Why did Haiti suffer more than Kobe as a result of an earthquake Essays

Why did Haiti suffer more than Kobe as a result of an earthquake Essays Why did Haiti suffer more than Kobe as a result of an earthquake Essay Why did Haiti suffer more than Kobe as a result of an earthquake Essay Both the Kobe earthquake (1995, in Japan) and Haiti earthquake (2010) measured about 7.0 on the Richter scale, but the casualty rate of Haiti earthquake was at least five times more deadly than the Kobe earthquake that killed 6,434 people. The main reason that Kobe didn’t suffer as much as Haiti is because Kobe is in Japan, which is an MEDC, Japan can afford many expensive resources, which Haiti cannot afford because it is a Less Economically Developed Country (LEDC).Haiti’s strength is in its culture. In Haiti, the banks have proven to be the fasted growing industry. It has many weaknesses including its government, economical situation and infrastructure. The Haitian government is one of the biggest obstacles for economic growth. Over the past ten years, Haiti has experienced a decrease of success in its public office. After years of dictatorship and military rule, the Haitian people were relieved when Aristides party won Haitis first free elections.The relief turned i nto distress when the government proved to be more like a dictatorship. Haiti’s economy has been slowly dropping since the 1980’s, with Gross Domestic Product (GDP) falling two percent a year from 1980-1991. Haitis physical infrastructure is poor roads are insufficient, and basic services such as power and telephones are frequently unavailable. The country also lacks a railroad system, making the shipping of goods around the land a tedious and dangerous job.Japan is a country that conquered the world market together with China and the U.S. Many huge businesses such as Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Toshiba and NEC are based in Japan and they provide many jobs and a lot of profit. It has many strengths but also a few weaknesses. Some of Japans strengths are its automobile industry, computer firms, exporting companies, digital gaming industry and its technological advancements research. One weakness of Japan is its geography. It is right on top of two tectonic plates so it suff ers many earthquakes.Kobe has many well-developed warning systems, which give out a signal that tells people to stay inside their Earthquake proof buildings until the earthquake is over. This equipment saved many lives, lots of money and helped keep the rate of destruction as low as possible. If Haiti had the same infrastructure and technology that Kobe has, then Haiti would have most likely had a much lesser death toll.The death toll of the Haiti earthquake reached around 250,000 which is large compared to the size of their population, around 7 million; where as the death toll of the Kobe earthquake, 6,425, wasn’t as big in proportion to the size of Japans population. Haiti hadn’t had an earthquake as big in 1995 since 1770, where as Japan has regular small earthquakes and it is part of daily life so they were more prepared. In Haiti, 2 million people were left homeless; 3 million were in need of emergency aid.In conclusion I think that if Haiti had the same high leve l of government, economy and infrastructure as Kobe, than not as many people would have died or suffered from injuries, been left homeless and Haiti would have recovered from the disaster as quick as Kobe did.