Azzageddi Familiaris

2011-04-01T10:26:00.000+09:00

It's April 1st. I don't much feel like playing April Fool this year; instead I'm kicking off something that I hope will be a lifelong habit. Over the past few months, I've given roughly $1200 to charity. It started with the floods in Australia, then the earthquake in New Zealand. After that, Junko and I gave the bereavement money for my mother's death to a local animal-rescue shelter--Mom was a big supporter of animal rescue.

The very next day, the Tohoku Earthquake struck. It took a few hours even to begin to realize how devastating that was, and we are still coming to grips with it here in Japan. I gave some money to the Red Cross...then some more...then some more as we started to see how very bad it was. I've given money directly to Fukuoka City to buy supplies to send up north; I've given money to other groups as well.

With the job I have now, I don't have much time to devote to volunteering. But I am paid pretty decently, and I know that by cutting back on the Starbucks and such I can easily afford to give every month--to tithe, if you will. No reason an unbeliever like me can't tithe. There are a lot of good charities, local and international, and from here on out I am going to give every month, whether it's for a specific disaster or not.

At the same time, I am going to find ways to volunteer. I'm in touch now with the animal-rescue shelter--I've offered to start translating their website to make it easier for people who can't read Japanese to participate. I'm going to do what I can. Hopefully work will ratchet down to a more reasonable level of busy-ness within a couple of years, and I'll be able to do more.

And my mandatory retirement age at the university is 65, so it won't be THAT long before I find myself with plenty of free time and little money. By then, my Japanese should be a lot better, and I should have relationships with several volunteer organizations, and I can start working with them a lot more. I don't want to be sitting around watching TV, that's for sure. Well, not more than a couple hours a day.

Fighting fear with knowledge

2011-03-21T13:50:00.001+09:00

This article really gives a good perspective on the radiation dangers.

Good news, bad news

2011-03-17T20:10:00.001+09:00

Mostly bad news. The nuclear emergency is only getting worse. I've read some extremely alarming things from pretty reliable sources. Of course it's hard to be sure what to believe--even setting aside the likelihood that the Japanese government and the power company representatives would put a rosy spin on things to prevent panic, it must be very hard for even the people right at the scene to be sure exactly what's going on or what will happen.

It seems very likely that there will be a major meltdown. The only chance to stop it seems to be a suicide mission by engineers at the site. There is no doubt in my mind that there are enough who will volunteer to carry out the mission, and those who do will be honored as heroes. What is uncertain is whether it will work.

The only good news is that the winds continue to blow out to sea which is normal and constant for this time of year, minimizing the land contamination and danger to the population, especially those of us in the south. But the high winds are also the reason that such things as dumping water from helicopters haven't worked.

I have packed a backpack with water bottles and such, and I'll get Junko to pack a bag too. We are going to coordinate with the rest of our family here on where to meet in case we need to move quickly to a shelter or even another city. Frankly we'd probably be better off sealing up the apartment and staying indoors if we got a dose of fallout. The chances of Fukuoka receiving dangerous levels of radiation are still quite small, but it feels better to be ready. And anyway, I should've put together a good emergency pack for each of us years ago.

I wouldn't blame anyone for leaving Japan altogether at this point. A lot of my colleagues are traveling abroad right now, in fact, as it's between school terms at the moment. I wouldn't blame any who delay their return, either. But I have a wife, kids, grandkids...I'm not going anywhere. Not unless I can take them all with me.

Fear and Love

2011-03-15T23:23:00.000+09:00

Hey everybody. More scary stuff happening in the past day or so, the biggest thing being another explosion at the Fukushima nuclear plant that may be the breaching of a containment chamber. Hopefully not as dangerous as some news sources are making it out to be. Anyway, it's still a long way from here, and the winds are still blowing it away from us, so we are safe here in Fukuoka.

And that volcano to the south of us? That thing's been erupting for three months. It's a danger to the people who've resisted evacuating, but beyond its immediate area, it's no more than an annoyance involving sweeping away ash.

