Re: Let Me Introduce Myself

On Wed, 29 Dec 2004 00:05:52 -0500, # 1 <salut_vous_autre@...> wrote:

>
> find another place where there are no:
>
> - earthquakes (you followed what happened in south Asia..)
> - tornados
> - hurricanes
> - tsunamis
> - tidal waves (is that the word?)
> - famines
> - dryness
> - illness
> - pollution (as far as mexico for example)
>
> - political conflicts such as wars
> (the worse political conflict is the secession of the Quebec and contrarily
> to other political conflicts in the world there is no violence involved in)
>
> - religious conflicts as what happen almost everywhere in the world
>
> - social conflicts (there is sometime a conflict about the rights of
> minorities (french speakers, Amerindians, etc.) but it's never very big)
>
> Can YOU say this about your living place???
>
One thing you learn here is not to insult someone else's homeland, or
laud your homeland over where other people live, such is rude and
uncalled for, and it causes flame wars.

As to your list:

> - earthquakes (you followed what happened in south Asia..) - Quebec is not
> immune to earthquakes. There've been several significant ones:
1935, 6.2, Quebec - Ontario Border, Temiscamingue region
1925, 6.2, Charlevoix-Kamouraska region, Quebec
1988, 5.9,  Saguenay region, Quebec
1989, 6.3,  Ungava region, Quebec

And the New Madrid quake (the area of which produces much stronger
quakes than we get in California) was felt as far away as Quebec as
well.


> - tornados -  Quebec is not immune to these either:
14 June 1892, St Rose, Quebec:  Six die and 26 are injured as a
tornado tears through St Rose.
11 June 1939, St John, Quebec:  Tornado racing through town rips roofs
off houses and topples trees. The storm damages decorations erected
for visit of King George and Queen Elizabeth on the 12th.

> - hurricanes
I'll give you this one, but Quebec has experienced the remanants of
deorganized hurricanes. In fact your country has a hurricane center
which monitors the remnants of these storms.

> - tsunamis
I'll give you this one as well. Since obviously, Quebec is too far inland.

> - tidal waves (is that the word?) - these are the same as Tsunamis
> - famines - You get a pass on this one. But then again most 1st world nations
> have the resources to prevent famines.
> - dryness
If you mean drought, no place, even the wet tropics is free of the
possibility of drought (Indonesia and the Philippines experienced
drought during the last El Niño event). Quebec certainly is not.

> - illness
Plague? Well, don't be so sure. West Nile has been reported in Quebec.
If you mean things like small pox, tuberculosis, and malaria, well
these are typical third world concernsm like famines.

> - pollution (as far as mexico for example)
>
Mexico City is a rare case, as it sits in a bowl shaped valley at high
altitude and the air gets trapped. Plus Mexico City has an enormous
population.


> - political conflicts such as wars - Another pass as Canada tends to stay out
> of others' business.


> (the worse political conflict is the secession of the Quebec and contrarily
> to other political conflicts in the world there is no violence involved in)
>
I knew several Canadians who were threatening to resort to violence
had that ocurred.

> - religious conflicts as what happen almost everywhere in the world
>
Maybe, but this isn't uncommon in liberal areas (such as where I live)


> - social conflicts (there is sometime a conflict about the rights of
> minorities (french speakers, Amerindians, etc.) but it's never very big)
Personally, I believe rights of minorities is quite a huge thing.


> I think that living in these conditions is a little price for a life without
> any danger
One should never ever assume they live without danger. One shouldn't
be constantly on guard, but never ever think that you're scott-free
from any danger.

As a comparison, let me talk a little about where I live:

Yes, we have earthquakes, but the Loma Prieta (of which I can see the
mountain where the epicenter was from the shore), did little damage to
my town and it was a 6.0 quake even here. Other places weren't so
lucky but that's why the building codes were changed and updated. This
is why the new eastern Span of the bay bridge is one deck but 5 lanes
for each direction (the governor declared after the quake that all
bridges are no longer to be double decked ro they had to be
retrofitted to prevent a deck collapse... new bridges must be single
deck). The last time we had a deadly quake was in 1906. We have small
quakes all the time.

We do see Tornados here occasionally, but they have rarely touched
down (unlike some in quebec) or caused damage.  If they have it's been
short, and usually out in the ocean as waterspouts. Our ocean is too
cold to support hurricanes, and while we are at a danger of Tsunami,
the chance is small (although we had a very minor tsunami from the
sumatra quake). The last time a Tsunami did any damage was in the 1964
Prince William Sound quake in Alaska. It did some damage, but it was
minor.

We had a 6 year drought but that didn't cause famine, and all we had
to do was cut back on how much we watered our lawns and we practiced
water conservation. We pulled through. it wasn't a big deal and we
didn't have a massive "dust bowl" (which was caused by the farming
practices in the 30's)

Our air is so clean that indicators of it, lichen grow in abundance.
In fact it's incredibly clean due to the constant sea breezes that
keep the air clear. It's usually clear enough I can see 20 miles to
the north.


> - religious conflicts as what happen almost everywhere in the world
>
Even the most fundamentalist Christian Churches here tend to keep to
themselves. We don't have religious issues or instances of "non
believers" being driven out. It is not uncommon to have Hindus,
Muslims, Christians, Jews, Buddhists all in the same class and
participating in aspects of each others' cultures during school
assemblies or festivals.


> - social conflicts (there is sometime a conflict about the rights of
> minorities (french speakers, Amerindians, etc.) but it's never very big)
My home town was once considered the 7th most ethnically diverse city
in the United States. We have a diverse amoutn of people here. It's
not uncommon to have some sort of Ethnic festival going on. Most of
the public festivals will feature various ethnic dance troupes, foods,
items to buy, etc. No one thinks twice about interracial couples (I
myself am such a product), and we've even got a Coptic Orthodox
Church, as well as my mother's Catholic Parish which holds both the
Korean Mass and the Chaldean Rite masses. We've got significant
numbers of Thai, Vietnamese, Filipino, Korean, Japanese, Chinese,
Arab, Lebanese, Egyptian, Black, Mexican, Italian, and other ethnic
groups.

So, Maxime, be careful what you say next time.

:)

Barry

--
You can turn away from me
but there's nothing that'll keep me here you know
And you'll never be the city guy
Any more than I'll be hosting The Scooby Show

Scooby Show - Belle and Sebastian

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