Number of total dead now estimated at 50,000 which is probably on a conservative side seeing most of the villages are still inaccessible. Also there are reported to be massive cracks appearing in a dam in the region, which can flood an area something like the size of Belgium if it gives way. Consequences don't bear thinking about.

What shocked me most was the sheer shoddiness of the buildings which obviously had no inner supprt. Most buildings - especially public ones, like hospitals and schools - appear to have been jerry-built with no inner support and just crumbled into rubble as per the photo below.



There will be consequences. This happened because of endemic corruption among the ruling Communist Party, who siphoned off budgets for the construction of public buildings and also took bribes from cowboy constructors. At least, unlike these idiot Burmese generals, the Chinese government are proactively mobilising recovery operations and also calling in overseas aid (albeit with some reluctance), and western journalists are getting access to affected areas and the victims appear to be prepared to be frank about their experiences. We'll see what the long-term effects of this, and the Olympics, will have on China overall.

How strange that with all the Olympic Chinese/Burma attention in the past couple of months, they then both suffer horrendous natural disasters within weeks of each other.

'chickens'. 'coming' and 'roost' come to mind. I don't mean to demean the tragedy of these disasters or the suffering of the victims at all, but for the dreadful regimes who rule these countries...

I like how you turn a natural disaster into a political rant.

It's a justifiable rant.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7423089.stm

Sharp as a marble that one :dunce:

not sure what a dodgy curry has got to do with the earthquake...

you can bet the only houses standing in the area are those owned by party officials etc <_<

What a f'cking stupid thing to say.