The outpouring of well-wishes and aid from around the world has been really wonderful. I do want to mention something about donating smart, though. I think that, if you live outside Japan, that donations of money to big international organizations is best. Groups such as the Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, and Habitat for Humanity will be able to use that money in the most efficient way, which becomes especially important when the immediate crisis is over. (Oh please let it be over soon!) Japan is a wealthy nation, and although these groups are doing incredible things right now, the donations may exceed what is really needed for this disaster. The big organizations will be able to repurpose that money for other disasters around the world--there's always another disaster, after all. Or they'll use it for non-disasters, like local blood drives or providing wounded soldiers with artificial limbs or building homes or whatever--all very important things. That flexibility is a big plus.

Also, giving goods like food and blankets and used clothes...well, it isn't really efficient. Groups like the Red Cross have emergency supplies already nearby (in Kuala Lumpur, in the Red Cross's case). With money, they can buy more from nearby nations (wholesale and in bulk) and fly it in cheaply. WAY more efficient--and thus way more people get the help they need, and sooner as well.

One last reason to give to the big groups is reliability: you know it's not some scam artist. True, some of these groups have had scandals in the past (like the Red Cross), but in general they've dealt with those things well and have become more efficient as a result. The Better Business Bureau lists charities that they accredit as reliable. Check it out before you donate.

Links to aid organizations

2011-03-13T13:39:00.000+09:00

I've posted an entry about this on my other blog, and here is an article which has links to several aid organizations for people who want to contribute.

We are OK

2011-03-13T10:56:00.000+09:00

I haven't been posting on here for a LONG time, but as a friend reminded me a few hours ago, not everyone stays in touch with me via Facebook, which is where I've been posting a running commentary on the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear accidents, and reassuring everyone that Junko, the kids, the grandkids, and I are in no danger and doing fine.

True, things do look grim for Japan as a whole. We've lost a lot of lives and many many more homes. We've also lost a lot of our energy capacity with all those nuclear plants that have shut down (not to mention the one that blew up)--we're getting word now that everybody in Japan needs to conserve energy to make sure hospitals and such are fully powered. And it's not clear how long that'll last. Could be months or even years. Thank goodness spring is coming on, but I suspect it's going to be a hot summer with little to no a/c.

But down here in the southwest, we have been very fortunate. And after spending a couple days in a blue funk, staring at the TV and the internet, I vow that I'm going to be as positive as I can about all this. After all, it's going to take years to recover, and I want to do what I can to speed that along. No point being all mopey about it.

Adult's Day

2009-01-15T13:04:00.000+09:00

Mei-chan!!!

2008-07-07T12:45:00.000+09:00

Right, I have received requests for more baby pictures. Those of you who are annoyed by other people's baby pictures, I know how you feel, but move along, nothing to see here.

On the off chance that someone here is new to the blog or has been out of touch with me for awhile, the baby in question is Mei (pronounced "May"), my granddaughter by way of Sayumi, my eldest stepdaughter, who turned 25 a couple months ago. She brought the baby over day before yesterday, first time in awhile. Mei is now 7 months old, and babbling. She hasn't started crawling yet, but she's rolling over and almost sitting up unassisted.

More pictures of Mei and my family can be found in earlier posts of my old blog, such as here, here, and here.

Depending on your screen resolution, the pictures may be partly cut off. Sorry about that--Blogger does things differently from my old blog, it seems. I'll experiment and see if I can implement auto-resizing next time. For this post, just click on the picture to see a full-sized version.
EDIT: I've tried some options, and other than the first 2, I'm just going to leave the rest as is--it's just too much trouble trying to fix it. Just click on the pics to see the whole thing.

Mom and baby, with Aunt Natsumi and Gramps:

Junko, Natsumi, and Lili:

Aunt and niece:

Those above were from the spring, actually. The following are from day before yesterday:

And to end it, a couple of pictures of Lili: