Chile earthquake tsunami warnings

UPDATED

The 8.8 earthquake off Chile (by way of comparison, the 7.0 Haiti earthquake was five hundred times weaker) has caused tsunami warnings to be issued for countries on the other side of the Pacific.  According to Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, 

A TSUNAMI WARNING IS IN EFFECT FOR CHILE / PERU / ECUADOR / COLOMBIA / ANTARCTICA / PANAMA / COSTA RICA / NICARAGUA / PITCAIRN / HONDURAS / EL SALVADOR / GUATEMALA / FR. POLYNESIA / MEXICO / COOK ISLANDS / KIRIBATI / KERMADEC IS / NIUE / NEW ZEALAND / TONGA / AMERICAN SAMOA / SAMOA / JARVIS IS. / WALLIS-FUTUNA / TOKELAU / FIJI / AUSTRALIA / HAWAII / PALMYRA IS. / TUVALU / VANUATU / HOWLAND-BAKER / NEW CALEDONIA / JOHNSTON IS. / SOLOMON IS. / NAURU / MARSHALL IS. / MIDWAY IS. / KOSRAE / PAPUA NEW GUINEA / POHNPEI / WAKE IS. / CHUUK / RUSSIA / MARCUS IS. / INDONESIA / N. MARIANAS / GUAM / YAP / BELAU / JAPAN / PHILIPPINES / CHINESE TAIPEI

The PTWC warning for Hawaii is at the highest warning severity level.  In 1960 a 9.5 magnitude quake  -- the largest earthquake of the century -- off South Central Chile caused a tsunami that killed over sixty in Hawaii before it taking more than 100 lives in Japan.

Whether any tsunami will have a serious impact as far north as California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, and Alaska, will depend largely upon the ocean currents, according to a tsunami expert interviewed on CNN.

CNN's weatherman mentioned a report of a 45 meter-high-wave hitting Easter Island, but this astounding claim had not been validated.  The 1960 Chilean earthquake reportedly caused a 25 meter-high tsunami.

You can watch a live streaming video from Chile here.

Update 1:  The West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center has issued a "tsunami advisory" only for California and Alaska (map).  Vancouver, where the Olympics is finishing up, will apparently not be impacted.  WCATWC has also posted a  preliminary forecast model energy map:

Update 2: And here are the tsunami travel times (WCATWC):

Thai court grabs over half Thaksin fortune

A wounded elephant is the most dangerous kind.   And this verdict will hurt.

In a "comprise" decision, Thailand's highest court has ruled that Thaksin Shinawatra can keep that fraction of his fortune earned prior to when he became prime minister (about 38% of $2.3 billion).

Some observers hope that the court's decisions to allow Thaksin to keep some of his wealth will mark a first step towards reconciliation of Thailand's red-yellow divide.

However, it looks to me as if Thaksin has already made progress toward framing a legal victory for his opponents as a moral transgression -- one that could powerfully energize his supporters and win him broader sympathy.

Quoting some lines of Buddhist poetry, Thaksin's response to the court decision was dignified.  At a time when his opponents were talking about his money, Thaksin chose to speak about democracy and good government. Wearing a black suit and black tie, Thaksin addressed his supporters:

Power rests with aristocrats, who constantly push the button.  Law enforcement runs real fast with the opposite side. Serious lack of international standard. . . .

. . . Fairly good that they return what was mine before the political years. . . 

Let me thank all of our supporters who adhere to my request not to show up during the case. You don’t want to be accused of doing all that for me. Let me face it alone. You can be angry, but with no violence. We must be patient and peace-oriented for future generations. For business people, do not enter politics. Business people are prone to get the job done. If you do that, my fate will be yours. If you really want to serve, sell everything before you step in.

I will continue to seek justice, wherever I am, in or out of the country. Today I receive no justice. Justice is to be sought. May the people judge. Look back at my years of service, not as one scene of a feature film. Look closely and you will see injustice lurking around. I will fight on peacefully. Future generations must be born to and in democracy, justice, and equality.

What has happened to me should be regarded as lessons for Thailand’s democratization. I appreciate all support and genuine concern. Again, I am sorry for my wife and my children.

Given the inevitable perception among Thaksin supporters that the court ruling was vindictive, the court decision is likely to harden the conviction among residents of north and northeast Thailand that the nation's institutions are run for the benefit of the Bangkok elite.   For now, by eloquently linking his own trial to the peaceful struggle for democracy in Thailand, Thaksin may yet turn the debacle to the advantage of the red shirts.   

