Preserving history

If you've been to Japan, you will see many historical sites, beautiful gardens etc. You will be surprised to see how new things are embraced and harmoniously existing with the old. You will see MacDonald's being everywhere. But take a casual stroll down town and you may ocasionally notice a little shrine sandwiched between high scrapers.

You may snicker at how Japanese people are so fond of everything foreign. Deeper below the surface, you'll see that the Japanese culture is very ingrained in its people. They do seem to import all things from the states. However, they make a stand beyond which they do say NO. No to lousy beef imports. No to any vulgarities. No to American made cars. I really admire this quality of the Japanese people; trying out new things but not at the expense of the culture that they hold dear. Temples and shrines from antiquity are preserved, together with their culture and customs.

In Malaysia, you often hear that old buildings and structures are torn down. Town clocks, old cinema's, places of worship all destroyed in the name of development. There has been so many cases where the voices of people are ignored and the over zealous city hall people come in with their tractors and tear down those structures. But occasionally you do hear happy stories where the authorities listen to the public as the coliseum case in KL. Let's hope that more cultural places will continue to be preserved so that our children and their children may have a glimpse of how their ancestors spend their time before the age of video games or the internet.