posted
This is, in part, why we pay taxes. The smooth(ish) working of our businesses, the ability to take care of our families, the basic wall against a life that is nasty, brutish and short, a war of all against all.
Distribution of resources, maintaining order, access to healthcare, shelter, information networks. It's at times like this that I am delighted to live in a country that pays taxes and builds up infrastructure -- things are breaking down in a terrible way in part of our country, but we still have infrastructure elsewhere. At least we can keep things together elsewhere, and that can be a basis for sending out help and reorganization.
When you see a science-fiction apocalyptic setting there is so little to be thankful for. For this, I am thankful.
Posts: 14017 | Registered: May 2000
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Sharpie phoned from Maine to say her sister (also in Maine) had to take her niece to the ER this morning (on the first day of school!) to have a bead removed from her nostril (don't ask).
I was simultaneously amused and horrified -- but mostly grateful on their behalf that they HAVE the ability to go to an ER.
It does feel a little surreal to be agonizing over our usual petty problems, while Americans just 24 hours away are suffering in throngs, without the most basic infrastructure.
Posts: 431 | Registered: Oct 2003
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How's the healing human business? Is it easier to heal humans or humanity?
(btw, I moved to Chicago, it looks like we only missed each other by a few years, but if you and the hubby are ever in town for a conference or junket, dinner is on me.)
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posted
I'm especially grateful for plumbing that works. Indoor flush toilets and wastewater treatment plants are the jewel in the crown of civilization. Clean, drinkable tap water is next (though I do always boil my drinking water).
Okay here's my list of infrastructure I'm grateful for in order of importance.
1. Flush toilets and sewage treatment plants. 2. Tap water and baths every day. 3. Homes and clothing to protect us from the elements. 4. The ability to make fire for warmth and cooking. 5. Electricity and Natural Gas. 6. Internet access. 7. Refrigeration for food. 8. Garbage pickup and landfills. 9. Roads. 10. Grocery stores and the trucking that keeps the shelves full. 11. Books and printing presses. 12. Guns and precision machinery, lathes, tools, engines and cars. 13. Beds to sleep on, dishes and silverware to eat off of, dishwashers and laundry to keep them clean. 14. Other furniture, a table to eat off of, and chairs to sit in so we don't have to sit on the hard ground all day. 15. Air conditioning and central heating.
Oh wait - it's something you're grateful for. That makes much more sense. I was picturing temporary dikes made out of tampons.
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Katie, haven't you heard that story about the little dutch girl who saved her city with a tampon in the dike?
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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posted
Oh, Tatiana, we were talking about that as well. And it isn't like they can even use cloths and wash them. They have nothing!
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
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posted
Wow it's crazy the extent to which all this stuff is interdependent. It's hard to know what order to go in. Pumps for water treatment need electricity to run. Precision machinery is required for efficient engines to run generators. Roads have to be there for grocery stores to work. It's really scary when you realize what an intricate house of cards it all is.
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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posted
Yup. I had a friend who always said he should have lived in the old west. No plumbing, no thanks.
I think your list is pretty comprehensive. Not too much to add, except mabey my compy comp.
I once read that if there were such a catastrophy on a global basis it would take decades to get to the technical proficiency we have now because of intermediate technologies and crafts that have been lost along the way. Although I'm not sure how accurate the assumption is, it is an interesting concept to consider.
Posts: 686 | Registered: Sep 2001
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posted
Oh, and I forgot to add the people who keep it all going. Hail to the truck drivers and garbage pickup workers! Hail to the power plant operators who work crazy shifts! Thank goodness for all those people who do so much for so many every single day.
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posted
calaban, a lot of the trouble with trying to develop infrastructure in third world countries comes from exactly that problem with intermediate technologies. What good is a pump without any way to get parts to maintain it? Things were built, then they were used for a while and broke down, and then they went back to the old ways because of no way to be self sufficient when it comes to maintenance and replacement of old equipment.
So now many development projects are looking at appropriate technology, meaning things that can be made locally with local materials and skills, things that local entrepreneurs can build and sell. It's a better system.
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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posted
I think the most disturbing part about the Donner Party journals is the description of how when rescuers arrived, the infant's diapers were in shreds. The idea that through all that, they were cloth diapering the babies... but I guess we do what we are accustomed to.
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