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Reply 40
While underdeveloped countries are typically less well equipped to deal with natural disasters, and hence the consequences there are often worse, this doesn't by any means that major damage/high levels of mortality can't be seen in more economically developed ones (such as Italy). Some people have already spoken of the North/South divide in Italy, but in this instance it isn't all that relevant, as the earthquake occurred in the central region of the country which is relatively well-developed.

We need to remember that the circumstances of every earthquake are different. Firstly, magnitudes vary. On a simple level, if an earthquake of magnitude 3.1 occurred in a less developed area, i.e. Kashmir, and one of magnitude 7.5 occurred in somewhere like Kobe in Japan (comparatively well-developed), the results could well be worse in Kobe, regardless of its level of development. Magnitude is a logarithmic scale; 4 on the Richter scale isn't 1 unit higher than 3, it's 10. And it's 100 times larger than 2. So 7 is 10000 times as strong as 3. Equally, not all environments are the same; an earthquake striking a predominantly rural area is unlikely to do as much economic damage as in a large city, and similarly one in a densely populated area is almost definitely going to be more lethal.

Often it is developed countries who suffer quite acutely from natural disasters, purely because they're not used to them, and therefore don't have a great deal of infrastructure in place to deal with the effects. Here in the UK we're not close enough to any major plate boundaries to be that affected by earthquakes, but we only need to think about the minor ones which occurred in Kent not too long ago and the resultant panic, to realise that we too would probably not be in a position to cope particularly well with an earthquake of a similar scale here. And there's no doubt that we're a developed country.
Italians have a very relaxed way of life a lot the Spanish. I think they have been caught with their pants down, that's why there seems to be a lack of immediate actions. As other have said the north is much more developed than the south so it will take longer for things to be sorted. Still not underdeveloped.
i'm italian - the north is more developed than over here. but the south is pretty shocking tbh. my dad, whose proper italian, calls italy the africa of europe cos its so corrupt.
xx..SPOTTABLE..xx
i was thinking the same too

Damn you, this was mine! Hurricane Katrina caused absolute devastation in New Orleans, but that clearly doesn't mean America isn't a developed country, same goes for Italy. Italy has its problems, such as the fact the south is basically neglected, but it ain't Darfur.
Reply 44
I always find it interesting. Sometimes Italy gives the impression it's like backwards and slow and they're more interested in eating pasta than working, then at the same time they're leaders in certain fields of science and they're like in 10th in world GDP.

In terms of the Earthquake, most part of central Italy was made centuries ago, it doesn't surprise me that building fell over and stuff.
Reply 45
Firstly, yes Italy is developed, its one of only six or seven trillion dollar economies in the world. As far as the economic scale (GDP) of Europe is concerned you've got Germany at the top (harldy suprising with a population of 80million+ the last time I bothered to look), The UK and France 2nd and 3rd (usually the UK is 2nd, but sometimes France does switch places, I expect they will during this depression for example as the UK economy is far more exposed than the French economy due to huge consumer debt in the UK), then You've got Italy, then Spain, and then you move onto the rest...



As to why so many people died. Well casulaties in earthquakes are almost all related to two factors. How densely populated the area affected is, and what time of day the earthquake took place. If an earthquake happens during the night, the death toll is usually very high, likewise if it happens in the evening or very early morning it can also be increased by fires being caused as from kitchens etc... IIRC the last LA earthquake had such a low death rate because it occured during rush hour, so virtually no-one was in the houses and apartment blocks that fell down, and actually most of the deaths on the roads were caused when sections of a double-decker bridge collapsed...


So, initial death toll has nothing to do with the level of development of a country when it comes to earthquakes. If you want to judge development levels by earthquake death tolls, then you really need to look at the post-quake death toll. That is from people dying from exposure, disease and so on, and I'm going to bet that very few if any will die of this in Italy.
Reply 46
burninginme
I see you're from Glasgow, would you honestly say that the roughest parts of Glasgow aren't as rough as parts of Naples? It was probably some fued tbh, has there honestly never been a dead body lying in the street in Glasgow? It's hardly a common occurance.


