cc wrote:

> "Eric Takabayashi" <etakajp@yahoo.co.jp> wrote in message
>
> > 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?
>
> There were not the same needs as for the Hanshin quake.

106,000 homeless people (temporarily), and some dying because of sleeping in
cars? Isolated areas without food? Places without power and water? People in
even established shelters asking for blankets? Perhaps billions of dollars
lost?

It's not as great a need, but there certainly is need, until people's lives get
back to normal.

> Fortunately this
> time, the number of persons caught under ruins was much smaller. I've read
> that South-Korea had given money and the US army lent equipment.

Oh, that's good, because news or those interviewed sure are going on about how
the spirit of "Japanese" volunteerism or "Japanese" spirit are showing
themselves.

> > What is the government response?
>
> To what question ?

Offers of aid. Too proud or "ashamed" to ask for or receive aid this time while
people suffer or die?

> >Where is such foreign aid in Niigata?
>
> I've seen foreign volunteers on TV. They were preparing chai for the people
> in shelters. It seems many people from all over Japan went to help, but over
> there they didn't know well what they should do as that's not yet safe to go
> back to the houses and they needed more big building equipment than arms.

Foreign nations could offer building equipment, too. One small company went
bankrupt because they lost uninsured machinery in a landslide. Someone with
deep pockets could step in.

--
 "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!"