THE European gentleman spent a few minutes standing like a statue on a heap of rubble of a destroyed house. With five friends, he was listening hard to an indistinct sound coming from below the rubble. After making sure it was a human voice, they made certain where it came from.

These mens strong hands worked very agilely, digging into the debris and moving out slabs of stone from the size of a tennis ball to that of a dining table. They did all t