Nearly a year ago, a disastrous series of earthquakes, a massive tsunami and a nuclear meltdown ravaged the Tohoku area of Japan, killing nearly 20000 people and injuring over 6000 others, as well as engendering massive economic losses – estimated to be US$235 billion – making it one of the most expensive natural disasters in world history.
Having experienced the disaster first-hand and its nihilism-inducing aftermath, I know that a handful of foreigners living in Fukushima at the time, including myself, had it hard. Not from the lack of food, electricity, running water or internet – but rather from having to put up with the constant, juvenile, and just fucking scandalous efforts by a handful of shithead expats to co-opt the pain and loss of others for their own self-aggrandizement online and off.
“He couldn’t possibly be talking about me,” you tell yourself, ignoring all the bullshit facebook albums you posted highlighting that one fucking day you went out to scavenge clean up the strewn belongings of a gutted home near the coast – likely fueled only by a dubious cocktail of guilt and the desire to embellish your online profile. Some didn’t even bring work gloves or appropriate clothes, but they sure as shit brought their cameras. Assholes.
I remember this one girl showing up when we went down to a disaster area to help shovel a shit ton of sand out of an acquaintance’s property. Aside from the intelligent human beings dressed in coveralls, there was a dyed-blonde IN SANDALS who came hours late, with a flaccid beer gut immodestly creeping out a club halter top, asking if we needed any help – but in a obviating way, secretly hoping no doubt that we would tell her that we had shit covered so she could go home and prepare for another night of gorging tequila flavoured cocks in one of Ageha’s men’s rooms. At least she wasn’t like one teacher, who left the country for nearly 6 months, only to return as though nothing happened. I wonder how many months of pay she received for her hiatus.
This gratuitous self-promotion could be seen miles away, too. Nearly 100km away, some puerile d-bag dressed head to toe in played-out designer fashions visited a nearby school (being used as an evacuation area), presumably with the intention to land a photo in the local newspaper and look like some pseudo-local hero. Big fucking deal. The very next day, scans of the article are on facebook for all to admire, with these gemlike quotes: “I stayed for the kids,” and “Although you can’t see the heart, you can see its consideration for others,” in Japanese. That last one copied almost directly from a shitty AC commercial they were playing non-stop on TV. BARF!
The foreign media was way worse, publishing any and all information they could get their hands on, like flies on a pile of shit. I know of at least one dickhead expat that got ostracized pretty badly after being “misquoted” in the Australian news, saying that conditions were so dire that had his friend not driven him to the airport, he would have knocked the guy out and stolen his car. Needless to say, his “friend” wasn’t too happy about that. Fuck the media, asking just about any Joe Nobody with a computer and 10 fingers to report on the conditions in Fukushima as though a bunch of early-20s who jumped ship the very next day after the disaster would know anything about the conditions at ground zero or the state of the Daiichi plant.
While some of us were busting our asses every single day carrying all kinds of shit to the dump site by truck, shoveling mountains of sand, heaving mold-covered tatamis, helping out local business owners/friends, etc. wah wah wah, we had to come home to this kind of whack-as-fuck digital identity management from a bunch of asshat pussies miles away, all showered and eager to spend some of that ill-gained social capital. Forget about the disaster, that kind of shit is way harder to stomach.
There were thousands of amazing volunteers all over Tohoku - they didn’t get any special media coverage, they didn’t whore themselves on mixi or whatever digital identity micromanagement circle jerk site out there. They weren’t really heroes either, to be honest. They were just real dudes, hard as fuck and just looking to help without expecting any special thanks or attention or showers of gratitude and adulation. They didn’t do it to boost their egos, or to chisel another accolade on their digital selves. They didn’t do it just to tell their friends and family, "Yeah, I was down there last week helping out the tsunami victims." Bullshit. How easy it is to get lost in one's own self-delusions!
*flush*
No comments:
Post a Comment