Maybe I didn't represent my thoughts well enough here. I'm assuming there would still be distribution of supplies (which are delivered from elsewhere) and that people could and would wait in line for those supplies. But, you can make that line shorter and the burden on relief agencies lighter if the able-bodied forage for things that are readily available (already delivered before the disaster). No one has to fight for their food; just a more efficient distribution by involving more hands in the work. Consider it a crowd-sourcing of aid distribution.
The effectiveness of the response also plays a role. If I'm comfortable I'm getting food, water and blankets by waiting in line....I'll wait in line. If not...I'm following Valdez through that broken storefront and helping myself. And while I'm out....I may as well pick up a few other things too. Again...props to the relief groups.
Haiti Spoiler Pakistan Spoiler But, you can find just as civilized images as well... Pakistan Spoiler Haiti Spoiler
Everybody knows those people are hood rats. Not being racist or anything but we all know the culture those people grew up on.
I don't think there is a simple answer. One thing is that Japan is a very regimented society where shame is a major motivation. In this sense communal identity is very important and wouldn't want to loot out of fear of bringing shame to themselves, their family and their community. Also where tsunami hit is primarily rural where most of the people know each other. It would be hard for someone to loot the store of the person that you know well. Another factor that I have heard mentioned is that there are still many Japanese who remember the hardship of WWII and its aftermath and while they have been prosperous for decades there still is that national memory of great hardship. At the sametime there is also a sense of national pride in overcoming hardship and Japanese history has many episodes where they have overcome hardship.
I don't know how much Mandarin you speak but when I was there I witnessed several arguments while waiting in line. In fact there were signs in the lines telling people to be polite. I will say though that the amount of arguments were probably less than what you would see in the US.
Yup. Anyone remember people getting trampled over a free "cooking oil" discount in China? A large part of it is because of the Japanese culture. I hear you can leave a nice bike unlocked overnight in the middle of Tokyo and not have it stolen. There's no way that can happen in Beijing, though I can see it happening in places like Denmark.
lol no you can't. what deranged lunatic told you that? Anyways I don't think anyone should be comparing isolated and smaller incidents to....the aftermath of earthquakes and tsunami. It's rather insulting when you pretend to know how people will react during major disasters just because you saw some random negative headlines here and there.
How is the equality of income distribution (not the absolute level of wealth) in Haiti, looking at 95 % of the population, compared to Japan, looking at 95 % of the population? Next question after you have failed to answer that one: What's the point of your smartass post above? It's cultural. It's not about equality or inequality of income distribution.
His point specifically was "equality of income distribution", not absolute wealth. If his point had been to say people are just poorer and poorer people will loot more, ok. But "equality of income distribution" is a different argument. Do you understand?
Japan seems to have the most deference to authority of any culture that I can think of. That's helpful when there's a disaster like a nuclear meltdown where expert direction is needed in the response. That's dangerous when an emperor is ordering you to fly a suicide mission.
that's not an either or subject. absolute wealth is one thing, income distribution is another. we wouldn't compare hati to the us and japan in terms of wealth. i brought up hati, sure, but that's just because of their recent disaster. us and japan are both wealthy, so we compare income distribution
Looks from your post like somebody in this thread doesn't understand the term "developED world" and the necessary distincition between it and the developING world" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Developed_country http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Developing_country By the way, why would anybody try to use Haiti as an example of a country with equal income distribution? Haiti's Gini #'s are very high, close to .6.
I can't imagine if Baltimore gets ripped by mother nature, the catastrophe would be war like amongst it's citizen...
One thing on the equality of income in Japan is that the concept of middle-aged adults taking care of their elderly parents is much, much ingrained compared to that of the US. While this has its disadvantages, it helps promotes cohesiveness as well as a sharing of wealth between those who work and those who don't anymore. And the Japanese are more trusting of the government compared to here, which has contributed to the order.... though this is partly because I doubt there is a people whom are less involved in political affairs then they are.
