The
Country That I Know As Japan
Japan, as many people perceive, is the most
technologically advanced country in the world. For many Filipinos, especially
the older ones, the Japanese are considered the models of discipline.
I have been one of the few fortunate Bosconians who was
able to travel to Japan via the Salesio
Polytechnic of Tokyo Exchange Student Program. I had a glimpse of how
advanced and beautiful that country is currently. The environment is as clean
as it gets and the technology well advanced than what I’m used to.
Of course, I can only compare to what I know. I lived in
the Philippines my whole life and that trip to Japan was my first
out-of-the-country experience. I do not want to compare and criticize my home country
to that of a foreign one like Japan, but I have to say, there are certainly
some better aspects of living there relative to what we have here.
Lesson
Defined At Its Finest
Last Monday’s film viewing of a documentary entitled Japan's Lessons on the Economy and the
Environment: Our Pollution Experience certainly opened my eyes on a few new
things.
I used to think that Japan has always been the model that it is now since the start of time. However, I was gravely mistaken, dead wrong. After watching that documentary, it shocked me to know that it was only recently (a few decades ago), that Japan went through various challenges, fallen down, and tried desperately to get back up.
Focusing too much on improving their economy, they hurt
their environment to its worst and by reaction affecting the health and lives
of many of the Japanese natives. There was an outbreak of various serious
diseases that seemed like the payback of Mother Earth for what was then the
foolish ignorant Japanese.
Do not be mistaken that my regard for the Japanese went
down, in fact it went up to an all-time high. They were able to remedy their
problem in what I believe was a hopeless situation. Finding the right balance
on economy and environment was key to their success and it is showing right now
at this moment of time.
Hope
for Us
Looking at our situation now, pollution is definitely
getting worse. It may not be as worse as what Japan had experienced before but
will we really wait for those things to happen? For the lives of many to be
taken away by the revenge of our environment?
Surely, the time to act is right now. If we don’t then we
have a perfect example of what our road will lead to and it is not a pretty
sight. There is hope for us, if the Japanese did what they did, then I will be
going out of my way and say that we can do it better. Rise up and become the
number one environmental country, Philippines!
