Tohoku Earthquake, Tsunami and Nuclear Disaster!!!

[Iraira]

Maybe I'm a sick bastard but some of that looks pretty funny to me.

I've had to explain the "Western Approach to Dealing with Tragedies" to J-friends before. The joking part of the tragedy depends on the timing ("Too soon, Gilbert!") and the take on the disaster/tragedy. I'll have to look for it, but I enjoyed the In Living Color take of white people rioting in Beverly Hills after the 2nd OJ Simpson trial, where OJ was found not guilty. SNL Spoofed the Reagan assassination attempt in terms of how many times the TV news was replaying the assassination and later, that Buckwheat was the assassin. Maybe Western humor, in these cases, is an attempt to show irony, societal reaction, stereotypes, absurdity, etc., whereas Japanese tend to focus on everyday events to create humor, and tragedies and the royal family are off limits.
It generally gets summed up with "laughter is the best medicine", which Japanese seem to understand, but of course, they cannot use this technique themselves for tragedies occurring here.

[Rube]

This looks pretty Gilberish to me.

[Coligny]

Maybe I'm a sick bastard but some of that looks pretty funny to me.

This show was a french copy of the "Spitting image" english parody show, and a "h4rdc0r3" follow up of the french politicla "Bebete Show" a 80" era political satire with a Jim Henson "Muppet Show" background (bebete meaning "dumbtard" president Mitterand was Kermitt-errand the Frog for example). The show "Les Guignols de l'info" date back from the end of the 80'. Their big 'coming out' time was the first gulf war, were they exposed on a daily basis what kind of circus the whole affair was.

The character in this video :


Is 'Commandant Sylvestre' based on Stallone, he was the defacto embodiement of american Ham fisted approach to... anything... After Desert Storm Sylvestre was promoted Mr Sylvestre working as a greedy bastard for the "World Company", he also got a pedophyle cousin working for "Jesus Inc" (I think)

In the video he actually says that Japanos are lazy bums, first to wear wooden shoes to lazy to rebuild anything. since all is still as described by his G.I. grand'pa. And they could even take the same picture 60 years appart...

At first Canal+ was an anarchist UFO on French TV (with hardcore pr0n every first saturday night of the month), then they got hyper capitalist with Messier (Tomorrow Never Dies, 'Elliot Carver' media mogul villain style who ended up in jail for being a crook and a lecturing asshole), then it's a bit fuzzy... Their journalists got pressured, spied on, the whole "in Soviet Russia" Disney Ride...

But, they never caved in... That's why they are lasting so long, and also, unfortunately, that's why they are considered one of the most reliable news source in France... (equivalent to "the Daily Show" if ya want...)

For the whole butthurt embassy thing... At best they will continue not to give a fuck (*) Or at worst, them Japanese managed to open a can of worms if Canal+ decide to start dumpster diving in the whole Tepco-"Greed Is Good" side of things...

(*) Their writer didn't think twice (in another show) before showing a live journalist pants down sodomizing dead livestock in a field for a sketch were he was inquiring aboot the Mad Cow decease and checking by himself if it was or not an STD. And it was brodcasted at the same time as the evening news on the other channels... (The whole "Groland" parody country with its President for life, pedophyle or brain damaged secretaries of states , alcoholic cops as a metaphor of France)

[Samurai_Jerk]

This looks pretty Gilberish to me.

I'd say it's not like Gilbert at all. Having Mr. Burns comment on the TEPCO issue is satire. Making jokes about Japanese people washing away in the tsunami isn't. I do understand why the Japanese are upset because they don't find this kind of humor funny.

This reminds me of a discussion I had with a group of students when I was an ESL teacher in the States. I explained how we make jokes about celebrity deaths. The students from East Asia couldn't believe it and didn't think that idea was funny at all. However, the student from Colombia said it was exactly the same in South America.

I do think a lot of people are hypocritical when it comes to this kind of thing. For example, an American will get offended by say a 9-11 joke but not a joke about a disaster in some other country. It's like a guy who makes mother jokes all day long who suddenly gets offended and wants to fight because you made a crack about his mom.

