Monday, March 14, 2011

Japanese Tsunami, Malaysian Tragedy and Asian Opportunity

terrible news of Japan, our thoughts are with ...Image by tdietmut via Flickr
I am holidaying in India, my wife just received an sms saying BBC has announced that after the explosion in the second nuclear reactor in Japan there is a danger of some fallout in the Phillipines, I switched on the BBC and hardly saw any mention of any such thing, they were only talking about the immense losses suffered by Japan and the the fact that the Bank of Japan has pumped some few trillions into the economy, to get things started.

There was also the news of the team from China going into Japan to help and that India would be sending blankets to Japan, absolutely no news about any nuclear fallout affecting Phillipines or Malaysia as the sms had suggested.

I move down to the business centre and get on the internet and even as I am writing one person from Malaysia sends me an sms, it says and I'll give it to you word for word, "There was  a nuclear blast 4.30 p.m. Sunday in Fukushima Japan. If it rains today or in the next few days, do not go under the rain. If you get caught out, use a an umbrella or raincoat even if it is only a drizzle. Radioactive particles which may cause burns. alopecia or even cancer, may be in the rain. Reaching Malaysian shores by 5 pm today. Stay in the house."

"Experts say a disaster on the scale of Chernobyl in the 1980s is highly unlikely because the reactors are built to a much higher standard and have much more rigorous safety measures." From the BBC


As far as I can safely say there is no immediate danger even to Japan, the problem is well being taken care of, that was the news I heard this morning before leaving Cochin for Quilon, and now at Quilon at the hotel after surfing the web and all news channels all I can say is some Malaysians need to grow up.


I do not blame those who sent me the sms, I sometimes do the same knowing it could be the wrong message, then I go out and check if it is right, in situations like this its better to be safe the sorry, but to the scum who begin such irresponsible romours they need to be arrested and charged with romour mongering.

The earlier message also asked everyone to stay indoors, this is a great Malaysian tragedy, shouting wolf,  creating romours, what happens when the real thing happens, and the greater part of the tragedy is that this speaks volumes about the credibility the Malaysian Press and Government has with the people.


I go into the Malaysian press pages  to see what's going on and find out that the UMNO owned Berita Harian has come out with a cartoon on the tsuanami, and has issued an apology after being criticized, but what would one expect of an UMNO owned Malay publication anyway? Had it been something about interlok or about the Indians or Chinese in Malaysia you could well forget the apology, it has happened time and time again,  this country in the past, Japan is different but I shall not get into this at this time.

Of course, all Malaysian are deeply moved by this disaster in Japan, I think in the midst of all this China's response is timely, China must put all its differences with Japan aside and take a lead role in assisting Japan at this time - both China and India needs to come out and proactively take a lead role here.

China and India with their advances in nuclear technology should send in their experts to assist Japan here, in doing so Asia will be seen as actively capable of  looking after Asian issues, and that will bring Asians closer together, this is an opportunity for Asian bonding, so that we can be free of interference of other powers that have managed to divide us for so long,  so well.

Japan has always aligned itself with the west, an initiative by both India and China and other Asian countries like  South Korea and Taiwan will be the opportunity this great disaster could present Asia as a whole, and bring Japan back to Asia so that it aligns itself with Asians first then with others.

That the Japanese people will come out of this disaster and regain their place as a world economic power is a forgone conclusion, but  that they should do it with more Asian involvement is a necessity, so Japan can break loose of the noose placed around its neck since the end of world war two and be totally Asian again.

Asia must reclaim Japan, and Japan must come back to Asia.



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