March 12, 2011
Message of Condolences from Dr. Kamsiah, Bloggers and Friends of this Blog and Din Merican
To the People of Japan, we feel your sorrow and pain today. You have been hit by a vicious earthquake and a punishing tsunami (8.9 on the Richter Scale), more devastating than the tragedy of Kobe years ago. You recovered from Kobe and we, your friends on this blog, know that you have the courage and tenacity to recover from this disaster of epic proportions and rebuild your country.
We express our most heartfelt condolences to the families of those who have lost their lives. To these families and to you, we dedicate two songs, To The Morning and Believe in Me (by Dan Fogelberg) which were posted in the comments section of this blog by friends .
また日本の勇敢な人々、私たちはあなたの悲劇悲しくなりますが、我々は国際社会の支援、独自の勇気、粘り強さとエネルギーを使って、自分の偉大な国を再構築するために開始されますことを知っている。誰が私たちが最も心を表現する彼らの生命を失った人々の家族に哀悼の意を感じた。ご滞在の強い、我々はあなたの国を再構築するには、この課題を満たすことを知っています。創意工夫と技術的能力を使用すると、自然の要素のテストを負かす事になります。
[You Brave People of Japan, we are saddened by your tragedy, but we know that with the support of the international community and your own courage, tenacity and energy you will begin to rebuild your great country. To the families of those who lost their lives we express our most heart felt condolences. Stay strong and we know you will meet this challenge to rebuild your country. With ingenuity and technical competence, you will beat the test of the elements of nature.]
We care and pray for the safety of all of you as the tsunami releases its fury on your shores.
Thank You, Dan and May God Bless You
We are praying for all those in Japan affected by the quake and the tsunami victims from the affected parts of the world. This may seem small but God can do wonders.
One thing about the Japanese Govt and the people. They have always been the first to come forward to help and provide aid to other countries in time of need.
Our prayers are with the people of Japan and those who have lost their loved ones. We mourn their loss.
The images on television of the tsunami are frightening to say the least. It is hard to imagine that it is real and true. I have been glued to the cable channels and watched with a very very heavy heart.
It is a disaster of catastrophic proportions.
Mother Nature does NOT discriminate, irrespective of who you are and what colour of your skin or what your religious leanings are.
This catastrophe only heightens our realisation that we all are in it together on this very fragile planet.
Time for people in UMNO to scale down and shut down their racist and divisive politics and policies. When disaster strikes, God forbids, we perish together, Malays, Chinese or Indians alike.
Yes, Frank, I hear you and share your sentiments. Let us come together not just for Japan and the brave Japanese people but for us as Malaysians united under God.
I want to remind our government to be careful about building nuclear powered plants for energy. Think public safety and the environment, not big money for themselves and their cronies.–Din Merican
Frightening just watching it on TV – God only knows what the people affected are going through. And now the nuclear plant explosion.
We pray for the good people of Japan.
I was talking with a Japanese friend whose family is/was in Sendai. He still has no news of his aged parents and other members of the family in spite of trying to get info the past 24 hours.
In circumstances like these, what is one supposed to say? It’s going to be alright? He can’t sit, eat and sleep despite the anxiolytics and sedatives. I pray with him, as all outward religion becomes useless and meaningless. What he most desperately needed was assurance, which i’m least qualified to give. So we pray in silence.
We all can understand in part plate tectonics and scientific explanations how such things happen, but we can never understand the depth of the human soul.
Most people have the habit of giving material things to show compassion. That’s not near enough. It should remind us of our fragility. We don’t ask why. Nor do we rage against God. We just accept – each in our particular bitter, painful way. We can then embrace the brokenness we call “Man” and seek his transcendence. That is what Immanuel means.
C.L. Familiaris
Words cannot describe the sorrow and the anguish of the people of Japan, and especially that of your Japanese friend you mentioned.
I offer this beautiful and quiet piece by Franz Liszt “Consolation No.3″ on piano as we ponder at the power and majesty of Mother Nature to create and destroy:
Information from the experts is provided at the
Public Health Supercourse:
http://www.pitt.edu/~super1/
And this is how you can help (advice from the Canadian Govt):
http://www.international.gc.ca/humanitarian-humanitaire/canadians_help-aide_canadien.aspx
Thanks Frank.
I’ve forwarded it to Hasegawa. He’s a Liszt fan.
Always knew you have a heart and passion beyond understanding.
Images of Tokyo remind me of the time when i was there for the first time (I came back more times after that) i.e. about the time when the Japanese Red Army struck the U.S. Embassy then housed in the AIA Building, Jln. Ampang in the ’70s. I was staying in a Tokyo Station business class hotel in the Marunouchi business district in Nihonbashi. It was my first experience of an earthquake. Not having experienced anything like a tremor, I didn’t know what to think. If you find yourself walking in the street a visitor to Japan would know how serious the tremor is from the reaction of the Japanese themselves around him. I remember running to the window of the top floor of the hotel and looked down and saw Japanese (like ants) walking like nothing has happened. That’s when I knew it could’nt be anything above 6.2 of the Richter Scale.
