in times of Crisis

They say that in times of crisis you can see who your real friends are -and probably who you really are-. I wonder if what is happening in Japan right now is a crisis -which of course it is-, what does that make us?

In my own personal scope-this is a part you can conveniently skip, because it has no effect whatsoever in the big picture in which we should be concerned at-

I would say that these pass few days I've been starting to think whether anyone cares about my safety. unlike all my other foreign friends, I have not been urged to come home, or really been contacted 24/7 by any of my friends. I wonder what that means? I wonder whether I have been a horrible friend to all of my friends, so they have no interest in my well being. I wonder whether I could ever trust any of them again.it is not that I want to go home, it is just somehow comforting if you know someone is worried with you.

In the scope of Japan

I wonder why no one has been trying to collect donations. I wonder why no one has tried to collect blankets to distribute to Sendai or Fukushima. I wonder why its difficult to find a place to donate. I wonder why they say that Japan has not received as many donations as what they received after the Katrina hurricane or any other big Crisis. I wonder whether people care? I wonder whether I care? What is it about our own lives that makes other lives less important? What is it about our lives that makes us forget about the difficulties that other people are experiencing, What does it mean in terms of who we are. Are we selfish?

Yesterday was my birthday, and in the middle of this rumble, when I came to my lab, a good friend of mine, whose home town is the infamous Sendai, gave me one big bento of Sushi she made herself. She wrote on the card to me that she is happy that I am around. So did my other friend who came from Fukushima, she said in the card that  she is glad I'm around. I wonder whether they still think so, when in this dilemma I can not help them at all, while their whole family has been heavily affected. How can I help?

Everyone has been monitoring the nuclear situation obsessively, they forget that there are people out there -thousands of people- who are still struggling for their lives out there -without electricity, without water, without food - in the middle of winter. What does that make us?

 I sit impatiently watching the whole situation go by. Angry of what is happening, disappointed about not being able to help, ashamed about not trying enough to help. Can we really as a society overcome this? Can we grow stronger as human beings? People have been saying Japan be strong over and over again, but really, is this only a problem for the Japanese? as a growing culture we should have gotten to a point in this rapid growth of globalism where we no longer view Japanese as Japanese, the failure of Crisis management by the Japanese authority, or the lack of food for the victims are -however- a failure of humanity, not just a simple internal problem solvable by the Japanese alone.

In times of Crisis, when will we ever overcome the walls of diversity and finally come to a state where we spread love?