When stories were coming out last week that Tokyo was becoming a ghost city, I was a bit alarmed because I am personally a big fan of the city! I was able to go to Tokyo to attend a Harvard Conference a few years ago and I fell in love with the city almost immediately.
What struck me most was how well-developed the city was considering it was in ruins just 60 years ago. Yes, I am comparing it to my Manila! We are so primitive compared to this city with a million lights and with so much hustle and bustle!
And the people are so nice and helpful! They don't speak English, but they try, in the best way they can - in the little English they know, to help you find your way, to assist you as you buy stuff in the vendo machines - to make your experience of their beautiful city - a memorable one!
Finally, they have a very strong sense of culture! There are just so many Japanese icons and I bought myself a trunkful of souvenirs - and what made me happy was that these souvenirs were of very good quality! From sumo wrestlers to ninjas to kimonos to paintings - I made sure my loot was complete. I even had Meiji chocolates - a personal favorite of mine!
I believe Tokyo, and Japan, as a whole will stand back on its feet again. They have the value system for it.
Whoever you are, thank you, from the bottom of our hearts, for laying your lives to make sure the rest of the world is saved from a nuclear crisis. Unlike you, laymen like us have almost zero IQs on what nuclear radiation is, so we are, in a way, afraid of what it can really do, and the memory of the Chernobyl radiation is still fresh in our memories.
I know you are still grieving for your co-workers who may have died in the tsunami. I know you are worried for your families - if they are still alive or dead or dying - and yet you stay to do your job. It's the ultimate sacrifice one can do at such a difficult period in your life and we will always remember your heroism. Your heroism has inspired us to be better persons, especially in uncertain times like this.
Free speech doesn't give you license to say hurtful things to people who are currently suffering from a natural disaster. It's just really in bad taste. The truth is, no place here on earth is safe from natural disasters. You may be in a desert, a mountain, a seaside - a natural disaster is something that will hit you when you're not ready for it.
So I was appalled with all the 'jokes' that floated around the media and the Internet following what happened in Japan. You know who you are! It's just really tasteless and callous! You should seriously look at yourself and see how f***ed up in the head you are if you feel good about these things. Gosh, you may actually be Hitler and see other people different from you as pests to just be crushed and killed.
Seriously, take a look at yourself in the mirror and ask yourself if you'll feel happy when a cyclone or a twister or an earthquake flattens your neighborhood and the other side of the world makes fun of who you are. I pray you feel that you are still part of humanity whichever side of the world you are.
It is a nagging question at the back of my mind nowadays since that terrible earthquake hit Japan a few days ago, which caused that tsunami to tear into the northeastern part of that country. The earthquake in Indonesia happened in 2004, then it was Chile's turn last year, then New Zealand, earlier this year, and finally Japan last week. The Philippines is part of the Pacific region's Ring of Fire, so it's a fair question to ask - is the Philippines next?
Of course, no one has really predicted earthquakes, yet, but I guess it's time we prepare ourselves for that event to happen, knowing fully well that the plates underneath us are constantly moving! Are we prepared for it? I'm not sure. If it's the scale of that of Japan, I don't think we're ready. Even Japan, who is an economic power, and probably, the most earthquake prepared country in the world, is coping desperately to make all systems go to normal once again.
However, our country is used to natural disasters so if the big earthquake does happen, we would be able to cope with it to the best of our abilities. We are a very resilient people after all. Well, for now, we just have to trust God that we dodge a bullet this time around.
