Kobe, 15 years after the quake
Thanks to Seiji Okamura for posting this commercial for a local electric company. It’s an ode to Kobe, our hometown, 15 years after the quake. The story line: “Dear 15-year-old. You’re the reason we worked so hard to rebuild our city.”
What will Haiti look like in 15 years? Here’s to hoping for another Kobe miracle.
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That’s great Wasabi Mama, and congratulations to the good governments there. I just fired off the most emotional comment I ever wrote here about the Haiti situation, and I will not throw that fire at you, but ask that you seek to be more constructive. You were fine till the last line, I expect more from your talent! Come on now, you have probably traveled more than me, darn, you can do better!
Yeah I do regret coming off the way I did, but Haiti was a mess before this, I have been there several times the people are nice, they have nothing. The missionaries live very high, with pretty young maids a dollar a day, and now they are coming home when there is real work to do (the parish up the street, they did just that, shame on them), heaven forbid there isn’t a working toilet. I was upset yesterday Mrs. Cullen, hope you understand. There is no comparison here, at least to my thinking. I apologize however, I could have wrote better.
In response to another comment. See in context »The difference between Kobe and Haiti are the quality and resources of their governments. Sadly, Haiti has very little of either.
The comparison of these two is a textbook case of Jared Diamond’s book Collapse. See http://www.amazon.com/Collapse-Societies-Choose-Fail-Succeed/dp/0670033375
Nobody’s arguing that Haiti was a disaster before the earthquake. One would hope this earthquake has woken up the industrialized world to the plight of so many failed states on the world today.
What have we learned from studying how societies recover from massive disasters, whether natural or man-made? Our track record for nation-rebuilding seems mixed at best.