, Columnist
Rebuilding Turkey Must Begin With a Mea Culpa From Erdogan
As the aftermath of the Sichuan quake of 2008 showed, an acknowledgment of past failures is essential to building back better.
Build back honestly.
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A devastating earthquake destroys densely populated cities in a developing country. The death toll, in the tens of thousands, is blamed on builders, for poor construction quality, and on officials, for lax enforcement of codes. The government reacts to a public clamor for accountability by bobbing and weaving.
But under increasing public pressure it eventually owns up, acknowledging that a combination of bad building practices, inept urban planning and negligent enforcement of rules greatly exacerbated the human tragedy. The path is now cleared for a program of building back better.