mercedo's Journal: American Way? Japanese Way?

I believe America has well prepared against possible accident, harm, disaster, etc.

American way usually anticipates some mishaps inevitably occurs and prepares for it with a lot of cost.

Back in my early thirties, I had travelled all over the American continent through greyhound. Throughout the journey I noticed during the night, two instead of one driver were on duty, and throughout the night, they were chatting one another. One of them was alternative driver.

At midnight, no one can predict what happens, most likely he might have been attacked by unexpected drowsiness, I was deeply impressed American weren't stingy in spending for our safety & security, that might cost a lot but eventually it cost much less than not prepared at all.

See Japanese way - authorities always told us not to sleep at midnight when we were on duty, then if we had an accident they are always get ready for attributing to our own careless mistake, which is inevitably we are subject to having.

When I used long distance bus between cities at night, I noticed only one driver was on duty. That's Japanese way. I swore not to use it again, in Japan.

How long ago was that?

[sam_handelman]

Standards have definitely been slipping here in the states - as evidenced by the response to the most recent disaster.

Given the pressure to cut costs (and their indifference to safety unless they risk being sued) I seriously doubt greyhound ever puts extra bus drivers on busses stateside any more.

Re:How long ago was that?

[mercedo]

I am very sorry if my observation was obsolete. It was 14 years ago summer in 1991. But if they didn't position extra personel any more, in the end they would have to pay a lot more. I hope they didn't stop such nice system.

Re:How long ago was that?

[Cyberdyne]

Standards have definitely been slipping here in the states - as evidenced by the response to the most recent disaster.

Actually, I'd say recent events fit well with what Mercedo was saying: the preparation was fine - a fortune had been spent building levees which could withstand a Category 3, but just in case a category 4 hit (as it did), the city had a fleet of buses ready to evacuate people, a detailed plan for how to do so, and thousands of National Guardsmen available to back up the local police as nee

Re:How long ago was that?

[sam_handelman]

Mercedo, sorry to spread this into your journal.

It had everything to do with cutting costs - on levee maintanence. You are free to believe that those federal budget cuts didn't make any difference, but the overwhelming consensus among diasster relief workers, engineers and hydrologists is that they did. The same goes for (by law, federal) wetlands conservation, which could have greatly mitigated the storm (several feet of storm surge) if the current administration hadn't thought short term profits

Re:How long ago was that?

[mercedo]

Mercedo, sorry to spread this into your journal.

Please go ahead, I am always expecting to have another Hall of Fame [slashdot.org].

Re:How long ago was that?

[Cyberdyne]

It had everything to do with cutting costs - on levee maintanence. You are free to believe that those federal budget cuts didn't make any difference, but the overwhelming consensus among diasster relief workers, engineers and hydrologists is that they did.

This is hard to square with the levees having done precisely what they were designed and maintained to do all along. Yes, there had been a proposal to reinforce those levees to take a category 4 storm - in the 60s. Shame about those tax-cutting right win

Re:How long ago was that?

[sam_handelman]

This is hard to square with the levees having done precisely what they were designed and maintained to do all along. Yes, there had been a proposal to reinforce those levees to take a category 4 storm - in the 60s. Shame about those tax-cutting right wing presidents like Clinton and Carter refusing to fund it, huh?

I find what you say impossible to square with President Bush's statement that no-one could have foreseen the levee's bursting. Now, not only could we have foreseen it, but it was so inevitable tha

Re:How long ago was that?

[Cyberdyne]

I find what you say impossible to square with President Bush's statement that no-one could have foreseen the levee's bursting.

When did he say that?

Now, not only could we have foreseen it, but it was so inevitable that nothing we could've done in the past five years would have stopped it?

No.

Ronald Reagan also never put into effect a plan to put air marshalls on all domestic flights. So obviously 9/11 must be his fault, and couldn't have anything to do with the run-up of intelligence failures (in both

Re:How long ago was that?

[sam_handelman]

There's no point in continuing this, you don't know shit.

You don't know what the President said on television and when, you obviously don't know what he (or anyone else) did, when or why they did it. If I say something obscure I'd be glad to dig up a source, but for christ's sake you don't even watch the evening news?

You don't know the history of the levees. You don't know what they were supposed to do, when or why they failed, and what steps might have been taken to prevent their failure. You can argue nom

Re:How long ago was that?

[Cyberdyne]

There's no point in continuing this, you don't know shit

That was pretty much the conclusion I reached about you, yes.

You don't know what the President said on television and when, you obviously don't know what he (or anyone else) did, when or why they did it. If I say something obscure I'd be glad to dig up a source, but for christ's sake you don't even watch the evening news?

I watch plenty of news. I was aware of a federal government official commenting about surprise and the levee failure, but not q

Re:How long ago was that?

[Degrees]

I tend to agree with that. In my local county, we shut down some rural firehouses, to cut costs. That will last until a massive fire burns down a bunch of homes, and someone runs for the Board Of Supervisors on a pro-fire department platform.

The company I work for is also in cost-cutting mode; in previous years, we would have cross-trained people to be each other's backups. Now we have more work than people, so there is zero time left to cross-train.

Re:How long ago was that?

[mercedo]

Thank you for useful information, now I learned from you and other Slashdotters that the US had changed from what I saw 14 years ago. Now it's not easy to visit there again but through the eyes of the internet, I was able to know somewhat about it. Thanks.