I met Jolanta and Artessa for a breakfast meeting at a hotel lounge in Manila’s high-rise business district. They were the World Bank officials from Washington D.C.. Artessa is a Filipino structural engineer who speaks with keen articulation and sense of strategic direction. I knew Jolanta from the Istanbul seismic risk-reduction project. It was considered to be one of the most successful programs organized by the World Bank and we had a small, but key, role in the project building technical capacity within the municipal government of Istanbul. Jolanta was promoted to be in charge of Southeast Asia. Subsequently, we…

This post is part of a series called Miyamoto in Haiti I just finished giving a speech at the Kinam Hotel in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The applause afterward left me with a good, warm feeling. I’d spoken to more than 100 attendees, including MTPTC (the Haitian Public Works Ministry) engineers, ministry directors, nongovernmental organization (NGO) partners and the media. This event was to celebrate the achievements of the MTPTC engineers since the 2010 earthquake. I have had probably more than 50 speaking engagements each year for the last several years, for many different types of audiences, and giving speeches has become…

This post is part of a series called Miyamoto in Haiti Inside a Heavily Damaged Building in Haiti October 12, 2012 Mark Broughton and I entered a large, three-story, red-tagged concrete apartment building. A red tag means no entry is allowed. The structure had been damaged heavily by the 2010 earthquake and was considered too dangerous to enter. The Pan American Development Foundation (PADF) had asked us to investigate this building in Delmas 32 in Haiti as part of our ongoing housing assessments. We’ve performed a lot of activities in the past two and a half years here. We assessed…

This post is part of a series called Miyamoto in Haiti Haiti – January 20, 2010 At 2 am I wake up to the sound of a shot gun blast outside of the house I am staying in. Well, this is the first time in my life I have ever been woken up by the sound of gunshot. I slowly spy from the back yard window to investigate. It is strange and silent. No one is visible. So I decide to go back to sleep. As I fall asleep again, I begin thinking about the 4000 criminals who have escaped…

This post is part of a series called Miyamoto in Haiti Prologue January 18, 2010, Los Angeles, CA – Structural and Earthquake Engineer, Kit Miyamoto departed for Haiti with the Pan American Development Foundation (PADF). Miyamoto will provide structural engineering expertise to support PADF disaster relief efforts in Haiti. “From my experience with disaster sites, together with the pressing scale of the humanitarian needs in Haiti, there will be limited resources to provide high level structural/earthquake engineering expertise. Providing this expertise is a key component of disaster response and it is very time critical,” said Miyamoto, CEO of Miyamoto International…