The times they are a changin...part two !

This is a series of posts about how changing times can seem ironic, funny, poignant, and sad at times...this particular post, falls in the last category.

For decades, centuries even, the Japanese have been highly respected for their code of ethics, for their attention to detail and a rigorous discipline. But sadly, that seems to be the case no more.

Nothing shows this downward trend, as much as this article in the New York Times, about an architect, Hidetsugu Aneha, who cut costs in various building projects over the last decade, mainly to win more projects, and built structures that wouldn't even stand a moderate earthquake ! This is intolerable in a country that worries about the problems of earthquakes, to the point of extreme paranoia, mainly due to the fact that their country and major cities lie on some of the most volatile fault lines on the planet.

Here is an excerpt from the article...

Night after night, television news programs feature video clips of tearful condominium owners moving out of their new apartments, while construction company owners, inspectors and the architect involved in the deficient buildings blame one another for the failings. So far, seven hotels have been forced to close, including a 260-room tower that opened in August near the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Previous posts on the "the times they are a changin' series" : 1