[philip in china]

I thought I would just update this to let you know what is going on here.

The homeless were all in tents. They are now being reaccomodated in styrofoam "houses" for the winter. It will be years before all the houses are rebuilt so they could be quite a long time in the foam places. These are one room constructions with a centralised laundry, ablution and recreation facility. It is less of a hardship for most people here than it would be for you or me because many of them had little enough before the quake anyway.

The infrastructure is also being fixed but that is a big slow job.

People are starting to return to normality although many shops etc. are still closed.

As far as production is concerned the lathes have started turning again! Exports were down last quarter (possibly due in part to all the natural disasters) but watch out USA. Items seen in the rear view mirror can be closer than they look!