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what the world can learn from Japan

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

I found an interesting set of observations about what the world could learn from Japan.

Reordering the original list a bit:

CALM

Not a single visual of chest-beating or wild grief. Sorrow itself has been elevated.

DIGNITY

Disciplined queues for water and groceries. Not a rough word or a crude gesture.

ABILITY

The incredible architects, for instance. Buildings swayed but didn’t fall.

GRACE

People bought only what they needed for the present, so everybody could get something.

ORDER

No looting in shops. No honking and no overtaking on theroads. Just understanding.

SACRIFICE

Fifty workers stayed back to pump sea water in the N-reactors. How will they ever be repaid?

TENDERNESS

Restaurants cut prices. An unguarded ATM is left alone. The strong cared for the weak.

TRAINING

The old and the children, everyone knew exactly what to do. And they did just that.

CONSCIENCE

When the power went off in a store, people put things back on the shelves and left quietly. And hotels offered rooms to the displaced In Chiba (because of the water outage), at 1/5th of their usual prices. That's Japan.

PARASITES

They showed magnificent restraint in the bulletins. No silly reporters. Only calm reportage. And no lawyers - imagine how many class action suits would have already been filed if this had happened in a Western country. (Added in conversation, I retitled this one)