So many disasters...

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Dear Shoji,

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It is well that, at our ages, we are closer to the end of our journey than to the beginning.  I don't think the coming years will be pleasant.

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As you indicate, the earthquake and tsunami (in American English we use the Japanese word "tsunami") have done damage that we cannot fully evaluate yet...salt pollution of crop land, breaking the Toyota supply chain, radioactive contamination, etc. 

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In America, on April 27 we had over 100 tornadoes (you used the term "sand pillar") in one day in Alabama and other southern states.  It was the largest number of tornadoes ever recorded in one storm system.  That storm passed close to Bloomington.  We did not have a landing of a tornado near us, but the tornado sirens awoke people around 1:15 a.m.  Outside, I saw a violent rain storm, with hailstones as large as grapes.  The storm damaged some shingles on our roof, and we had some rain damage in the ceiling of our garage.

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Today, the problem is flooding.  In the month of April in the Indiana region we had the greatest amount of rainfall since they began keeping records in 1850.  And the rain continues into May.  The result is rapidly rising water in the rivers that flow into the Mississippi River, which includes the Ohio River, which forms the southern boundary of Indiana.  Some of the roads between Bloomington and the Ohio River are closed because of water covering the roadway.  Cities on the banks of the Ohio and Mississippi are watching the levees and adding bags of sand.  The rivers are going to reach the highest point since the Great Flood of 1937.  We can expect a lot of damage to cities and certainly to croplands. 

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And then there are the man-made disasters, such as the "war on terrorism."  Many people were relieved to hear that Osama Bin Laden was killed, but we know that his organization continues and will surely seek revenge.  By the way, I don't see this as a struggle against people of the Muslim religion (you say "Mohammedan," but that term is considered obsolete).  Ninety percent of Muslims, like ninety percent of Christians, are peaceful and are happy to live on the same planet as people of other religions.  Osama Bin Laden was promoting a very narrow doctrine, which most Muslims reject. 

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I don't know how the death of Bin Laden will affect the conflicts in Afghanistan and Pakistan, probably not very much.  The people of Afghanistan and Pakistan have plenty of other reasons to continue to struggle against--and sometimes cooperate with--Westerners.  In America, no-one talks about the role of China in that region.  But you are probably correct that China's role will continue to expand.

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A much bigger problem than all these "headline" disasters is the collapse of the global financial system.  The game really ended in September 2008 when the big American financial institutions and insurance companies collapsed.  There has been some superficial improvement in the American financial situation, but the underlying problems have not been repaired.  The simplest way to portray the problem is that there is no more collateral on which to make loans. 

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By the way, the next financial disaster in America will come when people realize that student loans are as worthless at the housing loans in 2008.  The amount of student-loan debt carried by banks is over one trillion US dollars.  That is larger than all of the credit-card debt in America.  As new college graduates are unable to obtain jobs and unable to pay back their student loans, we will see a collapse of the banks that loaned the money to those students.  We will see if the US government is able to find a way to "bail out" this new tsunami of bankruptcies.  I doubt it. 

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The old game is over, and it's difficult for us to imagine what the new game will look like.  But it will not be pretty.

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We can only try to find ways to live valuable lives in a new environment.

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Warm regards,

Michael   Michael MolendaBloomington IN.