How the Japanese earthquake and Tsunami may affect us all

So over the weekend the tragic news of a huge earthquake that hit just off the north east coast of the japanese mainland hit on friday i think it was now. Awful devastation in the north of the country with big towns such as Sendai affected hugely with many homes and buildings flattened and often washed out to sea.

Japan who lie slap bang on the fault line of a major fault line which is part of teh pacific ring of fire as they call it was always under threat from this huge quake and this appears to have been the big one. Coming in at a collosall 8.9 and many argueing it could be a 9 on the reicter scale is huge on anyones estimation.

Firstly i wantt o send all of our condolances from this blog and many who read this. I intend to pledge a donation to the Red Cross in solidarity with the Japanese people. I must say the Japanese people have handled this amazingly with faced with such tradegy they havent moaned or groaned or pleaded to the world about their troubles they have quietly gone about rescueing any survivors they can rescue from the quake and any who have been affected by the Tsnami which brought a huge huge wave clattering against the Japanese coastline washing in 10 miles inland at some parts and destroying anything that lay in its path.

Absolutely awful scenes we saw over the weekend on our news. Many countries around the world including New Zealand and Chile who have also been recently hit with big earthquakes have pledged to support Japan in its rescue efforts and rebuilding efforts.

Not just teh loss of life and destruction of buildings and land though a big problem that now has occured now as a direct result of fridays earthquake is the major nuclear power plants and reactors that keep the Japanese electricity supply going. It is rumoured due to the shut down and the damage caused to these reactors which are still not stable by any means the Japanese electricity supply is now down by 25% roughly. This is major i would say as Japan as what is the 3rd or 4th biggest global economies in the whole wide world relies heavily on nuclear power and electricity for its production which in itself is huge.

It is said in times of disaster around the world the world looks to the ever reliable Yen to invest in and it has always been seen as a safe currency to invest your money in.

Now it is Japan in troublea nd the Yen taking a tumble in the stock market loosing 6% of its worth apparently today what affect will this have on the rest of the world i ask you.

Well i dont think we know the full extent of the aftermath of the Japanese earthquake of 2011 yet. But small things are emerging it is being estimated that the insurance cost for this will rocket into the billions of dollars and Japan who's economy is already in dire straights with a financial deficit estimated to be 4 times bigger than the UK's i fail to see how this wont have a major impact on the world and the global economy.

I dont think many have stopped to think of the knock on effects the problems in Japan will have. Alot of the business and production and trade in the world today is carried out with Japan with them having to heal their damaged economy and possibly take a loan out with a country like America for example i can only see the japanese economy taking a tumble in the world market.

As a socialist i find this fascinating and also very worryign how a major capitalist country goes about healing itself. No doubt to help pay for the damage and the aftermath of a broken economy already not coping with the recession it has been in for the last 8 or 9 years now will be sent to the working class's to help pay for this as usual. This is a tactic often used when a capitalist society gets into trouble financially. But i can only see this benifitin America to be honest as i said before i see America one of the Japanese closest allies now according to Barac O'barma will be sure to come to their aid with a recovery economic package to help their economy get back on its feet. The world needs a strong Japan with its huge infrustructure and production power on the world stage.

We are facing one of the most uncertain economic times for a very long time and i really do see this Japanese situation and unfortunate as it is how it will affect the global economy. I really feel the damage and long lasting damage done to that country will send the rest of the world into recession as teh capitalist system fails to grasp how it can get out of its own mess.

I really do think the events in Japan over the last week or so will affect us all be it with the worry of nuclear power making its way back onto the agenda of world governments. I may well do a blogpost on nuclear energy and its pro's and con's in the next week or so but it has brought it back on to the agenda for modern day governments to assess whetehr it really is the best way to go.

With a ever expanding China aiming to build over 300 nuclear power plants over the next 10 years and with China on a few big major fault lines of its own it is quite worrying that we may end up with another chernobyl nuclear disaster which ruined a large amount of the Ukrainian countryside when a nuclear meltdown caused the plant to leak for miles around the site writing off land for years and still many birds and animals will not return to this land deeming it un usable. I myself am anti nucler i am scared by it to be quite honest the power it pocess's and can weirld is frightening. I am glad i wasnt alive during the times of the cold war that would have scared the crap out of me. I feel in a socialist society there would be no need for nuclear power and the rich capitalists using these sorts of dangerous energies to gain more profit out of. I would hope in a socialist society the money that was shared out between everyone would be used to create long lasting greener energies that were renewable and usable.

So i do think the question will return to many western governments whether nuclear really is the best way forward possibly leading to higher energy prices as Japan depends more on oil over the next few yearsas a result of its broken nuclear system. This i feel will havea result as this will drive up the price of oil even further so do watch this space with this situation. This could affect us all.

The extreme weather of late

So i just read on the bbc news that 800 people are known to have died in Brazil with a further 400 presumed dead or missing. With just last month and still now there have been some terrible floods in Queensland in Austrlia where they have had droughts for years and years now under huge amounts of water.

In brazilThe Brazilian government has said it will set up an early warning system to alert communities of impending danger.

The flooding is considered the worst natural disaster Brazil has ever experienced.

According to figures compiled by the newspaper O Globo, a third of all victims were under age.

The youngest fatality was a five-day-old baby buried in a mudslide in Nova Friburgo, the worst affected town with 324 dead.

Continuing danger

The number of missing has been declining as forensic experts identify more bodies, but rescue workers fear the full extent of the disaster is not yet known, with some remote communities still only reachable by helicopter.


Funeral workers said some dogs were guarding their owners' graves for days Emergency workers say their priority is to make sure no new deaths occur.

They are warning of the risks of contaminated water.

Three people are known to have contracted leptospirosis, an infectious bacterial disease, which is caused by exposure to water contaminated with rats' urine.

In Teresopolis, doctors have been administering thousands of tetanus vaccines.

In Sao Jose do Vale, workers were erecting more than a hundred tents sent from the UK to house those whose homes were swept away or flooded.

Volunteers in Rio de Janeiro held an adoption fair in the hope of re-homing some of the 5,000 animals left without owners as a result of the disaster.

The government has allocated $240m (£150m) in emergency reconstruction money for the area.


Two points really one is are these more frequent natural disasters a natural problem that we cant do much about or is this another consequence of global warming affecting us now. As my blogpost earlier detailed the affect of capitalism and industralisation is having such a huge impact on our planet and i still dont think we have seen the true consequences of all this.

The trouble is alot of these disasters that mostly the west and now China now are creating due to excessive pollution into the earth's atmosphere over a number of years most of the natural disasters are happening to 3rd world or developing countries who have little infrustructure to deal with large scale disaster. From teh article from the bbc i just posted above the small fund the brazilian government can give to disasters like this is low compared to if this kind of disaster happened in the western world. I do conceed that when America and New orleans faced wide spread flooding and destruction after hurricane Katrina they to were slow to react but i partly think that was down to them not being ready or prepared properly not lack of funds.

But my second point is that howcomes disasters in the 3rd and developing worlds recieve such little attention in our news these days ? Our news seems very biased towards western based news stories and rarely make a big deal of disasters like this i have just posted. Why is this do we think ?

link to bbc article on brazilian floods :
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-12263166?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter