In 1755, one of the most destructive earthquakes in history wiped out 85% of Lisbon, at a cost of anything up 100,000 lives. Among the arguably less important consequences was a debate between two leading figures of the Enlightenment over what philosophers of religion call the problem of natural evil.
Voltaire insisted that any God who could permit such devastation could hardly be described as benevolent. Rousseau countered that the actions of humanity had contributed to the devastation; by erecting rickety buildings and forcing people to live in such close confinement, the death toll have been exacerbated greatly. Even atheists and secularists will be forced to admit that such theodicy has a partial point.
Much can be deduced about a society by the way it handles disasters. Science and statistical analysis make it easily possible to assess their likelihood, and to take measures to mitigate them when they occur. The thing is, there needs to be a political will to put the necessary preparations in place.
Much media attention in recent days has been focused on the Burmese junta’s callous disregard for the victims of Cyclone Nargis – pictured - for reasons most of us find difficult to comprehend. Can one of the world’s most repressive regimes really fear the presence of aid workers as a potential spark for insurrection?
China is getting a better press for the way it is tackling the Sichuan earthquake. But 300 years after Rousseau, it seems that jerrybuilt schools have claimed the lives of perhaps tens of thousands of pupils.
It’s not that advanced capitalisms have much claim to moral superiority, as anyone who recalls the impact of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans in 2005 will be fully aware. From systematic neglect of obviously-needed flood defences to the mismanagement of relief efforts, the charge sheet against local, state and federal government is long.
Burma, China and the US are very different in political terms. Yet they do have one very important thing in common; all are class societies, in which the interests of the elite dictate that corners are cut in the provision of public goods.
A society organised along more rational and democratic lines might not be endowed with the power to suspend the laws of physics. But it will surely take simple steps that will save countless lives when the worst does happen.
Posted at 14:06, 16 May 2008
Comments (5)
The BBC World Service were reporting in the small hours from China and had a Chinese person (admittedly not from Sichuan) giving a favourable comparison of the response to the earthquake to Katrina.
``The thing is, there needs to be a political will to put the necessary preparations in place.''
Didn't the Chinese work out a fairly accurate early warning system for earthquakes some years ago? Does anyone know what happened to that? IIRC, the late Bill Hinton wrote about Mao era environmental efforts being discarded after the adoption of the ``responsibility system'', and the turn towards the capitalist road. Did the change happen then?
I think we have to give the heroic efforts of the Chinese people and the PLA some support. The BBC, staffed by the kind of liberal that cannot say one good word about China without mentioning Tibet, is not the world authority on Chinese school construction. Or indeed on anything whatsoever, apart from their mortgages and the prive of a London gaff. The way in which the Chinese have dealt with this has, I'm sure, moved many hearts. For the good, that is.
One mate, a fellow T&G Unite member (Crane drive and pretty right-wing on most things, other than class issues) said to me in the pub this Friday; "I don't like Communists, but they really shew how to deal with this one."
I think what impressed is how the telly managed (despite above comments) the way the Chinese are "just like us".
I would say CLASSIST societies. You're right on the money, though.
Shoddy schools are not limited to China.
Here in Colorado, a student sitting at his desk plunged through the second floor of a school built by the WPA in the 30s. Student AND desk crashed 12 feet to the first floor.
And we have a lot of "modular classrooms" (translation: TRAILERS) out here. Everybody knows trailers are tornado magnets.
There's an interesting article on Katrina 2008 at:
http://www.libertas.bham.ac.uk/analysis/
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Extract:
Domesticating Katrina - Anna Hartnell
Two and a half years on from the storm that captured world attention, the authorities in New Orleans are quietly doing away with the city’s remaining stock of affordable housing – in moves characterized by the UN as violations of human rights. The demolition of public housing in New Orleans will prevent large numbers of very poor and mostly black residents from ever returning home. As homelessness soars, house prices double, and public transportation and public health facilities remain closed, the infrastructure which has supported the existence of low-income residents in the city for decades is being replaced by a set-up designed to attract wealthier, and some say whiter, residents.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the UN’s intervention in February 2008 went largely unnoticed by the global media. Local news outlets effectively dressed up the incident as the pronouncement of a clunky international body remote from and ignorant about the situation on the ground in New Orleans. This treatment fits the trend of viewing Katrina and its aftermath as a predominantly local affair – as at the most a domestic issue of national concern, with few global implications to speak of. While the statement issued by UN human rights officials tells a different story, it is the grassroots organizing that most powerfully captures the international coordinates of the unfolding post-Katrina disaster.
Increasingly, a burgeoning network of community-based organizations in New Orleans are calling for the ‘right of return’, a principle of international law enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. What’s striking about this movement is their mobilization of a rhetoric more readily associated with the conflict in the Middle East and Palestinian self-determination than the plight of US blacks and the underprivileged in the American South. Such a rhetoric shows how far many New Orleanians have come – from initially protesting against the use of the term ‘refugee’ to refer to Katrina evacuees, to deploying a principle usually cited by those for whom citizenship has meant anything but protection.