[cstaylor]

I do think a lot of people are hypocritical when it comes to this kind of thing.

Bingo.

[Mike Oxlong]

[Mike Oxlong]

[SIZE="4"]Ishikawa of JNTI Talks about Reactor Core Conditions[/SIZE]

77-year-old Michio Ishikawa of the Japan Nuclear Technology Institute on the situation at Fukushima I Nuke Plant, as he appeared on Asahi TV on April 29.

A Todai as-hole though he may be, I started to like this guy as I watched. He didn't mince his words, and said what they are doing at Fukushima I Nuke Plant is not working. That surprised some, including the host of the show, as Ishikawa is known as a strong proponent for the nuclear power generation and the nuclear industry...

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

Outraged. Where is Deadbeato?
Who is going to insist their cuntry file a formal complaint to the Japanese government for its cultural insensitivity by protesting against the humor displayed to cope with the tragedy in Tohoku.

[Yokohammer]

First time I've seen that one, Mike.
Power, speed, depth, turbulence, debris ... everything you don't want in an encroaching wetness.
Quite a bit of money down the tubes in planes and choppers there too.

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

(*) Their writer didn't think twice (in another show) before showing a live journalist pants down sodomizing dead livestock in a field for a sketch were he was inquiring aboot the Mad Cow decease and checking by himself if it was or not an STD.

This is what French journalists do? What do your farmers sodomize? I'm kinda beginning to understand how Vichy came about the more I learn about France.

[Rube]

I'd say it's not like Gilbert at all. Having Mr. Burns comment on the TEPCO issue is satire. Making jokes about Japanese people washing away in the tsunami isn't. I do understand why the Japanese are upset because they don't find this kind of humor funny.

This reminds me of a discussion I had with a group of students when I was an ESL teacher in the States. I explained how we make jokes about celebrity deaths. The students from East Asia couldn't believe it and didn't think that idea was funny at all. However, the student from Colombia said it was exactly the same in South America.

I do think a lot of people are hypocritical when it comes to this kind of thing. For example, an American will get offended by say a 9-11 joke but not a joke about a disaster in some other country. It's like a guy who makes mother jokes all day long who suddenly gets offended and wants to fight because you made a crack about his mom.

Mr Burns is funny, Mario brothers isn't. I also think that the snow white apple thing was within bounds because people here are worried about foods from the are as well. The video with that comedien doing immitations of famous people auditioning for Osama was very funny. I just see a lot of racism in the humor and the things being said on TV these days.

[Rube]

Outraged. Where is Deadbeato?
Who is going to insist their cuntry file a formal complaint to the Japanese government for its cultural insensitivity by protesting against the humor displayed to cope with the tragedy in Tohoku.

France has to cope with the tragedy? Well the French do seem hyper sensitive to the situation so maybe they do but it seems a lot like outsiders taking cheap shots.

[Coligny]

:shock:

This is what French journalists do? What do your farmers sodomize? I'm kinda beginning to understand how Vichy came about the more I learn about France.

The original sketch is too old, can't find it, but there is a lighter remake with sheeps...

[Greji]

Gotta phone number?

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

Power, speed, depth, turbulence, debris ... everything you don't want in an encroaching wetness.
Quite a bit of money down the tubes in planes and choppers there too.

Description fits my ex-wife (No. 3) perfectly and that's who I thought you were talking about until I watched the clip...

[Coligny]

First time I've seen that one, Mike.
Power, speed, depth, turbulence, debris ... everything you don't want in an encroaching wetness.
Quite a bit of money down the tubes in planes and choppers there too.

Yea, but that first Chopper strolling ahead of the debris have something hillarious in'it'...

[Yokohammer]

Yea, but that first Chopper strolling ahead of the debris have something hillarious in'it'...

Surreal, as is the upended tail of the light plane that swims past the camera at close range a few moments later. The whole scene is so removed from normal daily experience that it's hard to know how to react at all.

