1. On Tuesday 5 November, I expressed my opinion in the thread http://www.politicalforum.com/showthread.php?t=330646 "Who is the real master of the South China Sea? It's not China or any other country but the typhoons. In recent years, it's not any invading country but the typhoons that wreak havoc and destruction to the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, China, Japan and Korea. Any aircraft or ship that navigates in the South China Sea would have to take into account the full fury of the elements than the ridiculous claim of any country. The fury of the typhoons also makes the task of mining the mineral resources (if abundant enough to be commercially viable) in the China Sea very difficult, if not impossible." Sure enough on Sunday 10 November, a super typhoon called Haiyan (meaning "Sea Swallow" in Chinese) swept across the Philippines, killing over 10,000 people in its path. The latest disaster in the Philippines proves my assertion that the real overlord in the China Sea is not any country but the never-ending, unpredictable pattern of deadly typhoons. If a fleet of aircraft carrier with its supporting vessels happens to get into the path of a typhoon, they will be swept away into the bottom of the sea just like a baby in a bathtub overturning his toy ships with a swipe of his hand. If anyone opines that China in its "next step" would close the South China Sea off to international commerce and require vessels entering that sea and aircraft flying over it to obtain its permission beforehand, that won't show he "writes marvellously and knows China well". Instead, he should turn his attention to writing some grossly exaggerated, sensational stuff about Europe and America. Kamikaze http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamikaze 2. Following are excerpts from the article headlined "More than 10,000 feared dead after Typhoon Haiyan devastates Philippines" at http://www.scmp.com/news/asia/artic...d-after-typhoon-haiyan-devastates-philippines (Begin excerpts) The death toll from a super typhoon that decimated entire towns in the Philippines could soar well over 10,000, authorities warned on Sunday, making it the country’s worst recorded natural disaster. The horrifying estimates came as rescue workers appeared overwhelmed in their efforts to help countless survivors of Super Typhoon Haiyan, which sent tsunami-like waves and merciless winds rampaging across a huge chunk of the archipelago on Friday.... “Tacloban is totally destroyed. Some people are losing their minds from hunger or from losing their families,” high school teacher Andrew Pomeda, 36, said, as he warned of the increasing desperation of survivors. “People are becoming violent. They are looting business establishments, the malls, just to find food, rice and milk... I am afraid that in one week, people will be killing from hunger.” Authorities were struggling to even understand the sheer magnitude of the disaster, let alone react to it, with the regional police chief for Leyte saying 10,000 people were believed to have died in that province alone..... “About 70 to 80 per cent of the houses and structures along the typhoon’s path were destroyed.” On the neighbouring island of Samar, a local disaster chief said 300 people were killed in the small town of Basey. He added another 2,000 were missing there and elsewhere on Samar, which was one of the first areas to be hit when Haiyan swept in from the Pacific Ocean with maximum sustained winds of 315 kilometres an hour. Dozens more people were confirmed killed in other flattened towns and cities across a 600-kilometre stretch of islands through the central Philippines... However, if the feared death toll of above 10,000 is correct, Haiyan would be the deadliest natural disaster ever recorded in the Philippines.... Haiyan’s maximum sustained wind speeds made it the strongest typhoon in the world this year, and one of the most powerful ever recorded. Witnesses in Tacloban recalled waves up to five metres high surging inland, while aerial photos showed entire neighbourhoods destroyed with trees and buildings flattened by storm surges that reached deep inland. “The effects are very similar to what I have seen in a tsunami rather than a typhoon,” the Philippine country director of the World Food Programme, Praveen Agrawal, who visited Tacloban, said. “All the trees are bent over, the bark has been stripped off, the houses have been damaged. In many cases they have collapsed.”.... (End excerpts) 3. Following are excerpts from the article headlined "Super Typhoon Haiyan, Philippines: Death toll could top 10,000 people, officials say" at http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/natio...an-philippines-over-100-people-confirmed-dead (Begin excerpts) TACLOBAN, Philippines - As many as 10,000 people are believed to have died in one Philippine city alone when one of the worst storms on record sent giant sea waves, washing away homes, schools and airport buildings, officials said Sunday. Ferocious winds ravaged several central islands, burying people under tons of debris and leaving corpses hanging from trees. Regional police chief Elmer Soria said he was briefed by Leyte provincial Gov. Dominic Petilla late Saturday and told there were about 10,000 deaths in the province, mostly by drowning and from collapsed buildings. The governor's figure was based on reports from village officials in areas where Typhoon Haiyan slammed Friday. Tacloban city administrator Tecson Lim said that the death toll in the city alone "could go up to 10,000." Tacloban is the Leyte provincial capital of 200,000 people and the biggest city on Leyte Island. On Samar Island, which is facing Tacloban, Leo Dacaynos of the provincial disaster office said Sunday that 300 people were confirmed dead in Basey town and another 2,000 are missing. He said that the storm surge caused sea waters to rise 6 meters (20 feet) when Typhoon Haiyan hit Friday, before crossing to Tacloban. There are still other towns on Samar that have not been reached, he said, and appealed for food and water. Power was knocked out and there was no cellphone signal, making communication possible only by radio. Reports from the other four islands were still coming in, so far with dozens of fatalities. The typhoon barreled through six central Philippine islands on Friday, wiping away buildings and leveling seaside homes with ferocious winds of 235 kilometers per hour (147 miles per hour) and gusts of 275 kph (170 mph). By those measurements, Haiyan would be comparable to a strong Category 4 hurricane in the U.S., and nearly in the top category, a 5. It weakened Sunday to 166 kph (103 mph) with stronger gusts and was forecast to loose strength further when it hits northern Vietnam's Thanh Hoa province early Monday morning. In hardest-hit Tacloban, about 300-400 bodies have already been recovered but there are "still a lot under the debris," Lim said. A mass burial was planned Sunday in Palo town near Tacloban. Many corpses hung on tree branches, buildings and sidewalks..... (End excerpts)
Commiserations to all affected and hope that things can be rebuilt I will look to give towards the rebuilding as will a lot of Aussies I hope.
