On 26th March, 2011, I switched off all the lights in my house exactly on 8.30 pm after the prime time news but the TV was still on, fan was on, it was a very hot night even though it was pouring for the past few days but the temperature can soar when there is no rain. I walked out from my house and noticed that my housing areas remained as bright as the every other previous night and apparently not many people care about observing the earth hour in the area that I stay.
Lights were off in my house but everything else remained on. TV was on, fan was on, and computer was on. It was then TVBS of Channel 317 reporting news on the aftermaths of the catastrophe earthquake, tsunami and radioactive disaster in Japan. It was already more than 2 weeks since the 9 magnitude earthquake struck at off-coast Sendai and the authority was still unable to confirm the actual number of life casualty but for sure it will be very high and the hope is slim to discover any survivor on those missing ones.
Our TV channels are not reporting as many news on the earthquake since it has been more than 2 weeks after the incident but through ASTRO, the Taiwanese TV channels are still broadcasting the news almost every day. Perhaps earthquake is not that important to this country which is out from the Pacific Ring of Fire, not as important as the sex video scandal, not as important as the Sarawak state election maybe.
It was on the TVBS that I saw a piece of news reporting on a Japanese man who was still looking for his missing wife and daughter almost every day since the March, 11. This seemingly wore down and fatigue guy, with a face full of beard which was not shaved for many days, carrying a photo of his missing wife and daughter, going place to place, searching through the wreckages in his Tsunami-destroyed housing areas, looking for persons who are dearest to him the most. And he was carrying such a beautiful photo of his wife and daughter, both smiling broadly, perhaps it was the happiest moment in their life, a small family, a beautiful wife and a young and adoring daughter.
This man could barely hold his tears when he told the reporters that he would not give up on searching for his missing wife and daughter. Everything was gone since the ill-fated 11th March, no more happiness and no more hope. The house was flattened but it can be rebuilt but when the loved ones are gone, it will be gone forever, leaving a deep scar that no time can heal. He realized that he needed a miracle to discover his daughter and wife but still insistence of searching for them as that made him feel slightly better perhaps.
And for the thousands of the surviving victims, they have lost almost everything, their homes, families and their belongings that they took their whole life to build up with. As the man who was cycling through the wreckages of the tsunami-hit village, searching for his wife and daughter, in such dire moment when he knew that his loved ones are gone forever, the rest of the thing is not important any more, no convenience of electricity supplied by the nuclear reactor is also not important anymore.
When I switched on the light on 9.30 p.m, as brightness returned and I could see everything as clear as in a broad day light, it comes to my mind that the earth is in existence of such nature that there are day and night. But as human are forever trying to make the earth, a comfy place for their life, they need electricity to turn darkness into brightness at night.
As the conventional means of churning out electricity can no longer cope with the exponential increase in human population, many countries have opted to nuclear power to satisfy the increasing need for electricity to light up the metropolitans and mobilize bullet trains, and everything seems so beautifully planned and executed until a natural disaster strikes, the nuclear power plants that are made to provide mankind comfort and conveniences, out of the sudden, become a weapon that killing thousands and thousands of people and causing massive damage to the environment.
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