So... No one is starting a charity drive for spain...

[manythings]

I'm not saying anyone should but I do think it kind of fits with the "People only cared because of games" sentiment about the Japanese Earthquake. It was far more severe and I'm not joking about how many people died (I still don't think there is a full count). I'm just pointing out that, so far, it doesn't look like anyone cared.

EDIT: http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0512/spain.html

2nd EDIT: Before people get less capable of understanding words I'm not saying this is a bigger, more damaging, or more fatal earthquake. I'm pointing out that no one has apparently even noticed that an earthquake happened somewhere that wasn't Japan, just like New Zealand.

Also the title is principly sarcastic.

 

[ZeroMachine]

... Um... at the risk of sounding like an unholy asshole, here...

There was an earthquake in Spain? Mind linking to some details?

 

[manythings]

... Um... at the risk of sounding like an unholy asshole, here...

There was an earthquake in Spain? Mind linking to some details?

Her you go. http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0512/spain.html

 

[Dr.A]

Yeah, what the heck happened to Spain?

EDIT: Ok. So they had an earthquake. I understand that must be hard, and I don't mean to make it sound like it's no big deal, because it is, but...it's not THAT big a deal.

 

[Arctarus'sCookie]

In my opinion, I'm just too far stretched from the other earthquake relief charities still going on in Haiti, Chile, China, Turkey, and Japan. I also don't think that it has really hit the mainstream media which inspires those sort of people who start charities for everything yet.

 

[SilentCom]

Maybe you should start a charity? That way you can't say no one is starting one.

 

[Lt.Snuffles]

The spanish earthquake was much bigger and caused far more damage

 

[ChromeAlchemist]

That's exactly what they cared about. They cared about the games/media and the culture. And the country since many want to visit. That country had things they wanted.

It's like when celebrities die. You mourn because they've entertained you/did you a service. But the random person on the news? Who cares?

 

[thelonewolf266]

well considering tens of thousands of people died in Japan and there is a massive nuclear power plant meltdown going on whereas in Spain the death toll is at nine with a couple of hundred injured I can see why the charity drive won't be so large or so quick to be set up but I'm sure there will be one.

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

[link]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13371472[/link]
[link]http://itn.co.uk/home/18666/spainud[/link]
[link]http://www.channel4.com/news/several-killed-in-southern-spain-quake[/link]

I wouldn't say no-one's bothered, it's all over the news here in the UK.

 

[tahrey]

... Um... at the risk of sounding like an unholy asshole, here...

There was an earthquake in Spain? Mind linking to some details?

Nnghh... Googlez it. Or click this, whatever http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13368599

Happened yesterday already. Global news, getz with it.

Manythings, we care, but there's (literally) a few orders of magnitude separating what happened in Murcia and, say, the Japan quake, Pakistan floods, or even the intervening quakes in New Zealand and Tibet (quickly forgotten, eh?). Though there were some tragic deaths and a town got lightly wrecked, I think it's kind of accepted that the bulk of the disaster is already over, and the Spanish authorities and economy can deal with the cleanup just fine. Not every minor natural disaster needs a huge relief effort - as we can see above, it doesn't even seem to have made the international news all so much.

Contrast with Japan where more than a thousand times more people lost their lives in the space of a couple hours, innumerable towns have been wiped off the map, a number of coastal industries (and ports for inland ones) have been badly affected causing great damage to a still fairly industrialised economy that was already stagnant in the face of other southeast asian competition, oh and that little matter of a nuclear reactor in meltdown that has a 20-mile exclusion zone around it (probably larger than the field of all damage caused by the Spanish quake), has spewed a whole load of contamination into the air, ground and water, and furthermore has precipitated an energy crisis because of its shutdown and that of a few others.

Or with Pakistan where whole areas larger than various western nations were entirely submerged under 2 metres or more of dirty water for several weeks, along with the damage caused by it flowing in and out, right at the point where a largely subsistence-farming economy was preparing for harvest, and no-one has even a very good idea at the number of dead or missing persons.

It's good of you to care, but keep a hold on your perspective. The incident in Spain is like someone in good health getting a small nick on their finger; the others are like your already frail grandmother contracting AIDS, Hepatitis and norovirus all at once, as an aftereffect of being savagely beaten in the midst of a robbery where she lost most of her jewellery and savings.

 

[Penguin_Factory]

It's not a fair comparison. Firstly, most people are only just finding out about this (I literally only heard about it an hour ago), so it's not like there'd be time to mobilize a response.

