Big explosion at barracks in Equatorial Guinea

[Indeliblelink]

Apparently due to “negligent handling of dynamite”. Looks like it was a pretty big explosion.

At least 20 killed in huge blasts at barracks in Equatorial Guinea

Hundreds of people also wounded in explosions that president has blamed on negligent handling of dynamite

www.theguardian.com

 

[likesfish]

There's been a rather constant series of explosions in poorer countries. Where ammo dumps go up.
Ammo needs careful storage and has a kill by date . Now if your a rich country you have the Royal logistic Corp deal with the tedious job.
Poorer countries don't have as many techs and try to push the use by date.

 

[Indeliblelink]

Bata blast: Satellite images show Equatorial Guinea destruction

Explosions at a munitions depot in the main city Bata led to more than 100 deaths.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[planetgeli]

I think the coverage this is getting shows a lot about how nobody gives a damn about EG. This is now half as bad as the Beirut blast by death figures. I wouldn't have known it happened were it not for this thread.

 

[ska invita]

There's been a rather constant series of explosions in poorer countries. Where ammo dumps go up.
Ammo needs careful storage and has a kill by date . Now if your a rich country you have the Royal logistic Corp deal with the tedious job.
Poorer countries don't have as many techs and try to push the use by date.

and if it goes past that date it self-explodes?

 

[likesfish]

No it becomes more and more unstable.
Detonators and fuzes are the most dangerous things. Storage and management of large amounts of ammo is highly technical gets harder in hotter or humid conditions. Stock rotation is tedious in a kitchen imagine doing it with tons of ammo most of which is fairly inert.
But miss some stuff let it Rot in a corner for a few years and it then becomes deadly!
UK ammo dumps tend to be in the middle of nowhere poorer countries dumps tend to be subsumed by urban sprawl..
Then theres just incompetentce Evangelos Florakis Naval Base explosion

 

[Idris2002]

A few days after the EPRDF took Addis Ababa in 1991 there was a huge explosion at an ammunition dump in one of the local barracks, that would have been under the Derg's management only a few days previously. About 100 were killed.

Ammo Dump Explodes in Ethiopian Capital, New Gov't Alleges Sabotage

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) _ A military ammunition depot exploded in a series of thunderous blasts early Tuesday, burning almost a square mile of factories, shops and ramshackle homes. Scores were feared dead.

apnews.com

 

[NoXion]

I think the coverage this is getting shows a lot about how nobody gives a damn about EG. This is now half as bad as the Beirut blast by death figures. I wouldn't have known it happened were it not for this thread.

It kind of bothers me when people say things like this. There are nearly 200 countries in the world, more than that if you include dependencies with their own distinct identities. Nobody on this planet has the time or energy to give a shit about each and every one of those places to the same degree. Nobody human anyway. We didn't evolve to psychologically deal with a world of billions of people in it, in which tragedies inevitably happen every day all along the scale. It's only very recently in human history that we've had populations that big, and only even more recently that we've had the communications technology to effectively distribute the world's bad news as much as we can today.

 

[planetgeli]

It kind of bothers me when people say things like this. There are nearly 200 countries in the world, more than that if you include dependencies with their own distinct identities. Nobody on this planet has the time or energy to give a shit about each and every one of those places to the same degree. Nobody human anyway. We didn't evolve to psychologically deal with a world of billions of people in it, in which tragedies inevitably happen every day all along the scale. It's only very recently in human history that we've had populations that big, and only even more recently that we've had the communications technology to effectively distribute the world's bad news as much as we can today.

Then maybe we should stop with the 'human tragedy' angle if we can't be bothered to count up to 200.

News is managed. This probably made the news in Spain because of colonialism. The fact it would have mattered more there because of this is obviously no better either.

If you don't give a shit, feel free not to post in the thread.

 

[NoXion]

Then maybe we should stop with the 'human tragedy' angle if we can't be bothered to count up to 200.

Except that, you know, what happened is a tragedy.

News is managed. This probably made the news in Spain because of colonialism. The fact it would have mattered more there because of this is obviously no better either.

