower if it had had such a system."
You know your country is ***** up when the Bangladeshis are ragging on you. - doctechnical, on 05/09/2008, -5/+9It's politically correct to do so, and the simpering sniveling left-wing ***** in the media would rather their tongues be torn out than be considered politically incorrect.
- cramming, on 05/09/2008, -3/+7Everyone can't live in a ranch style house like you, cutie pie.
- inactive, on 05/09/2008, -0/+4Seriously. No one is caring.
My local newspaper still doesn't have it on the front page. - consoneo, on 05/09/2008, -0/+4Or you could link them.
- vroom101, on 05/09/2008, -0/+31. Tropical Cyclone Nargis from space on 2 May 2008: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImage ...
via http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImage ... (earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=18015)
Bandwidth-friendly, 1566945 bytes, 2800 x 3600 pixels: http://img516.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cyclonena ... (img516.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cyclonenargis20080502pg3.jpg)
2. Hainggyi, Myanmar (Burma)...
BEFORE (11 November 2004): http://www.digitalglobe.com/downloads/featured_ima ...
AFTER (5 May 2008, after Tropical Cyclone Nargis): http://www.digitalglobe.com/downloads/featured_ima ...
via http://www.digitalglobe.com/index.php/27/Sample+Im ... ( www.digitalglobe.com/index.php/27/Sample+Imagery+Gallery?ITEM=38) - fleischner, on 05/09/2008, -4/+7Because they look just like humans? Oh... I thought you said Cylons.
- punchinelli, on 05/09/2008, -2/+5Because the government won't let people into the country to help? Freaking idiots. Do they have any idea what that does to their reputation? They better be careful or we will ***** invade them.
- tharju, on 05/09/2008, -3/+5as if they have a choice. give me a break.
- antechinus, on 05/10/2008, -1/+3Because Americans are parochial.
- inactive, on 05/09/2008, -1/+3Than Shwe doesn't care about Buddhist monks.
- URnotheonly1, on 05/10/2008, -0/+2Because the government didn't tell their people it was coming. There is video of people walking around
- DaviDTC, on 05/09/2008, -0/+2Larger set of those photos here
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/sh ...
Use the prev. and next to see other days for this region.
http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?FAS_My ... - inactive, on 05/10/2008, -0/+2They have heroin.
- crapmatic, on 05/09/2008, -0/+2* Burma's military junta says the country is not ready to accept foreign aid workers
* The World Food Programme's Paul Risley said the delays [caused by the military junta] were "unprecedented in modern humanitarian relief efforts".
* Thairath Newspaper of Thailand reported the Burmese government provided no appropriate warning system for the incoming cyclone.
* Corpses are now simply being abandoned on the streets, with concerns that the emergence and spread of communicable diseases will occur.
* Corrections officers employed with the government had fired upon the prisoners of Yangon's Insein Prison who were attempting to escape amidst the chaos.
* Richard Horsey, representative of the United Nations, issued a warning for Myanmar to no longer decline the full scale of international relief effort as another storm, as deadly as the Nargis, is headed towards the country.
It's mind-boggling that this kind of government can exist in 2008. Sounds like Burma is long overdue for a "regime change". - edebolt, on 05/10/2008, -0/+2The people always called themselves "Mee Ann Maa". Remember Asians don't say R's so it was never BuRma. When the first traders from India visited Myanmar then they asked the people who they are and the replied "Baama" which is a shortened way of saying Mee Ann Maa. The traders from India told the British colonials that the people were Bama and the english somehow massaged that into Burma. The same thing happened in Cambodia as they have always called themselves Kampuchean's. Don't worry about it and let them pick their own name.
- jetblackz4, on 05/09/2008, -0/+2In a strange way this tragedy has shed light on the problems these people have with the Myanmar's reclusive ruling military Junta and hopefully some good will come from it.
- Lazydriver, on 05/10/2008, -0/+1Tends to be, though I don't understand why don't we just drop M-16's over everywhere and have the country armed up...