Also, the Earthquake in Spain doesn't appear to have been anywhere near was severe as the Japanese one. We knew right off the bat that the tsunami has caused widespread damage even before the high death toll started to be reported.

 

[ZeroMachine]

... Um... at the risk of sounding like an unholy asshole, here...

There was an earthquake in Spain? Mind linking to some details?

Her you go. http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0512/spain.html

Ok, before I say anything, I want to just clear something up- in your OP, are you saying that Spain's is worse or Japan's? It's kind of tough to tell.

The spanish earthquake was much bigger and caused far more damage

... Are you living under a rock? The death toll for the one in Spain is about 10. It's estimated to be well over 10,000 in Japan, and a nuclear disaster came about because of it. Are you being sarcastic and failing or did you really just not understand how bad it was in Japan?

EDIT: For the record, I'm 100% for helping Spain out... but there are priorities, so they're going to get less help then Japan.

 

[Dark.Kantian]

Hmmm, well lets see... 10 killed in Spain vs. over 10000 killed in Japan.... hmmmm, what is the more pressing issue? Where would charity dollars do the most good. Hmmm..... HMMMMMMMMMM!

More seriously now.
When you're comparing two different events and ask why people care about one and not the other (a false question, since its a matter of degree anyway) the magnitude of the event matters a whole lot. I don't think any decent person would care nearly as much about Spain as they would about Japan re earthquake disasters. The same way that an ER physician "doesn't care" about your stubbed toe when there is a gun-shot victim rushed from the ambulance bay.

 

[lobster1077]

Don't think it was on th news here, but then again I kinda phase out during the news.

 

[tahrey]

Also, the Earthquake in Spain doesn't appear to have been anywhere near was severe as the Japanese one. We knew right off the bat that the tsunami has caused widespread damage even before the high death toll started to be reported.

Hell, it was probably easy to guess that it was GOING to ruin their shit in a fairly comprehensive way even before we got pictures of it... because of the strength (and damaged caused by) the initial quake...

One of them was magnitude 9, the other magnitude 5, by the way. As it's logarithmic, that's a difference in strength of 10^4, or 10,000x. There's less difference in effect because of how yesterday's one actually happened inland and so much closer to population centres, but quakes of that magnitude actually happen pretty often near or in populated areas; I wouldn't be surprised at a frequency of at least 1 a week if not daily. California probably gets a few, and the UK has had at least a couple within my memory. That it caused so much havoc this time is probably a combination of bad luck, and some quirk of how the crumbling buildings were made. A great deal of the damage (and deaths?) does actually seem to have come from frontages falling into the street, rather than whole buildings collapsing inwards, expressways toppling over, bridges failing, landslides, great rents opening up in the earth etc.

 

[johnzaku]

In Japan, an entire city, along with dozens of villages are simply gone, I in no way mean to imply that spain's problem is trivial, but 15,000 dead and 10,000 more missing versus ten deaths is kind of telling.

And not only was an entire city nearly leveled, but hundreds of acres of cropland was destroyed.

I think spain deserves more attention than it's getting, I do, but you're comparing two vastly different catastrophes.



(Also, where was a thread like this when the American Midwest was decimated by hundreds of tornados, the unusual thing about them was they followed streets and touched down in cities where they never have before. 300+ dead in one instance, more all over.)

 

[manaman]

The earthquake in Japan caused some $300 billion in damage. Less then 10% of that amount was donated to them. Compare with poor nations which often have 60% or more donate as relief and a better question would be why we care so little about helping out countries when they are slightly better off.

As for more severe, disaster strikes all the time. I have been through two hurricanes, three tornados, several severe thunderstorms (which can get pretty destructive here in Washington), at least five earthquakes, but not once did I ever receive aid in the form of money. Just once slept in a shelter, and had a meal while waiting for flood waters to recede. Unlike some places in this country *cough* New York City*cough* The places I have lived don't go running to FEMA because a few trees fell over, and don't expect and international donation campaign because of something like a storm that takes out power and basic services for several million people. We don't have international support fighting wildfire of unprecedented scale. Didn't see support when a tornado stroked through the middle of town, killed a dozen people and flattened a quarter of the town.

People around the world where shocked at the magnitude of the Japan quake and the damage caused, it's not a common occurrence. Think of it this way, when a buddy gets in a minor car wreck it sucks for them. But when a buddy gets in a major wreck, nearly dies, racks up huge expenses, etc. Wouldn't you and your friends be inclined to help 'em out a bit.

I'm not saying don't donate, give what you can to help if you want to. Just don't expect international support for every little disaster. It takes something major to distract people from their own little disasters happening in their own countries.