God bless you. All men are brothers. I hope to see more good kind souls like you than such people as His Majesty Algirdas who has nothing better to do than instigating a nuclear war between the US and China. Perhaps His Majesty Algirdas knows his days are numbered and does not mind inhaling all the radioactive air into his lungs. In my case, I still haven't had enough of the worldly enjoyment but I would not mind witnessing a nuclear war 50 years later when I should be breathing my last on my bed. All men are brothers http://www.mkgandhi-sarvodaya.org/amabrothers/amabrothers.htm
It makes you wonder, what if North and South America really weren't there, but eh Earth was still 25,000 miles around?. I can't help but think we would see such storms off it that it wouldn't be circumnavigated by ships to this day. (and besides, there' be no reason to do it anyway). But wouldn't that give humans a strange viewpoint, when everyone started to see the weather on this huge Ocean which would probably still be looked upon with awe and terroe
I think the storms would be many times more powerful and devastating after traversing the two oceans (Pacific and Atlantic) which theoretically would have merged into one mighty ocean without the American continents in between. Well said. When we look with awe and terror at the full destruction wreaked by the forces of Nature, we should realise how insignificant and helpless mankind is, when compared with the might of Nature (or God or Allah if we wish to call it).
Is the USA flying in food to the survivors? Or is it too busy feeding Talmu-"Islamic" terrorists to kill Christians in Syria? Here is the official USA attitude towards the Philippines: 1902 US General Jacob H. Smith tells the commanding officer of the Marines assigned to clean up the island of Samar, Philippines: "I want no prisoners. I wish you to kill and burn; the more you kill and burn the better it will please me." He orders that the entire island of Samar be converted into a "howling wilderness." He specifically orders that all males over the age of ten are to be shot. Step one is to burn the town of Balangiga to the ground.
Your post is informative. Bilateral relations are governed by strategic and ever-changing geopolitical considerations. The official USA attitude towards the Philippines in 1902 did not come as a surprise as the Filipinos were described as "the White Man’s Burden" of "new-caught, sullen peoples, half devil and half child" in a poem by the English poet Rudyard Kipling in 1899: “The White Man’s Burden: The United States & The Philippine Islands, 1899.” Take up the White Man’s burden— Send forth the best ye breed— Go send your sons to exile To serve your captives' need To wait in heavy harness On fluttered folk and wild— Your new-caught, sullen peoples, Half devil and half child Take up the White Man’s burden In patience to abide To veil the threat of terror And check the show of pride; By open speech and simple An hundred times made plain To seek another’s profit And work another’s gain Take up the White Man’s burden— And reap his old reward: The blame of those ye better The hate of those ye guard— The cry of hosts ye humour (Ah slowly) to the light: "Why brought ye us from bondage, “Our loved Egyptian night?” Take up the White Man’s burden- Have done with childish days- The lightly proffered laurel, The easy, ungrudged praise. Comes now, to search your manhood Through all the thankless years, Cold-edged with dear-bought wisdom, The judgment of your peers! “The White Man’s Burden”: Kipling’s Hymn to U.S. Imperialism http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5478/ The White Man's Burden http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_White_Man's_Burden The White Man's Burden http://www.poetryloverspage.com/poets/kipling/white_mans_burden.html "....mistreatment of brown people in the Philippines was an extension of the mistreatment of black Americans at home." as quoted in the article headlined “'The Black Man’s Burden': A Response to Kipling" at http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5476/
