Dear Bob,
How are you? It has been a devastating week here in Tohoku. I don't even know how to describe the scene here in Japan. Everything that Japan has achieved in the previous years has been destroyed and demolished, just in the matter of a few minutes! The anguish Japan and its people are facing is something unimaginable, and I really have no idea how we are going to comeback from this magnitude of destruction throughout Southern Japan.
After spending two years in the same hostel as me, you should understand that I was never a man suited for bravado or danger. Fortunately, when the 8.9 magnitude earthquake struck, I was scared stiff. Everything around me was shaking as if they were about to drop any second. I immediately crawled under my dining table to avoid getting hit by any objects. Indeed, within the next minute, all my precious family photos had smashed to smithereens after falling from the cabinets. I heard screams and shouts coming from my neighbours, but I managed to decipher some words among the chaos, such as "get out" and "evacuate". Instantly, I used my hands to cover my head while I ran as fast as I could through the reigning pandemonium. I followed the huge and hysteric crowd heading towards the evacuation shelter.
It was literally like sardines in a can at the limited space in the shelter. There were hundreds, maybe even thousands, of people scrambling around, unable to calm down. There were also older citizens who fell sick in the midst of the craziness.
Life is harder than you can imagine. I don't even want to think about the devastation created from the aftermath of the earthquake. The tsunami has swept the blood and tears of our hard work for many years. To recover from this level of destruction, Japan has to really maximise everything they can to salvage the situation.
Please help Japan. Every amount of help is appreciated, not matter how small it is. Right now, I don't even know what will happen in the next 24 hours, or whether this letter will successfully be mailed to wherever you are now.
Japan is left in the hands of the world now.
Best Wishes,
Suzuki Atamoko
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Comments on Blog Posts
On Phineas' blog post regarding the school track:
It is no doubt that being a tracker has been your passion for a long time, so never say never and train harder than ever since the track has been changed. Adaption is a way of success in life and I hope you manage to overcome all endeavours you encounter on the track, be it standing on the podium or crying your heart out at a nearby bench, because you are already a winner to be able to achieve your passion.
On Pei Yu's blog post regarding Prejudice and Discrimination:
I feel that discrimination is a more common problem between boys, as you have stated, 'defamation, entertainment, political purposes', because we study in a boy's school.
Through psychological studies, scientists realise that females are more empathetic than males, and that is exactly the reason why children are more attached to their mothers than fathers.
However, discrimination cannot be solved, and this is because it is human nature to be selfish. Why are the people in Africa suffering from starvation right this minute? Why are there children in African dying from malaria every 2 seconds? Yet, when you pay thousands of the dollars for a plane ticket to Bali for a week of relaxing and sunbathing in the beautiful scenery of the blue waters, there is no guilt in your actions. Some people call it 'indulging in simple pleasures of life', but right on the other side of the spectrum, there are activists doing whatever they can to save as many lives as they can.
I do not deny that it is inevitable that selfishness is present in every living soul, but we should always try our best to do what we can to open our hearts and be selfless.
On Chun Yuen's comic strip:
I feel that the slogan of 'I am human, we are the same' is right in terms of humanity. However, we have to accept the fact that it is not so in reality, especially when we grow up to be adults and become a bigger part of the society.
In many cases, people feel that equality means having the same status, same benefits etc. However, that would seem more to be communism.
I think that equality is a concept of life in which we have to achieve through means which may be biased, but if everybody is equal in life, then it would be like living for the sake of passing time, without challenges and endeavors ahead.
It is no doubt that being a tracker has been your passion for a long time, so never say never and train harder than ever since the track has been changed. Adaption is a way of success in life and I hope you manage to overcome all endeavours you encounter on the track, be it standing on the podium or crying your heart out at a nearby bench, because you are already a winner to be able to achieve your passion.
On Pei Yu's blog post regarding Prejudice and Discrimination:
I feel that discrimination is a more common problem between boys, as you have stated, 'defamation, entertainment, political purposes', because we study in a boy's school.
Through psychological studies, scientists realise that females are more empathetic than males, and that is exactly the reason why children are more attached to their mothers than fathers.
However, discrimination cannot be solved, and this is because it is human nature to be selfish. Why are the people in Africa suffering from starvation right this minute? Why are there children in African dying from malaria every 2 seconds? Yet, when you pay thousands of the dollars for a plane ticket to Bali for a week of relaxing and sunbathing in the beautiful scenery of the blue waters, there is no guilt in your actions. Some people call it 'indulging in simple pleasures of life', but right on the other side of the spectrum, there are activists doing whatever they can to save as many lives as they can.
I do not deny that it is inevitable that selfishness is present in every living soul, but we should always try our best to do what we can to open our hearts and be selfless.
On Chun Yuen's comic strip:
I feel that the slogan of 'I am human, we are the same' is right in terms of humanity. However, we have to accept the fact that it is not so in reality, especially when we grow up to be adults and become a bigger part of the society.
In many cases, people feel that equality means having the same status, same benefits etc. However, that would seem more to be communism.
I think that equality is a concept of life in which we have to achieve through means which may be biased, but if everybody is equal in life, then it would be like living for the sake of passing time, without challenges and endeavors ahead.
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