Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Awed by Japan's quiet dignity...

Disaster does not discriminate, Earth plays no favorites, and we are familiar with the furies of nature. Still, Japan's ravaged landscape, where satellite photos unemotionally suggest no proof of human existence where once it thrived, seems particularly staggering.

The threefold assault of shaking land, swollen water and now possibly poisoned air, where radiation lurks unseen, is appalling.

Yet, it is also the response of the Japanese to catastrophe, told to us in shards of stories of shared blankets, patient calm and decorous lines of waiting people, that has stirred us.

Here, man's order is flourishing amid nature's disorder, as if it is the only way to fight back.

The response to chaos is often chaos itself, but it has not come in this land. Even at traffic lights, observers have written almost in consternation, the Japanese have been waiting patiently for the signal to walk.

It is a quiet dignity whose appeal is being felt across the globe. More...

Don't miss:
  1. Tsunami havoc in Japan...
  2. Japan, the strange country...
  3. Japanese precision: awesome or scary?
  4. Funky Forest, a really weeeeiiiirrrrdddd Japanese movie...
  5. 65 years ago, the bomb fell on Nagasaki... 

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