[Reader-list] Haitian Earthquake: Made In The USA

Britta Ohm ohm at zedat.fu-berlin.de
Sat Jan 23 22:14:02 IST 2010



The water situation seems to be an additional fatalism; because of  
scarce water resources, salt water was used to mix cement for  
construction. This appears to be an increasing global problem.

Am 17.01.2010 um 17:05 schrieb A. Mani:

> See http://www.countercurrents.org/rall160110.htm
>
> The same 7.0 tremor hitting San Francisco wouldn't kill nearly as many
> people as in Port-au-Prince.
>
> "Looking at the pictures, essentially it looks as if (the buildings
> are of) breezeblock or cinderblock construction, and what you need in
> an earthquake zone is metal bars that connect the blocks so that they
> stay together when they get shaken," notes Sandy Steacey, director of
> the Environmental Science Research Institute at the University of
> Ulster in Northern Ireland. "In a wealthy country with good seismic
> building codes that are enforced, you would have some damage, but not
> very much."
>
> When a pile of cinderblocks falls on you, your odds of survival are
> long. Even if you miraculously survive, a poor country like Haiti
> doesn't have the equipment, communications infrastructure or emergency
> service personnel to pull you out of the rubble in time. And if your
> neighbors get you out, there's no ambulance to take you to the
> hospital--or doctor to treat you once you get there.
>
> _______________________________________
>
> Best
>
> A. Mani
>
>
> -- 
> A. Mani
> ASL, CLC,  AMS, CMS
> http://www.logicamani.co.cc
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---------------------------------------
Dr. Britta Ohm

Institute of Social Anthropology
University of Bern
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