Culture is everything. Not race. Not money. Culture.

The people of Japan are still recovering the tragic events surrounding the massive earthquake and tsunami that struck the island nation on Friday. The 8.9 magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami wreaked havoc in the northeast portion of the country. This is reportedly the strongest earthquake to hit Japan in at least 150 years.

A colleague forwarded me this article from the Telegraph which discusses the remarkable social fabric of the Japanese culture...

The landscape of parts of Japan looks like the aftermath of World War Two; no industrialised country since then has suffered such a death toll. The one tiny, tiny consolation is the extent to which it shows how humanity can rally round in times of adversity, with heroic British rescue teams joining colleagues from the US and elsewhere to fly out.

And solidarity seems especially strong in Japan itself. Perhaps even more impressive than Japan’s technological power is its social strength, with supermarkets cutting prices and vending machine owners giving out free drinks as people work together to survive. Most noticeably of all, there has been no looting...

In the face of the worst naturual disaster in their nation's history the Japanese people are displaying amazing altruism even in adversity.

As my colleague notes: Culture is everything. Not race. Not money. Culture.