So what would you have people do? "Give a shit" (whatever that means) about every single country in the world? There aren't enough hours in the day for that.

If you don't give a shit, feel free not to post in the thread.

I never said anything like that, I'm pointing out why your dunking on others is misplaced.

 

[planetgeli]

So what would you have people do? "Give a shit" (whatever that means) about every single country in the world? There aren't enough hours in the day for that.

This is rubbish. Worse, it is giving in to structural inequalities and institutional racism in managed news reporting. My empathy is not restricted by where some colonial twat drew a borderline. My ability to do so may well be influenced, however, by the ownership and control of the means of production in media. Which is what I'm railing against.

 

[Serge Forward]

NoXion, I take it you're not an internationalist then?

 

[NoXion]

This is rubbish. Worse, it is giving in to structural inequalities and institutional racism in managed news reporting. My empathy is not restricted by where some colonial twat drew a borderline. My ability to do so may well be influenced, however, by the ownership and control of the means of production in media. Which is what I'm railing against.

Garbage. People are ultimately limited in how much time and emotional energy they can invest into anything. That wouldn't change even if every news outlet on the planet was worker-operated.

NoXion, I take it you're not an internationalist then?

What's that got to do with anything? People don't even follow all the news that happens in their own country, even if they are avid news-hounds.

 

[Serge Forward]

What's that got to do with anything? People don't even follow all the news that happens in their own country, even if they are avid news-hounds.

Maybe I've misunderstood but what you're saying suggests you don't give a shit about the people in lots of other countries. That's hardly an internationalist perspective. So which countries should we be interested in?

I can understand why a lot of people don't follow the news in the UK by the way. It's mostly fucking drivel, with the sole purpose of distracting people from the real shite.

 

[tim]

There's been a rather constant series of explosions in poorer countries. Where ammo dumps go up.
Ammo needs careful storage and has a kill by date . Now if your a rich country you have the Royal logistic Corp deal with the tedious job.
Poorer countries don't have as many techs and try to push the use by date.

Cyprus is not a "poor" country and is also still under partial British colonial occupation but that didn't prevent badly monitored explosives, on a naval base, blowing up their main power station a decade ago and killing 12 including the base commander.
Masts to be cut from Thames Estuary wreck packed with explosives

There's also that decaying wreck full of explosives in the Thames Estuary that is considered too dangerous to do much about.


Masts to be cut from Thames Estuary wreck packed with explosives

 

[Idris2002]

I thought I'd check if this disaster made the Spanish press. . . and the search threw up this amazing story of an Equatorial Guinean man who worked as an electrician for the Spanish Republican air force, and fought for the French resistance:

José Epita Mbomo, the Spanish electrician who sabotaged the Nazis

Born in modern-day Equatorial Guinea, Mbomo was taken as a teen to Spain where he became an airplane mechanic at a military air base. He caused a national stir when he married a white woman in 1936, went into exile in France after the Spanish Civil War, spent time in several internment camps and...

english.elpais.com

 

[NoXion]

Maybe I've misunderstood but what you're saying suggests you don't give a shit about the people in lots of other countries. That's hardy an internationalist perspective. So which countries should we be interested in?

That's ultimately up to you. I can't decide what you care about, or to what degree or in what form that care is manifested, even if I were to arrogantly presume to know your head and your heart better than you do. I know, how terribly individualist of me.

More equitable control and ownership of the news media would doubtless right some wrongs, but wouldn't change the historical fact that the billions-strong mass society we currently live in is a significant aberration.

 

[likesfish]

Cyprus is not a "poor" country and is also still under partial British colonial occupation but that didn't prevent badly monitored explosives, on a naval base, blowing up their main power station a decade ago and killing 12 including the base commander.
Masts to be cut from Thames Estuary wreck packed with explosives

There's also that decaying wreck full of explosives in the Thames Estuary that is considered too dangerous to do much about.


