What natural disasters tell us about societies
The natural disasters we’ve seen recently around the world have shown us much about the communities in which they’ve occurred. The images emerging from Japan, New Zealand and Australia as they’ve faced earthquakes, tsumanis, floods and fires stands on stark contrast to the mainstream media stories that suggests people of the world are not willing to work together. Some of the widely reported natural events in the past few years include Hurricane Katrina; fires across Victoria, floods across Queensland and Victoria; the earthquakes in Christchurch and Japan all of which have shown much about those societies. A few years ago an earthquake in Turkey right on the border with Greece highlighted the willingness of so called ‘combatants’ to come together to assist others. With more localised large scale incidents we get to see in essence, the true selves of the societies impacted by the event.
There is a saying that says ‘we learn much about ourselves in times of crisis’. The images on TV of Japanese people waiting patiently in line to enter a supermarket for upto seven hours says much about the Japanese people’s resilience and their understanding that this is an event that demands an understanding of the widespread impact. The images of people from across the world flying into Christchurch to assist (along with local students digging mud out of strangers homes); people in Australia driving or flying hundreds of kilometers just to get in and lend a hand shows conclusively societies with a collective focus.
What seems to emerge from these images is an assessment of resilience within the community. It appears to me that societies with a stronger focus on ‘us’ and a lesser focus on ‘me’ seem far more able to deal with the widespread devastation of a natural disaster and it could be reasonably anticipated that they’ll also bounce back quicker albeit allowing for a long range need for rebuilding.
It might seem a pity that we need to experience a sudden natural disaster to reveal our true selves. I’m thankful that for the large part in many societies, our true selves seem to be more often about ‘us’ and less about ‘me’. My thoughts are very much with those facing and still dealing with these recent events
Every where we look we are being given clear signs of the blatant stupidity and arguably outright criminality of a toxic system of decision making. The Menindee Lakes and Darling River disaster is one example A couple of years ago I was invited to speak at a Private Equity conference at a lovely resort…
Read More >Every year I aim to identify what I think a major focus of the upcoming year will be and in that light I’m declaring 2019 the International Year of the Cooperative. I’m prompted by a multitude of signals that my daily research has uncovered, many of which will be familiar to you – Cost of…
Read More >Here we are with the last posting of the year looking at the potential for wide ranging strategy for a country like the United States. Arguably the United States is undergoing its own version of #Brexit though without the vote of the people. Instead the dictatorial nature of what I see as an incompetent strategic…
Read More >I’m reluctant to make predictions but am getting a few calls so: My tip is on a March 2019 election – the 9th or 16th But that will be an attempt to protect the existing NSW Government hoping that voters will have sufficiently vented. That said though, it also required a Federal Minoroty Government to…
Read More >The Asian Productivity Organisation has shifted gears from being a centre for member countries to talk about productivity, to one that now wants to upskills its member countries. We’ve just completed the first chunk of helping National Productivity secretariats to ready their staff for a more proactive, future facing approach to their Country’s development …
Read More >The question is, ‘how does the thinking inside this document stack up?’ Turns out, pretty good. What we spotted and what problems we said we’d have to watch out for, are just about spot on When it was discovered that the then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was going to hold the Australia 2020 Summit,…
Read More >it’s OK not to know your career path when you leave university – sometimes that won’t emerge until much later down the track,” Barber says. “We should remind kids that the pathway they select to start off with is unlikely to be their final pathway, Was interviewed by #TheodoraSutcliffe who wrote this article for…
Read More >At a recent session with the Gen Y group working on the ‘Future Melbourne’ project for the City of Melbourne I suggested that the group consider what the result might be if they could ‘invert’ the way the State of Victoria operates. What would you be likely to see if more of the functions of…
Read More >McKinsey’s interview with Richard Thaler on ‘debiasing the corporation’ is a really good one. I’ve spent the best part of two decades trying to help organisations unpack their biases through the use of foresight. I recommend this article to you Nobel Laureate Richard Thaler offers some great insights as to how to make more…
Read More >As the Ipswich Council has determined that recycling schemes are too expensive and indicates it will end collections, the question is ‘what happens next’? If result of the explosion in Tip fees by Councils around Australia is anything to go by, what happens next will not be good China recently decided to end acting…
Read More >