Kobe 1995 - New Orleans 2005 - A Cultural Difference?

A friend of mine lived in Kobe when the big earthquake struck in 1995. In fact, his house collapsed and one of his neighbors died under his hands. It was an extremely traumatic experience for him.

However, what impressed him even more was the way in which the Japanese people helped each other. Everybody tried his very best to help and when there was nobody around to organize them, the people organized themselves. Even the Yakuza (Japanese Mafia) was to be found all over the place helping out and distributing food and other necessary items. Here are a couple of links about what happened.

Contrast this with the situation in New Orleans.

It is always too convenient to place the blame of whatever happenes with "the politicians" or with one particular party or administration. That is usually also where thinking and argument stops. But in actual fact, there are many other reasons that might explain the vast difference and I wonder just how much can be attributed to cultural differences.

I have never lived in Japan myself, but many of my friends have spent considerable time there and they assure me that it is the norm rather than the exception that someone will bring you your wallet with all the money still inside if you have managed to lose it somewhere. And that this is happening not only in small rural towns, but in huge cities with populations in the millions.

I am quite sure that the same can't be said for my native Germany or Taipei where I live now. In fact, I wonder if that happens anywhere else at all.