Living life: Calmness in Distress

From an industrial colossus to a mass of jumbled mess has been the quickest of transformations for Japan, courtesy of Mother Nature. In a spectacular manner we saw as the calmness of Japanese modern state of almost clock existence take many knocks form the powers beyond human capacity, a historically strong earthquake in the ‘ring of fire’ followed by a spectacularly gigantic tsunami which reduced ships and long bridges to children’s playthings. As if it is not enough, we were treated to apocalyptic scenario of a nuclear station throwing up explosions, radiation and the potential of the ultimate nuclear disaster. You probably do not want to hear more bad news. But in there, Japan throws up some good lessons. Think if Sendai had been in Africa – chaotic wailing, total failure of emergency response systems, add to superstitions or overzealous religious prophesies of doom, I don’t even want to think about it. The Japanese have been outstandingly clam about it. You would never know that Japan is perhaps the only country to face the full brunt of what a nuclear disaster can be – in the atomic bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Looking at the nation’s official crisis spokesman, the chief cabinet secretary talking about how the nuclear crisis was under control is in stark contrast to the plumes of dangerous smoke swirling in the air about the plant every time another explosion goes off, the whole world watching in bated breath. In Japan’s worst of times, we learn one important tenet of living life – that in times of trouble, it does not help to panic hysterically, start a finger pointing competition or just run off to cry a bucket of tears. None of those help but instead worsen the crisis. The first thing when such disaster happens is carrying out damage control – to limit further damage due to the crisis, find out the real cause of the problem and make sure it never happens again. Then, you can be free to slay who you feel is responsible for it. This does not only apply to large scale natural disasters, nut to crisis at the work place or in homes as well as personal problems. Managing a crisis is one way of dealing with problems that makes you who you are. Remember the success of a man is not measured by how high a man rises to but how he endures the lowest of moments – in times of challenges, crises or problems. I wish you an assertive Sunday! kelviod@yahoo.com