# Tsunami’s 300,000 dead versus 9/11’s 3,000 dead **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 30, 2004, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tsunami-s-300-000-dead-versus-9-11-s-3-000-dead/282231 "2004-12-30T09:02:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Yeticus\_Rex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a698b9/32.png) [@Yeticus\_Rex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yeticus_Rex)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2005, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tsunami-s-300-000-dead-versus-9-11-s-3-000-dead/282231/101 "2005-01-05T11:13:56Z")
> [@Wake up call](#): > > Within my limited means, I have been and continue to be an active and vocal critic of the US Foreign Policy. I believe the danger in the increasing gap between the rich and the poor is as plain as the nose on your face. And I do not believe the trickle down charitable actions during a trauma is the answer. While I do not have the resources to personally contribute to the development of the 3rd world, I do pay taxes and I do vote. Beyond that, I try to provide a “Wake up call” service. 🙂 Outsourcing jobs to these countries would help, but that too is considered evil exploitation. So I guess charity will have to do for now until we change our way of thinking globally to level things out. Shall we bring these 3rd world countries up by encouraging capitalist governments to become self sufficient or should we let the 3rd world countries drag us down with their civil wars, corrupt governments and backward economies and tossing money into their pits? ---
**Author:** ![Wake\_up\_call](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/dec6dc/32.png) [@Wake\_up\_call](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wake_up_call)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2005, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tsunami-s-300-000-dead-versus-9-11-s-3-000-dead/282231/102 "2005-01-05T15:05:23Z")
> [@Yeticus Rex](#): > > can you really look us in the eye and tell us that we can bring a country like India with 3.5 times the population safe in every little pocket of that country? Wouldn’t epidemics likely result from overcrowding these safe places. What should we do about that? What can we do about that? > See where I’m going with this? I am not sure where you are going. Are you saying that the Pope / Catholic Church should encourage pro-creation, and that GWB should cut down the family planning budget overseas? ---
**Author:** ![Yeticus\_Rex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a698b9/32.png) [@Yeticus\_Rex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yeticus_Rex)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2005, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tsunami-s-300-000-dead-versus-9-11-s-3-000-dead/282231/103 "2005-01-05T22:35:44Z")
Maybe because you chose to ignore the beginning of my statement that you quoted: > [@](#): > > _ **As a country that still can’t keep every corner of our country safe from natural disasters** _, can you really look us in the eye and tell us that we can bring a country like India with 3.5 times the population safe in every little pocket of that country? Should they crowd in the “safe places” of their country, away from cyclones and tsunamis? Wouldn’t epidemics likely result from overcrowding these safe places. What should we do about that? What can we do about that? > > See where I’m going with this? If we can’t do it for our own country, what makes you think we can do it for any other country? Yeah, population is concern too, but I was stressing more on your over-reaching disaster preparedness plans, not on population reduction as a solution. Nature will take care of this regardless of our intentions, inevitability. Also, let me direct you to this [post](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=5668197&postcount=80) in this thread which explains why there’s less emphasis on a tsunami warning system in the Indian ocean when cyclones occur much more frequently and cumulatively causes more damage and loss of life than infrequent tsunamis in the Indian Ocean. ---
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2005, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tsunami-s-300-000-dead-versus-9-11-s-3-000-dead/282231/104 "2005-01-05T22:58:17Z")
> [@Yeticus Rex](#): > > Also, let me direct you to this [post](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=5668197&postcount=80) in this thread which explains why there’s less emphasis on a tsunami warning system in the Indian ocean when cyclones occur much more frequently and cumulatively causes more damage and loss of life than infrequent tsunamis in the Indian Ocean. But . . . but . . . is “infrequency” a reason not to take EASY PREVENTIVE MEASURES THAT COULD HAVE (we now know) SAVED TENS OF THOUSANDS OF LIVES? Shouldn’t American Congressmen and scientists be able to PREDICT EVERY DISASTER THAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN ANYWHERE and then PREVENT IT WITH THEIR UNLIMITED RESOURCES? This is all second-guessing and utopianism. Suppose the U.S. had made the dubious decision to spend millions of dollars of taxpayer money on a system to detect and warn of (very rare) Indian Ocean tsunamis (which might not save many lives, as the peasants and fishermen in Indonesia might well have been unequipped to hear and effectively act on any warning). But then, say, the once-every-hundred-years-disaster that actually struck this Christmas was, instead, an explosion of Kilimanjaro, or a flash flood that inundated Buenos Aires. Would **WUC** spend one moment acknowledging that the U.S. had _tried_ to predict the unpredictable, and give the U.S. credit for the (unused) Indian tsunami detectors? Nah. That is not how blame-America-firsters operate. The answer to “how much must America do” is always “more, much, much more.” I’m finding it hard to take him seriously as his OP focused **entirely** on the allegedly-shameful nature of U.S. aid in response to the tsunami. Now he has changed his tune 100%, without any real explanation (other than the obvious one that his OP now looks silly because U.S. responsive aid will be massive and will save as many lives as can be saved at this point). No, now (but only now) he wants to shift the focus to “prevention” and “foreign policy” and “ameliorating poverty.” _I do not believe the trickle down charitable actions during a trauma is the answer._ Gee, then explain the OP in which you focused solely on the alleged lack of charitable actions during a trauma. Why would you care, if such actions are not the answer? No point arguing **Yeticus** – I think the goalposts will continue to move, if he’s as dedicated to finding after-the-fact reasons for faulting the U.S. as it seems. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tsunami-s-300-000-dead-versus-9-11-s-3-000-dead/282231.md?page=5)