- dinot, on 05/09/2008, -2/+3No we won't. They don't have any oil.
- ozziedog, on 05/12/2008, -0/+1It isn't a ***** comaprison. Hurricane force 3 at a delta with a northeast trajectory. As well, the lack of mangroves on both the Louisiana and the Burma coast added to the level of destruction. The casualties difference is because this junta doesn't give a ***** about anything, least of all their own people. Bad government is the real killer.
- craiginct, on 05/09/2008, -2/+3An terrible tragedy and the junta is taking the emergency relief supplies
and
I see once again that there is no god to save us. - Smiths, on 05/09/2008, -2/+3News organizations call it Myanmar because of the UN. The UN calls it Myanmar because that's what they use on records entered in the UN. Using Burma vs. Myanmar usually denotes some bias against the ruling junta (and rightfully so). News organizations are, for the most part, try to be un-biased, hence they refer to it as Myanmar. Most major news organizations do refer to it as Myanmar. The only one I can think of off hand is the BBC, and they've said it's only because people are more familiar with Burma than Myanmar, not because of some political bias.
- bluearyus, on 05/09/2008, -2/+3Agreed, it was a ***** comparison
- tharju, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1Because Digg authority doesn’t approve this news to be dugg. :)
- Brasky, on 05/09/2008, -2/+3Because George Bush hates Asians....
- resevil83, on 05/09/2008, -1/+2So what can we do to help? Over a 100,000 lives lost is ridiculous. I'm not extremely aware of what is going on in Burma. Synopsis?
- inactive, on 05/10/2008, -0/+1"It's mind-boggling that this kind of government can exist in 2008. Sounds like Burma is long overdue for a "regime change"."
And I suppose it's the US's job to do that? - inactive, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1Read Finding George Orwell in Burma.
Starred Review. The author, an American journalist fluent in Burmese, writing under a pseudonym, notes that there's a joke in Burma (now Myanmar) that Orwell wrote not one novel about the country, but three: Burmese Days, Animal Farm and 1984. The first takes place during the British colonial days, while the latter two, Larkin argues, more closely reflect the situation there today. " 'Truth is true only within a certain period of time,' " she quotes a regime spokesman saying after a 1988 uprising. " 'What was truth once may no longer be truth after many months or years.' " Indeed, providing an accurate representation of Burmese life proves daunting, as Larkin encounters a nation bristling with informants and paranoia. Her language skills, however, allow her to glean information and mingle with the country's reserved and cautious intelligentsia. In addition to Larkin's depiction of the political landscape, the book also features wonderfully vibrant descriptions of the land and people. Larkin's prose is striking and understated, and she allows the people she meets to speak their parts without editorializing. In this way, she comes across not as an idealist but rather as an inquisitive and trustworthy guide to the underlying reality of a country whose leaders would rather have outsiders focus only on their carefully constructed veneer. "All you had to do, it seemed," Larkin writes, "was scratch the surface of one of the town's smiling residents and you would find bitterness or tears." Her efforts have resulted in a lucid and insightful illustration of truly Orwellian circumstances.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. - pseudononymist, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1it was lame the first time.
- sndream, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1Actually when the Cyclone hit Myanmar coast, it's a Category 4 where as Katrina Category only Category 2 when it hit New Orleans. Most of the Katrina damage are due to New Orleans under sea level and the levy failed. Not to mention the cyclone was forecast to strike Bangladesh or southeastern India but changed course midway.
- CreatureLady, on 05/10/2008, -0/+1I agree, cypriss9. Noticed a related article earlier in the week related to the impact exacerbation of this storm's impact from the deforestation of mangroves. Here is a link: http://digg.com/environment/Mangrove_Depletion_put ...
- tharju, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1look at the government warning before the storm: http://img514.imageshack.us/img514/3826/77370662oy ... (it wasn't on the front page, and notice wind speed and squalls may reach 50 mph)
dead bodies in delta region: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/shinyehtut/Nargis
http://komyo.burmachannel.com/ -
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