Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Post No. 8: Katrina, Chinese Style

© 2008, The Institute for Applied Common Sense

I’m going to try something a little different this time. We’ve witnessed two, major, natural disasters in foreign lands within the past week. Both inflicted damage, far beyond anything, in terms of loss of human life, that we have seen in the United States during any of our lifetimes. The property damage figures are still being calculated, and because of differences in the respective standards of living, it may be difficult to compare the physical damage in China and Burma to the damage in the United States due to Katrina.

For purposes of this discussion, let’s just focus on China alone. In late August of this year, it will have been three full years since Hurricane Katrina unleashed her fury on the Gulf Coast, with significant damage to the State of Louisiana. Additionally, we’ve all seen reports of what still remains to be done and the manner in which the lives of many have been disrupted and have not yet returned to normal. Here’s my question, or actually, series of questions:

1. Three years from now, do you think that China will have done a better job of responding to its disaster than America?

2. What factors have you taken into consideration in arriving at your position?

3. Are there differences in our cultures and governments that will contribute to the differing responses?

4. How significant will the difference be?

5. Will China have repaired all of the physical damage within three years?

6. Will China have reconstructed the lives of all of the affected people within three years?

This should be interesting. Be sure to explain your position.

© 2008, The Institute for Applied Common Sense

1 comment:

  1. My response:

    1. We won't be able to fully assess the performance of the Chinese government and the success of the recovery. It is still a secretive state; people there aren't as free to speak their mind as people in the U.S. and local press is controlled by the government.

    3. The Chinese are famous for strong social bonding. Just observe the way Chinese (both overseas and home) conducting their business and you would understand. Furthermore, there is a reason why China is a "socialist" state; it's pretty much self-explanatory.

    ReplyDelete

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