Blindness

Early in the morning today, an earthquake struck the Ishikawa prefecture on mainland Japan. One person died and many were injured, while I was sleeping off my hangover here in okinawa, completely oblivious of the rest of the world.

And I would have remained ignorant had I not by chance cmailed my friend, whom I had not spoken to in a long time. He lives in the same prefecture where it occured. He told me about the earthquake and how it affected the shinkansen and bus service, and he could not get to Osaka - his destination, a funeral. More than a strange coincidence, it was a rude shock to me living life complacently on this sunny island, partying with friends and drinking. Not only did I not know what was going on in Japan, I was so cutoff that I did not know any major news of India, and I had no idea what was happening in the rest of the world, apart from the U.S. and whatever news concerned U.S. foreign policy (Thanks to AFN - American Forces Network)

I switched from "Everyone Loves Raymond" on the AFN channel to see what NHK was reporting, and to my pleasant surprize, the Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka was being wrapped up. Sumo is one of my favourite sports to watch, and todays matches beat whatever I'd seen before. The yokozuna Asahoryu lost to a fellow Mongolian ozeki Hakuho in a swift and sudden victory with the crowds going wild tossing their cushion in uproar.

This has been an eyeopener indeed. I have been living a blinkered life, forgeting "if you can see, look; if you can look, observe."