Human Nature

Forgive me for my stupid fan's point of view, but the longer Anderson stays in Port-au-Prince, the more attractive he becomes. Maybe from sadness, anger, frustration... All these experience is making him emotionally stronger, more responsible for his job, and he's become stunningly handsome.


That's what I thought at the beginning of the show. Later on, as I see more report from there, I could tell what makes him look like that.

I am an English teacher in Japan, and a few years ago, I told my students how poor Haiti is, and there were food riots there. People fought for foods, and plunder what others had. At that time, I remember seeing only a short report on a riot.

From Anderson's report on looting, I thought I saw human nature. His camera was nearly robbed People need to fight in order to survive. This is really sad, but generations later, survivors might become heroes. They might be seen as stronger ones. We all know we should help each other, but those ethics won't work when it comes to the matter of life and death.

It was a breath of fresh air to see Anderson rescue a young boy. The boy seemed severely injured but he had no time to cry. He needs to survive.

And we should not forget about Sanjay's amazing work. He works as a doctor as well as a journalist. He tells us firsthand what's going on in health center there. As time goes by, they desperately need to avoid infection. People there do not have anything and they do need food and drugs to survive. All they need is donation, even though we can not tell if all the donation reaches needy people or not, this is the only thing we can do. I personally donated via Medecins sans Frontieres. Have you given them a helping hand?

Life and Death

In the aftermath of gigantic earthquake, first, I saw heroes, helping each other survive. Five days later, there are far more dead bodies than those surviving under rubbles. Of course all the lives are equally precious, but at this moment, they don't expect someone to be alive. This is what makes one life even more precious, giving hope to everyone.

It was heartwarming seeing a baby rescued after more than 60 hours. She may not have understood the situation, where her family members were dying around her, but her smile seemed genuinely happy. She gave us a big hope.

While there are some hope for those who are rescued, there are numerous dead bodies neglected and buried inhumanely. I remember seeing as many birds buried after the case of avian flu was detected. I felt sad seeing birds stacked and buried in one place. That was birds. This time, what I see in the site was countless numbers of human bodies. That was shocking. So shocking to me that I got frozen for a while. I did assume that they would not be identified. But under good government and organization, it is normal that who are buried there. I didn't know that in Sumatra, each of the dead bodies was pictured so that the loved ones would know how they end up their lives.

The smell must have been overwhelming and I could tell how eerie it was. I really appreciate his decision to let us see the mass grave. Really shocking but we must see. Who that see this devastation could turn a blind eye to Haiti? We are all responsible for helping them.

Haiti

I don't know much about Haiti. All I know is that the country is extremely poor, so poor that people even ate cookies made of mud, and that the government is not working very well. But that's enough for me to imagine what a chaotic situation this earthquake would create. Of course we see many bad things on the aftermath of the earthquake, but through this report, we did see many nice moments. People are helping each other. International aids had not reached them. They have to do what little things they can to help others.

I always support Anderson's commitment to let the world know what is happening in the devastated area. I like him all the more for his kind remark on Haitian people. They deserve to have their stories told.

I'll write more about Haiti later, just posting some other photos.

Impact Your Word Commercial

It's nice to hear Anderson's voice during a commercial break unexpectedly. The strong light makes him look even more photogenic.

INNOVATION

I'm still updating my blog!









Brainwashing Children

I think I've heard about terrorist school in Pakistan before, but this practice hasn't changed. It is really disturbing to see a young boy executing a criminal. They are indoctrinating innocent boys into believing that death is not something you should avoid, and that it is all right to kill themselves as it is one way to go to heaven.
Incidentally, in my English class, I showed my 14-years students Michael Jackson's live performance, in which Michael hopes happiness of children all over the world. There's a stark contrast between happy children singing together with Michael Jackson and those in Pakistan.


INNOVATION

I couldn't take my eyes off with the TV screen when Anderson appeared on segway. He'd got a knack of it. I have never tried it yet, but I hear it is a bit tricky to handle it.

