Ken Yasumoto-Nicolson wrote:

> I was watching the telly today and on one channel they had a story
> about how someone had robbed a million yen from an ATM in the Post
> Office of one of the earthquaked villages, then they had a few
> villages commenting how terrible, they couldn't forgive such an act,
> etc, and one of the commentators in the studio (I think he'd been
> wheeled in for the Sepponian election) commented that on US telly
> they'd been coverage of how noble everyone had been, helping others,
> etc with the quake and typhoons, so surely only gaigins could have
> done it.

Speaking of gaijin, something I have not yet caught on the news which
was made much of after the Kobe quake, where are all the international
offers of aid and personnel? What is the government response? Where is
such foreign aid in Niigata?

> Oh, the immediately preceding article had been on the various fake
> appeals for money for quake victims, but absent comments from the
> public or the guy in the studio about how horrible *that* was.
>
> Personally, I'd rate robbing an evacuees house as the worst
> (thankfully no reports of that), second fake claims for money, and
> third robbing ATMs, with regard to the amount of misery, or abuse of
> victims that these crimes entail.

Here's a new number two for you.

http://tinyurl.com/6c66c

Thieves make off with quake donation box

TSUCHIURA, Ibaraki -- Police responding to a burglar alarm set off at a
Tsuchiura Municipal Government office early Wednesday discovered that
two fund-raising boxes had been stolen, officers said.

[snip]

And as for number one, though it hasn't been reported either, people
could rob or swindle earthquake victims. Old tricks like promises to
repair or rebuild houses quickly, and collecting money up front leaving
them in the cold. Property devaluation practices in Japan are in
invitation to lowball victims for insurance and compensation as well.
Yeah, my house is worth zero yen, because it is 30 years old.

--
 "I'm on top of the world right now, because everyone's going to know
that I can shove more than three burgers in my mouth!"