Saturday, March 19, 2011

Why the Japanese aren't rioting and looting

In "Tale of two earthquakes", Walt made a brief comparison of the reactions of the Japanese and the Haitians to disaster in their respective countries. Today "Japanese resilience shines in light of tragedy", by journalist Kieron Lang fleshes out the bare bones of the argument and adds into the comparison the chaos following Hurricane Katrina.

The article begins thus: Looters took to the streets after Hurricane Katrina decimated New Orleans in 2005, and again when Haiti was rocked by a powerful earthquake in 2010. So what is preventing disaster-stricken Japan from descending into a similar state of lawlessness?

Is this another rhetorical question? Lang shies away from discussing the question of race. Instead he quotes Thomas Lifson, a former professor of Asian Studies at Harvard, on "the unique qualities of the Japanese psyche".

"The sense of community is very powerful in Japan and is maintained not just on the basis of the culture, which is still very strong, but also on the basis of various social, political and geographic realities."

There can be no doubt that Japan is virtually homogeneous society. That is, it's not multicultural. Those aggressively promoting multiculturalism and "diversity" in the west might do well to think about that.

There is another factor of which there can be no doubt, but which political correctness forbids us from discussing. Except for Walt. I'll say it directly this time. The victims of last week's earthquake and tsunami were Asian. The victims of the Haitian earthquake were black.

Haiti, Katrina, Watts, Detroit, today's Ivory Coast... In black communities rioting and looting follow political demonstrations or natural disaster -- any provocation at all -- as surely as night follows day. What conclusion can be drawn, other than that looting and lawlessness are the nature of the beast. Answers on the back of a postage stamp, please.

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