Friday afternoon, while I just arrived at my working spot, powered on the wifi, went through my daily mental consumption - scrolling down bunch of updated articles which featured on several news websites. A sudden headline with red color embroidered popped up right at the Wall Street Journal website. Just a second, more and more of my favorite websites - CNN, BBC continuously happened to report the latest situation of the 8.9-magnitude earthquake. Live videos were up, recording from a high altitude of helicopter, showing the dumbfounded tsunami, not so far from the epicentre, relentlessly eradicated the farms, houses and slammed on bunch of ships. Extremely astounded. Tons of related news started to flood my Facebook wall, people showed great concern over the debacle and managed to try every means - Skype, MSN, Facebook, etc. to contact their friends and families who were staying at the high risk areas or countries of this unexpected disaster.
Japan Live Blog Update began to run on a handful of websites, provided with the latest news from the battlefront to all of us. Google person finder has been established for those looking for or with information about people affected by the Japan earthquake; see here (in Japanese), or here (in English). The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released the list of estimated arrival times of tsunamis across the globe, following by the alert announcements from several global agencies and authorities. In Japan, as mobile phones remain down, Twitter is proving to be one of the best ways to contact loved ones and get updates on the quake.
One of the Twitter's user wrote that they were “walking home with the rest of Tokyo”, as trains and subways remain stopped: It’s “amazingly calm and orderly.”
The American School in Japan, the largest international school in Tokyo, sent out an email message to parents saying everyone was safe about a half-hour after the quake. All the chief mobile service providers in Japan incessantly took actions to cope with the lack of mobile connectivity problem. An emergency phone service has been set up, an online emergency message board as also be created to help people confirm the whereabouts of those in struck areas. NTT provided free public phone service in the rendezvous for victims. KDDI, SoftBank followed up the NTT created an internet platform for people to send out the message of peace to their love ones. Bic Camera, one of the biggest electronic equipment chain stores in Japan, handed over the free battery charging service for mobile phone users. Suntory has been prepared tons of free drinking water vending machines for emergency purpose since 2005 and it turned out to be so invaluable at this moment. Thanks for the integrated TV function on their high-tech mobile phones, people were able to catch up the live stream from TV network.
"It's very convenient being able to watch live TV when the phones are down," said Minori Naito, an employee of Royal Bank of Scotland in Tokyo. "Otherwise, we'd have no idea what is going on."
The Vital Role
Those epoch-making inventions - World Wide Web, social website, telecommunication - all of them turn out to become so essential and effective nowaday for all the people get connected, get know the latest movement out of the world, no matter where you are. Japan tragedy slowly dawn on us that social media is not just about the entertainment, games and fun, but it's all about connect, caring and accessibility. As you know, social media shows its great heap over this incident, it's by no means limited to spread the immediate and precise information for people to get aware of the upcoming threats, but also the handy tool for people to connect and find out their love ones. Fancy the scenario when all of this happen without social media, people might never know what the hell was going on out of there, the alerts couldn't reach the people on time, deteriorate the threat of the disaster and the rescue operations would be so messy and complicated after all. Social media, no matter which particular website or service, spontaneously contributes so much to our daily lives, we use it everyday. Chatting with your parents in a distance, getting know the score of your favorite football match, checking the highly fluctuated stock market, applying to an oversea college, more and more. Thinking back, the infrastructure itself is absolutely amazing and stunning. We're in such fortunate to born on this age, the age of social media, the age of practical use of technology.
Contemplation
By witnessing the whole progress, Japan is arguably the most disaster-aware nation in the world, and has spent several decades developing mitigation strategies for a variety of hazards, including earthquakes and tsunamis. This event directly shows us the state of the art in readiness for earthquake and tsunami disasters which wholly minimize the damage and save thousand of lives. The Japan government didn't seem to be delayed for any rescue operation but giving out aid rapidly instead. The victims didn't seem to be panic and anxious but calmly flee from the riskful areas instead. The mass media in Japan didn't seem to be overblow the disaster but precisely convey the useful information to people instead. The effectiveness of the government, the steadiness and attitude of the people, the quickness and discipline of the mass media are what other countries, especially our countries, should really learn and apply. Ponder over it.
The Buttom Line
The terrific story still didn't come to its end, at least untill the moment that I was writing on this entry. Blast at nuclear plant follows the Friday's 8.9-magnitude quake, might cause the meltdown of the reactor and has the potential for a nuclear catastrophe. More than 83,000 people live within 10 kilometers of the two dangerous plants, the evacuations were immediately proceeded. The experts and workers are now out on a limb to flood the reactor containment structure with sea water to bring the reactor's temperature down to safe levels. The effort is expected to take two days. In the next hours, days, weeks and months, Japan will go about the emotionally painful task of assessing the damage and counting the casualties and injuries. It will rebuild homes, roads and lives for thousands of individuals.
"Today's events remind us of just how fragile life can be," U.S. President Barack ObamaLife is vulnerable. Cherish for your love ones and the time you hold.
- It would never come back once it gone.
God Bless Everyone.
A sudden headline with red color embroidered popped up right at the Wall Street Journal website.
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