Asia s Post Tsunami Future

Mass protests are continuing for the sixth day in a row.

Discussion of early warning systems for tsunamis has focused on government programs.

There can be no underestimating the scale of the human devastation wrought by Asia s horrific tsunamis.

Rather, we have to learn to cope with them. There are now calls for improved tsunami early warning systems.

So let me tell you what aroused such irate responses, and I'll let you decide if whether they the claims are really that outrageous.

Netizens from around the world are holding their breath, as widespread demonstrations are scheduled to begin in Egypt in less than an hour.

The sight of army snipers with their firearms is as familiar to me as the loud chants of protests under the dome of Cairo University.

In the case of Japan s official response to the earthquake and tsunami related disasters, however, cultural exoticism is not an adequate explanation.

The economy was also badly hurt by the massive floods of 2010, which caused damage estimated at 10 billion.

I might say that I have this insane need to write about everything I know and see, and therefore I write stories, and that s why I blog.

PRINCETON When the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan in March, Brian Tucker was in Padang, Indonesia.

Kal writes that the severe floods in Mauritania have cut off communication between many cities, impeding the transport of critical food supplies.

Or people think about North Korea s nuclear program, some terrorist incident, or the humanitarian consequences of the latest earthquake or tsunami.

So governments should ignore neither the valid interests of oil exporters, on whom consumers in their countries depend, nor exporters reaction to the rhetoric of energy independence or to steps taken to achieve it.

NEW HAVEN The devastation both human and physical from the earthquake and tsunami in Japan is unfathomable. It is impossible at this point to gauge the full extent of the damage with any degree of precision.

HUMANO is a documentary film that tells the story of the journey of a young man into the mountains of the Andes, accompanied only by a camera, two hundred questions and the longing to discover the origins .

So many economies are vulnerable to natural disasters earthquakes, floods, typhoons, hurricanes, tsunamis that adding a man made disaster is all the more tragic.

Over the past six months, attention and worry have shifted from America s enormous trade deficit to its surging property markets and real estate bubble.

We have seen devastation from the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, interpreted as a sign of crowding at the coasts.

We have helped people affected by severe flooding in Southeast Asia, and by drought in the Horn of Africa, where 14 million need emergency help.

TOKYO The scale of the earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan in March was far greater than even the authorities worst scenarios foresaw.

Both are surely aware that China s surging exports last year helped it surpass the US as Europe s largest foreign supplier.

The blackout on the Internet in Egypt was supposed to thwart efforts to let the world know what was happening on the ground, as massive demonstrations against president Hosni Mubarak enter their fourth day.

The solidarity that the international community demonstrated last year when many countries in the Indian Ocean rim were devastated by the tsunami was exemplary and is worth replicating in other areas.

CAMBRIDGE Financial commentators have likened Japan s earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear catastrophe to derivatives role in the 2008 financial meltdown.

This could well create a financial tsunami worth trillions of dollars, which explains the energy with which the European Central Bank and its president, Jean Claude Trichet, have tried to head off the worst.

And yet, even with damage to infrastructure such as road and rail links, the tsunamis overall economic impact is expected to be minor.

But the plant was not designed to withstand the 14 meter high tsunami waves that swept over its protective sea wall less than an hour later.

The countdown for mass protests across Egypt has started, with very little information trickling from the ground after the Egyptian authorities shut down the Internet and virtually all other communication with the outside world.

But when Mikhail Gorbachev refused to support a German crackdown, a mixture of overwhelming public protest and government bungling brought down the Berlin Wall.

This means that for the first three years of a presidency brought to power amidst great popular demands, López Obrador would be able to enact little reform legislation.

Bangladesh is usually heard about only when cyclones and tsunamis ravage its low coastline, but the country s relatively anonymous international stature belies its strategic importance.

During the global protests in over 1000 cities and 82 countries this October 15, people gathered under the motto United for global change to demand their rights and a true democracy.

The insurance industry can, and should, respond to the tsunami disaster by accepting the moral imperative to take concerted action to expand risk coverage.

The ultimate reason for their lack of preparation is that our insurance industry was not covering their tsunami risks, and hence not offering up to date disaster prevention guidance.

Future catastrophes storms, earthquakes, tsunamis, volcano eruptions, forest fires, agricultural or other environmental crises, disease epidemics, or terrorist attacks are likely to result in the same kinds of problems.

As this video from Alive in Baghdad shows, public anger in parts of Baghdad over killings of civilians by American troops have boiled over into large demonstrations without a peep of protest from the Iraqi government

At the same time, Japan s trifecta of calamities the massive earthquake, devastating tsunami, and paralyzing nuclear disaster have gutted consumer confidence and disrupted cross border production chains (especially in technology and car factories).

In an article entitled, Jubilation in Palestine, the Global Teacher Prize posted photos of the crowd, waiting in anticipation to hear if Al Hroub will be chosen from the top 10 finalists (out of a pool of 8,000 global nominees).

Simply put, surging capital flows into the US artificially held down interest rates and inflated asset prices, leading to laxity in banking and regulatory standards and, ultimately, to a meltdown.

For Fukushima type risks, analysts are already discussing how nuclear plants can be designed and built to contain earthquake and tsunami risks via passive cooling.

We do not know if the official data, which report roughly 30 youth unemployment, are correct, but it is clear that these economies were incapable of absorbing the demographic wave of the last decades. Recent growth rates 5 6 annually in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, and Morocco look strong, but they are less impressive in light of ten years of 2.5 annual growth in the working age population.

Is it too late to do anything about a culture that so deadens the spirit? Tocqueville despised the elites of his time for their complacency in the face of the deracinating force of mass democracy.

The National Transitional Government of Liberia and all donors must give urgent attention to the current spate of unregulated and illegal harvesting of timber and rubber, the mining of diamonds and gold and the attendant environmental consequences of those activities.