The Japanese lived their lives resigned to the fact that one day there will be a big one — and there is nothing anyone could do. You could see how used and conditioned they have become to earthquakes from the response supermarket employees gave when the ground shook and everything came off the shelves, in offices when furnitures started moving and fixtures came falling. Nobody ran. They would go under tables and then later take their personal belongings and leave like they do in a fire drill.
Talk to any Japanese about earthquakes and they will just shrug their shoulders and go back to doing what they were doing.
This one is different because of the tsunami.
I hope my high school sweetheart from the American International School, Sachiko-san (now must be in her ’50s) and happily married is safe.
So far images are mostly those of buildings being washed away and roads ripped apart by the earthquakes but nothing of the human reaction.
Japanese society is the most structured of modern day societies. Everybody knows their place and would come to the aid of the other almost automatically without waiting to be asked. The Japanese cope with disaster far better, in my opinion, than any other communities.
Something of this magnitude if it were to happen in the United States would be followed by mass looting and an immediate spike in crime rates. We have an idea of that when Katrina hit New Orleans.
And yes, I pray for my Angela Aki who must be hunkered down in Honolulu expecting the tsunami to hit Hawaii – but never came.
Good message Dato’ Merican. It has class and the inclusion of Datin gave it the family touch.
This is a wake-up call for all of us. Nothing in this world is for sure. Our fortunes can change in a flash. But the people of Japan will get back on their feet because they have the strong institutions of government to do so.
Anon,
Strong institutions, strong culture based on resilience and resourcefulness, and national character of a people shaped by trials and tribulations and hardened by adversity–these are part of the Japanese psyche. They have been challenged through the ages with natural disasters, and always have bounced back with better designs,construction methods and new paradigms,despite their inherent conservatism. –Din Merican
Dato,
Why are you talking to yourself?
An australian senator was interviewed, his house was at the sea front where the quake first hit. he ran out with only passport in hand and dived into an open door car(he didnt knwo them ) they drove 10 km inland to get away formt eh tsunami coming fast behind them. They stopped at the place where the driver lives only to find the building destroyed and un habitable. They walked the streets , the senator wanted to charge his autralain mobile phone and Japanese mobile hone. He was aksed was he scared. He answered he was scared and sad. Sad at seeing all the old people walking around. He was sad.
I have been stick to the TV to follow this and am at aloss for words. Now they are facing another disaster brewing, the nuclear plant which is in Sendai, where the quake started has exploded has exploded. God help us all.
sorry, thats should be, I have been stuck watching the TV….
Imagine an earthquake of such magnitude hitting Putrajaya. Wonder what Rosie and Jibby gonna do? Would they give a hoot to the thousands trapped in the rubbles? It’s me-first-you-last mode lah.
Yeah, the devastation is beyond comprehension. Compassion is all we can provide at this trying time.
Dato, Why are you talking to yourself?-Mr Bean
Its called soliloquy. In moments like this, …comtemplation…that is what sooths the soul.
Dato Din is a man of literature.Remember Shakespeare, eg Hamlet, ” To be or not to be”.
I have been stuck to the TV to follow this and am at aloss for words.- Kathy
Its alright if you are loss for words… just go and join the Red Cross… they need hands and legs to go round to collect donations for the poor folks in Japan affected by the tsunami and earthquake.
Please tell Julia Gillard to tell the Aussies Buy Japanese to help the Japanese economy to recover from the earthquake.
Bean, what about this from King Lear for your morning tea tarik:
“This is the excellent foppery of the world, that, when we are sick in fortune, — often the surfeit of our own behaviour, — we make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars: as if we were villains by necessity; fools by heavenly compulsion; knaves, thieves, and treachers, by spherical predominance; drunkards, liars, and adulterers, by an enforced obedience of planetary influence.”– King Lear, 1. 2
Thanks, Frank. Man of Literature? No, only a humble human being who tries to be a Malaysian and who is unafraid to acknowledge that he is a Malay by constitutional definition, and whose forebears are “pendatangs”. There are people in UMNO, especially that character in Penang, who think they are super-Malays when they are mamaks, pure and unadulterated.–Din Merican
Hi frank, am nrmally not the sort ot be loss for words am I?heheehee
Yes will do whatever it takes here to collect for them. Aussies are THE most generous people on earth!
How beautiful and true till today isnt it is that Dato! Thank you. What a genius .
You know frank, Australia has started already in terms of putting people on the ground to help with this disaster. They recognise that the Japanese are always ready to help others. We must now help the Japanese people, they need so much care now.
