March 11, 2011

• Glued to the news

  So much devastation in Japan.  So much potential loss of life: and so many more lives saved, because Japan has always known that earthquakes will hit, and the Japanese have built to withstand as much as possible, and practice to be safe.

  I hope my friends in Osaka are OK: I think their experience may well be more similar to my experiences of an earthquake.  The room shook for what seemed like an awfully long time, but can't have been more than 30 seconds.  Mum and I clung to each other in terror (Dad thought he'd kicked the table on the balcony), and that was that.  It was only 5.0 on the richter scale, the earthquake we experienced in Skiathos.  I woke up when we had an earthquake in the middle of the night in the UK a few years back - the bed was shaking from side to side, in a manner similar to a couchette on a train.  Nothing really fell over, my books stayed on their shelves (just as well, I would not have liked them landing on me in my bed!).  Still.  Not experiences that one invites or wishes to repeat.  I'm worried about The Merchant Seaman, on his ship: however, it was last tracked to the vicinity of Perth, so I like to believe that he won't really be affected.  Didn't do much for being able to work, tracking his ship down, checking where Osaka actually is on the map, locating the map, and so on.

  I've got a map of the world spread out over the floor, so I can see how far the tsunami has gotten.  It'll hit Northern Australia in the next hour or so, I think.

  Watching the movement of the tsunami waves, the debris they're carrying, is quite, quite scary.  Japan's all mountains.  Except where it isn't.  And where it isn't, it seems to be as flat as Norfolk.

  How lucky I am to live where I do.  Fewer earthquakes.  I shall go and make a donation to, well, actually, I don't know whom.  Perhaps the Guide Friendship Fund, to help the Girl Scouts in the North East of Japan.  The Girl Scouts of Japan were so kind to me two years ago. DEC doesn't seem to have anything specific on its front page, nor does MSF.  Early days, yet: and Japan is a highly industrialised nation, and has many resources.  But, this is very, very big.

  xxx

  • 8:57 am
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