Prayer For Japan

My main computer got virused out, meaning that the draft for the next intended post about my trip to Vietnam, together with all the pictures, are down the drain.

Which is just as well, because all that seems really trivial in comparison with the tragic events in Japan.

I would like to say a prayer for Japan. And I'm sure all of you who are reading already have.

Two things struck me when I watched the coverage of the rescue efforts during the aftermath. The first was, in general, how stoic the Japanese people looked. Sure, there were some shots of people desperate and crying and almost everyone who was interviewed looked anguished and pained, but what shined through was the fortitude with which the Japanese people bore their latest disaster which was heaped upon them through no fault of their own. In the midst of so much destruction, chaos and fear, not only of damage already suffered and as yet undiscovered but of damage yet to be inflicted, be it in the form of nuclear meltdowns or aftershocks, one cannot help but marvel at how the general populace gamely and grimly soldier on, doing what they have to do rebuild their lives and those of the even less fortunate.

The other thing that struck me was how fortunate we are to be living in Singapore. We complain about so many things - high prices, crowded trains, GST increases, flash floods... Seeing what our Japanese friends are going through really puts things in perspective. I hope that should Singaporeans be called upon to weather a crisis in the future, we would be able to do so with the same courage and solidarity as that shown by the Japanese people.

Finally, I think that in every disaster lies the opportunity for us (and in this case, the world) to learn something. It is my sincere wish that, if anything, this tragedy forces people, especially leaders, the world over to think long and hard about our role and impact in this world. Life is already so short, so fragile. So many things that we have strove so hard to build up over so many years can be reduced to rubble in a matter of minutes. There are already so many disasters that can befall us without us having to engineer one of our own. Indeed, while this tragedy of nature has distracted the world's attention from the bedlam in the Middle East, is the pain felt by the homeless, the wounded and the dying over there any less? I hope the events of recent days makes us realize that our existence is already so precarious, so vulnerable.

Nature has many a time showed itself to callous, arbitrary and random, having no regard for human pain and suffering, no inkling of or concern for human life, rights and dignity. Let us not be the same.