Ihave no doubt the curches are now gathering to help monetarily and prayers wise the Japanese people and all others involved in charity. We must do our bit no matter the kind of help we give. This goes without saying.
Ihave no doubt the churches are now gathering to help monetarily – Kathy
On the same thought, I wonder how many MOSQUES in Malaysia will be collecting donations etc to help the Japanese?????
Good to know of how caring are our religious and community-conscious muslims in Malaysia. Or is it Untuk Bangsa dan Agama ONLY?
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“what about this from King Lear for your morning tea tarik: “This is the excellent foppery of the world, that, when we are sick in fortune, — often the surfeit of our own behaviour, — we make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars: “- Dato Din
King Lear is an atheist.
Our mosques are busy with Libya and Gaddafi I reckon!!
An aethist? Shakespeare is a genius! And Dato? In a league of his own quoting Shakespeare. Do we reckon our “leaders” are in a class of their own like Dato? Do they read Shakespeare? Maybe M’sia needs to start electing leaders who are worldy and well read like Dato!
This scale of devastation happened in a country that has been preparing for decades, and was even ultracautious (at the risk of being proven wrong and looking foolish) over the Y2K threat.
All countries are unable to go all-out in addressing contingencies and the real needs of the people because of the tyranny of capital, including its influence on politicians. The “leading democracies” are no exception to this curse. So much money is diverted to “defence”. Propaganda turns global warming into a myth. Capital only wants more serfs as cheap, ignorant workers and consumers. So what if a few million of them get swatted like flies here and there.
All countries are unable to go all-out in addressing contingencies and the real needs of the people because of the tyranny of capital, including its influence on politicians. -semuanya OK kot
Long Live Karl Marx!
CNN Report…Malaysian newspaper pokes fun at recent trsunami disasters. Guess which newspaper????
Disgusting & inhumane Berita Harian.
Stay away from this newspaper.
UMNO controlled media insensitive to human suffering and natural disasters. Shame on you. While the whole world is extending aid to Japan Malaysian newspaper is making fun. They are really idiots.
Er guys, don’t read that stuff. No idea where to find it.
Could you kindly post it here and we’ll hammer them into kingdom come.
Being insensitive is one thing, uncalled-for humor and glee of suffering and disaster is inhumane.
They are not just mere idiots semper, they reveal what they are: Evil.
Someone once said: “Being Evil, is exhausting.”
But i say: “Being evil is nurture, not nature.”
C.L. Familiaris
See here the caricature in Berita Harian reported by CNN.
Its all over the internet.
https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1789965/+0#entry40700219
Din
My heart and soul are with the Japanese. They live on the edge of the tectonic plates and they have learned to accept their fate. They are truly hardy people considering they are the only country to have been hit by an atom bomb and regular earthquakes.
I am reminded of the Mayan prediction for 2012! Since the beginning of the year the world is facing natural and man made disasters. Note the revolt in the Middle East and the Christchurch quake.
Again I join you in expressing my heartfelt sympathies to the Japanese people.
BERITA HARIAN’s cartoon on the tsunami disaster was picked up by CNN:
See here the CNN iReport article:
http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-570978
Malaysians must petition the government to apologize publicly and fire the sob editor as well as the person that drew the cartoon. Nothing short of that is acceptable.
Thanks Frank.
It has to do with feelings of self-entitlement, jealousy and sadly, superficiality of thought.
Yup, semper.
Yet they say Anwar is embarrassing the country.
semper fi
I have two words for the chaps in Berita Harian
“Insensitive Bastards”. Melayu Celaka Malu Bangsa.
CLF and Frank
It goes to show that the people in Berita Haiwan are heartless and take joy in the misfortune of others. They should be shipped off to Japan and be made to cover the meltdown and perhaps get exposed to the radiation. Then it’s good riddance.
Over here if a newspaper make such a blunder they will print full page apologies. Maybe the editors should do a harakiri. “Insensitive Bastards” are too kind words to use on these morons.
BERITA HARIAN thinks DIFFERENT….
See here the CNN iReport article:
Frank – March 13, 2011 at 9:24 pm
I am glad they have shown their true colors of incompetence , evil and idiotic. And they want to run this country? WHAT A JOKE. GOOD . I am happy they have shown themselves for what they are, who they truly are in their mindset. Small minded, ignoramous insensitive iditoitc. No amount fo religion can teach them otherwise. Theiur Soul has devolved and it shows outwardly. More to come. Everything I have said shows in thsi one evil insenstiive cartoon. Can you imagine what they would do if a foreginer made a joke at the expense of their tragedy?The Umno malays should stop calling themselves moslem and insult my Beloved Prophet.
It was a matter of time before they showed their true colours.