Masts to be cut from Thames Estuary wreck packed with explosives

Cyprus was incompetence and political meddling.The British EU and America had offered to deal with the explosives. Cyprus got its independence and then rightly got occupied by turkey after a spot of remove kebab. Your whining to be free rather fails to get much sympathy if your first action in s too turn on your neighbours. Epkisopi garrison still has an old carpark full of cars the owners never returned for.
The article fails to mention why turkey invaded the Greeks wanted to be part of the Greece under a military junta and if the Turkish minority could conviently disappear all the better .

 

[planetgeli]

Un médico en Guinea Ecuatorial: “En una hora se nos acabaron hasta las gasas”

Las explosiones de dinamita en una base militar de la ciudad de Bata que se cobraron la vida de 105 personas desnudan las carencias de este país rico en petróleo

elpais.com

Guinea Ecuatorial eleva a 98 los muertos en la explosión de un arsenal militar

“Ha sido algo brutal, nadie estaba preparado para algo así. Hemos visto el caos, policías llorando de la desesperación”, asegura un residente

elpais.com

Bit more from El Pais.

 

[tim]

Cyprus was incompetence and political meddling.The British EU and America had offered to deal with the explosives. Cyprus got its independence and then rightly got occupied by turkey after a spot of remove kebab. Your whining to be free rather fails to get much sympathy if your first action in s too turn on your neighbours. Epkisopi garrison still has an old carpark full of cars the owners never returned for.
The article fails to mention why turkey invaded the Greeks wanted to be part of the Greece under a military junta and if the Turkish minority could conviently disappear all the better .

Yes but the fact that Cyprus is not a poorer country rather undermines your argument that it is only in such places that this happens.

 

[likesfish]

my argument is it's mostly poorer countries or INCOMPETENCE although Cyprus is 109th so not exactly the richest.

 

[pseudonarcissus]

Un médico en Guinea Ecuatorial: “En una hora se nos acabaron hasta las gasas”

Las explosiones de dinamita en una base militar de la ciudad de Bata que se cobraron la vida de 105 personas desnudan las carencias de este país rico en petróleo

elpais.com

Guinea Ecuatorial eleva a 98 los muertos en la explosión de un arsenal militar

“Ha sido algo brutal, nadie estaba preparado para algo así. Hemos visto el caos, policías llorando de la desesperación”, asegura un residente

elpais.com

Bit more from El Pais.

EG is the only Spanish speaking country in Africa.
I went there a couple of times.
I also had breakfast with the president’s son (well, was in the same hotel breakfast room...he takes a floor at the Copacabana Palace every year).
Strange place...too quiet...the oppression has been going on too long...it’s like the whole country speaks in whispers. Give me some Nigerian joyfulness any day.

 

[kebabking]

Yes but the fact that Cyprus is not a poorer country rather undermines your argument that it is only in such places that this happens.

I don't think likesfish suggested it's only in such places that this stuff happens, rather that in poorer countries the odds of it happening - training, management systems, location, age of munitions, storage conditions - start to stack up.

It can happen anywhere, to anyone, but the things that mitigate against it cost money.

 

[tim]

my argument is it's mostly poorer countries or INCOMPETENCE alt

The article fails to mention why turkey invaded the Greeks wanted to be part of the Greece under a military junta and if the Turkish minority could conviently disappear all the better .
hough Cyprus is 109th so not exactly the richest.

Oh, dear! Cyprus is number 109 in the GDP by nation list, which means it has a lower GDP than India. However, the same list will show you that both France and the UK have a lower GDP than India. This is because India is a big country with a big population and Cyprus is a small country with a small population. If you look at the GDP per capita figures Cyprus is number 39, the UK is Number 26, France Number 27 and India number 123.

GDP per Capita - Worldometer

Cyprus is 33 on the slightly differently calculated Human Development Index

Human Development Index

The article fails to mention the reason for the Turkish invasion of Cyprus because it and my post were not about the Cypriot coup in 1974 and the subsequent Turkish invasion, but about the fact that the UK retained sovereignty over a moderately substantial block of Cypriot territory after it granted independence to the rest in 1960. The British bases were kept and are maintained because the British state sees them as strategically important, not because they are trying to keep the peace.