Comments | flonnebonne: On 3/11

flonnebonne

On 3/11

Mar 20, 2012 22:48

The one-year anniversary of the earthquake/tsunami in Japan passed a couple weeks ago.

It's very weird, once again, to be hearing conflicting news from both sides of the Pacific. Over here, I watch grave news reports about the Japan's governments failure to help the region recover economically. The survivors aren't doing well and aren't getting the ( Read more... )

earthquake2011, japan

Comments 4

februaryfour March 21 2012, 05:46:10 UTC

If you dwell on things it gets hard to live. ^_^ In Greece they're doing pretty extraordinary things even though the economy has (for all intents and purposes) collapsed. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/16/greece-on-breadline-cashless-currency?newsfeed=true

flonnebonne March 21 2012, 06:04:42 UTC

This is SO cool. Yay human adaptability!

Man, it would be interesting to visit Greece right now.

ontogenesis March 22 2012, 06:35:01 UTC

I think the Japanese have moved on from their grieving (as best they can) because to dwell too much on the tragedy destroys you.

Not nearly on the same scale, but Katrina and the BP Oil spill are also events people have tried to move on from. The ones who are fortunate enough to be able to do so...

flonnebonne March 23 2012, 04:18:42 UTC

I think what feels distinctly Japanese to me about the festival in Koriyama is the SPEED at which people are letting themselves move on. If there were a big disaster here, there is no way we would commemorate it one year later with a *happy* festival. I really like the がんばれ　spirit of it, actually (and the fact that it might help stir up tourism dollars?). Even if it IS a bit weird for me from my cultural standpoint.

Yes, there are those who can move on and those who can't. Did I tell you I visited New Orleans in September last year? There was a tropical storm going on, but my hotel was near the French quarter, which is higher up, so I wasn't really affected...but a lot of the local people, who were serving me breakfast in the restaurants and whatnot, were going home to the lower parts of the city and dealing with minor flooding. Made me think about privilege (including my own) and how Katrina affected people differently.