Japan's Quiet Recovery Efforts
>> Monday, July 11, 2011
One of the things that's frustrated me is how hard it is to get more information on Japan's current situation. Japan suffered a devastating earthquake/tsunami (for those who forgot) last March. The humanitarian crisis, the real impact on Japan and the efforts for recovery from such a cataclysmic event have all been basically ignored in our own panic (way overblown in my opinion) over the nuclear reactors.
Meanwhile, beyond our panic and jokes about radiation, a nation of people began to clean up literally miles of devastated landscape, identified and buried the dead they could find (more than 7,000 are still missing) and began rebuilding their lives. I wanted to know more about it, find out how they were doing, see their progress.
So, I was pleased to find that progress was being made, quietly and without fanfare.
Google, I heard, is working to help keep track of the progress. I don't know that these pictures come from google, but I was pleased to get some indication that things were moving forward (though my mind boggles at the extent of the work still to be accomplished). Actually, I'm amazed and astounded at the extent of the work already done. More pictures can be found here (which is where I got this one).
Good luck, Japan. I wish you the best in your recovery.
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Wow... I didn't know this.
I am with you on this one.
This morning, BBC Radio4, there was a report from Japan, with people from the destroyed towns saying that they, culturally unaccustomed to criticising their own government, were deeply dissatisfied with the current works. Too little is being done to repair people, families, the bereived, disposessed, bankrupted, jobless, homeless. Yes, the bulldozers are moving, but that's the easy bit.
i before e, except after c. dispossessed.
Arse. I always hit post before I proof-read.
There is a huge culture gap here. We have a hurricane and no one can go home for a year, everyone whines constantly and there are lawsuits ablazing.
In Japan, they just quietly clean up.
I think the scope of this calamity is so far beyond what we understand that we just don't realize what this is like. Even those in Japan, land of calamity, are having a struggle with this.