For all the evil men do they are capable great self sacrifice when called for.

Those still fighting the meltdown are the bravest of the brave.

The chance to be comfortably bored is one of the highest achievements of humanity.

Very well put. The Chinese curse "May you live in interesting times" says it all really. Much as some of us crave novelty and excitement we should, really, be eternally grateful for the mundane.

The chance to be comfortably bored is one of the highest achievements of humanity.

Japan's high suicide rate suggests something else.

A reminder that humanity should allways remain the priority.

And to be thankfull.

Massive respect to the Japanese

This is a lovely piece. Thank you.

@baccalieri Wow, that's quite the jerky, unsympathetic response to a vast disaster.

A thought-provoking piece. Thank you.

One of the workers inside the Fukushima nuclear power station has reportedly sent a message to his family. It says: "Live well. I cannot be home for a while."

yes these are the heroes of humanity there should be cities, boulevard s monuments named after them not only in Japan but across the world.
The Fukushima50 boulevard has a poetic ring to it.

Contrast this with godforsaken be-suited Dilettantes in a Parisian bubble chamber plotting naked aggression in NorthAfrica?

what a world we live in ?

Wow, that's quite the jerky, unsympathetic response to a vast disaster.

Sadly that seems to be pretty much par for the course. I protested ( a bit) yesterday about the personal abuse aimed at the Emperor of Japan on another thread, to no avail.
The courage and dignity of the Japanese people ( which I would expect ) in the face of this monumental and , to us, unimaginable catastrophe has been a moving and humbling experience.

usually cif takes a pop at individuals or nations.

it's good to see that the bravery and selflessness of individuals is being held up. the japanese people as a whole have coped admirably with the tragedies which have beset them.

i'm sure all of us wish them well. i hope there is comfort for the bereaved, that separated families may find those they've lost and that communities will once again be able to come together an rebuild what they have lost.

the fortitude and stoicism of the japanese people are things we could learn from.

Somerledancestor: "The Japanese Dignity politeness cleanliness and Stoic solidarity show what a broken down dirty Rat Race thug hell hole shambles is Britain" Does it? Really? No, we don't have the same cultural norms as Japan, but we're more than functional. I see much, much more cause for pride and contentment than for your dismissal and criticism.

Somerledancestor, it sounds like you've experienced some of the worst that's on offer, but it's sort of uncivil to tell me to "open my eyes". I'm very aware that there is deprivation and unpleasantness - I've lived in some rough areas, and I'm glad I was able to move away. But what I saw there is no more universal than what I've seen in other places. Still, calling a place "kaput" is a great way to give up feeling any responsibility for it.

sarahditum

I wasn't talking about the disaster at all but another aspect of life in Japan. And I stand by my original statement.
The fact that you think being comfortably bored is one of the greatest achievements of humanity and that we should savour banality, domesticity and the mundane, ignores a central problem at the core of the human condition.

Your second post indicates that you're in fact celebrating the banality of life in England. We wouldn't be functional if a tsunami hit the country, triggering a nuclear crisis (and it was snowing too). This pseudo bit of Alan de Botton is probably more jerky than my comment and far more patronising.

But ultimately, we should be able to take everyday things for granted – better that than living in constant anticipation of having our lives swept away.

It's a nice thought - really. But is that right?

So... it's jerky to just be pleased that things work? And you don't see any pleasure to be taken from the everyday, or reason to appreciate security? Likely reasons for Japan's relatively high suicide rate are many: a side effect of a culture that rates responsibility very highly, the stress of living in very crowded cities, the pressures of dramatic changes in cultural norms - these are all things that I believe have been put forward by sociologists, or raised in by Japanese films and fiction as explanations. Not many people would offer "boredom" as a serious response. And if you're not talking about the disaster, maybe your amazing insights into Japanese cultural malaise would be more appropriate somewhere other than the comments to a post *about the disaster*?

Really excellent piece. Maybe the one change I'd have made is to publish it in the culture section because there the theme "that the extraordinary is overrated" would appear even more subversive than it is here. Terrific stuff - thank you.

sarahditum

That's a bit rich. If you presented this piece to someone in the midst of a humanitarian crisis the response would be 'what the fuck'? Or maybe, 'not now.' So my comment was off topic (although not really because you were talking about everyday mundanity) but your piece is six months too soon and maybe even indulgent.

The really astonishing work of humanity is the daily act of getting on,

Reminds me of Zen teaching:

Zen is not some kind of excitement but concentration on our usual everyday routine. Shunryu Suzuki

True spiritual practice is not founded on attainment or on the miraculous, but on seeing life itself as a true miracle. In the words of a Zen master, My magical power and miraculous gift: Drawing water and chopping wood.,

If you understand, things are just as they are; if you do not understand, things are just as they are.

http://www.livinglifefully.com/zensayings.htm

Yes, but how many Japanese bosses and executives take responsiblities by resigning comapred to UK bosses and politicians wait till they had no choice?
10 to nil?

