Kyle's World

I'm sitting here at work, and I just gotta get something off my back or else I'll be bummed all day. Yesterday I was tod that we'd have a charity collection box out all next week to support the victims of the Niigata earthquake. I was asked if I might say a few words about it. Absolutely. I spoke, rather fast cuz I was nervous, but nonetheless I think I made my point. I called upon the school and my students to open their hearts to the victims of the earthquake. I then pulled out a 5000 Yen bill and put it in the box.
Now those who know me know I don't shy away from charity, you know raise money for cancer and so on. 5000 Yen doesn't seem like much when you consider the thousands of people living outside, in cars or in gyms. It doesn't seem like much when you consider that thousands are still without electricty, hot or even running water. Some of the folks are living on 1 onigiri a day. Many people have died, including the wife and three-year old daughter of a family of 4. 5000 Yen doesn't seem like much.
After I spoke, my principal came out, dropped 1000 Yen in the box, then also talked about the earthquake. Great, 1000 Yen. If that's what you feel like donating, then that's great. Except a couple things bothered me. He spoke of how foreigners have big hearts and are more likely to donate to charity, but that Japanese people were weak at donating to charity. What's that, an excuse for only donating 1000 Yen? That's like me saying that Toyota made cars have a history of breaking down, so I'm not gonna take my Toyota on the road trip. Simply doesn't make sense. He seemed to say to the students, "it's ok if you don't donate so much, after all you are Japanese". Then after coming back to the staff room, he mentioned about how I had donated 5000 Yen. We're having a staff drinking party tonight, and it will cost 5000 Yen a person. I told this to him. My logic was if I can spend 5000 Yen on a drinking party, then surely I could spend 5000 Yen for the people of Niigata. On those lines, if someone can lose 20000-30000 Yen a couple times a week, then surely they could afford 5000 Yen in donations. My principal said that both he and the vice-principal much prefer drinking parties, then my principal admitted that his 1000 Yen was a pity donation. Then they started laughing. I'm sure people in Niigata don't need pity donattions. I don't know, sometimes I really don't get this country or the people who live here. Are they wrong or am I just being preachy? I just realised that I'll probably be in a badmood for the rest of the day.