1 Comment

1. 

   dr pepper

   14 March 2011

   Reuters:
   Radiation fears spark panic, evacuations in Tokyo
   a ridicat stacheta.
   comentarii:
   (le dau cu copy/paste pt ca exista riscul sa se piarda)

   From DarxFartz:
   I’m an ex-pat living in Tokyo and reading scare-mongering stories from Reuters about „panic” are not really helping the situation. On the whole, everyone here is staying remarkably calm in a very stressful situation, and this is just irresponsible journalism.

   Japan has just had a huge earthquake and tsunami with 10s of thousands missing, presumed dead, plus there is a f**cking nuclear power station on fire ! Isn’t that enough drama for Reuters ?

   Yes, there is „panic buying”, but on the whole people are remaining calm and vigilant. The last thing Japan needs right now is media-induced hysteria.

   I’d really appreciate the facts as there is lot of real emotion going on.

   dchart agrees:

   I’m also living just outside Tokyo, and having just got back from crossing Tokyo to get to work and back, I’d agree that „panic swept Tokyo” is wildly inaccurate. There weren’t even large queues at the railway stations when I was there, despite most services running at about 50-70% normal (remember, in Tokyo, which is famous for packed trains when they’re running at 100%), and I was able to pop into the shops and pick up chocolate biscuits on the way home with no trouble.

   Some things have gone. For some reason, bread products are thin on the ground, and people seem to have stocked up on instant noodles and rice. There are queues for petrol, but new deliveries are coming in (I saw one being delivered on my way home). There are no batteries available, but then we are promised rolling blackouts (which, incidentally, are generally not materialising), so people want torches and such. Restaurants, however, still seem to be operating fairly normally, and most shops were open. The local supermarket is selling almost the usual range of things in the deli section, and there was a good selection of fresh meat and fish when I was in there half an hour ago.

   Of course, people are worried about the nuclear reactors, and it gets a fair bit of attention as the only bit of the disaster that risks getting worse at this point, but there’s a lot of coverage of the other aspects of the disaster. On the other hand, the workman has come round to fit our new curtains this afternoon, and the resurfacing of the road outside our flats continues.

   Panic? Not even remotely. Back to normal? Not really, but nothing like as far from it as certain reports would have you think.
   ____________

   I am just South of you in Yokosuka, It is very calm and the media hype from many news sources is not welcome. Please report the facts and let us all get thru this crisis without news agencies getting credit for issues that are beyond thier scope.

   We know the potential dangers, report what you know as fact and leave your possibilities to you sideline rumor mongering

   May we all have peace and order.
   _______________

   That’s the same thing I’m getting from friends out there. Our media is hyping things up, as usual.

   __________

   I am living in Tokyo now. People are not panicking. Yes, the batteries have sold out, but that is because of the scheduled electricity blackouts (3 hours/day).
   IN Tokyo, people are still coming to work, eating in restaurants, going to school. If anybody is evacuating, it is a VERY small number.
   We cannot run away and shut down the central government and cripple the economy any more.
   We have to stay and do our jobs and keep the supplies going to the emergency efforts.

   The government and the power company is not handling this problems perfectly. We are confused and anxious about a lot of what is happening, but I believe everyone is making their best effort. This is not something anybody has handled before. Of course it will not be perfect. But let’s whine and complain later – after we get control of the situation and people are safe.

   Certainly, tourists should probably go home. It isn’t fun now. You can’t travel about easily, and it is just an added burden on the infrastructure.

   ________________

   The situation in Tokyo is more like a „calm panic” rather than a „chaotic panic”. In western Tokyo where I live (Mitaka to be exact) every shop (I’ve been to about 10) is devoid of first-tier food like bread, noodles, water, rice..etc now second-tier food is going fast like pasta, canned goods, retort packages, etc..even chocolate and potato chips are going quickly. Also not available is toilet paper, tampons, tissue paper, batteries, flashlights etc..Stores can’t restock them quick enough or there’s not coming.
   If you live in an area that has these stuff, good for you. The rest like myself may have to start eating in restaurants at least some them are still about, but for how long esp if they aren’t getting supplies with fuel shortages. I’ve started trading food stuff with my neighbours cause I’m almost out of rice.
   There are a lot of people hoarding food. I watched one guy buy the last 5 bags of rice as I glared at him angrily. Panic? No doubt but it’s an calm and orderly panic.

   _____________

   I’m in Japan and I can tell you, the panic buying is largely from not knowing when the next shipment of food will reach the metropole. The tsunami has knocked out a lot of the country’s infrastructure and farming areas in the north. That more than the radiation fear has people buying lots of food because even retailers don’t know when they will get there next shipments of food.

   _____________

   I’ve been keeping in touch with my friends in Tokyo. From what I hear, nobody is near this level of „panic” as this article claims. People are just prepared in case of aftershocks and trying to go about their normal lives.

   ______

   True. I think people here in Japan are scared, but calling it panic is an overstatment. A lot of people at once are getting gas and groceries, but it is pretty organized still. Many Japanese that I see are coping by working their jobs and doing normal stuff, like you said.

   …

   eu unul nu cred ca cei ce sustin ca traiesc in Japonia si infirma stirile reuters sunt trolli.
   Insa in cazul asta – reuters se pare ca are o problema mare.

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