I've posted links to live-bloggers of the historic event here.
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Photo by Jotman (file photo). 

March of athletes into the Opening Ceremonies

How did Olympic athletes choose to spend the last 20 seconds of their parade into the Opening Ceremonies of the Vancouver Winter Olympics?   Based on Jotman's photos, the answer depends on what country an athlete represents.

The American athlete waves to the crowd.

The German athlete lines up to photograph dancing First Nations people.

The Chinese athlete photographs other Chinese athletes (and snow-girls).

My responsibilities at the Opening Ceremonies in Vancouver

If Vancouver was Pyongyang, I expect that many in the audience for the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympic Games would now be in a gulag.

When I got to my seat, I saw that it was covered by a cardboard drum. Inside the blue drum was a Canadian flag, two flashlights, batteries, a drumstick, a baby-blue poncho, and a plastic card (the purpose of which eludes me to this day).

Members of the audience had expected a "pre-game show." Instead, we would spend the next hour training how to wave a flashlight and beat out a respectable rhythm on a cardboard drum.

Most television viewers likely did not notice the extent to which the audience had screwed up.

But I imagine the eight North Korean athletes in attendance (above photo) -- familiar with mass games --  were appalled by the lack of synchronization.

Truth be told, most sections of the stadium did not obey their section leaders; indeed, many of the section leaders appeared to have lost track of whether or not their section should, at a particular moment, do downward strokes with the colored flashlight or do the clockwise rotations.   

At one point towards the end of the ceremony I was juggling two cameras, a pair of binoculars, and one flashlight while looking for my drumstick which I had dropped.    Anyway, here are some pictures I managed to take despite the other responsibilities.

Signs on the road to the Olympics

After inspecting the Olympic protests, I made my way to the stadium where the Opening Ceremonies would take place.

I passed these two protesters jostling among pedestrians on a city sidewalk..

Genuine protesters of protesters?  Or dateless and desperate? 

Approaching the stadium I spotted two Canadians.



Visa and Coke were just standing there.

Demonstrations at the opening of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver

On Friday, as many as 5,000 demonstrators danced, sang, an held signs in a peaceful protest in downtown Vancouver.  Vancouver, year-round the warmest big city in Canada, has long been a magnet for the country's homeless.  Protesters believe the billions spent on the Olympics ought to have been spent eradicating homelessness.  From time to time the chant broke out, "Homes not games!"

Others used the occasion to spotlight the need for action on climate change, environmental destruction, the rights of Canada's indigenous people, the growing power of corporations (including Olympic sponsors), and Canada's support for the war in Afghanistan.    Many of the protesters would later march towards the  stadium to be blocked by a line of police.

The people in orange told me they were "neutral."  These legal observers were handing out sheets to citizens  informing them off their their rights under Canadian law.

Interestingly, some Circassians showed up to protest the 2014 Winter Olympics Games in Sochi, Russia.

Photos by Jotman.  Links to other bloggers' firsthand reports from the streets of Vancouver here.

Georgia at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver

As the Georgian team entered the Olympic stadium in Vancouver for the opening ceremonies, everybody rose to their feet.  Earlier in the day, Nodar Kumaritashvili, a twenty-one-year-old luge athlete, had been killed in the midst of a practice run.

Photo by Jotman.

Signs that ignorance of free speech rights growing

Increasingly Southeast Asians are demanding their governments act to silence those with whom they disagree.

Olympic torch relay in Vancouver

The torch relays I blogged in Bangkok (photo left) and Jakarta prior to the Beijing Olympics were notable partly as naked expressions of Chinese nationalism, jarring to many foreigners in the aftermath of the Chinese crackdown against ethnic Tibetans.

The torch run for the Vancouver Olympics which had spanned the country and reached the Vancouver  metropolitan area only today, was notable for the efforts of Olympic sponsors to fuse Canadian nationalism with corporate brand identity. The noisy maple-leaf covered vehicles of two corporate sponsors preceded the torch runners (photo right). At a rally at the end of the course route, a strange ceremony unfolded in which a screaming MC urged spectators to cheer the Canadian team and -- in the same breath -- patronize Coca Cola. 

Attendance along the relay route was large, and the crowd's support for the torch runners was intense.   In response to the cheers, runners waved and smiled.

Haiti earthquake relief: Operation Unified Response and the Henry Reeve Contingent

THERE LIVE's report on the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake has been updated to include live-blogged reports on relief efforts filed by an admiral in the US Navy, a company officer on the USS Bunker Hill, and a witness to the Henry Reeve Cuban Medical Brigade -- a first responder to the disaster.

