Japan

I was going to write about other stuff today but the most talked about and devastating thing is of course the disaster in Japan. This disaster is on a scale that most of us cannot fathom, even seeing it on TV and the internet cannot make us understand fully how it feels to actually be there, it just gives us a glimpse.

It is just another thing that brings home to a lot of us that the world is a very unstable place. We (as in we the citizens of Planet Earth) currently, just this year, have had flooding, cyclones, earthquakes, civil war, job loss and more that I can’t think of right now.

The disaster in Japan has been made worse as it started as a natural disaster, the earthquake and then tsunami that has killed thousands and wiped out infrastructure and livelihoods. Now because of the natural disaster, another one that was created by man is taking place, a nuclear one.

I am not a fan of nuclear power, though I know it works well and can see the good, the fallout from any problems, I believe, always outweigh the good, especially if there are alternatives. Though, in Japan with their climate I am not sure the alternatives would be enough, there are always two sides to the story.

In saying all that though, maybe we are too spoilt and our expectations for our very comfy life too high. We live a life where we expect everything now and not have to work very hard for it. Even growing our own food is a lost art that people cannot even imagine, doing the actual physical work would make some shudder.

I have heard people say that it is just too hard, let me tell you, I am a very lazy gardener, and it doesn’t require too much effort to have some herbs and maybe some tomatoes and beans in the garden, potatoes are another chuck in the ground and let grow thing. Sure we have to water them and put a bit of fertilizer and mulch on, but it really requires very little time and effort.

Anyway, the point being, actually one of the points I want to make is, that being prepared the way a lot of us are is a good thing, from having a generator, extra food, first aid kit, torches and batteries. I have heard it said “Why bother, if all you are going to do is lose the lot, it is a waste of money”, a lot of the time though you don’t lose the lot. It may be just your job you lose, not a flood or a cyclone that takes everything out, then you will be glad that there is extra food in the house and a garden out the back. Or you have to leave the house and go to an evacuation centre and you are glad that you have a bag ready to go with the essentials in it (I can’t imagine having to stay in the same undies for more than a day).

Another point is that maybe mother nature is trying to balance herself, we are polluting like there is no tomorrow, (though some progress has been made in this area but the government really needs to do more) and this is her way of trying to make it right. That is not taking away from the disaster at all, just trying to look at it from another side.

We will be hearing for a very long time about the disaster in Japan, about the devastation of so much loss of life, personally, I have trouble imagining so many people just gone. There will also be the economic side, the infrastructure problems, the power and water, and also what it means for the rest of the world who trades with Japan. Many things are made there, what are we not going to be able to get for a long time?

Even though our discomfort about not being able to buy that new car from Japan or get some electronic part is in no way comparable to what has personally happened to these people, the ripple effect is enormous.

On Other Matters


I enjoyed this blog at Scathing Weekly I Don't Want To Be The Girl Who Killed The Printed Word


Also Mands on a Mission is not going into the supermarket for the rest of March and is going to doing lots of cooking and adapting, I think that alot of us could easily go to the supermarket less and save some hard earned dollars. Cross off the shop.

I am trying to cut our plastic in our life, and not succeeding very well mind you. Found this good blog over at Simple, Green, Fugal Co-op

Here is a blog on Penny Pinching, and while I know most of these things, I still like to read about it to keep the ideas in the front of my mind.

Here is a short article about the nuclear disaster in Japan that explains a little about it.