Sugihara Chiune

Sugihara Chiune:
Japanese consul in Lithuania

A humane spirit…

Kristina: What did he do?

Noriko: It’s an amazing story of exponential leveraging. Sugihara Chiune issued 2193 visas, 6,000 people could escape the Nazis, and today there are 40,000 descendants now alive as a result of those visas.

1940 Sugihara Visa:
Russia to Japan to Curacao

Kristina: It reminds me of the Starfish Story.

_____________

Voice-over

The Starfish Story:

A boy is walking along the beach and he sees thousands of starfish washed up by the tide. The boy sees a man who is throwing the starfish one by one back into the sea. The boy asks, “Why are you doing that, it won’t help, there are thousands of them stranded here.” And the man picks up another starfish and throws it into the water, and says, “Well, it helped THAT one.”

…

Where are you going?

Driving up the dirt road, with her friend Casey, Rachel suddenly sees a very old bent lady walking with a stick. She stops and pushes the old lady into the car.

...

Rachel: Where are you going?

Old lady: [points towards the shops]

Rachel: I’ll drop you at the supermarket. OK?

Old lady: Thank you, thank you.

Later...

Casey: That was a beautiful thing to do.

Rachel: It’s not difficult. She was walking up the road, we were driving up the road, so you stop and put her in the car and take her where she’s going.

Casey: Not everyone would stop.

Rachel: Keep your eyes open. There’s a lot going on we are usually too busy to think about.

___________

Voiceover

Sometimes we are too shy to offer help, or worry that it might cause problems. Casey might be such a person. Hence her admiration for someone like Rachel who acts spontaneously and gets stuck in even when it brings problems. As Rachel says, she tries to help everyone, and even though she gets taken advantage of sometimes, she learns a lot from constantly coming into contact with new people.

Perhaps speaking styles reflect this. There are those who guard what they say, are constantly editing out content. Then there are others who plunge ahead and take care of problems as they arise. Maybe it depends who you are speaking to. It probably pays to be careful of your phrasing when dealing with the police or insurance companies (the former are just waiting for a chance to slam you, and the latter are just waiting for you to slip in an ambiguity so they can slam the door). However, in the conversational arena there’s a lot to be learned when you bump up against people.

...