[LINK] No cash for phone alert system

[Karl Auer]

On Thu, 2009-02-19 at 16:33 +1030, Glen Turner wrote:
> > IMHO, when it comes to natural disasters, all you can do for people is
> > make sure you've done your best to educate them about how to make
> > themselves as safe as possible; then let Darwin sort them out.
> 
> If you regard those small towns on the edge of Melbourne as the
> dormitory suburbs of the poor, then there's a fair bit of social
> darwinism in that remark.  "Education" is rich people saying
> for "we'll tell you what to do, but you're on your own".

?!?!?

Thanks for the "if". I don't know enough about Melbourne to have any
idea where the economic battle lines are drawn. I only know about Toorak
because of Skyhooks :-)

No amount of money can "handle" a natural disaster. You can't contain
the tsunami, snuff the fire out, cage the cyclone or divert the flood.
What you *can* do is (over time) apply the hard lessons through building
regulations and town planning. And you can tell people how best to
improve their chances.

No seatbelt can save you every time, but you're a fool not to use one.
If someone dies in a car accident and was not wearing a seatbelt, it's
pretty hard not to think "hullo Uncle Charlie" - even though a seatbelt
might have made no difference at all.

When the actual shit hits the actual fan, it isn't down to town planning
any more, it's down to people doing the right things at the right time.

Regards, K.

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Karl Auer (kauer at biplane.com.au)                   +61-2-64957160 (h)
http://www.biplane.com.au/~kauer/                  +61-428-957160 (mob)

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