Never underestimate the nation-state
The forces of globalisation have not rendered governments toothless
On Jan 12, 2010, Haiti suffered an earthquake measuring seven on the Richter scale. Estimates of the fatalities ranged from 100,000 to 316,000.
Barely a month and half later, a magnitude 8.8 earthquake hit Chile, leaving 500 dead, 150 of them from the subsequent tsunami. Whereas large swaths of Haiti’s main cities were reduced to rubble, including the National Palace – the president’s official residence – in Port-au-Prince, in Chile very few multi-storey buildings collapsed, killing their inhabitants.
Unlike in Haiti, Chileans benefited from stringent building codes (adopted after another massive earthquake in 1960) and a culture, nurtured over generations, of building inspectors who allowed no construction shortcuts and, crucially, took no bribes. When the state works, it can save hundreds of thousands of lives in a single event. And when it fails, as Haiti is reminding the world yet again these days, the consequences are dire.
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