On the Failure of General Cultural Theories of Anything
Longstanding members of Ricochet may remember my asking if there were conservative solutions to the problem of mitigating seismic risk.
City Journal just published the article I wrote about this after struggling for years with this question. (I should note that the first draft of the piece was dissertation-length, and that City Journal's editors are saints. Whatever you're about to say I left out: It was in the original draft.) I made a number of observations in the piece about nonstructural seismic risk mitigation--the part of earthquake preparation that isn't expensive:
While it is very expensive to tear down and replace, or reinforce, inadequate housing, it isn’t expensive at all to bolt heavy goods to the walls or to move heavy furniture away from beds. Rarely is this done in Istanbul. ... [Most Turks] are fully aware of the risk. When asked why they don’t do anything about it, they shrug. They’re fatalistic. Most Turks think day to day, not long-term.
In response to the article, a commenter wrote, "Claire, for heaven's sake, LEAVE!" (I assume he meant "Leave Istanbul!")
Well meaning, I'm sure. But I'm in Seattle now, visiting my mother. In other words, I'm on the Cascadia fault line. In my apartment in Istanbul--which is in a building that is, to the best of my imperfect knowledge, quite well built--every heavy item is bolted to the wall.
In my mother's house, not one heavy item is bolted to the wall.
It's not as if my mother has never heard me discussing non-structural seismic risk mitigation, either.
- Comment (5)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (1)
Comments :
Jun '10
Re: On the Failure of General Cultural Theories of Anything
Why would you leave a place you love? You're in Seattle; I live in a couple of hundred miles north of where you are in Vancouver, and all you have to do is look around and you see the beauty we share. Yes both Seattle and Vancouver are earthquake zones, but compared to the rest of the world they are two of the most beautiful places on earth to live. Why would anyone move away from here?
Sep '10
Re: On the Failure of General Cultural Theories of Anything
I find it difficult to believe that a particular culture does not think long term enough to bother with things like higher quality buildings in earthquake zones. It seems more likely to me that economic policies have encouraged short term thinking and failed to reward long term planning. I suppose it could be a chicken and egg question since to an extent the culture plays a role in electing the makers of bad policy but I remember my East German friend who had escaped as a teenager telling me how 50years of deferred maintenance had ruined the country. I bet that is no longer the case. Some economist a few years ago studied the different policies of Barbados and Jamaica to show that culture was not the cause of stagnation and poverty.
Mar '11
Re: On the Failure of General Cultural Theories of Anything
I was in Japan, Tokyo area, recently. The only signs of damage were cracks in some of the hotel and factory walls. I haven't read Claire's piece, but Japan could perhaps be a model for conservative solutions?
I think I'd rather be in Tokyo or Seattle than Istanbul or Tehran, unless the really big one hits and Tokyo completely disappears (which is possible) - bolting things to the wall will not help when Nature chooses to show it's superiority.
Better still to live in Arizona or England :-)
Edited on Jul 18, 2011 at 10:27amMay '11
Re: On the Failure of General Cultural Theories of Anything
A vibrant free market economy is essential for building great buildings. I don't know if the pyramids could have been built without slavery but they certainly would not have been built without the Nile.
Aug '10
Re: On the Failure of General Cultural Theories of Anything
Maybe it's got better, or maybe I just stopped noticing, but on my first visits to Turkey I saw, every day I believe, people with missing or crippled legs or arms. Birth defects? More likely the aftermath of disastrous car crashes. Either way, Turks seemed unconcerned by the great number of them.
Earlier today - can't find it right now - there was an article in Zaman I skimmed, titled something like "What's the most important room in your house?" Hint: it isn't your ebeveyn banyosu, a phrase new to me, which I took to mean "bathroom you don't have to share with your kids." No; important as that is, what you need is a room where grandparents can stay. Good for them, good for the whole family. Somebody lamented the fact that builders don't always make such a provision in houses (I presume apartments) these days. Well, I guess there's a lot of things they don't make a provision for.