Japan Quake

[Stupot]

I was in Tokyo when the quake struck and I'm surprised there isn't a thread about it already, so I thought I'd open the discussions by plugging my latest blog post about my quake experience.  It's pretty text-heavy but it's there for anyone to read if they would like :-)

http://stujapan.blogspot.com/2011/03/big-ass-quake-2011.html

I'd be interested to hear about how the media reported on the stories in your respective countries, especially regarding the Fukushima nuclear crisis,  because it seems to me that the French and Germans really panicked at the first mention of radiation.  I was staying at a hostel and they were the first to book planes home, even before the French government officially told tem to come home.  Even my English friend, who I know very well, and who would normally have been the last one to panic, was actually the first of us to leave Japan, and the only reason I can think is that he has a lot of German friends and connections, who were clearly scaring him, because their media was scaring them.

[zabnat]

Finnish media has mostly been focusing on Fukushima, which is kind of sad in my opinion. Who cares about entire cities being flushed away when there is a possibility that some of those reactors might release radiation to the atmosphere that might possibly pose a health risk? I actually blame them for being biased as we have parliament elections coming up and nuclear power seems to one of the main issues (we have fifth reactor under construction). On our leading newspapers webpage there is a section titled "Japans catastrophe" where all the news about Japan has been collected. If it didn't have a short one paragraph description about the quake, you could read all the headlines and still not know there was a quake, but just a nuclear accident.

[TomatoesInTheHead]

Yes, in Germany the media covered the problems at the Fukushima power plant quite largely, and the (actually pro-nuclear-energy) government shut down the 7 or 8 oldest nuclear power plants of the country in a hurry (in fact, they did a 180° turn in only half a day). There was also the side effect that Geiger counters in Germany are temporarily sold out (but hearing that Iodine pills are sold out in some parts of the US and people broke out in tears when they got none, this seems relatively harmless.).

But from what I've seen watching the Japanese NHK live stream, they also spent a lot of time covering everything that happened in the power plant, so I feel that there was not that much of a difference in the amount of media coverage, but more in the reception and maybe the amount of "what could happen?" scenarios brought up. The magical term "nuclear meltdown" ("Kernschmelze") was probably the most-mentioned these days, and brought up memories of the Chernobyl disaster and its consequences for the region. Though I think only few people feared for their own health, but imagined crowded Tokio soon being in a same situation as some small village near the Chernobyl plant 25 years ago.

Afterall, the media coverage is also an issue of news and new pictures. Once the pictures and videos of earthquake, tsunami, and destroyed buildings were all seen, there was nothing new. Watching a rescue team wandering through debris is boring, so they cut the coverage mostly down to mentioning the current official and expected death tolls, and showed videos of exploding reactor shells, water being thrown on the reactors, and TEPCO officials stating their latest efforts instead.
At least until the situation stabilized, then the whole topic got boring too and now the news focusses on Libya and the question whether it was the right decision of the German government not to vote "Yes" in the UN security council.

[zabnat]

Yes, in Germany the media covered the problems at the Fukushima power plant quite largely, and the (actually pro-nuclear-energy) government shut down the 7 or 8 oldest nuclear power plants of the country in a hurry (in fact, they did a 180° turn in only half a day). There was also the side effect that Geiger counters in Germany are temporarily sold out (but hearing that Iodine pills are sold out in some parts of the US and people broke out in tears when they got none, this seems relatively harmless.).

Buah, Iodine pills were sold out in Finland also.

brought up memories of the Chernobyl disaster and its consequences for the region. Though I think only few people feared for their own health, but imagined crowded Tokio soon being in a same situation as some small village near the Chernobyl plant 25 years ago.

You mean Pripyat? Is a city with a population of 50 000 considered a small village in Germany?

At least until the situation stabilized, then the whole topic got boring too and now the news focusses on Libya and the question whether it was the right decision of the German government not to vote "Yes" in the UN security council.

Actually I was wondering if the France's decision to engage in Libya was affected by this talk about Fukushima. I mean electricity in France is 78% nuclear and the state owns a large portion of most of the companies. I mean a war nicely changes the topic in the media.

[Igor Hardy]

The lives lost in the tsunami and earthquake are certainly the greatest and immediate tragedy. However, I wouldn't say people sin Japan being afraid of radiation and deciding to take basic pre-cautions constitutes "panic". Fukushima is an event which at the moment is very difficult to measure the danger and consequences of, while past disasters of similar nature were pretty deadly. I live in eastern Poland and I have to say soon after the Chernobyl disaster there was quite a plague of people falling ill to cancer down here. And we're damn far away from Chernobyl.

[TomatoesInTheHead]

brought up memories of the Chernobyl disaster and its consequences for the region. Though I think only few people feared for their own health, but imagined crowded Tokio soon being in a same situation as some small village near the Chernobyl plant 25 years ago.

You mean Pripyat? Is a city with a population of 50 000 considered a small village in Germany?

I admit I'm far from well-informed about that... let's just state that Tokio's a bit bigger

[Stupot]

The lives lost in the tsunami and earthquake are certainly the greatest and immediate tragedy. However, I wouldn't say people sin Japan being afraid of radiation and deciding to take basic pre-cautions constitutes "panic".

To be fair, what I saw would definitely be described as panic by  most people... I would even go as far as to call it 'freaking out' in some cases.  There was a marked difference between the European guests (mostly French and German -  who were running around like headless chickens, arguing with each other, cancelling reservations, crying over airline websites and one even shreiking something about a "mushroom cloud") and the Asian guests who were busy organising their touristy duties and making schedules that involved temples and food rather than taxis and airports.  The British, Americans and Aussies were certainly tense, everyone was tense, and some were considering changing their travel plans, but most of us were just sitting there watching the others flap around in fear.  We seemed to be more nervous about the incessant barrage of aftershocks than any threat coming out of Fukushima.

My Bulgarian friend told me that the Bulgarian Consul fled Japan without any mention to any of the Bulgarian citizens who might need some assistance or advice at this crucial time.  That, surely, is panic.

[Atelier]

That was very interesting. Consider yourself subscribed