Category: Environment
Self-reflection – Mid-January 2023
Although it’s only been 16 days since the inception of 2023, this year has already taught me a lot – what can a year do for you? And think about the real potential of your life. Isn’t it exciting to realize that you’re always one decision away from a totally different life? It’s too early to leave the game – doubt your doubts and trust your journey. Everything will be okay. …
The End of Unsustainable Picture-Perfection on SNS
Ever wondered why we sometimes drive ourselves to post our picture-perfect photos on SNS while everyone else does the same? Don’t you think it’s time to reaccess how we interact with the Internet and social media in the age of global uncertainty? The picture-perfectionism seen on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok is no longer morally sustainable since the world we live in today is challenged by unprecedented levels of existential threat to humanity. It’s time to reaccess how we should interact with the world and each other. …
Find Your Own Swahili
“The Swahili word safari means journey, it has nothing to do with animals, someone ‘on safari’ is just away and unobtainable and out of touch.” ― Paul Theroux, Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Cape Town Hujambo! This means ‘How are you?’ in Swahili. Yes, you’ve read it right. It’s Swahili. Swahili is a lingua franka of the African Great Lakes region and many other areas of the continent. The exact number of Swahili speakers remains unknown, but estimately there are 50 to 100 million speakers all across Africa. Today, I’d like to use Swahili as a metaphor to discuss the true essence of learning. So, why do I …
2020: A Year in Review
“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” ― Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning So, here we are. This is the very last day of 2020. As we’re all waving goodbyes to the year, we can remind ourselves that we endured a rollercoaster of a year full of global phenomenons, including wide-scale bushfires in Australia and California, the Black Lives Matter movement, and needless to mention, Coronavirus’s global pandemic. Existential. No word could match what we witnessed this year. Not only what 2020 brought us all was existential to humanity, it was also existential to democracy and freedom of speech. …
Existential
“There is scarcely any passion without struggle.” ― Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays “The next year will be a wonderful year,” I told my friend, Wilson, when we parted at Shibuya station. Wilson is a good friend of mine, whom I met only a couple of weeks ago. He’s an Asian American and spent the last six years in Japan as an English teacher. That was December 29th, only three days away from the end of 2019. Personally, 2019 was a heavy year. Job change, struggle, love, and regrets. Like many other years, I have been through a lot. But the silver lining is that it …
Our Generation’s Responsibility
“Men argue. Nature acts.” ― Voltaire Global Warming is real. Despite Trump’s ignorant remarks about climate change, it is happening in the global context. On July 25, 1933, a temperature exceeding 40 degrees was recorded for the first time in history in Yamagata as high as 40.8 degrees. Caused by a phenomenon called “foehn wind” in which wind from over the bordering mountain ranges in Niigata was transformed into hot air as it blew down into the plains. The record remained unbroken for 74 years, until Tajimi, Gifu experienced a record high of 40.9 degrees on August 16, 2007. And these were surpassed, in turn, on August 10, 2013, when …