My goodness Sarah Ditum - who are you and what are you doing working at the guardian.

Nearly everything i read in this newspaper has a coating of cynicism or worldly seen it all before snarkiness. It is present in sports reports, through news and culture sections.

"The knockers, the sneerers, the begrudgers, the life-deniers: how I loathe them all in whatever walk of life I find them in. Breathless naivety is not the answer to life’s problems, but a cynical, know-it-all, would-be-wise moaning and carping is a far more loathsome thing, utterly destructive of life and spirit." Simon Barnes

A really good article and response to commentators here
Thank you.

In the USA we don't need a tsunami to make people homeless.

Instead we have banks, which foreclose on the unemployed.

Schweik
19 March 2011 3:23PM

The really astonishing work of humanity is the daily act of getting on,

But surely the meaning of life is lower taxes for the rich and cuts for the needy.

@Sarah Ditum

If you were referring to my comment - at the risk of sounding incredibly pious, I am immensely grateful and pleased for every day, and for every day things. I question whether we have the right to take them for granted.

Britain is functional? yep the shps are open ..but the streets are ahell hole
Ps I remeber the eraly 60s ..today is a sedwer of a society ..

You forgot to mention gangs of Teds with cut-throat razors hidden down their socks, drug pushers hanging outside schools selling uppers to children and the general oppressive nature of the streets, where every day was like sunday and the only time a car was seen parked in the street was when the doctor came to call.

Respect and good wishes to the people of Japan.

The Japanese place a high value on calm and self-possession, it seems. It was very noticeable that the first comment of the PM after the earthquake and in each speech thereafter, as far as I recall, was to remind the people to act calmly and rationally and not to panic. It is the best advice and I am sure that it saved many lives.

I wish them well.

I really, really liked this article.

I love the Japanese people. It just pains me to see them suffer so.

However, notice there are no riots, no looting, no uncooperative neighbors, etc.. It`s complete calm, cooperation, honor, and discipline.

God, I love these people!

Somerledancestor noted

...notice there are no riots, no looting, no uncooperative neighbors, etc.. It`s complete calm, cooperation, honor, and discipline...

Absolutely. The Japanese have been an incredible lesson in true social cohesion. Our people used to be able to do this in England 60 or 70 years ago. Some called it the "Spirit of the Blitz" but is was actually the norm in those days. My parents, uncles and aunts all confirmed that the community spirit was particularly strong in the British working class. Unlike Japan we have seen ongoing mass immigration, determined attacks on our culture and the denigration of our history. This has been overlaid with the failed experiment of multiculturalism and the rich investing in failed financial services. What we see in the brave deeds and calm words of the Japanese would have been our heritage too if the political classes had not betrayed us.

Nice article, although it's a pity the author felt the need to reply to certain posters. Let the piece speak for itself and ignore people trying to get a rise out of others.

The chance to be comfortably bored is one of the highest achievements of humanity.

Absolutely, something that is learned and comes with age, I often say when people ask me what is going on in my life, "Nothing, isn't it great?"

Having been through a few natural disasters, certainly none on the scale of Japan, but have lived without electricity and water for many a day while crews tried to put the area back together, it makes one appreciate the simplicity of water, how utterly fantastic it is to have running water.

thank you sarah

Those rubbishing Britain in this thread might like to watch some Japanese cinema or read some Japanese newspapers sometime to get a better flavour of the country and its people.

Just as we in Britain are not all drunken yobs so not everyone in Japan spends their entire lives in a state of calm, being polite, respectful and tidy.

A nice British schoolgirl trumps a Japanese gangster in the morality, respect and civility stakes. A British nurse, midwife or fireman trumps a Japanese thug in a contribution to society stakes.

"Our people used to be able to do this in England 60 or 70 years ago. Some called it the "Spirit of the Blitz" but is was actually the norm in those days. My parents, uncles and aunts all confirmed that the community spirit was particularly strong in the British working class. Unlike Japan we have seen ongoing mass immigration, determined attacks on our culture and the denigration of our history. This has been overlaid with the failed experiment of multiculturalism and the rich investing in failed financial services. What we see in the brave deeds and calm words of the Japanese would have been our heritage too if the political classes had not betrayed us."

This is such rubbish that it actually makes me angry.

"Our people"...

"Spirit of the Blitz"

I hate to ruin anyone's dreams but the vast majority of British people past and present have never experienced a blitz or flown a spitfire.