Sarah Palin sees "potential trouble in the future," seeks "divine intervention"

Many mainstream US media accounts of Sarah Palin's speech last night (NYT, WaPo, CNN) failed to report Palin's call for "divine intervention."  Only the Guardian, a British newspaper, quoted Palin's most outrageous statement in full.  Once again, the US media ignores facts necessary to telling the real story concerning Sarah Palin: the observation that millions of Americans -- including the mainstream media itself -- are bewitched by a veritable nutcase.

Responding to a question about what Congress's top priorities should be, Palin said:

"I think, kind of tougher to put our arms around, but allowing America’s spirit to rise again by not being afraid to kind of go back to some of our roots as a God fearing nation where we’re not afraid to say especially in times of potential trouble in the future here, where we’re not afraid to say, you know, we don’t have all the answers as fallible men and women so it would be wise of us to start seeking some divine intervention again in this country, so that we can be safe and secure and prosperous again. To have people involved in government who aren’t afraid to go that route, not so afraid of the political correctness that you know – they have to be afraid of what the media said about them if they were to proclaim their alliance to our creator."

....in times of potential trouble in the future here... In this context, it is worth keeping in mind Sarah Palin's association with the so-called Third Wave movement, described as "a post-denominational church to take the world for the end times."

Here's the clip:

Account of an Israeli medic in Haiti

I suspect a lot could be learned about how to respond quickly to future disasters by studying the Israeli team's experience.  Following the earthquake in Haiti, Israel was able to mobilize reserves and have necessary medical equipment and supplies on board an plane within 24 hours. For such a small country, Israel's response was both massive and timely.  Israel21 interviewed Dr. Ian Miskin, one of Israel's foremost infectious disease specialists, just back from Haiti:  

According to Miskin, on a professional level, the team learned much from the experience. "We made plans in advance - some worked out, some didn't. To set up a field hospital was the correct decision. It was the only one in Haiti for five days. We also had a pretty sophisticated patient identification system - each patient was photographed on arrival and had an electronic record of his treatment that went with him."

Miskin has nothing but praise for his colleagues. "They wouldn't set a time when they would finish their shifts - they just worked until they collapsed. We had 40 doctors, 20 nurses and 20 medics and paramedics with us. People were doing things that weren't their job - when the eye doctor finished treating his patients he manned the gate. Everyone helped each other. People were looking out for each other all the time, seeing who needs help."

The operation monitored the team's mental health status, explained Miskin: 

 He notes the importance that was attached to maintaining the team's health - both physical and psychological, so that its members would have the strength to give their all. "We had a psychiatrist and psychologist with us - we all needed that help. There was a huge amount of stress - and remember, many of the group were 20-year-olds. We just worked until we dropped. I've never seen anything like it. There was a huge amount of pressure on every member of staff."

Miskin added that they set up a three person medical ethics committee to make the difficult decisions about who should get priority treatment.

More accounts of Haiti earthquake rescue effort collected here.

Sarah Palin on bipartisanship

I happened to catch Sarah Palin's tea party speech.    During the Q and A session, Palin offered some worthwhile advice for Obama and the Democrats on the question of bipartisanship.

Responding to a question about what she would do as president, Palin said that if she thought the other party did not share her agenda, she would not maintain any pretense of pursuing bipartisanship.   Palin suggested that hearing leaders talk about bipartisanship when it is not feasible has made people cynical about politics.

She has a point. At helm of a party that has enjoyed majorities in both houses, Obama could only beat the dead horse of bipartisanship for so long.  Obama's own political base is frustrated.  Americans of all political stripes have to wonder whether the Democrats have any real convictions.

What next?   Will a demoralized American electorate turn to a sexy megalomaniac who promises to ignore the opposition, cut taxes, slash government spending, and "do whatever it takes to win" the wars that God has chosen her to fight?*  Palin's talents are sufficiently limited that I would deem the nightmare unlikely.  But in this age of television politics, being a telegenic media star -- the entire speech was carried live on three cable news networks -- is a huge asset.
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*Her policy platform, as defined in the speech.  Palin explained that her philosophy of national security is to "do whatever it takes to win."  Palin also said that she would rely upon "divine intervention" to help her govern the country.

How much did Wall Street donate to Democrats from 2008-9?

