Be strong, Japan

The images are shocking. Entire villages are destroyed, totally annihilated from the map. Cars float on water, as if they are toys. The saddest of all are those of the people affected. They have lost everything, maybe some of their loved ones. Their current and future are uncertain.

BUT it is Japan we are talking about here. They are the 3rd largest economy in the world, their buildings are designed to withstand strong Earthquakes, and their people are civilized and prepared for such disasters. If I were to name a country that can recover the quickest from a such a natural catastrophe, it would be Japan without a doubt. The problem is, it is not one, but 3 disasters, that struck almost immediately after the other. The earthquake was strong, but happened offshore, and most buildings were intact. Then there is the tsunami. I don't think any man-made structure can withstand a wave of 10m. And worst of all, all these are followed by the possible nuclear fallout from the power station. The nuclear part of the problem is still a ongoing battle. I wish all the best to the team behind it and you guys are heroes.

There might be some media hype about the radiation level. Rumors are rife that Japanese products are no longer safe, and there have been comparison of this with other nuclear accident. Certainly we cannot dismiss anything to do with a nuclear reaction as a "small thing", but we need to remain in perspective. Risk communication is vital during such crisis to prevent any unnecessary stress and irrational behaviour.

It is a test of unity and resolve. I sincerely hope that everything will be under control soon, and effort to be focused on rebuilding the affected areas, and offer support to the victims. The world is behind you Japan.

It is also very unfortunate that the Pembroke international programme is at this time of the year. The university part of it was cancelled, but the high school one will still go on. It can be a very delicate task to approach them at these time. But I hope they are not too affected by the events back home, and can enjoy their time in Cambridge.

Cambridge Diary XI

Pembroke Mile is an annual charity event held by the college. Like the London marathon, it is a day of funfair. Some people compete for the ultimate prize, while most others just turn up in fancy dresses and attempt to finish the race. Distance wise it is not particular challenging, but coming up with a good costume takes quite some preparation, and winning is not easy.

Matt suggested to me this crazy idea of completing the race as wheelbarrow. It sounded really ridiculous. There is no way that as a pair we can do that for a mile, so I turned it down. He then somehow persuaded Mark to do it with him, and started practicing on Saturday morning. They soon figured out it was quite difficult and instead of quitting, they asked me again if we can do it in the group of 3. I went down to try with them, and it wasn't THAT bad, and we sort of figured out some good ways of holding the crawling person. It was quite embarrassing as we inevitably drew some attention from some friends and a lot of tourists who were in college at that time. They really had a good laugh and definitely thought we were nuts. Even the Master saw us, and seemed unconvinced. At that point, we were not totally sure if it was all worthwhile. Naturally we thought of asking people for donation to our cause, which is a rather common thing here in the UK. That was the last persuasion needed, and I was on the team.

Matt put up some suggestive posters around the college. He also physically "pressured" quite a lot of friends to sign up. By the end of the day, we have around 100 pounds worth of pledges, which was pretty impressive for just one day of fund raising. He had done a really good job.

Then came the impossible task of completing the race itself. We started off really slowly, and had to stop much more frequently then we thought we would. The gloves we bought was torn well before the first 300 meters. However, there were some really supportive people with us and they encouraged us and cheered us along. We were really grateful for their support. We also tried different ways of doing it and just took a small distance at a time, and kept on rotating. My arms were hurting really badly almost right from the start, and I didn't know how I managed to continue to be able to doing all the carrying and crawling. A lot of people and small kids were literally laughing at us. The most difficult part of was the not the crawling but the carrying as there is no natural place to hold on to. I am also the weakest among the team and had to reply quite heavily on Matt and Mark, and somehow by sheer determination, craziness, the tolerance of pain and the thought of all the support we have received, we made it back to the College Hall to be received with applauses. And the free brunch was just awesome!

I would really like to thank everyone who has donated, and encouraged us. To be honest we looked really stupid, but I think it was worth it.

I'm off to collect my bike in the pitch now.