But please actually bother to study ww2 on the homefront and pre-war British history before presenting it as a golden era.

"Unlike Japan we have seen ongoing mass immigration, determined attacks on our culture"

Japan have seen massive changes to it's culture since ww2 and in their country the conservatives moan about the modern world just as they do in this country

Japan has it's corrupt politicians and business elite class as well - arguably more historically criminally connected and organised than anything you might find in the UK so let's not put the entire country on a pedestal as another way of pushing the "We've been overrun by immigrants thanks to traitors" meme.

Finally, watching plenty of Japanese pornography and television and consuming some of their popular culture should give British conservatives a better sense that things haven't all gone to pot in this country while everyone in Japan occupies some kind of high-ground we could never possibly aspire to.

There was a horrible thread in the Torygraph the other day following the Ed West piece on Why There Is No Looting in Japan.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/edwest/100079703/why-is-there-no-looting-in-japan/

An irony: people who bang on about how great it is to be British (or worse, how great it is to be English) tend to be the ones who write those kinds of comments.

Just to put our own looters and hoodies into some kind of perspective:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakuza

Because while young Tommy who lives up my road might be a bit of a tearaway who once stole a DVD from WHSmiths and did time in a youth offenders institution for selling some pot he's not actually a member of any thousands strong criminal organisation.

A very timely piece after this past week.

A week in which the everyday for me has become the reading of scores of pleas from residents in Japan for the Western media to stop sensationalizing reality. To stop trying to increase their revenues by twisting the real everyday out of every proportion.

A week in which the everyday has become watching scores of Western reporters treat reality as a mere background to their star-turn. Having to listen to news anchors co-choreograph their tabloid spin with the reporters on location. Or to listen to the reporters pose their leading questions to people on the street, and then hear them take huge liberties in translating and summarizing the answers they get (yes, bbc, I'm referring to you too, it's really not just Sky).

It's not the overlooking of the everyday; it's the belittling of it. Treating it simply as building materials from which to select the elements to create some grand salacious symphony of schadenfreude to keep the audience on the edge of their seats, and on edge.

It's seeing the "a stained Miffy toy" and wondering whether it was simply there, or picked up, handled, and placed "sitting among rubble and trash" by the on-site producer for the benefit of a camera angle.

It's having to watch a film-crew approach an 'unsuspecting Japanese father and son' in a park in Chiba, with a 'sorry to disturb', and the father immediately switch to English and launch into some pre-prepared answer for the benefit of the viewers in Blighty on the supposed panic he should be feeling with regards impending nuclear disaster. It's the everyday, but not as we know. It's definitely not reality tv on this occasion.

It's having to look at a banner in the Guardian that states

"Fukushima Reactor Status Confirmed Dead throughout Japan: 4277 people"

and wonder why we can't even give the dead the dignity of their true cause of death. Or give the Fukushima 50 the dignity of acknowledging that there have been no dead - zero dead - throughout Japan due to the situation at the Fukushima Reactor. But that's not enough of a story, a grand narrative for the media organizations.

I hope this week has been a blip - a Diana moment for the news outlets - and that in time all those involved can look back and feel a little embarrassed at what they did, why they did it, and whose everyday they used to achieve whatever ratings/readership target they had in mind.

It's sad really, the press has really missed a chance this week to tell an amazing story. If they could only have got over themselves and see how people are coping with what has been inflicted upon them, the huge breach of their everyday, and how they've done it with such amazing dignity, we all could have learned something.

The elephant in the room is that 98.5 per cent of the residents of Japan are Japanese.

Huroner
19 March 2011 7:33PM
the elephant in the room is that 98.5 per cent of the residents of Japan are Japanese.

The Furkishima power-plant incident will kill many people of many different races. Nuclear particles and the wind are not discriminating of races or fountries. If the stricken plant is not brought under control many more will die now and later . Moreover it would make an area of Japan uninhabitable for a long time.

People working to avert such a cataclysmic event with the certainty that they will did soon after is the highest act of bravery. To cheapen this with an oblique racist jibe is an affront to decency.

shame on you.

In Japan wealth is not displayed ostentatiously. They also have a very homogeneous population and therefore they see themselves as being on Team Japan rather than us/ them and rich/poor, where most of the dissatisfaction comes from in Western society.

