{"id":30899,"date":"2011-03-14T12:47:33","date_gmt":"2011-03-14T20:47:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=30899"},"modified":"2011-03-14T12:47:33","modified_gmt":"2011-03-14T20:47:33","slug":"why-is-there-no-looting-in-japan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=30899","title":{"rendered":"Why Is There No Looting In Japan?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Report<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

The landscape of parts of Japan looks like the aftermath of World War Two; no industrialised country since then has suffered such a death toll. The one tiny, tiny consolation is the extent to which it shows how humanity can rally round in times of adversity, with heroic British rescue teams joining colleagues from the US and elsewhere to fly out.<\/p>\n

And solidarity seems especially strong in Japan itself. Perhaps even more impressive than Japan\u2019s technological power is its social strength, with supermarkets cutting prices and vending machine owners giving out free drinks as people work together to survive. Most noticeably of all, there has been no looting, and I\u2019m not the only one curious about this<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This is quite unusual among human cultures, and it\u2019s unlikely it would be the case in Britain. During the 2007 floods in the West Country<\/a>abandoned cars were broken into and free packs of bottled water were stolen. There was looting in Chile after the earthquake last year \u2013 so much so that troops were sent in; in New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina saw looting on a shocking scale.<\/p>\n

Why do some cultures react to disaster by reverting to everyone for himself, but others \u2013 especially the Japanese \u2013 display altruism even in adversity?<\/p>\n

<\/span> <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Chaim Amalek emails: We are forever being told that
\n1. everyone is the same and
\n2. our diversity is our strength.
\nSo if certain Americans rioted\/looted in the wake of Katrina in New Orleans and others of their kinsmen looted in the wake of quakes in Haiti, then surely even worse must be taking place in ethnically pure Japan, and on an epic scale. But the media refuse to cover that part of the story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Report: The landscape of parts of Japan looks like the aftermath of World War Two; no industrialised country since then has suffered such a death toll. The one tiny, tiny consolation is the extent to which it shows how humanity … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[199],"tags":[25759,25762,25758,1698,25760,25761],"class_list":["post-30899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-japan","tag-aftermath-of-world-war-two","tag-free-drinks","tag-human-cultures","tag-hurricane-katrina","tag-japan-report","tag-vending-machine"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t