When it comes to technology, Japanese scientists are doing fairly well, but I admit we are behind those in the United States. However, it seems we have similar problem in common; young people these days are not excited about science, governments and private companies are reluctant to finance large amount of money on R&D due to recession.

I want to believe anything that is imaginable would be eventually created. We already know how time machine could be created, although it's impossible for us to move faster than the light speed. So when the scientist said he would love to see a time machine, I was very happy. They never give up creating one.

2010

It's too late to say Happy New Year, but better late than never. I hope to update this place much more often than I did last year.

Mammogram

I'm back! I have posted any blog for a long time. Actually, I have several blogs, not only this one, but for my work, my diary etc., and I haven't update any of them. I knew that creating a blog that will satisfy everyone is impossible, but I had a kind of trouble in some other blogs. I didn't feel like blogging any more. After a few month, I came back on a whim and probably, I'll be updating as frequently as possible!

Mammogram Recommendations?

Compared to other developed nations, fewer women take mammogram routinely in Japan, which is why breast cancer has a high mortality rate here. When the tumor is detected in the early stage, this disease is curable but as few people take a checkup, it is usually too late when they find a cancer. I recently had a chance to talk with an obstetrician and gynecologist and learned about the need to take medical checkup. We're still encouraging people to take mammogram here, so I was surprised when I heard about the guideline in the US. I assume this is due to the economic crunch, however, prevention is more important than curing cancer patients.

As for me, I took a checkup 2 years ago and I guess I have to take one this year.

Demise of the King

They said that it will be always remembered what you were doing when you heard the news about the death of Micheal Jackson. I was just sleeping and I got an email from a friend that informed me of the news. I was half asleep and I didn't get surprised or shocked at all. When I got out of the bed and turned on TV, I got shocked. Even though I haven't been listening to his music recently, I've always loved it. It never gets out of date.

Michal Jackson is literally the king who mesmerized people on the whole planet. I'd say he might have had as much power as Pope has in Christian world. He has been the only king and we will never have another Micheal Jackson in the future. We have such diverse music styles and everyone's preference differs from others.

I felt empathy for him when somebody, I forgot who he was, said that Michael was the loneliest man he had ever met. Even the King, who was admired by billions of people, could not fill in his loneliness. The more powerful you become, the less people you can trust, which is really a sad thing.

Michael is is not only the King. But to me, he looks like someone that lives in another world, which could be a virtual world, or in our illusion. I never see him as a ordinary human being just like us. He is the superpower, whom we can never get in touch. I really felt so when I heard the story one of the commentators told us about. He said he was asked by a Japanese girl if he has touched Michael. She shook hands with the commentator and she fainted. He is such a special figure.

Anyway, his demise in this time is not a bad thing. They say Michael looked so frail and he wouldn't have another chance for come back. If we saw Micheal in a terrible conditions, a lot of people would feel discouraged. Michael shouldn't be old. He must be the King, and an innocent boy who forever loves singing and dancing.

His sudden death slip back all the images of his glorious moments into a fantasy world.

twitter

I'm having a hard time updating this place, but so far I never think about quitting updating.

I recently started using twitter. I still haven't figured out how well it work for me but seeing Anderson tweet is really fun for me!

Medical Marijuana

There have been a lot of problems related to marijuana in Japan these days. Quite a few celebrities were arrested, and students in prestigious universities were accused of drug traffiking. So legalizing this plant, even as medical use, is unthinkable here. I also cannot believe they are sold casually in some shops and people can get some marijuana easily.

Even so, it is OK to sell its seeds, which are usually processed so as not to let it burgion. We use the seeds for bird feed or spices. However, there's a catch. It's also OK to sell unprocessed seeds. But if you grow them, you get arrested.


I can understand how marijuana helped the musician relieve her pain and how much it changed her life. But I still don't think it's a good idea to see it as one of medical herbs. She said something like, "If it helps people feel good at the end of the day, government cannot judge his or her decision (to use the drug)." But in my opinion, something that could lead the society in the bad direction shoulg not be legalized.

Last week, Anderson was in LA and I love to see Anderson broadcast from the roof top of the building.