Japan crisis showcases social media's muscle
Japan's disaster has spotlighted the critical role that social media websites such as Twitter, Facebook, Google, YouTube and Skype increasingly are playing in responses to crises around the world. They may have been designed largely for online socializing and fun, but such sites and others have empowered people caught up in crises and others wanting to help to share vivid, unfiltered images, audio and text reports before governments or more traditional media can do so.



Japan's well-built society
by Los Angeles Times
I recently returned to my home here in suburban Sendai, Japan, having fled with my family soon after the earthquake and tsunami. Everything changed for this region on that afternoon of March 11. People lost their lives and their homes, and that should not be minimized. But what impressed me most on coming back alone to pick up the pieces was how few homes were destroyed, and how rapidly life here is returning to normal.
Three weeks ago, kilometer-long lines of desperate motorists had blocked roads near gas stations, nearly preventing us from driving out. Now the lines are just a dozen cars deep, and moving. Also gone are the lines of people that once snaked for hundreds of yards from the entrances of blacked-out grocery stores. Gone are the harried store clerks fumbling with megaphones as they explained rationing rules. Simple inconvenience has replaced a sense of impending panic.

I pulled into our driveway, scanning the walls for cracks, then visited neighbors to give them customary gifts and to chat. The ongoing return to orderly life outside our home contrasted with the remnants of chaos we'd left inside. Wall hangings were strewn everywhere, and a chair from one room had inexplicably migrated to another. (Los Angeles Times)



Clinton to visit Japan in show of support
by AFP
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will visit Japan in a show of support for the US ally as it recovers from a devastating earthquake, the State Department announced Monday. Clinton will travel to Tokyo on Sunday, after stops in South Korea and in Germany where she is attending a NATO conference, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said. Clinton's trip aims to "show the United States' support for the people of Japan and to highlight our long-standing commitment to the alliance," Toner said in a statement. (AFP)