Last year, we covered the earthquake in Haiti, in which hundreds of thousands of people died, and foreign troops were sent in to enforce a “women first” food distribution regime. Haiti, a matriarchal culture, was chaotic after the quake, and rescue efforts, such as existed, were rather uncoordinated and ineffective. No doubt many people – primarily Haitian men – were involved in digging others out, providing food and care to the injured and children, and trying to maintain order among the chaos, despite the fact that foreign soldiers with guns were denying them food on the basis of their sex. However, the response to the earthquake was far from sufficient, and unnecessary deaths were an unfortunately large portion of the toll.
Haiti still hasn’t recovered from the quake, and the capital lies largely in ruins. Cholera epidemics have swept through refugee camps, and over a million remain homeless. The earthquake was a tragedy of epic proportions. Despite the obvious problems inherent in Haitian matriarchal society that were revealed by the earthquake and its aftermath, feminists demand more of the same.
The recent earthquake in Japan was significantly stronger than the Haitian quake, and a devastating tsunami added to the destruction and horror. Buildings shook throughout the entire country for minutes from the sixth largest earthquake ever recorded. The tsunami rolled over beaches and seawalls, destroying refineries, shutting down nuclear plants and carrying boats far inland. An earthquake of this magnitude releases so much energy that humans can only mitigate rather than prevent damage. However, early reports suggest that the Japanese did a very good job of that.
In all likelihood, the death toll will be in the thousands, but as grim as that sounds, it could have been far, far worse. Tragedies are still unfolding in Japan, but the people of the island nation are, for the most part, taking care of their own. American search and rescue teams are helping search for survivors, and US Navy helicopters are airlifting food to stranded Japanese civilians, but the bulk of the rescue effort is being undertaken by Japanese. Overwhelmingly, of course, Japanese men. And the women are not complaining. Even the feminists in the US are eerily silent on this score.
When you have a society in which men have a vested interest in protecting and taking care of the whole, and they are allowed to do so, they tend to do a good job. They display selflessness and their efforts are characterized by cooperation and teamwork; often by heroism as well. On the whole, everyone does better. There is no better example of this than the comparison between matriarchal Haiti’s and patriarchal Japan’s respective responses to natural disaster. Where in Haiti the women are still living in open encampments well over a year after the quake, Japanese women are already sheltered, which is necessary, because it is still cold in northern Japan this time of year. There is no doubt that some displaced Japanese will still be facing significant hardship a year from now, but despite Japan’s crowded land vanishingly few will be without a roof over their head, and none will go hungry.
As for the Japanese men, they have it far better than their Haitian counterparts as well. There are no foreign troops pointing guns at them and denying them food, they are taken care of and respected if old, and given jobs and a place in society if young. Perhaps most importantly, They are given the opportunity to do what men often do best — they are allowed to take care of their families and communities.
As we observe these events and their aftermath, they provide us with valuable lessons about nature of things, and give us an opportunity to ask ourselves what kind of a society we want to live in. Do we want, as the feminists would have it, to be helpless, disease infested, homeless and starving if we face hardship, or do we want to have the ability to come together and pull ourselves up from the rubble? For the sane people of the world, the choice is clear.
