Leonid Mamchenkov

We’ve all heard the words “earthquake” and “tsunami” before.  We are all aware that these phenomena are not a stranger to Japan.  We all secretly hope that Japanese know how to handle such events.  And they in fact do a really good job.  But what happened today was different.  It was on the Grand Scale.  According to this Wikipedia page, today’s earthquake measured 8.9 on Richter scale, which earns it a 7th place in the list of largest earthquakes worldwide.

Such powers of nature are difficult, almost impossible to imagine.  And of course the effects of these are profound – people dead and hurt, houses and other properties destroyed, lives dramatically changed, and so on and so forth.  All that will not go away tomorrow.  On the contrary, this will from now on be a part of Japanese history.  And world history.   Since it will affect more than just Japan (look at what happened to financial markets today, for example), and it will take more than just Japan to recover from this event.

Gladly, the world is full of kind and considerate people.  Several donation efforts started already.  Humanitarian organizations jumped in.  And the recovery works have already begun.  Needless to say it will take time.  A long time…