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Mountains of debris stand in the way of quake reconstruction
Posted on August 25, 2011 via Great East Japan Earthquake News Watch with 36 notes ()
Source: japandisasterwatch
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A Japanese New Yorker's Volunteer Journal: And thus ends my time in Shiogama... Goodbyes and Thank Yous to my Nakama
This is a more personal post, a message to the people I met volunteering.
When I first set out to Shiogama in June, I thought I’d spend 3 days helping a few people out, seeing the damage the tsunami caused, and experiencing enough to be able to be able to report back to my family and a few of my…
Posted on August 24, 2011 via Kaz's Volunteering Records: Summer 2011 with 1 note ()
Source: kaznakatani
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What's up Japan?: Bon-odori festival at temporary housing in Iwate
On August 15, the residents of a temporary housing in Iwaizumi town, Iwate prefecture, where the tsunami devastated in March, held a bon-odori dance festival.
The residents of the Omoto district temporary housing (about 80 households) in Iwaizumi town planned the event to create a chance to…
Posted on August 23, 2011 via What's up Japan? with 4 notes ()
Source: hopsii
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What's up Japan?: Summer festival for evacuees in Saitama city
A summer festival was held in Saitama city, especially for the evacuees from the Tohoku regions who have been living in the Kanto regions due to the disaster and the nuclear plant accident.
A woman originally from Fukushima prefecture called for this festival online, and about 1,500 evacuees…
Posted on August 23, 2011 via What's up Japan? with 1 note ()
Source: hopsii
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What's up Japan?: Obon holiday volunteers at Minami Sanriku town, Miyagi
Taking advantage of the obon holidays, many people from all over Japan are coming to volunteer to help at Minami Sanriku town where the tsunami left a catastrophic damage.
The volunteers made a long line at the volunteer center at Minami Sanriku town from early in the morning to register…
Posted on August 22, 2011 via What's up Japan? with 17 notes ()
Source: hopsii
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Tohoku Earthquake as Creative Destruction: Do developed world natural disasters always recover well?
March 11, a blessing in disguise? With so many dead and displaced, this is indeed a claim controversial to pronounce. Yet, this new yorker article has revealed some facts that illustrate the resilience of our human nature: that we are capable not only to recover from a most catastrophic natural disaster, but to also emerge more united, creative and innovative from it, thus flipping misfortunes to boon and benefit.
The author has caution enough to note also that this phenomenon is not universally true and is most likely only with developed nations, where the human ingredients, of managerial, organizational and intellectual infrastructure, together with material and capital resources and the establishment of networks with other cities and countries, &c, altogether make it possible to turn destruction into a potentially creative event in history.
Yet this claim should be taken a few steps further with its cautionary analysis. Not all developed nations recover this way. Such assertions of the seeming immutable immortality of the human potential in the face of natural disasters overlooks other examples in history where recovery might not have been entirely successful, much less creative. Consider Katrina, which revealed, amongst other failures, the ugly division separating social classes deemed ‘dirt’ (Spike Lee, 2006) and the confusion of Citizens as ‘refugees’ unwelcomed and ostracized by their very own (Masquelier, 2006). There may indeed be some truth in this article in its comparative analysis of the Tohoku recovery with its counterpart developing world Haitian earthquake (which is nowhere close to a fair comparative example) but this truth is but a mere partial truth. It is indeed something we would wish to hear, and I must grant that the merits of encouragement is well worthwhile, but let us not lose sight of the larger picture once we get ourselves back on our feet. For just as the example of the plastic shoes industry had failed to recover from the Kobe earthquake, there are other aspects of recovery that have also failed to be addressed and were far from successful. At what price are we willing to turn a blind eye to those, so as to comfort ourselves?
See:
Lee, Spike. When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in four acts. (Film)
Posted on August 22, 2011 with 2 notes ()
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Google collects photos of disaster-struck areas from before and after disasters
Posted on August 22, 2011 via Great East Japan Earthquake News Watch with 20 notes ()
Source: japandisasterwatch
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A Japanese New Yorker's Volunteer Journal: Off to Shiogama again! Part 3
I haven’t been able to update as much recently, but in a few hours I’ll be boarding another midnight bus to head for Sendai, from which I’m going back to Shiogama. It’ll be my third and final trip of the summer, so I’m planning to make it worth my while. I will update and put up more pictures when…
Posted on August 21, 2011 via Kaz's Volunteering Records: Summer 2011 with 1 note ()
Source: kaznakatani
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What's up Japan?: Tokyo couple invited Sendai youths to Thailand
A resident of Tokyo, Ms. Chiharu Iriya, who has lived in Thailand until her high school years, planned to invite some disaster-stricken youths in Sendai to have a vacation in Thailand. After getting her husband to agree with her plan to use all their marriage fund they had been saving up, she even…
Posted on August 21, 2011 via What's up Japan? with 6 notes ()
Source: hopsii
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20,425 dead or missing as Japan marks 5 months since disaster
Posted on August 20, 2011 via Great East Japan Earthquake News Watch with 1 note ()
Source: japandisasterwatch