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Team Work
by Nao Okamura
Have you ever felt the importance of teamwork? I have. I believe it is very precious.
I noticed the importance of teamwork through the event I experienced when I was in junior
high school. I remember those days with great pleasure.
It was in my third year of junior high school. The sports day was to be held as every year. Each student had to take part in at least one or two races. I was to take part in the "mukade" race and a three-legged rope-skipping race. I did not like sports day, so I was reluctantly preparing for them, but since I was practicing the races with my classmates, I found it very fun. Especially when we could run and skip perfectly, I was very excited. I found myself looking forward to the sports day. The day came. And we won the first prize in the "mukade" race. The result did not matter to me, because I got to know the importance of the process. I learned to know the importance of cooperative work.
It was not a temporary feeling. Two months after the sports day, our class worked very cooperatively in the Cultural Festival in our school. We knew the importance of teamwork. Naturally, we won the grand prix of the festival.
Now I am in the first year at Nishi Senior High School. At the end of the first term, we discussed the Cultural Festival, which is to be held in September in our school. To my regret, it was not an exciting discussion. We managed to decide to give a "flea market" in the festival. I wondered if we would be able to make our festival interesting and meaningful. I think it will be O.K. because I can tell my precious experience in junior high school to my classmates. I believe once we know the importance of cooperation we can make efforts to do something together. I am sure we will be able to cooperate to make our Cultural Festival successful.
Through my experience in junior high school, I learned to have consideration of others and an active mind. We need these things in our society very much. The other day I joined the cleaning campaign on the Kagami River. The young and the old, men and women, various kinds of people worked together to clean the banks of the Kagami River. Picking up cans, I thought; it is consideration to others that a lot of people need to have. At the same time, the campaign led me to think about matters from a global point of view. If all the people in the world recycle cans, bottles and plastic, we could keep the earth more clean and save natural resources.
Everyone is living on the earth together sharing the same time and space. It is a must for human beings to cooperate to keep our planet clean. I'd like to share this feeling with many more people and act together with them.
Everyone is a public servant
by Shoichi Kuwase
What do you think of when you hear the word "public servant"? A five-day work week and a long vacation? Steady and good salary? Promotion by seniority? In these times of recession, people envy public servants, and the young want to follow in their footsteps. Surely public service sounds like an ideal profession. But is this true? No, I don't think so because I know what it is really like.
My father works at the bureau of waterworks. Yes, he is a public servant. But his work is far from ideal. He often works through the night. And especially when a heavy rain warning is issued, he has to go to work wherever he is, whatever he is doing. Do you remember when it rained so heavily this June in Kochi? At that time, he ran around the badly drained parts of the city and prevented the houses from flooding up to the floorboards, not having enough sleep for almost three days. I have seen him work so hard like this since I was little.
My father is not the only public servant who works hard day and night for civilians.
Everyone remembers the Great Hanshin Earthquake in 1995. The disaster killed many people and quite a lot of houses were broken and burned down. In that state of confusion, the staff members of the prefectural office and city hall worked all day so that they could provide people lifelines such as food, clothes and places they could stay. Also it is said that teachers took an important role in giving out relief supplies and maintaining public order among people. Nevertheless, even though they did their best, people never considered it enough because so many people lost their families and houses and they didn't know where to turn their anger or grief to. I just saw them on TV, but it came across that public servants were doing as much as possible to take measures against the situation. It was hard enough that they had to work in such a desperate emergency, but what was hardest was that they also had their families and they might have lost some of them.
Like this, public servants are supposed to work for their people, leaving their family behind whenever they are needed. What an ideal job, don't you think? I said before that the job of public servant is far from an ideal one, but in another way it is, for they can do something for people. You help people, make their lives better, and you get pay. It is a wonderful job, isn't it?
In the future, I'd like to work as a public servant like my father and do something for people. I have not decided what kind of occupation I will pursue, but teaching sounds good. Teachers not only teach children at school but take leadership in the area when some meeting is held or when something like an earthquake happens. So I can serve both children and adults.
Of course you can do something for people if you are not a teacher or a city hall staff member. Look around you, then you will find someone who needs your help. Old people, disabled people, classmates who need friends, parents who need help with houseworkcyou can do something for them. In that sense, everyone is a public servant. Let's start with what we can do. Then the world will become a better place.