Jan 2008 Newsletter: Pangaea ring - Ms. Keiko Yamamoto
I'm Keiko Yamamoto, a journalist with NHK. Upon joining NHK in 1995,
I first worked for the city news department in Tokyo, where I was in
charge of reporting on MEXT and so on, then transferred to Nagoya in
August, last year. I have been on maternity leave since last December
(The baby is due on January 28th!) My first encounter with Pangaea goes back to the summer of 2003, when I received an e-mail from one of my female friends, Yuri Ozaki, an entrepreneur. Her e-mail expressed her huge excitement about "the meeting with an amazing lady who happened to sit next to me on the plane." Her e-mail continued, "She is Japanese, a researcher at MIT and she has a plan of creating the bond between the children all over the world through internet. We hit it off with each other and drank off all the plum-wine available!" Reading Yuri's e-mail, I had an urge to meet the lady and that is how I met Yumi, the president of Pangaea. Yumi's principles, motivated by 9.11, such as "to make the best use of the most advanced technology of the world for the world peace not for the war" and in order for the best result, "to be based in Japan" instead of in the States, were fascinating to me.
As a journalist, I took it on as my mission to introduce Pangaea
by media. Besides broadcasting the program on Pangaea on air,
I have also had the privilege of welcoming Yumi as the lecturer to
the study group that I host for the female journalists called
"Baratoge". Yumi and I have been in touch all this time.
The conflicts, poverty, global-warming and countless other problems exist in the current world. For those problems to be resolved, it is inevitable for us to possess a good sense of imagination and empathy to feel "what if I were in that position", and in order for the good sense of imagination and empathy, it is the key for us to have the sense of bonding with each other. What Pangaea is materializing is not so much "If the World Were a Village of 100 People" but "If the World Were One School, One Class". Those children who are bonded through Pangaea will take the news of the world not just as "somebody else's problem" but as "something that is affecting my own friends" which will lead the children to be more active in looking for things they can do on their part as a "global citizen". As a part of the media, I would hope to continue supporting and recording the activity of Pangaea by means of reporting.
Keiko Yamamoto
Write
r Nagoya branch News Department
NHK
The conflicts, poverty, global-warming and countless other problems exist in the current world. For those problems to be resolved, it is inevitable for us to possess a good sense of imagination and empathy to feel "what if I were in that position", and in order for the good sense of imagination and empathy, it is the key for us to have the sense of bonding with each other. What Pangaea is materializing is not so much "If the World Were a Village of 100 People" but "If the World Were One School, One Class". Those children who are bonded through Pangaea will take the news of the world not just as "somebody else's problem" but as "something that is affecting my own friends" which will lead the children to be more active in looking for things they can do on their part as a "global citizen". As a part of the media, I would hope to continue supporting and recording the activity of Pangaea by means of reporting.
Keiko Yamamoto
Write
r Nagoya branch News Department
NHK
Posted by: kumakinoko | 3. Newsletter , 4. Pangaea Ring
