Thursday, June 23, 2011

Japan Earthquake

The earthquakes shaking the nation's land and souls don't seem to end.

Another earthquake occurred in Japan again this morning near the east coast of Honshu, Japan,the same epicentre as the deadly March 11, 2011 earthquake. With the 6.7 magnitude earthquake, the 75th since the first, another Tsunami could follow and ruin recovery efforts.

I remembered when I first heard about the Tsunami in Japan, I was immediately presented with the number of casualties on Google Search Engine, followed by a video of the devastation. It was the afternoon of March 11, 3 hours after the earthquake occurred. I was sipping mocha tea at Tea.dot, enjoying the bliss after a morning swim.

It's heart wrenching to see the destruction. Words cannot describe my awe for the Japanese as they retained their strong morals and values even during such hopeless times. My heart and respect goes out to the Japanese who took the event in their stride amidst the sorrows; We Singaporeans will not understand the pain. We are blessed with good governance, good economy and a good location free from Natural Disasters. If earthquake were to struck us, would we be like the Japanese, standing united and helping each other, or would we be the likes of the Americans, lamenting their fate?

I don't even know how I would react.

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Are you Male?

@ United Square Starbucks: Woman stares at me, then walks over,

Woman: Hi Sorry. Are you Male?
Me: HUh?! MALE? (*confused)
Woman: Are you MAle?
Me: What?!!! Me? Male?! (*immediate furious.)
Woman: I am looking for my friend. Are you Male?
Me: Oh. No.

For 5 secs of my life I sank into ultimate depression and self denial.