Japan

We all know about the terrible earthquake which, along with the tsunami, caused a tragedy in Japan. Thousands of lives are lost, many more will be. Acres of land are destroyed, property and assets vanished in an instant. Many reports have explained the catastrophic damages and the economic cost of this tragedy, while still unknown, is likely to rise above $30b and many firms, especially insurance firms, will suffer impossibly high financial costs and face possible bankruptcy.

What I have been musing does not lie on the financial or life side. Many articles have been written on it. I was intrigued by what I noticed DID NOT occur. Over the past years, several disasters have occurred in Asia. It started with the boxing day tsunami which struct Aceh, followed by the Sichuan earthquake. Both raking in thousands of lives.
How the Japanese disaster differed from the former 2 was the way the citizens reacted to it. In both China and Indonesia, looting, selfish deeds, crimes were rampant with high level of chaos. Not only did these not help with the rescue operations, these 'self-preserving' citizens hindered the work of those with the will to help.

In Japan, the scene seems to be very much different. We DO NOT hear about crimes and amidst the unimaginable chaos and vulnerability of people, we do not see much crimes occurring. While some may argue that this is selective media coverage, I choose to believe this is the result of generations of quality education and upbringing. In a disaster, victims help those who are worse off than themselves. Instead of rounding up as much aid and supplies as possible (which was what we saw in Indonesia and China), we are not witnessing Japanese selflessly giving up their own aid to help those who need it more. The level of culture is too deep.

China has prided herself to have overtaken Japan as Asis's largest economy and the world's 2nd largest superpower. India is growing at a pace unfathomable by the Japanese economic board but let's look at what Japan has that China, India and possibly almost every other country out there do not have: a quality citizen base. Say what you like about the Japanese, hate all you want the former generation of soldiers, the facts in front of us are clear as sky. These people are cultured. Maybe one day, we would stop quantitatively assessing countries and ranking them as such, take a look at the quality of the people and nation. Maybe when that day comes, we can then truly answer the following question.

Is my country a republic, or an economic centre: in other words, am I living in a home or a house.