One thing about this disaster occurring in this day and age though, there's plenty of visual documentation since there are cameras all over the place, and everybody has one in their phone. Im sure it was just as visually overwhelming when it happened 1,000 years ago, but how would you know?

[Catoneinutica]

Description fits my ex-wife (No. 3) perfectly and that's who I thought you were talking about until I watched the clip...

[cstaylor]

Outraged. Where is Deadbeato?

Still hiding in Canada AFAIK.

[Mike Oxlong]

[Mike Oxlong]

[Coligny]

Japan Estimates Tepco Compensation of $49 Billion, Asahi Says

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-03/japan-estimates-tepco-compensation-of-49-billion-asahi-says.html

"We fucked up, you pay..." Tepco... greedo iz gudu...

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

"We fucked up, you pay..."

Welcome to capitalism!

[Coligny]

Welcome to capitalism!

No w4y... I iz h4rDc0r3mUn1st... (sort of... maybe... at least a littul...)

[Samurai_Jerk]

greedo iz gudu...

I never understood that line from "Wall Street" because I always thought Greedo was bad.

[Ganma]

[SIZE="3"]Chinese journalists change image of Japan after covering March disaster[/SIZE]

BEIJING (Kyodo) -- A number of Chinese journalists saw their long-held negative views about Japan and its people change completely after traveling to northeastern Japan to cover the aftermath of the March 11 quake-tsunami disaster, according to their reports to a recent symposium with university students in Beijing.

Impressed by the orderly and patient behavior of disaster victims and the relatively high transparency of information released, they said they developed a feeling of respect toward the Japanese.
...

[Coligny]

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110429p2g00m0dm008000c.htmlImpressed by the orderly and patient behavior of disaster victims and the relatively high transparency of information released, they said they developed a feeling of respect toward the Japanese.http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110429p2g00m0dm008000c.html

Compared to the transparency in China...

That's not exactly an achievement...

[Coligny]

I never understood a line from "Wall Street" because I always thought the movie was dreadfull.

Like Scarface I only saw it few weeks ago...

I had to chain myself to the coach not to 'forget' to watch it untill the end...

(people actually do 'enjoy' these movies ?)

[McTojo]

[SIZE="3"]Chinese journalists change image of Japan after covering March disaster[/SIZE]

What's not to respect about the Japanese? That's what Tojo and everybody was trying to help the Chinese achieve.

[Mulboyne]

Yomiuri: Lack of PTSD specialists threatens disaster survivors

Experts fear a mental health crisis is looming because fewer than 20 psychotherapists specializing in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are available to practice in the disaster-hit Tohoku region, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned. It is believed between 5 and 10 percent of people faced with traumatic near-death experiences will suffer from PTSD, the symptoms of which include having terrifying flashbacks over a long period of time. Survivors of the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami, as well as people involved in rescue and relief operations such as searching for bodies, are likely to suffer from PTSD.

Psychiatric expert and National Defense Medical College lecturer Jun Shigemura said the number of PTSD patients resulting from the events of March 11 could possibly reach several thousand. "The number of victims and people involved in rescue operations is enormous," he said. Antidepressants are sometimes prescribed to PTSD patients but are considered effective in only 20 to 40 percent of cases. More successful is exposure treatment, a technique in behavior therapy which involves exposure without danger to the feared object or context while the therapist comforts the client to reduce anxiety.

According to Takako Konishi, a Musashino University professor in its faculty of human studies, about 70 percent of patients with PTSD will see improvement within three or four months if they receive specialized treatment from experienced therapists. However, there are fewer than 20 such specialists across the nation and none of them practice in the Tohoku region.

Commonly practiced in Europe and the United States, EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) therapy is said to help patients work through traumatic memories. During treatment, a patient recalls an experience while the therapist waves his or her finger in front of the patient from side to side like a windscreen wiper.

However, there are fewer than 20 EMDR specialists available in Tohoku, according to Masaya Ichii, a professor at the Center for Research on Human Development and Clinical Psychology at Hyogo University of Teacher Education. This kind of psychotherapy is not common in Japan because therapists do not receive much compensation.