The last 12 months yielded another humbling year. One event after another confirmed the limits of our ability to predict and shape the future. Blame idle imaginations, selfish societies, pusillanimous politicians or blind bureaucracies. Whatever the cause, 2011 should remind us of the need to be better prepared for the worst and deflate any notion that we can master our collective destinies.
For Japanese, the defining event of the year was the triple disaster of March 11. The earthquake that began the cascade of catastrophes was the largest in Japanese history and among the top five since modern record-keeping began.
Reports issued in recent weeks do not agree on the cause of the tragedy, but the fact that government and industry officials failed to envision and prepare for an event that could exceed existing safety parameters for the nation's nuclear power plants suggests a basic disconnect in the planning process. The tragedy has posed a great challenge to Japan's nuclear power industry, and underlined the need to rethink the country's energy framework.