Inside Story - The Impact of Disaster on Japan's Economy
It's two weeks since the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and 10-metre tsunami struck the northeast coast of Japan. Hundreds of thousands of people are still homeless, more than half a million households do not have water, and workers are still battling to gain control of the Fukushima nuclear power plant.
 Fears of contaminated food are spreading overseas as officials report traces of radiation in milk products, seawater and 11 kinds of locally-grown vegetables. 
How will Japan recover from the disaster? Will it be able to regain the world's confidence, and how long will it take?

OF KHALSA AND SAMURAI - REPRISE.

I think with all the attention on Japan these days, some of you might enjoy reading my earlier post about a Samurai lady meeting two Khalsa in San Francisco.  First, I have constructed a picture as my tribute to the people of Japan, which I will share with you here.

My Tribute to the People of Japan

This is my recognition of the spirit, courage and civility of the Japanese people and their response to the recent trisaster.

This is a reminder that the Sun is always shining. Sometimes we just can't see her.

Below is the the devastation of the earthquake and tsunami, while Fujiyama soars above the tragedy. Above all, the benevolent presence of Amaterasu-no-Kami, the Sun Goddess and chief deity of the Shinto religion, gives her blessing and strength to her people, the people of Japan.

(Note: I am neither Shinto nor Japanese. If I have hurt anybody's religious sensibilities, please let me know and I will correct the matter.)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

With much thanks to Derek Visser. Three of his photos were used to make the Fukushima plant here:
www.flickr.com/photos/vizpix/5530864283/
www.flickr.com/photos/vizpix/5529845859/
www.flickr.com/photos/vizpix/5529038135/

To the United States Air Force
www.flickr.com/photos/usairforce/5529732202/
and
the US Pacific Fleet(Navy)
www.flickr.com/photos/compacflt/5529922582/

I believe all other images used are in the Public Domain.

OF SAMURAI AND KHALSA

A few weeks ago, we visited the San Francisco Bay Area, courtesy of one of my husband's nephews. I was the first time I have been to San Francisco, Mani's favourite American city, since the events of 1984. Such memories, it brought back! I can't really share these with anyone here, so I'm sharing them with you, my online friends.




One year, I think it was 1978, but I'm not sure, we decided to celebrate our anniversary/my birthday by taking a holiday in San Francisco. Very unusual for us, we decided to leave Sandeep in the safe hands of the family and set off for nine days and eight nights in The City By The Bay. Family had our hotel number, of course, along with a promise not to phone unless it was a life-altering emergency. No such emergency occurred and we had a wonderful time. OK, I'll fess up. We called home each evening to say hi to our Sikhling.

One of the few things Mani and I could never agree about was our manner of dress. His appearance was very important to him. His clothes were always perfect, his turban beautifully tied, shoes, when he wore them, perfectly shined. He even ironed his jeans! (I refused to do that because I thought it was stupid.) I, on the other hand, insisted only that my clothes be neat and clean and cover me decently. And be comfortable. They must be comfortable. Beyond that, I really didn't much care what I looked like. We did agree on a few important points. No high heels, no dresses, no make-up.


On the farm, my appearance didn't matter all that much. He expected me to be a bit messed up, mucking around with the cows and goats and chickens (kept for fertiliser) and also with our various crops. I usually indulged him in the evenings by showering or lounging in the Jacuzzi for a while and then putting on a Punjabi suit, a salwar kameez. He usually lounged around evenings in kurta pajama. We might not have been a Punjabi couple, but except for his grey eyes and my brown hair and pasty skin, we certainly looked like one.

For our trip to San Francisco, we reached a compromise. During the day, while we were walking, hiking, goofing off, I would wear jeans - ironed by him! - and something colourful and attractive on my top. This was necessary because walking shoes look really stupid with dressy clothes. When we went out in the evenings, I would dress to the nines, looking every inch the proper lady, while he also dressed up - in full bana! He looked really cool in bana - what Sikh doesn't? - and he looked somehow silly in a suit.

 


We quickly found out that many fine San Francisco restaurants had a dress code that men had to wear jacket and tie. We avoided those. As Mani said, "They probably don't have decent vegetarian food anyway. We had a glorious time, walking from the Embarcadero to the Pacific Ocean - one side of San Francisco to the other, rambling through Golden Gate Park, exploring those strange, little neighbourhood shops that San Francisco seems to be full of. We spent a whole day at Fisherman's Wharf, watching the tourists shiver. Most people don't realise that San Francisco is quite cool most of the time, and so dress inappropriately for the weather. We also went hiking in the Muir Woods amidst the giant redwoods and hiking up Mt. Tamalpais across the Golden Gate Bridge in Marin County.


