The Morning After the Quake: Defining the Nation and International Community in a Major Natural Disaster
To call it "the morning after" is probably an understatement. The earthquakes after that big big one last night are just not stopping, period. Magnitudes 4-5 quakes seemed to come all over northern Japan throughout the night, scaring even those who managed to walk home (such long walks are certainly good training for the legs...glad I was prepared from before). TVs are reporting the latest quakes nonstop, while people dashed to the nearest places they can find to stock up on food and water for who knows whats going to happen next.
The economic damages are bound to happen. Besides the restaurants and convenience stores that are emptying out their inventories to meet demands, every other sector cannot possibly expect anything positive out of this. Employees are missing, facilities are damaged, and fragile mental state cannot possibly improve efficiency for days, weeks, and even months after the ground really does settle down and stop moving.
As the death tolls pile up to more than 400, houses destroyed in the thousands, and rumors of nuclear radiations, the self-prided Japanese preparedness for disasters (especially frequent earthquakes) is called into question. US Embassy led the pack with loud calls for citizens to avoid going to and moving about in Japan and the world markets, led by the Japanese stocks, reacted fiercely downwards.
But, even from the beginning of the ongoing disaster, the world community was visible. The UN called for international support, and 45 countries sent rescue teams to the disaster zones. Donations flowed into the accounts of International Red Cross and other such organizations, once again proving the value of NGOs in both the developing and the developed worlds. People around the world prayed for Japan in an unusual sight of international unity.
Yet, Japan being so prone to earthquakes still looms large as an unavoidable dark side to the prayers for unity and hope. After all, no matter how hard the Japanese try to perceive their own history fairly, it is common knowledge, at least among the foreigners here, that the place for foreign workers in this country is not always entirely positive and welcoming.
Judging by how shaken up some of my foreign colleagues were after experiencing such a big quake (some experiencing quake for the first time), I am beginning to feel that slowly but surely, natural disasters like the quake yesterday may become additional push factors for foreign workers here. Sure, no one will cite earthquakes as a major downside for Japan, but after this, it should constantly be in the back of their minds...
But the mental scar should be much worse for the Japanese than the foreigners. Yes, the foreigners can call their families far far away, say they are OK, and thats that. But for the Japanese, the disaster is about the life-and-death of their families, friends, the well-beings of their hometowns, and in the long term, their and their children's economic well-beings. It is not just about emotional distress from the quake but that from the various "aftershocks," consequences that will impact the course of their lives and their nation as a whole.
It is not helpful that most Japanese (well, true for any country, for that matter) are utterly unprepared to live abroad. Living in an insulated, wealthy, peaceful land, they have paid attentions to too little of the troubles that brew across the world. Most people have and can have only one home: Japan. As fears of further quakes and damages remain very much in the minds of common people, the socio-economic repercussions are proving to be not any less damaging than the quakes themselves.
The economic damages are bound to happen. Besides the restaurants and convenience stores that are emptying out their inventories to meet demands, every other sector cannot possibly expect anything positive out of this. Employees are missing, facilities are damaged, and fragile mental state cannot possibly improve efficiency for days, weeks, and even months after the ground really does settle down and stop moving.
As the death tolls pile up to more than 400, houses destroyed in the thousands, and rumors of nuclear radiations, the self-prided Japanese preparedness for disasters (especially frequent earthquakes) is called into question. US Embassy led the pack with loud calls for citizens to avoid going to and moving about in Japan and the world markets, led by the Japanese stocks, reacted fiercely downwards.
But, even from the beginning of the ongoing disaster, the world community was visible. The UN called for international support, and 45 countries sent rescue teams to the disaster zones. Donations flowed into the accounts of International Red Cross and other such organizations, once again proving the value of NGOs in both the developing and the developed worlds. People around the world prayed for Japan in an unusual sight of international unity.
Yet, Japan being so prone to earthquakes still looms large as an unavoidable dark side to the prayers for unity and hope. After all, no matter how hard the Japanese try to perceive their own history fairly, it is common knowledge, at least among the foreigners here, that the place for foreign workers in this country is not always entirely positive and welcoming.
Judging by how shaken up some of my foreign colleagues were after experiencing such a big quake (some experiencing quake for the first time), I am beginning to feel that slowly but surely, natural disasters like the quake yesterday may become additional push factors for foreign workers here. Sure, no one will cite earthquakes as a major downside for Japan, but after this, it should constantly be in the back of their minds...
But the mental scar should be much worse for the Japanese than the foreigners. Yes, the foreigners can call their families far far away, say they are OK, and thats that. But for the Japanese, the disaster is about the life-and-death of their families, friends, the well-beings of their hometowns, and in the long term, their and their children's economic well-beings. It is not just about emotional distress from the quake but that from the various "aftershocks," consequences that will impact the course of their lives and their nation as a whole.
It is not helpful that most Japanese (well, true for any country, for that matter) are utterly unprepared to live abroad. Living in an insulated, wealthy, peaceful land, they have paid attentions to too little of the troubles that brew across the world. Most people have and can have only one home: Japan. As fears of further quakes and damages remain very much in the minds of common people, the socio-economic repercussions are proving to be not any less damaging than the quakes themselves.
Comments
Post a Comment