Yes but in Glasgow, we dont walk past a dead body. The south of Italy is poor, and this has been recognised by the EU hence why it recieves aid. The worst parts of Glasgow are not as bad as Naples. I was terrified walking through Naples and my family only lasted 2 hours in the city before we left to go back to Sorrento
I am actually pretty shocked I'm getting neg repped. Does the concept that Italy is not a poor country enrage people so much, or do people just think I'm a bit of a **** regardless? This site doesn't know whether it's coming or going. If I said Italy was a poor, ******** cesspit I'd get neg repped and warned, and probably called racist.
electrix
Yes but in Glasgow, we dont walk past a dead body. The south of Italy is poor, and this has been recognised by the EU hence why it recieves aid. The worst parts of Glasgow are not as bad as Naples. I was terrified walking through Naples and my family only lasted 2 hours in the city before we left to go back to Sorrento


It's not exactly a common occurance. Are you honestly suggesting there's never been a dead body in the street in Glasgow?
Reply 49
burninginme
It's not exactly a common occurance. Are you honestly suggesting there's never been a dead body in the street in Glasgow?


Man lets just get off the topic of dead bodies, i just mentioned that i saw one at the bloody train station, one of the busiest in south italy. the question at hand is whether Italy is developed, which it is, however does have some poverty issues in the south.
There are lots of dead bodies in Glasgow, i just dont ignore them
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Reply 51
It depends on the standards of the developed countries.
But one thing can be assured, it will never become a superpower.
It's worth remembering that L'Aquila isn't really the South (to the extent of comparing it to Northern England, it's more like Worcester or Warwick - I.E. not Northern enough to suffer the poverty issues but fairly near the boarderline) and that it was a fairly affluent area.
Eric Qin
It depends on the standards of the developed countries.
But one thing can be assured, it will never become a superpower.


Nor will Britain.
Reply 54
electrix
Man lets just get off the topic of dead bodies, i just mentioned that i saw one at the bloody train station, one of the busiest in south italy. the question at hand is whether Italy is developed, which it is, however does have some poverty issues in the south.
There are lots of dead bodies in Glasgow, i just dont ignore them

I'm from Shanghai, it's really amazing, it's my first time to see a hongkongese (judging that from the flag you choosed, that's the regional flag of HK special administration region) uses Chinese national flag as avatar.
Nice!
Reply 55
burninginme
Nor will Britain.

I'm really very sad to hear the news, that Italy confronted the earthquake, cuz Si Chuan, a middle west province of China in the last year also has suffered the great earthquake.
Seeing the reports on TV really makes me feel sad and sorrwoful.
I hope everything will be ok soon in Italy.

As for Britain or UK, it's none of my business. This country is too small. It relies too much on finance, that's all my impression on this country, including Chinese relics and antiques now preserved in british museum.
Reply 56
Eric Qin
I'm from Shanghai, it's really amazing, it's my first time to see a hongkongese (judging that from the flag you choosed, that's the regional flag of HK special administration region) uses Chinese national flag as avatar.
Nice!


Why thankyou, im going to Shanghai this summer for the first time. I have some family in Beijing and in Shenzhen but none in Shanghai so it should be interesting. My mother is from Hong Kong and my father is Scottish.
Reply 57
electrix
Why thankyou, im going to Shanghai this summer for the first time. I have some family in Beijing and in Shenzhen but none in Shanghai so it should be interesting. My mother is from Hong Kong and my father is Scottish.

Welcome to Shanghai, have fun in advance~
Learn some Shanghai dialect before you come here :smile:
Reply 58
Eric Qin
Welcome to Shanghai, have fun in advance~
Learn some Shanghai dialect before you come here :smile:


I dint know Shanghai dialect existed. I can only speak mandarin and cantonese
Reply 59
electrix
I dint know Shanghai dialect existed. I can only speak mandarin and cantonese

Madarin is ok, it's the common language in Chinese-speaking countries,like China, singapore and semi-Chinese speaking countries, like malaysia and indonesia.

There're several major dialects in China, in other words, Shanghai, Zhejiang and South Jiangsu belong to WU dialect circle.
Guangdong, Hongkong belong to Yue dialect circle. Fujian and Taiwan belong to Min dialect circle. Several dialects circles. Learn more, if you have interest, have fun~

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