The Japan Earthquake March 11, 2011

Gigantic earthquake of Mw 8.8 has hit east Japan on Friday March 11 2011 causing widespread damage. It is the 5th largest earthquake event in the world and biggest in last hundred year of Japan. Many cities have been devastated most affected being Sendai. More than 400 people have confirmed dead and hundreds have been missing.

We have been feeling this earthquake and continuous after shocks till date. Because of strict building codes, the devastation has been limited. Most of the damages have been due to the tsunami nearby the sea shores area like in Sendai city. Hundred of thousands of building have been left without electricity and water. Many hospitals have been stretched to the maximum limit. But because of high disciplined people and well preparedness there is not much panic situation.

What would happen if same event happened in Nepal?

Nepal lies between Indian and Eurasian plate and each year Indian plate moves 2 cm per year towards Eurasian plate thereby causing the stress. Seismologist are predicting gigantic earthquake as pressure has built for last 300 years and it has to be released. Normally Nepal experiences big earthquake in 80-100 years. Hundred of thousands people will be killed because of the building collapse because in Nepal

• there is no strict building codes,
• there is poor implementation of codes,
• there are weak building materials.

Besides these reasons, most of the buildings in villages are non-engineered which are more vulnerable to the quakes. Even in cities many buildings are old and built before the builing code implementation. Last earthquake in Nepal was in 1934 that took more than 10,000 people. The population has increased a lot and so are the buildings. Government has little preparedness to cope up the situation. Most of the time is spent in the political things and there is no time to come for the disaster management. Even political leaers have failed to make constitution in stipulated time of 2 years. Proposed Disaster Management Act has not been acted through the parliament though it was given for approval in 2007. Since 2007, Nepal has seen sea change in politics. County has become Republic from Kingdom, 3 governments have changed. But alas! there is no time for government and political leaders to pass the act and set up the systematic mechanism for the disaster management. SriLanka has set up even disaster management ministry after 2004 tsunami event. May be Nepal is waiting event similar to the 2010 Haiti earthquake to become eye opener. By that time it will be too late as even the lazy current leaders of Nepal will not be able to see the day after that possible doom's day.

Secret of Western Civilization

Western Civilization has dominated for last 500 years and it was the colonial powers of most of the countries in the world. Only after second world war (1939-1945) many countries have broke the shackles of colonism.

Many countries have developed their countries combining the western values with their own values in a unique way. The rise of Japan to World economy was their adoption of Western methods since Meiji Restoration in 1850. Now many countries have followed Japan and become rising super power like China, India, Singapore Vietnam to name a few.

Noted Harvard historian Niall Ferguson has noted 6 points of western secrets for success. They are:

1. competition,


2. modern science,


3. the rule of law and private property rights,


4. modern medicine,


5. consumer society and


6. work ethic.

Nepal lacks many of the above pointed secrets. Most importantly it lacks work ethics and the rule of law. Until all the above steps are adopted in our lives it is difficult for Nepal to compete internationally with dignity.

DEMOCRACY AND EDUCATION-2

Last blog was about the modern education in Nepal. It is true that education pays not only people but also to the nation. Access to education is important in this aspect. This is because Nepal has to do a lot of works to go ahead in improving lifestyle and way of thinking that the modern world deserves. It is high time that our people should be at par to the international level.

Knowledge is POWER.

Regarding the education system around Nepal neighboring countries a lot of lessons can be drawn. Education system of Sri Lanka is good in the sense that it has managed to have high literacy rate ( 92%) and large population having Secondary Education (83% of the total) making it one of the most literate populations amongst developing nations. Sri Lanka has an education system of 9 years of compulsory schooling same as in Japan. Another system it has been catering is free education system since 1945. Many people have credited this to the visionary personality Dr. C. W. W. Kannangara.

Benefits of Free education are;

1. Remedy of social evils
2. Greater competitiveness
3. Improved quality of life
4. Better governance and
5. Equal opportunities

Comparing to Nepal, education was a limited to certain class and rich only. Idea of free education emerges only during the time of King Birendra's Coronation in 1975 (2031 B.S). King Birendra (1945-2001) said once that no one should be deprived of the bright light of education. He proclaimed the primary (5 years ) education free. This was only the case in the government supported educational institutions. After the 1990s democracy time education was claimed to be free up to the secondary level (10 years of education) but due to the lack of financial support this has not been the case. Actually classes up to 8 is free in the government schools. In the coming days Nepal needs to introduce the compulsory education of 9 years and made higher education more accessible to all strata of life. It should be part of life rather than a luxury item for some.