I really want to write about one particular afternoon and evening. We decided to go see a Toshiro Mifune movie playing in a theatre in Japan Town.

Toshiro Mifune

 
Mani gave me those cow eyes and asked me to dress up, even though it was only afternoon. I said it was too early, if I had to dress up I'd wear bana, too. He grinned at me and agreed. We ended up dressed exactly alike except he had a saffron turban, while I used a chunni. (We should have tied a turban on me, I now realise, but for some reason, we didn't think of it.) And, unlike him, I carried the more usual short kirpan. I admit we made a grand-looking couple, him in a dark blue chola, saffron-coloured gatra containing a full-length kirpan, and, of course, his perfectly tied turban, me similarly clad. Him tall and towering and masculine, the perfect Khalsa warrior, me short and slender, yet with the full figure of a fertility goddess, also the perfect Khalsa warrior, except in a battle, I'd have to ditch the chunni. As he said, "We look goooooood!"

We arrived for the afternoon matinee and, much to our surprise, there were only a very few others attending. I guess weekday afternoons don't bring out the samurai crowd. A very lovely Japanese lady, clad in traditional kimono, not only sold us tickets, but also tended the refreshments counter and acted less like an usher than like a hostess. When we first came in, she looked at Mani shyly, but still with open curiosity and perhaps a bit of apprehension. She was even shorter than I am; he must have seemed a giant to him. "Sir, "she asked in a heavily accented voice, with that high, squeaky voice that Japanese women traditionally affect, "may I ask you a question?" She waited for him to answer, which he did in the affirmative.


I just knew she was going to ask if he were an Arab, but she surprised me. "I see you have a katana, a sword. Are you some sort of a samurai among your people?"  In spite of the accent, her English was excellent.



We were both startled at that question; I was very curious how he would answer. "We are Sikhs who have been initiated into the Khalsa Knighthood, so I suppose you could consider us a sort of samurai." He went on to explain a bit about Sikhi, which she had never heard of. When he finished, she was grinning broadly, obviously happily impressed.
Then she turned to me and said, "Great lady, you are also this Khalsa?"

Great lady! I could live with that. I smiled at her and replied, 

"Yes."

Her smile faded briefly as she asked, "Then why do you have such a small sword?" I didn't really have a good answer, so, on the spur of the moment, I came up with the explanation that I was so short that it would drag the ground., Actually, that is close to the truth. The answer seemed to satisfy her and her smile returned. She also wanted to see them both unsheathed; we were happy to oblige.

She was obviously impressed and asked if there was anything she could do to make us comfortable. She clearly wanted to do something, so one of us suggested that some Japanese tea would be nice. I mentioned that we were visiting San Francisco to celebrate our wedding anniversary as well as my birthday. She brightened up immediately. "Then you must have long noodles for long life to celebrate." He explained that we were vegetarians and ate only "Buddhist food." (We had learned that was the easiest way to get correct food in what used to be called Oriental restaurants.)


"No meat. No egg. Tofu is OK?" She asked.

"A bit taken aback, we agreed.

"I be right back. You go sit down, enjoy watching the people stab each other." She disappeared into a back room and we went into the theatre and watched "the people stabbing each other."

After a time, she returned with a large tray of not only with tea and noodles (in miso soup), but also a sumptuous feast of vegetarian sushi, inari sushi, norimaki with vegetable and tofu filling, and small mounds of vinegared rice with various thinly sliced vegetables on top where normally there would be raw fish. And lots of wasabi, ginger and shoyu.

We were both overwhelmed. She ignored our reaction and arranged one tray on the seat to Mani's left and another to my right, dividing the food between us. "Now eat and enjoy while you watch movie." She smiled, bowed and walked away. What could we do? We ate and enjoyed and watched the movie. And wondered what was going on. After the movie, we found out, while eating some vegetable tempura that she brought in.


"I am Shinto," she told us. "I worship Amaterasu-no-Kami, the Sun Goddess, foremother of our Emperor.

