Last month, when a tragic earthquake struck in Haiti, over 200,000 people died. Richter scale: 7.0.
Just over a year ago, in Sichuan province in China, an earthquake of 8.0 struck, killing over at least 68,000 people - many of them children trapped when their schools collapsed.
Three days ago, the fifth largest earthquake since 1900 –an 8.8 (earthquakes are measured in a logarithmic scale) – struck in Chile. It was 500 times stronger than the earthquake in Haiti. In the following days, more than sixty earthquakes over 6.0 have struck Santiago, the capital, and more have rattled the region. So far – although surely the death toll will rise – fewer than 800 people have died.
Why is Chile's death toll so much lower than those of Haiti or China? Because that’s what good government does.
Haiti has no building codes to speak of. Even the Presidential Palace was built of unreinforced concrete and crumbled when the earthquakes came. China has building codes, but they do not function. Corrupt government officials had stolen and then resold the rebar and steel girders that would have kept the schools from collapsing on the hundreds of children trapped inside. Officials were bribed to pass construction that did not meet code.
But Chile’s government works. In 1960, the largest earthquake ever recorded struck in Chile – 9.5. For decades, laws have been passed – and enforced – requiring builders to meet strict codes. I’ve stood on the streets of Santiago – one of the sites of my research on parents and children – looking up at the tall buildings swaying in an earthquake, but still standing. In the last five years, most of the shanty towns that used to surround the major cities have disappeared and been replaced by standardized, safer housing.
Nothing is perfect. No building will stand when the ground beneath it turns to a slurry or when a 20’ upthrust cracks and splits foundations. I heard a construction engineer describe how one 15 story building was turned 40 degrees on its base IN ONE PIECE and then toppled over, trapping its occupants. Can you imagine that? Rescuers are still searching its wreckages for survivors. Nothing can withstand that kind of force.
But lots of other buildings stood. And many, many people have survived.
All of my friends in Chile are okay – apartments and offices shaken and tossed – but alive.
And that’s what government does.
What does this have to do with Thinking About Children? or about psychology?
Very little. Except as a researcher interested in public policy, I often hear that governments aren’t good for anything and that the best thing they can do is just pull back and let the people – and big business – take care of themselves. But setting minimal standards for safety – in drinking water, in lead levels, in pesticide usage, in air quality, and in building standards – are what helps keep us safe and helps let our children grow up healthy and strong. In the last two decades, the children of Chile have grown 8" taller than their parents because of better nutrition and health standards. Just one generation of good public policy and strong economic growth.
And that’s one reason that Chile is not Haiti.
For more information comparing the different consequences of the Haitian and Chilean earthquakes, please check out:
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/2010/0227/Chile-earthquake-much-stronger-than-Haiti-s-but-far-less-damage.-Why
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124208410
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2010/03/codes_that_save_people_and_bui.html
