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Keywords: Earthquake

  • AUSTRALIA

    Japan's Olympic dream disrupts disaster recovery

    • Pepi Ronalds
    • 06 March 2017
    3 Comments

    This week marks the anniversary of the triple disaster (earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown) that hit northern Japan on 11 March 2011. The event took over 18,000 lives, and initially displaced 470,000 people. Six years on, 127,000 are still without a permanent home. Delays have been caused by the sheer physical scope, pre-existing regulations and other restrictions. These are all understandable. What is less easy to accept are the disruptions caused by the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Quake forces Nepalis to walk on water

    • Angela Ford
    • 02 June 2015
    2 Comments

    As a kiwi I had grown up with earthquakes. I remember them large, small and intrusive. Awed by their power, I cherished the still that followed. This is what made Nepal’s second major earthquake so different for me. I will never forget the beginning of the 7.3-magnitude quake, but will never recall the end.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    A day in the life of a nun

    • Gillian Bouras
    • 03 October 2012
    6 Comments

    The convent has a history of catastrophe at the hands of invaders like the Franks and the Turks, not to mention the earthquake of 1986 and fires of 2007. There are now only two nuns in buildings designed to hold 100. One announces that she would rather someone plunged a dagger in her heart than be forced to leave.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Forgiving Japan

    • Zac Alstin
    • 23 June 2011
    27 Comments

    The disasters in Japan early this year left scenes of destruction reminiscent of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Australian experiences of Japanese wartime cruelty have never been forgotten or forgiven. But the problems are not all on the Japanese side.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Rebuilding Japan

    • Jack de Groot
    • 23 March 2011
    2 Comments

    As airstrikes are launched against Libya, controversy grows around Australia's detention centres, and NSW prepares for its election, Japan will inevitably slip off our news radar. The rebuilding work of grassroots agencies will continue for years to come.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Earthquakes, poets and God

    • Michael Mullins
    • 21 March 2011
    13 Comments

    Most of us vehemently reject claims such as that made by FoxNews' Glen Beck, that the Japan earthquake was the work of a vengeful God. In his Quarterly Essay last week, David Malouf gives a nuanced reading of the position that Beck has bastardised.

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  • RELIGION

    Japan's gods of nature

    • Catherine Marshall
    • 21 March 2011
    5 Comments

    In Japan's relief centres and obliterated streets, there is no news of looting or violence, no shouts of blame, no demands for immediate evacuation and coronial inquests. 'Shinto is a nature religion,' says my guide Yoshiko. 'We give thanks to everything we have.'

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Japan's nuclear distortion

    • Brian Vale
    • 15 March 2011
    7 Comments

    Many Japanese don't trust officials connected to the nuclear power industry because previous radiation leaks were denied or downplayed. It is difficult for those caught in the current disaster to know how to interpret statements from officials using phrases such as 'acceptable levels of radiation' and 'no immediate threat'.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Christchurch's reasonable hope

    • Sande Ramage
    • 23 February 2011
    5 Comments

    Unreasonable hope is when we think God will save Christchurch, or that anything is going to be the same again. Reasonable hope means we become realistic, sensible and moderate, directing our attention to what is within reach.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    The Western origins of Hati's 'curse'

    • Adele Webb
    • 04 March 2010
    3 Comments

    The story of Haiti, even from the earliest decades of its independence, is one of a downward spiral into debt and underdevelopment. It has been at the short end of the stick, time and time again, in its relationships with richer and powerful countries. Haiti, it turns out, never stood a chance.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Chile's tremble

    • Antonio Castillo
    • 04 March 2010
    7 Comments

    Concepción, the second largest city in Chile, was worst affected by the weekend's earthquake. I was there little more than a month ago, visiting old comrades and my sister and her family. At the moment of writing I have been unable to contact them.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Haiti needs to be free

    • Aurelien Mondon
    • 05 February 2010
    7 Comments

    The Haitians need help, but are not a failed people. Two hundred years ago, Haiti became a beacon of light and freedom for all oppressed people. Colonialism was defeated, and the myth of white supremacy dealt a mortal blow. For this, the little country would pay.

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