Amaterasu-no-Kami

"Last night, she sent me a dream that I would meet some great warriors, not Japanese, but worthy to be samurai. I saw you and knew she had blessed me with your holy presence, so I could have the honour of serving you. I am descended from a very old samurai family that was impoverished when the samurai class was outlawed. They took all our swords and melted them down. You know, all our women were also taught martial arts and sword fighting, so we could protect our homes and our honour, if need be. Without our swords, what could we be?"

Samurai swords

She was clearly speaking from deep in her heart, speaking as if these things happened recently, instead of in the previous century. I wanted to see your kirpans" - she stumbled over the word - "so I could honour my ancestors." We didn't quite understand that last statement and didn't ask. Somehow asking seemed cold. "There is one more thing, please." She pulled out a small book and handed it to me. (Why not him? I do not know.) This is the Bushido Book, The Code of the Warrior. I think you do not know Japanese, but please accept it as my gift." We were quite overwhelmed. The book was obviously quite old, probably a family heirloom. Still, it was unthinkable to refuse it. We took it and kept it always among our few treasured possessions.


A most important note: As usual most of these pictures are roached from the Internet, compliments of Google Search. Two are not. That strange-looking being on the Golden Gate Bridge is me, as a giant Nihang. Why not?

That very handsome Sardar Ji I have used to illustrate bana is the father of my little sister Kamal Kaur. His name is Sarbjeet Singh Ji and he, like my own Dad, is a Canadian from Punjab. Notice the twinkle in his eyes and that lovely smile.

Sarbjeet Singh Ji

My medical caretaker,Irene pointed out to me that if he is my sister's father, then he must also be my Dad. An interesting idea, as I believe he is somewhat younger than my 57  59 years! My thanks to these two for letting me use this picture. 



One further note about Kamal Ji. You might have noticed her listed as an author, although she has never contributed a post. This is for a very special reason. For some time, she has been downloading and saving each post's html on her computer. Anything can happen on the Internet. This site could be hacked, Blogger could decide to delete it for some reason, new laws in America might restrict the freedom of speech and/or the press. If this blog should, for any reason disappear from the blogosphere, dear Kamal Ji will have preserved it, so it will not be destroyed. Of course, I also download it to my computer, but my poor old compy isn't very reliable and if something should happen to me, it might sit forever here with no one the wiser. So she is performing a great sewa, in my opinion. This will probably embarrass her, but, little sister, I want to thank you from my heart for doing this.

Counting the Cost - Japan: The Cost of Disaster
On this week's Counting the Cost we look at: The economic impact of the catastrophe in Japan, the global nuclear power debate and an unexpected pastime in Afghanistan - skiing.

Japan Earthquake Tsunami Affected People Finder And Nuclear Radiation Information

By STAFF Writer

Below are the missing persons help lines for Japan (for Japanese language only here):
Iwate: 0120-801-471
Miyagi: 022-221-2000
Fukushima: 0120-510-186 / 090-8424-4207 / 090-8424-4208

Below are emergency voicemail message board for Japan:
For leaving a message dial 171 + 1 + phone number
For listening a message dial 171 + 2 + phone number

Phone Call Travel Information for Japan:
For overseas visitors to Japan - 03-3201-3331 (24 hour live travel information)

Earthquake and tsunami affected people who are in shelters or evacuation centers can email their photos to tohoku.anpi.google@picasaweb.com which will be uploaded to Picasa Web Album for public viewing. So, searching loved ones in this Japan's crisis becomes easy.

Regarding nuclear power plant radiation and other related health information please visit the official site of World Health Organization.

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2011 Japan Earthquake Person Finder
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Japan Shares Tumble as Nuclear Crisis Fears Create Panic
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Tokyo shares closed down 10.55pc on Tuesday as panicking investors dumped stocks after the government said levels of radiation leaking from a stricken nuclear plant posed a threat to health.

Japan's Nikkei index clawed back some ground from an earlier freefall - sliding more than 12pc at one stage - to close down 1,015.34 points at 8,605.15. The broader Topix plunged 9.5pc in its worst two-day fall since 1987.

Other Asian markets suffered a ripple effect as investors fled stocks as the crisis in the world's No. 3 economy seemed only to escalate after a third explosion at the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant in Fukushima province. » | Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Japan Shuts Down as Economic Fears Grow
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Japan's giant car industry has announced a major shutdown as fears grow over the economic impact of Friday’s devastating earthquake and subsequent tsunami which has crippled much of the north-east of the country.