Last week I shared my depressing conclusion that the Democrats have empowered the Republicans to veto their agenda because it means a Democrat doesn't have to.  Obama is happy to talk tough.  But he knows he will never have to sign any tough bills.  The president trusts that Democrats will continue to allow Republicans to prevent Congress from passing legislation that could upset the big donors to either party.

Robert Reich writes:

Wall Street firms and their executives have been uniquely generous to both political parties, emerging recently as one of the largest benefactors of the Democratic Party. Between November 2008 and November 2009, Wall Street firms and executives handed out $42 million to lawmakers, mostly to members of the House and Senate banking committees and House and Senate leaders. During the 2008 elections, Wall Street showered Democratic candidates with well over $88 million and Republicans with over $67 million, putting the Street right up there with the insurance industry as among the nation’s largest equal-opportunity donors.

If Obama plays his cards right, he will be able to convince voters that the failure of Congress to reign in Wall Street is the fault of the Republican Party or -- even less plausibly as Reich suggests in his article -- Wall Street lobbyists.

Fear the deficit?

Paul Krugman compares the hysteria about the US budget deficit to the "group think" that convinced so many people that Iraq possessed WMD.  He believes a story told to help Republican candidates will turn destructive:

For the fact is that thanks to deficit hysteria, Washington now has its priorities all wrong: all the talk is about how to shave a few billion dollars off government spending, while there’s hardly any willingness to tackle mass unemployment. Policy is headed in the wrong direction — and millions of Americans will pay the price.

Checklist democracy

GOOOH says it wants to put American citizens back in control of the House of Representatives.  It's an intriguing idea.   But their website has me attempting to answer some bizarre questions.

Where France overstayed its welcome...

New Mandala: "In many West African states, French is an official language. How many now continue with French in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam?"

French may hardly be spoken in these Southeast Asian lands, but decent bakeries can still be found.

Turning drug crops into chocolate and coffee

The old way was to go in and destroy a drug crop, and leave the farmers either to starve or replant.  But Peru and Thailand have found a better way.

Time reports that Peru has been encouraging its coca growers to plant cocoa.  To some extent, the policy has paid off.  Today Peruvian cocoa has a decent reputation among chocolate makers. The article caused me wonder if a replacement crop had been found for the opium grown in Afghanistan. Coffee seems like an obvious "substitute crop" in a mountainous region.

After some googling I came across an interesting report by Alastair Leithead of the BBC.   It turns out that Thailand has pioneered the substitution of coffee for poppies.   In the Golden Triangle region, Thailand's royal-sponsored Mah Fah Luang Foundation has successfully converted some poppy fields to coffee plantations. (I had heard about the foundation and its coffee growing initiative on a visit to the region , but opium had been so thoroughly eliminated in northern Thailand by the time of my first visit that the historical rationale for the initiative had never ocurred to me).  MR Disnadda Diskul, the foundation director, has been serving as a consultant to Afghanistan.   A descendant of the Thai royal family who has spent twenty years working on the problem, MR Disnadda Diskul was not impressed by the American effort:

"At the moment they are pouring the money into Afghanistan but they are giving fish to the poor, but not giving them a fishing rod and teaching them how to fish, or to look after the ocean," he says.

"That's the difference between the Thai way and what they are doing in Afghanistan. The donor countries are using all their money for infrastructure - not into the mouths and stomachs of the people."

With ever more opium being produced across the Thai border in Burma's Shan State, someday Thailand's experience with this matter may be sought closer to home.

Traumatized by exploding cigarette, Indonesian may quit smoking

Indonesian News reports:

An Indonesian man has lost six teeth and received 51 stitches to his mouth after a cigarette he was smoking exploded, a media report said Tuesday.

Andi Susanto, a resident of Bekasi near Jakarta, was riding a motorcycle when the cigarette exploded in his mouth Thursday, The Jakarta Post newspaper reported.

Susanto, who admitted he had been a smoker since he was in elementary school, told the Post he was traumatised by the incident and would try to quit smoking.

Good idea.

An unfair distribution or a better one?

Did the former Minister of Public Health for Thailand get fired for putting patients first?

How bipartisanship lets Democrats off the hook

When a handful of Republicans is empowered to veto a liberal agenda, it means a Democrat doesn't have to.

Blogging recovery efforts in Haiti

A list of there-live bloggers.

Egypt, US, keeping NGOs out of Gaza

The US and other Western countries have been preventing their own citizens from entering Gaza to engage in NGO work.  I find it hard to fathom what good is supposed to come from such a policy.