Electrical Outages and Influenza
(Original in Japanese)

Motoharu Fuchikawa
(Age 10, Japan <Living in India>)
New Delhi Japanese School

“Hurry up and close it!”

My mother reminded me sharply. Oh no, I’ve done it again. I hurriedly close the fridge. Habits from Japan die hard and I do it time and again. I’m living in India because of my father’s work and electrical outages happen all the time here. Food goes off if the outage exceeds four hours so I understand why my mother gets upset. From her perspective, opening the fridge during an outage is outrageously mischievous.

In Japan, where electrical outages seldom occur, I took having a constant electricity supply for granted. It wasn’t until I moved to India that I understood the convenience of refrigerators and the value of electricity. I have always used large quantities of electricity without giving it a second thought, but in India, I learned that many poor people can’t afford to use much electricity and others don’t even own electrical appliances. In other words, in India, there are lots of people who lead healthy and active lives without the advantages of science, even in urban areas. People can live without the use of technology!

Science develops over time and things that were impossible long ago are now possible. Consider air conditioning and food preservation, for example. Appliances such as washing machines and irons make many peoples’ lives easier, and televisions keep us entertained. Such technologies are useful when available. Science is a necessity for me now. However, many things aren’t really necessary for people to live as humans. Poor people in India get by without using these technologies. Perhaps, just as I will never travel in space, there are certain extravagant aspects of science that normal people never encounter. I suppose it can’t be helped that rich people use certain technologies that poor people can’t. Technologies can make rich people’s life more convenient and enjoyable. People who can’t benefit from them may be a little jealous, but they still live with vitality. That is the way of the world. However, there is one technology that should not discriminate between those who have access and those who do not, and that is medical technology. This is because medical technology affects people’s lives, and whether they live or die. Medical technology is a field of science that should be equally available to both the rich and the poor. This year, there has been an outbreak of a new type of influenza, and my mother said, “Influenza is frightening, but we’ll be okay if we get a vaccine.”

However, I think that’s easy for us to say because we are Japanese. Everyone in the world should be given a vaccine. I’ve heard the vaccine is still under development, but when there are made, I think they should be distributed to everyone equally. It is not right that rich people are helped and poor people aren’t. We are all human beings so our lives are all of the same value. To be equally useful for all people—I think the beauty of science lies in this aspect of fairness. There are benefits of science that remain inaccessible to some people, but without a doubt, we also need some beautiful aspects that are accessible to all.

I haven’t got a definite dream for the future, but I would like to become either a scientist who confronts fearful diseases such as new types of influenza, or to do a job that enables me to distribute new technologies fairly to the people who need them.