It is interesting. Very interesting indeed. An observation that is of people’s behaviour. Although the separation between right from wrong is distance with a wide grey area this is still in my humblest of opinion is hypocrisy.

What I mean is this. My observation started with a little known incident called the Great Tohoku Earthquake or also known as that big huge ass earthquake/tsunami that devastated Japan’s east coast. After that incident many people around the world and especially in my home country rallied to their aid. Collecting food, monetary aid, blankets and the like. I’m not saying its a bad thing. It’s a very good thing to do to help others and I highly encourage it. But then why the fuss? Read on.

Then one day about a month or so we could see many people still hyped up the aid thing by forming organizations and organising events to collect funds and to create awareness. Some of these people were my peers. Just like me they love Japan. Just like me it was because of anime, their music and culture that first spark our interest in Japan. But that is where it stops though. Although it was sad to see what has happen the general public should know that Japan with all of its economic might could and would be able to survive and rebuild even without much foreign aid.

Heck, we actually need more cold hard foreign cash than they do. In fact, Japan received so much in donations they didn’t even really had a system to set up to distribute it. Aid was aplenty but could not get through until the American military had to step in to help deliver it. This highly misplaced motivation to help didn’t really bother me actually until THREE freaking months passed and some groups were STILL at it collecting donations.

First month or so? Fine. After three whole months? You have got to be kidding me. The entire nation of Japan did not get swept into the sea guys. Yes, it is sad that many people still got killed. I felt really sad too. Almost 16,000 people died with thousands more injured or missing.

But lets put things this way, thousands of children are dying of starvation in Somalia due to extreme drought. Where’s the aid campaign? Hundreds of people are dying in the middle east due to political oppression and wars. Where’s the awareness campaign? How about the many natural disaster events that wreak havoc and death in the past year alone before this? I don’t think I see anything much done. Remember Hurricane Katrina? Nothing much too.

Some might argue that “Hey, I like that country so I’ll do what I can. I don’t really care about the others. So I’m gonna let others to handle it.” Yes, that is an acceptable argument but it will never right or wrong. I’m just saying that people need to set their minds to moderation in their actions. If you think that it is REALLY necessary then yes by all means go ahead. If not then just do what you can by your limited contributions. Some events need more of your help and attention than others. Lets try not to be so shallow minded okay? Don’t stop at helping only one person and not the other.

So since now that I have your attention how about we feed some malnourished almost dying child in some part of the world for once or something. Let’s earn some karma points people!

http://www.icrc.org/eng/donations/index.jsp

It was somewhat agonizing physically to me that is on the journey but it wasn’t as bad as Joann who had her entire luggage lost by the airline company. She had to go through almost a week without new clean clothes. Its something nobody has to go through at all.

Being in the United States didn’t really hit until we landed in St.Louis. The situation in San Francisco felt more like being in Singapore than anything else as there were so many Asians around. Felt a bit like home really.

Once arrived at St.Louis Airport we were picked up by our graduate mentors Onur and Jeniffer who drove us 2 hours south of St.Louis to the small city of Carbondale. After checking into our dorms at the Southern Illinois University Carbondale we heard that the Indonesian group were going to be late as some of them were detained in customs and missed their flight. Racial profiling perhaps? Maybe. Gonna talk about this in a later post.

All the Indonesian group finally arrived at about 2am local time though. The first night was cold and I mean freezing cold. It rained a little that night but I think the major problem was with the very cold air conditioning. Shivered like crazy and had to use an extra towel as a blanket. Found out too late in the morning that there was an “off” switch on the said air conditioner though. Dammit.

From left: Fareeza, Farah, Joann, Faizal, Sabina, Ridwan and me.

It has been quite a tiring journey and I’m still having a bit of a jet lag right now. The people here have been great and very friendly. A big difference from the usual antics we have back home. Gonna stop for now.

Next update: Classes and such.

Arriving at Changi we checked in at a transit hotel but because we checked in our bags earlier we cannot collect them unless we leave the transit area pass immigration. The problem was if we went out to collect our bags we cannot go back in as our boarding passes was only allowed to be collected before the flight itself. Due to that really incredible rule I’m now left with the same T-shirt I’ve been wearing the entire day without a change of clothes or even my long sleeve shirt for the long duration flight.

Seriously, WTF???!!!! and FML!. On the bright side, the airport offers free Wifi and the inside of the duty free area looks like a mini shopping mall. Damn the liquor and cigarettes are cheap. So gonna get a few bottles on the way home after this.

Looks like football fever does not stop even the busiest of travelers. There’s a few spots in the airport organised by the airport authorities itself that gives guest an opportunity to watch the World Cup live. A great idea if I do say so myself if  you’re on the go. Thats actually quite considerate of them.

Looking how I do not have anything/anyone to hug to keep the cold away I hope they would give me a blanket soon. Gonna try to stay awake tonight so I can sleep on the plane. Plane departs at 7am and its gonna be a 20 hour flight to St.Louis’s airport. I predict my butt is gonna die and my entertainment supply will only last me for so long. I think I’m gonna dread this journey…I really think so….

Next stop…Narita Airport.

SHE’S COMING!!! SHE’S REALLY COMING!!! *fanboi/gurl screams*

So with the end of that major ‘capslock’ spamming lets get down to the juicy details shall we? Well, if you have been following my blog you might have noticed a few hints i left along the way on who’s coming *cough*YUKI*cough* to DaiCon. If you haven’t then it only means that you have not been following closely enough. Muahahaha…

Ehem…so anyways, she will be performing LIVE for you guys at DaiCon for the first time in South East Asia. Its gonna be quite a number of ‘first times’ and probably a historic moment in the local ACG scene. Well, I DID mention that ’something BIG is coming’ right?

She’ll also be having an autograph session and also a Q&A panel as well. Woot!!!

I’m so gonna be there for this. So hope that this helps to make up your mind up on going or not. Hope to see you there!!!

You can see her video and profile at www.daiconnews.com. Seriously, you should watch the video she sound so cute! XD

*UPDATE*

There will be special event tickets. Details below:

AWSM Tickets = RM 250
- Specially numbered AWSM seats for Miss Chihara Minori’s Q&A Panel on Day 1 and Mini-Concert on Day 2
- ONE Autograph Pass for Miss Chihara Minori’s Autograph Session.

ELITE Tickets = RM 150
- Specially numbers ELITE seats for Miss Chihara Minori’s Q&A Panel on Day 1 and Mini-Concert on Day 2.
- Lucky Draw chance to be upgraded in to AWSM tickets. (limited to 15 people only).

Note: AWSM ticket seating is front of stage while ELITE’s seating is (somewhat)behind AWSM. The Q&A panel session is only for ticket holders.

Early sales will begin at the 1Utama roadshow on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd May at the new-wing.