These are the prison populations per 100,000 people in various countries

1. United States...............738
2. Russian Federation...............607
3. Cuba...............487
4. Ukraine...............360
5. Singapore...............350
6. Botswana...............339
7. South Africa...............335
8. Taiwan...............259
9. Thailand...............257
10. United Arab Emirates...............250
11. Poland...............228
12. Israel...............209
13. Libya...............207
14. Iran...............206
15. Mexico...............196
16. Brazil...............191
17. Uzbekistan...............184
18. Lebanon...............168
19. Columbia...............152
20. Argentina...............148
United Kingdom...............145
Spain...............145
Australia...............126
Canada...............107
Italy...............102
Germany...............95
France...............88
Ireland...............78
Sweden...............78
Japan...............62

######## posting above
certainty that they will did =-certainty that they will die
races or fountries. == races or countries.

Wolfstone
19 March 2011 7:51PM
In Japan wealth is not displayed ostentatiously. They also have a very homogeneous population and therefore they see themselves as being on Team Japan rather than us/ them and rich/poor, where most of the dissatisfaction comes from in Western society.

very true
The earning differentials between shop-floor workers and the bosses are much smaller than in places like Britain and the US.

Great news Fukushima50
here: Japan prays for success of Fukushima 50 in fight to save nuclear plant

stupidity to sit around and wait to be told what to do by the authorities in a nuclear fire...

Nuked twice in war and now they've nuked themselves.

Chernobyl undoubtedly made the old soviet system fall sooner than it would have.
It took 500,000 people to only tidy up Chernobyl and put the reactor in a concrete block which needs another one built over that. The monetary and health price is continually rising.

What will this present nuclear disaster in Japan do for the Japanese?

Will it make them heroic enough to get rid of these time bombs?

or will they just repeat the nuclear fetishists mantras and feed people to these monsters?

people talk of these nuclear power stations as if they are going to have to live with them for eternity, most people posting or reading these posts will be dead before the end of this century, so are you all really that concerned or does posting your thoughts here ease the horror that these Japanese people have endured and shown that they can survive and move on. The tsunami must be looked at for what it was a huge natural event that we humans are powerless to stop, it was just pure bad luck that it struck the nuclear power station, that had been sitting there churning out power for nearly forty years. How many people worldwide can honestly sat that they had even heard of it before. I for one think that the people of Japan are an inspiration to the rest of the world, the most endearing image I have seen was of a man carrying his elderly father on his back through a scene of utter desolation. I have no god, but if he has all I can say is 'god bless you mate'
Before we shut off the power let us first control the human tide that is engulfing this wonderful planet before it contaminates evrething.

I've always had enormous respect and admiration for the Japanese people. Like any country Japan has its faults, and I've criticized many of the things theyve done, but you wont find a more polite and disciplined people on earth. If any people can handle the hardships of this situation without losing their heads, its the Japanese people(their government is another matter).

Americans would be at each others throats by now, and the British cant even withstand a mild snowstorm without whining about it like its the end of the world, but the Japanese seem able to withstand almost anything without complaint.

@Somerledancestor

The Japanese Dignity politeness cleanliness and Stoic solidarity
show what a broken down dirty Rat Race thug hell hole shambles is Britain

Oh really? That coming the day after Britons raised £74m during Comic Relief for good causes at home and abroad.

GenitalLectual

The Furkishima power-plant incident will kill many people of many different races.

Fortunately, it doesn't look as if it is going to kill anyone, as the Japanese engineers seem to be getting it under control.

And what on earth do you mean by my 'racist' jibe? My point is that one of the strengths of Japanese society, so clearly demonstrated during this emergency, is their high degree of cultural cohesion and shared values. It is very difficult to imagine other countries behaving with such exemplary calmness and fortitude. Is that controversial?

Huroner
20 March 2011 12:08AM
And what on earth do you mean by my 'racist' jibe? My point is that one of the strengths of Japanese society, so clearly demonstrated during this emergency, is their high degree of cultural cohesion and shared values.

Shared values come from a more equal society. It has little do do with ethnicity which was implied in your remark.

Lots of other 'countries' with multi-ethnic population will show similar calm and fortitude in the face of disaster a priori they are relatively equal societies. I can think of the Armenian earthquake in the USSR a few years ago.

The news we get can be subjectively manipulated to fulfill propaganda goals of the 'newsmakers' also. This is especially so in reportage of third-world disasters. For instance many Caribbean countries have higher hurricane building standards then most parts of the USA. I recall sometime in the 1980's a category 5 hurricane passed over the Caribbean killing a few hundred. It then passed over Florida causing far more damage and deaths. The immediate reportage was about the devastation in these substandard buildings in the Caribbean. The truth about the devastation in the US trickled out much later. There are also incidents of western journalists going to disaster areas in the third world and provoking looting for the TV cameras because it makes a good story which fits the propaganda goals of their employers..

Huroner
20 March 2011 12:08AM
Fortunately, it doesn't look as if it is going to kill anyone, as the Japanese engineers seem to be getting it under control.

I know see my post above. And great news