If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
The Blog
WHO's tweets and Facebook messages had paid off. The salt panic in China dissipated as quickly as it had started. WHO had learned of the problem through social media and had rectified it in the same way.
Where, outside of Iran, will new nuclear power plants be contemplated? Wherever that may be, it looks to be increasingly few and far between.
You name it, and our volunteers have found it on the beach: toilet seats, washing machines, couches and, of course, the proverbial kitchen sink. This year someone even found a floating 100-pound safe. But no matter what that safe contained, I can tell you this trash is no treasure.
The tsunami was a tragedy and there is much still to be done. But many see it as the catalyst for a renewed entrepreneurial and collaborative spirit that will ensure Japan maintains its place as the leading high tech country in the world.
With so little time to try to escape, tsunami preparedness becomes the most important thing in saving lives. Unfortunately, the response of many Japanese to that warning was inadequate due to their lack of tsunami preparedness training.
Days after the disaster, Fukushima's animals were starving. Rescue groups rushed to Tohoku to care for abandoned pets. A year later, challenges remain.
When we receive the announcement that we're about to arrive at Fukushima station, I momentarily panic.
On March 11, 2011, I was booked on a direct flight from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport to Narita International Airport halfway across the world in Japan.
Seeing the Japanese care for each other and refuse to fall into despair always leaves me with hope for their culture and country.
On March 11 of last year, just minutes after the earthquake, I woke to the sound of my phone. It was a message from one of my favorite former students in Japan.
In the tsunami's immediate aftermath the practical sides of religion came into play. Places of worship in Japan are said to outnumber convenience stores by a factor of four and community centers by a factor of nine.
In spite of the 3/11 disaster, and amidst economic and political upheaval in many parts of the world, the fact is that Japan remains remarkably stable.
On our deployment we saw what it meant for people to be able to live with dignity again, taking the most basic life ingredients we were able to provide.
What is most needed for Japan to get out of its current intellectual slump and to restore vitality are government and corporate sectors that espouse transparency and accountability consistently and over time.
The disaster at Fukushima last year exposed how entrenched interests among key decision-makers have contaminated Japanese society, endangering the long-term prosperity of Japan.
25 Million Tons of Tsunami Debris Headed Our Way: Is This the End of Beach Volleyball in California?
You can't just keep rolling out sensationalized headlines about this story every couple of months without some "new" news to report along with it. We need accurate, up-to-date information about the tsunami debris and how it might affect our lives.
