Learning From Deadly Tsunamis

The malevolent earthquake and tsunami in Japan have jolted our minds back to the 2004 catastrophe in the Indian Ocean, as well as to last yearâ??s tsunamis in Chile and Sumatra. Gruesome comparisons are inevitable, as is the fatalism that follows such â??acts of God.â? What can man do in the face of natureâ??s wrath? Not everything, of courseâ??and a natural disaster is always a most sobering reminder of our own limitations. But it is clearâ??and painfully soâ??that the international community has not done a fraction of what it had hoped to do in the aftermath of the carnage in 2004, when the devastation in Banda Aceh, Phuket, Sri Lanka, and parts of Africa led to a global resolve to be better prepared for the next time.