Shaken, not stirred

There was a 6.6 earthquake in Hawaii this morning. I'm watching the coverage on TV right now. It's kinda fun to watch the newscasters try to find some horrific news out of this, but everyone they speak to are reporting no serious injuries and no fatalities as of yet. Hell, the Mayor of Maui was just on the phone saying, "Thanks for your concern."

That's good news, but the reporters are trying to fill airtime with their usual gloom and doom, but they forget they're talking to Hawaiians. These are not people who are prone to panic. They're all saying that sure, it was scary, and the power was out for a while in some areas, and there's a little structural damage, but other than that, the blenders are still running and fruity drinks are still being served.

If this had happened in California, they'd have all sort of footage of people running in the streets dodging chunks of falling concrete. So far, all they got of this earthquake are photos of a rockslide in the middle of a beautiful landscape. The reporters almost sound disappointed when they say that there's no tsunami as a result of the earthquake.

There's something to be said about a culture that understands that their island was formed by a fucking volcano. There's footage of about twenty or so folks patiently waiting outside a convenience store wanting to get supplies for the next couple days or so. One lady they just spoke to was saying she wanted to maybe get some bread and some candles, maybe some water. The camera pans over to a huge Samoan guy who tried to plug the food and beverage convention across the street before they cut back to the studio.

I'm just waiting for Bush to chime in on this whole thing. He'll probably call this a huge success story for our emergency preparedness strategies, not acknowledging the fact that these are the kind of people that unless lava is flowing through their living rooms, it's not really that big of a deal.