Turkey finds more survivors as anger grows a week after earthquake

Realistically speaking, the politics of corruption in the building trade and construction industry will muddy the waters stymying investigations and, as usual, the slippery critters will slither away and never be held to account. In the UK the Grenfell Tower fire tragedy is a text-book case: a lack of transparency and accountability = justice not done. And the usual suspects will take that to the bank.

"People are not dead because of the earthquake, they are dead because of precautions that weren’t taken earlier," said Said Qudsi, who travelled quake-hit Kahramanmaras from Istanbul and buried his uncle, aunt and their two sons, while their two daughters were still missing.

Massive corruption in the building industry is the big killer here.

Meanwhile the residents of Istanbul are chewing their nails to the quick because most residential buildings there, tens of thousands of them, are built exactly the same way the buildings that collapsed in this quake are built. Newer buildings supposedly built to the 1999 seismic code exist but the rents are too high for most Istanbul residents. A quake of this magnitude in Istanbul is a certainty. So it is a race against time, but the local and national authorities have not put their running shoes on much less crouching in the starting blocks.

If there is anything good that can come out of this tragedy it will be if the dictator Erdogan gets booted out at the next election!

Corruption is rampant in the construction industry! Too many ways and too many incentives to cut costs.

Erdogan is surely sleeping uneasily now, wracked by troubling dreams of riding on a tiger. I'm now uneasy about revisiting jerry-built Istanbul next fall.

What are they angry about?

Natural disasters are considered "Acts of God". If you live in certain areas they are a fact of life.

According to Al Jazeera, “In the first three days, at least two dozen shipments of disaster relief aid were sent to the Syrian regime in Damascus. None reached areas under opposition control in northwest Syria.”

Just where they are needed most.

Quote above taken from here:

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/2/14/white-helmets-criticise-un-over-assad-say-on-aid-deliveries

The "white helmets" are a UK funded anti Assad propaganda tool. It is the continued US and its proxies occupying NW Syria that are the problem.

If there is anything good that can come out of this tragedy it will be if the dictator Erdogan gets booted out at the next election!

There is growing concern in Turkiye that the Sultan of Ankara may delay the election.

Here is a pretty good description of the many rivalries that are preventing the free flow of humanitarian aid to northern Syria. It is very complex.

https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2023/02/did-us-pressure-force-turkey-let-syrian-kurdish-earthquake-aid-rebel-held

The "white helmets" are a UK funded anti Assad propaganda tool. It is the continued US and its proxies occupying NW Syria that are the problem.

This describes how distorted the above opinion is.

https://theconversation.com/who-are-syrias-white-helmets-and-why-are-they-so-controversial-66580

More than 40,000 died. 25 million people in Turkey and Syria are in need of urgent aid. An international crisis.

wallace

Bit the worlds eyes are all on giving more stuff to Ukraine, UFO’s and Sam Smith. What a beastly world we live in.

The world's eyes are also on the Turkey/Syria earthquake. The Syrians have agreed to open two more crossings into the country which will increase the amount of aid getting in. The are now many international groups in the area.

Ukraine needs military aid while the earthquake survivors need basic stuff.

Sadly, humans take a personal tragedy to learn the same lesson that has been learned elsewhere. That includes all of us. We worry about the wrong things, instead of following honest statistics that are relevant to our locations/lifestyles.

If you live where there are earthquakes, mandatory enforcement of earthquake building codes that hold all involved accountable - builders and govt inspectors.

Same for places with floods and tornadoes and tsunamis and hurricanes and volcanoes. Proactive plans are necessary, even if the plan is to drive way, very, very, fast!

Would be helpful if every article included estimates for the total know dead (37,000), total missing, and total pulled out since the first day after the quakes.

How large is the number of missing?

*If you live where there are earthquakes, mandatory enforcement of earthquake building codes that hold all involved accountable - builders and govt inspectors.*

Sounds good on paper. The real world is a lot different.