A simple word to define Japan: GAMBARE

One year ago, March 11, 2011, the nature showed us how powerful it can be. We all know that the force of nature is the most powerful force in the world, but for some reason, sometimes we take it for granted. Although it happens, nobody doubts of its power. But there is one power that will always let us perplexed and amazed - the human strength.

GAMBARE is a Japanese word that besides being very significant to Japanese language, it has been used a lot in this last year.  We could translate it as "force, strength" but it's a little bit more complex, it expresses the Japanese spirit of strength, persistence and courage.

If 2011 was a very hard year to Japan due to the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disasters, we also can say it has been a lesson to the rest of the world about how powerful humans being can be if they still have their hope to make them going on. One year later and 95% of the roads have already been restored or rebuilt. Of course there is a lot of work to be done, as we can see in this site http://noticias.uol.com.br/1-ano-terremoto-no-japao/#sobreviventes, but it also shows that Japanese has done a lot in such little time. And it's amazing! The Japanese attitude facing so hard challenge let us not only amazed but inevitable it also makes us questioning ourselves: could we be able, by ourselves, as a nation, to find this so powerful strength that would lead us to believe that tomorrow could be a better day just because we would built tomorrow to be in this way? Could we accept that it would be a chance to restart and an opportunity of doing it much better? 

Lot of people, mainly in Japan, are going to honor the victims and celebrating the survivors in many ceremonies that will be held all over the world. What could you do to show your respect and pay a tribute to our Japanese brothers and join them today, in this day to be remembered ? By the way, did you know that the largest Japanese community in the world, out of Japan, is settled here, in Brazil? Japanese will have much to do but we know they will accomplish all they need and have to, just because they have this key-ingredient in their personality, they have GAMBARE!