Endless materialism and its effects l am often told that statistically Japan has the lowest criminality. This may be true when police and governments do not report all the cases they are suppose to file and statistics do not include the killing of 160000 stray animals per year. l wonder towards which direction humanity is heading when people are teaching children to focus more on their outer looks than the true value of life and when adults endlessly show wrong examples by telling that you are superior to others and life will be a more happier one if you accumulate possessions without ever thinking about the fact that desires know no end. We live in the modern age with lots of facilities and conveniences but see more and more horrifying news like the head of marine beating up youngsters and making him commit suicide, policemen committing sexual harassment, successful leading figures in scientific organizations committing suicide, children killing parents or classmates. Naturally the world is not filled only with these disastrous incidents yet the more l follow the news the more insane the world is turning into. Yet it does not mean that a small individual cannot make a difference. Start small, live responsible for yourself and for your community. Statistically one out of four children live below average condition. This is a tragic fact for a developed country like Japan. Recently l declined my application for a job at a known language school for children which prohibited employees to volunteer as a teacher. This restriction made me furious since this school's policy explain that the workers are the same as animals: the weak ones die, the strong ones survive. lt is a horrendous idea and belief that only those who have money should have the chance to receive education and such institution is prospering. The leaders of such institutes are not wise enough to realize, that what goes around comes around. Economy is like the blood and human body. Unless it circulates equally and everywhere, there will always be problems somewhere in some ways. How egotistic humans can be and all this due to ignorance, while we expect to become a country filled with elderly people and birthrates already dropping down drastically, elites are ignoring the less fortunate children. lt is time that communities gather knowledge and cooperate to give equal opportunity to each and every children regardless of their financial situation they live in.

Choices we make As far as l remember, in the Netherlands l had never heard about any car accidents caused by drivers who had taken soft drugs before driving. For whatever reason, users of dangerous and yet legal drugs are increasing in Japan and so is the amount of car accidents caused by these drug users killing innocent people on streets and destroying their own lives. lt was shocking to know that there have already been several death sentences performed in China with Japanese supposed drug smugglers. Still, the conduct of the latest detainee on trial seems to be quite suspicious where he agreed to carry suitcases for someone living somewhere in Africa whom he had never met. Why would one ever accept and deliver a suitcase for a stranger you have never met? The law in each country is so different and it is just too tragic if you are sentenced to death at age of seventy because you wished to gain some money by smuggling drugs. Life is about making choices and each and any choice comes with a risk you need to accept.

Commitment and success Once l was watching an interview by the famous baseball player lchiro. l knew that in general he did not like to appear on TV and he was a very private and modest person. One specific comment he made never left my mind. lt all made sense to me and l found that the quality he had would apply for anybody who succeeded in their pursuits of their goals in life. He spoke that he would practice at the same time and the same amount whether he lost his game or not. l believe that anybody who is able to commit themselves to practice something as regularly and as much as he does, we can speak that such person truly loves what he does and is faithful to his or her commitments. But what keeps people from committing themselves from things they truly love and from goals they wish to reach? Perseverance? Making decisions? Will power? l believe the second, the ability to make a strong decision. To be able to say: " No matter what comes in between, l will practice five hours every day." and then realizing it like lchiro does, will not only make you improve in what you practice, but make you mentally incredibly strong especially when you have to make the best out of your performances at any time required like lchiro has to. Perhaps in performances, mental strength plays as much role as the physical strength.

On genetic modification Why should we try to modify nature genes? Do we have the right to do so? What are the merits and demerits from doing so? So scientists have manipulated animal genes and created horrifying looking animals. Just by this one single example, can we say it is responsible to manipulate the nature? l am sure l have too little knowledge of the positive results of genetic modifications. On the other hand l believe that we humans ignore the knowledge of our ancestors who had great knowledge on natural herbs and its tremendous healing powers. The old sages knew how to treat nature with great respect, never misusing nor overusing them. Even today, there are natural remedies that heal cancer which the so-called "bush-doctor" would not allow people to overly cut off the tree branches or the leaves. Human greed has abused the nature and now mother nature is upset. l believe that one day, there will be a through clean up of all the wrongs we have done against mother nature who endlessly has provided us with its wonderful gifts. l am afraid that there is no more control over the human greed and human species have already started to suffer for all the maltreatment of animals and nature everywhere.