The three largest motor manufacturers – Toyota, Honda and Nissan – said they would stop production at almost all of their domestic assembly plants. The safety of the workforce and deaths were cited as reasons behind the decision. The electronics giant Sony also said it would be shutting down production.

Gerard Lyons, chief economist at Standard Chartered, warned of possible temporary price stagflation and an initial downward move for the country’s economy.

“The timing of the disaster could not have been much worse,” admitted analysts at Capital Economics, pointing to Japan’s economic contraction in the last three months of 2010.

The disaster forced the Bank of Japan (BoJ) to issue a statement, as it draws up plans for an emergency “quake budget”. The BoJ said: “The bank will continue to do its utmost, including the provision of liquidity, to ensure stability in financial markets and to secure the smooth settlement of funds, in the coming week.”

Naoto Kan, the Japanese prime minister, asked BoJ to “save the country” after politicians from both sides of the political spectrum agreed on the need for the budget to introduce emergency spending to fund rescue and clean-up efforts and to resuscitate the economy. Continue reading and comment >>> James Quinn and Jamie Dunkley | Saturday, March 12, 2011

2011 Japan Earthquake Person Finder

By EDITOR

Are you looking for someone missing after the massive earthquake in Japan that triggered tsunami, or else you have information about someone? Please submit related information in the below box and help those who are really in need of such database of missing people. Make sure the data entered in the relevant place, which will be available to the public and it can be viewed by anyone. The data entered is neither verified or reviewed for its accuracy.



For any emergency help, call the below given numbers and format. It is local Japan emergency dials:

171 + 1 + line phone number to leave a message
171 + 2 + line phone number to listen to the message

On Friday (March 11) a 8.9 magnitude earthquake struck the Northeastern part of Japan at around 2.46 p.m. local time that caused damages, fire and tsunami. More to this, the powerful earthquake has triggered a tsunami warning for few other countries around the Pacific ocean such as Marcus Island, Russia, Northern Marianas, Philippines, Indonesia, Guam, Taiwan and Hawaii.

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Japan Earthquake Tsunami Affected People Finder And Nuclear Radiation Information
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HELP THE PEOPLE OF HAITI

By this time, we have all heard about the horrible results of the earthquake in Haiti.  Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.   To add to the usual tragedy of a large earthquake, in this case most of the country's top doctors have been trapped and are possibly dead in a collapsed hospital.  On top of that, there are many fires burning.  A prison collapsed and many prisoners died;  others escaped to terrorise the already traumatized citizens.  Soon, untended wounds will become infected, disease will start spreading because of lack of basic hygiene and clean water - and the doctors and medicine have been destroyed.  Only help from outside - from us - can save these people. 

This is just one picture.  To see more, please go to The Daily Mail.

The Sikh spirit of sewa in each of us wants to do something.  Few of us can actually go there, but most of us can contribute a few dollars or rupees or pounds or euros.  It is important to contribute wisely.  Already there are many scams on the Internet.  Please do not give to any organisation or group not known to you.

I have not yet found any Sikh organisations, so I will post two known to all of us as reputable international agencies.

First is the International Committee of the Red Cross.  Go here to donate to them.

Another possibility is UNICEF.  To donate to UNICEF, go here.

Both of these are worldwide;  you can donate from anywhere.

For a list of reputable organisations in the USA, please go to Sikh Philosophy Network

We Sikhs belief in helping all people in distress.  Let us show that we do more than lip-service to this.

Powerful Quake 0f 6.8 magnitude hits Japan

A strong earthquake injured over 100 people due to tumbling of boulders onto a national highway in northern Japan, The magnitude of the quake was 6.8. A month before a 7.2 magnitude quake killed minimum of 12 people in the northern mountains.

The earthquake struck after midnight at a depth of 65 miles close to the coast of Iwate Prefecture, 450 kms north of Tokyo. The injuries were minor and no death is recorded according to the National Policy Agency official. Though the quake shook many areas for about 40 seconds but life returned to normal immediately. Gas, phone lines, water, electricity and other necessaties are running normally. The damage is very minimal.

According to Kyodo news agency, 31 people were injured. The National Police Agency tally says of 109, including 16 serious. After inspection, several local nuclear power plants continued operations. There was a blackout to over 8000 homes after the quake.

Japan is among the earthquake-vulnerable countries in the world.