Reflections on a disaster

Took Motoko & Remi to Houhai where we also met up with our friends Sarah, Dave, Alex & Yasmin over the usual Hutong Pizza lunch and stroll around Gulou neighbourhood. Talked about the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Motoko & Remi had been at a friend's house in Tokyo: the shaking went on for 5 mins - an incredibly long time - but they were OK. Motoko told us about how her brother had been on the east cost near Sendai all morning but had caught the train back to Tokyo just before it struck. Meanwhile, Dave, who works at the British Consulate in Shanghai, was dispatched to Japan with a team of six to help in the coordination of Brits caught up in it. He spent about a week on the north-east coast and was incredibly impressed by how well-prepared the Japanese were and how they dealt with it. It was of course a disaster and some things went badly awry (eg Fukushima), but if it had struck anywhere else in the world, well...