I mean, would Ikeda pass up a chance for some good publicity?
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www.sgi.org]
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In response to the massive earthquake and subsequent tsunamis which devastated parts of northern Japan on March 11, the Soka Gakkai central emergency communications center at the Soka Gakkai Headquarters in Tokyo is coordinating closely with local emergency centers set up by Soka Gakkai in the prefectures concerned to gather information, contact those in affected areas and initiate relief efforts.
Soka Gakkai members continue to visit accessible areas to check on people's whereabouts and well-being, offering support and helping those in need of shelter find accommodation.
Soka Gakkai community centers throughout the affected region have been opened to provide accommodation and food for the public, including seven in the worst-hit Miyagi prefecture where Sendai city is located.
The Soka Gakkai Tohoku Culture Center in Sendai is now the regional emergency coordination center for the organization's relief efforts. Around 600 people spent the night there on March 11 and from 6:30am on the following morning,
breakfast prepared by volunteers who worked through the night was served. Snacks and donuts were provided for children.The center has a large parking lot that has been made available to local fire stations. Twenty fire trucks are now parked there and continue to engage in fighting the fires which are still breaking out.
The Soka Gakkai Headquarters, as well as Soka Gakkai members in Yamagata prefecture and the Shinetsu and Kansai areas, have sent trucks containing relief supplies such as water, blankets, food, stove burners and portable toilets.
Youth members in Yamagata prefecture on the northwestern coast, which experienced relatively little damage, collected food and beverages including bananas, sausages and tea, as well as nutritional supplements and medicine, and drove trucks carrying these supplies to Sendai, arriving at the Tohoku Culture Center at around 2am on March 12, after driving for over four hours.Mr. Akihiko Morishima, regional leader of Soka Gakkai in Miyagi prefecture, commented, "We are so grateful for the encouragement and support we are receiving from throughout Japan and around the world. Now we are working hard to rescue the survivors. Here we pride ourselves on our 'indomitable spirit,' so no matter what the circumstances, we will not be defeated. We are putting all our energy into transforming this terrible situation."
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Most of the relief work is going to be done by volunteers, SGI members, as it always is -- Ikeda taking the credit. With SGI's wealth, they can certainly afford some bananas and doughnuts, but I bet the members probably put in their own money to buy those things, too. And letting the firemen park the firetrucks in the SGI center's parking lot, that's hardly costing SGI anything -- but SGI will milk this for all the good PR that they can get.
I have the greatest respect for those individual SGI members who are taking action to help the survivors of this tragedy -- those people who are cooking in the shelters, collecting money and supplies for those in the affected areas. It's just irritating to see Ikeda take all the credit, and there must be many nonSGI groups and individuals who are helping out too.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/14/2011 02:37AM by tsukimoto.