In the style of Jon Schwarz

Digby, on the 2004 tsunami, December 26, 2009:

This was one of the most hideous catastrophes of a decade of hideous catastrophes. But the consensus is that they've managed to come back fairly smartly.

I recall watching the footage on the days after Christmas back in 2004 and then seeing the global response and feeling that the post-9/11 paranoia might be starting to lift a little bit. Global cooperation was in, at least for a little while. US soldiers were deployed to help not make war. It was horrible and life affirming at the same time.

Digby, December 21, 2009:

I think I need to get out my copy of "The Shock Doctrine" again.

From the introduction to Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine:

...I travelled to Sri Lanka, several months after the devastating 2004 tsunami, and witnessed another version of the same manoeuvre: foreign investors and international lenders had teamed up to use the atmosphere of panic to hand the entire beautiful coastline over to entrepreneurs who quickly built large resorts, blocking hundreds of thousands of fishing people from rebuilding their villages.

There's also an entire chapter about it. Yeah, Digby, you need to get out your copy again. Maybe read it this time.