The Japanese Problem

So, to start off with my first blog entry, I've decided to air a few thoughts with regards to recent events in the Pacific Ocean.  As most of you illuminated readers would probably know, Japan has recently seen a disaster of unprecedented scale as the country was hit by an earthquake of large proportions last week.  After the earthquake a large tidal wave known as a Tsunami rammed the coastline, taking thousands of lives, and destroying property for such high values the $-value could probably feed a few African countries for centuries.

I wont be delving into the bigger issues regarding the disaster, as enough people have already done so, and I don't believe anyone haven't been affected by this in one way or the other.  So yet another discussion of the subject isn't really necessary.

However, I would like to bring up a question me and some friends were discussing the other day, a question that arose as we were discussing the Tsunami in Japan.  When does a disaster get old enough, for jokes to become socially acceptable?

People deal with disasters in different ways, some people grieve, while others appear more humorous as they don't want to honor the lost lives by grieving, but rather by enjoying their own life.  Jokes are also commonly used as a way to enhance memory, if you make a joke about an event, you are less likely to forget it.  And of course, joking often lifts some of the Taboo and the general bad mood that is generated by talking about a sad subject, making it easier to process information, and ask those important questions that you have gnawing away inside.   Decreasing the likelihood of developing fears, traumas, and depressions after something massive like this has happened.

Yet in many societies joking about something that just happened is just not socially acceptable, reading the fine print, finding that fine line between when it's disgusting, and when it's an acceptable way of dealing with issues can become a problem for many people.  Which is why I suggest we find a set time period in which grieving should be the main conselation, and when cracking a joke about it is no longer Taboo.

My suggestion is a prolonging of the famous dating rule, the "three-day"-rule for calling.  I suggest, depending on the size and type of the event, we prolong this rule to the:

- Three-week rule
- Three-month rule
- Three-year rule
- Three-decade rule

Three weeks should be appropriate for any minor, local accidents.  Such as a car crash, a robbery, or any accident where no lives were lost.
Three months would be more appropriate for local accidents where someone died.
Three years is any local or global incidents where alot of lives have been lost.  Anything that have affected a larger community.
Three decades are necessary for processing crimes agains't humanity.  Such as the Holocaust and Muammar Al-Gaddafi ordering his own people to be killed by jet-fighters.  Thus the three-decade rule should only be used for crimes agains't humanity.

Of course, any perpetrators, such as Al-Gaddafi or Hitler themselves could and should be victimized in jokes at any time.  It's never too early to show that a horrible person is a horrible person.

These are just my thoughts on the subject, and I would love to hear from anyone else who have any thoughts on how long one should wait before making jokes about disasters, to stay within the social etiquette of our globalised society.