Narita vs. JFK
So I have been thinking about this lately and I know it is random but i am going to put it out there. Now I am not someone who is interested in politics what so ever, but lately there are some policies that have been bothering me. So as I mentioned in my earlier posts I was around for the triple disasters in Japan. Interestingly enough, you would think that people who were stuck at the airport that day must have had it the worst. But actually, if you were at Narita Airport that day you were well taken care of. The people at the airport got sleeping bags, food, water and other necessities to keep them comfortable. Nice isn't it?
Now what is my point? Let's go back a few months to say December when there was the major snow storm in the east coast of the United States. I had a friend traveling from Boston to New York's JFK. Because of the storm she was detoured to Baltimore. She then had to take a train into Penn Station. The problem was that New York wasn't her final destination, she was actually suppose to take a connecting flight out to East Asia. Now not only was she going to miss her flight, she had no place to go other than to try and get to the airport. Now I wasn't around during this whole fiasco but I know many people who were including my friend. She told me her horror story as she tried to get to the airport. Many subways were down, the streets weren't being clean, and city workers had no interest in helping any of the stranded travelers. She had to hitch-hike to get to the airport with her suitcases, which frankly, is extremely dangerous and I would never recommend to anyone especially in New York. But that is the point New Yorkers were absolutely desperate. The sad part is, when she finally got to the airport, she was treated like crap. Some airlines gave out a couple of dollars maybe 50$ or so, some gave out food vouchers. The problem with that all was they were useless. Hotels around the airport were booked and there was no way in and out of the airport since trains stopped running and taxis refused to take customers. The food vouchers were also useless since there was no food left….so basically people were sleeping in the airport with no food and on newspapers. She said it looked like we were all homeless. Her 15 hour trip became 48 hours.
So why was JFK so unprepared? Why was no one helping? Well let me give you some background. It is not like New York is a stranger to blizzards. We get two or three bad ones every year. So why are we never prepared for them? Cut backs. This year alone Mayor Bloomberg did a bunch of cut backs and laid off many city workers. As a result, many workers went on strike and refused to clean any of the snow. People were purposefully sabotaging and not cleaning the streets. That in and of itself would never happen in Japan, but that is only part of it. The part that really gets to me is why are airports such as JFK not equip to help people who are stranded? Especially in such epic situations as these? I mean don't get me wrong the government in Japan isn't much better than it is here. They have their share of scandals and mismanagement but hasn't it gotten a bit out of control? It is like we are in a "recession" and times are bad and the government doesn't have money but when DOES the government have money? Seriously it feels like the last time "times were good" was in the roaring 20s. Times are always bad so shouldn't the government provide us with jobs at least? Maybe if people had jobs they would spend money and help the economy…just saying'. In addition, if people had work they would feel better and more supportive of the government…they would feel safe and be willing to spend more money…And what really gets to me is not so long ago there was an article published by the MTA saying that the reason they had to raise fares at the New York trains was due to the high salaries for train conductors. They published an entire page of the highest paid workers without even posting how many hours they worked. And of course they failed to post the salaries of the "higher ups". I am not into conspiracy theories or anything but this type of thing just pisses me off.
Narita was ready with food, water and sleeping bags. I am not even convinced that it ever occurred to anyone running JFK to get sleeping bags. I wonder sometimes if it is a cultural thing. Something I learned in Japan is that Japanese people are always looking out for each other and always want to help you-even if they can't they try their best. This idea seems really foreign to Americans in my opinion. I guess it is no wonder Japan has the best costumer service in the world. This was just an idea I thought of since the similarity of the situations is quite interesting and just the way that these two situations were handled is like night and day. So I wonder if America will learn anything from this or if anyone will even notice?
Just thought I'd put it out there.
Some links to the stories:
New York Public Unions
JFK Blizzard
Blizzard's Gone, But Thousands Remain Stranded
Blizzard Impact Chastens Bloomberg
Life at Narita during earthquake
Pop Japan Travel
Mood
Pissed Off
Now what is my point? Let's go back a few months to say December when there was the major snow storm in the east coast of the United States. I had a friend traveling from Boston to New York's JFK. Because of the storm she was detoured to Baltimore. She then had to take a train into Penn Station. The problem was that New York wasn't her final destination, she was actually suppose to take a connecting flight out to East Asia. Now not only was she going to miss her flight, she had no place to go other than to try and get to the airport. Now I wasn't around during this whole fiasco but I know many people who were including my friend. She told me her horror story as she tried to get to the airport. Many subways were down, the streets weren't being clean, and city workers had no interest in helping any of the stranded travelers. She had to hitch-hike to get to the airport with her suitcases, which frankly, is extremely dangerous and I would never recommend to anyone especially in New York. But that is the point New Yorkers were absolutely desperate. The sad part is, when she finally got to the airport, she was treated like crap. Some airlines gave out a couple of dollars maybe 50$ or so, some gave out food vouchers. The problem with that all was they were useless. Hotels around the airport were booked and there was no way in and out of the airport since trains stopped running and taxis refused to take customers. The food vouchers were also useless since there was no food left….so basically people were sleeping in the airport with no food and on newspapers. She said it looked like we were all homeless. Her 15 hour trip became 48 hours.
So why was JFK so unprepared? Why was no one helping? Well let me give you some background. It is not like New York is a stranger to blizzards. We get two or three bad ones every year. So why are we never prepared for them? Cut backs. This year alone Mayor Bloomberg did a bunch of cut backs and laid off many city workers. As a result, many workers went on strike and refused to clean any of the snow. People were purposefully sabotaging and not cleaning the streets. That in and of itself would never happen in Japan, but that is only part of it. The part that really gets to me is why are airports such as JFK not equip to help people who are stranded? Especially in such epic situations as these? I mean don't get me wrong the government in Japan isn't much better than it is here. They have their share of scandals and mismanagement but hasn't it gotten a bit out of control? It is like we are in a "recession" and times are bad and the government doesn't have money but when DOES the government have money? Seriously it feels like the last time "times were good" was in the roaring 20s. Times are always bad so shouldn't the government provide us with jobs at least? Maybe if people had jobs they would spend money and help the economy…just saying'. In addition, if people had work they would feel better and more supportive of the government…they would feel safe and be willing to spend more money…And what really gets to me is not so long ago there was an article published by the MTA saying that the reason they had to raise fares at the New York trains was due to the high salaries for train conductors. They published an entire page of the highest paid workers without even posting how many hours they worked. And of course they failed to post the salaries of the "higher ups". I am not into conspiracy theories or anything but this type of thing just pisses me off.
Narita was ready with food, water and sleeping bags. I am not even convinced that it ever occurred to anyone running JFK to get sleeping bags. I wonder sometimes if it is a cultural thing. Something I learned in Japan is that Japanese people are always looking out for each other and always want to help you-even if they can't they try their best. This idea seems really foreign to Americans in my opinion. I guess it is no wonder Japan has the best costumer service in the world. This was just an idea I thought of since the similarity of the situations is quite interesting and just the way that these two situations were handled is like night and day. So I wonder if America will learn anything from this or if anyone will even notice?
Just thought I'd put it out there.
Some links to the stories:
New York Public Unions
JFK Blizzard
Blizzard's Gone, But Thousands Remain Stranded
Blizzard Impact Chastens Bloomberg
Life at Narita during earthquake
Pop Japan Travel
Mood
Pissed Off