Earthquakes and Governments

by Donna Schoenkopf

When Zbignew Brzezinski couldn't tell Joe Scarborough why the Dominican Republic was a vibrant and flourishing country and Haiti wasn't, except to say that bad leadership could be the reason, I agreed.

Here's a comparison between Kobe, Japan's 6.8 earthquake on January, 1995 and the 7.0 earthquake of Port au Prince, Haiti in January, 2010. 

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/facts-about-kobe-earthquake-great-hanshin-earthquake.html

http://www.canada.com/news/Rescue+teams+arrive+find+survivors+trapped+Port+Prince+devastation/2440512/story.html

The two quakes couldn't be more unalike as far as their outcomes go. 

And when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke of the surviving U.S. Embassy in Port au Prince standing in the midst of the rubble of just about everything else in the area, you know that governmental regulation about such things as building codes DO protect people.

Bad leadership (think Hurricane Katrina, Iraq, letting Wall Street run rampant, et cetera) and devastation go together, whether it's nature's wrath or crazy wars. 

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