Infant Mortality

The percentage of children who die before they reach school age.

A new teacher who comes from Nepal gave us two speeches at last party. It was really interesting, especially it in Japanese.
I looked Nepal up in my encyclopedia. I've been to India about 10 years ago.
I supposed Nepal and India have something in common.
In explanation of nations, there are some items, the population, the size of country, the religion, the capital, the race, the official language, the average life span, and so on.
I didn't know that one of the items is "Infant Mortality".
I was really shocked, because Nepal's infant of mortality rate is 83%.
If 10 babies are born, only two of them can grow up to be a man/woman.
If 10 parents give baby showers, eight of their feelings of happiness will fade away.
I think 83% is a cruel number.
The 83% of parents have to feel the extreme of sadness and joy for six yeas.

According to the encyclopedia, Japan's infant of mortality rate was around 30% in the 1960s. My parents often said that they had many more brothers and sisters when they're babies but some of them died in their childhood.
Survivors must have strong life forces.

And I think if there're not the spread of antibiotics and I couldn't take them in my childhood, I might have died.
I'm not a survivor.
I was a infant saved by medicines.

Now, Japan's infant of mortality rate is 3.7%(1997)! According to the encyclopedia, generally, in a nation the birthrate is falling, infant mortality remains a low level.
Though a low level of infant mortality indicates that a nation keeps the public health and medical treatment level high.

Japan is reliable nation, don't you think?

My favorite Js

Long time no see. I just come out of long hibernation.

To Yuko.
I'll write down my impression about 2 CDs of yours.
John Ondrasik.
Why is the band name "The battle for everything"? why is the title of the CD "Five for Fighting"? What does he want to fight against?
I couldn’t understand.
He isn't popular in Japan, is he? But I like this CD. I might buy his CD.
Unfortunately, some CDs which musicians are not popular in Japan don’t have translations of lyrics. "10. The Taste" is like a Japanese pop. I think it might be a right song for Karaoke. I like this song but I can’t understand what he wants to say. (>_<)
When I didn’t go to EAON, I didn’t care the sense of the lyrics. But recently I always become irritated when I can’t get the real meaning of lyrics.
The lyrics are often in conversational English. I enjoy leaning turn of phrases.
John Mayer. His voice seems like a music instrument, a quena ( a recorder of Indio) or an ocarina. When he sings at a slow tempo, I feel his voice is deep and sacred. But when he sings at a fast tempo, his voice gets hoarse. Playing the quena at a fast tempo, its tone will get hoarse too.
I like "Message In a Bottle" in this CD. The sound of his voice rings out (in the ocean?). I think his voice is suited for this song’s tempo. This song is a Police’s song. I went to the Sting concert in this January and he sang "Message In a Bottle".
This John Mayer’s CD is a live recording. That’s why he was likely to be out of tune and he sometimes changed the tempo. These sound like a live recording. I like this atmosphere.
But Sting’s live performance was too perfect. Any trifling error didn’t happen. So I felt I was just like watching a video disc. I always look forward to happening something when I go to a live show. But it was too perfect.
By the way, don’t you know "Closing your eyes" by Yumi Arai? (too old?) She is not in a state of emergency like Sting, but she’ll throw a "Message In a Bottle" into the ocean to let her friends who live far away "the sound of the sea". This is my favorite song.
Oh. I remember the point of this essay was John Mayer.
It’s hard to say...He is really talented for music. But ...It doesn’t suit for my taste. Sorry.
I’ll write about my favorite persons in the movie world who have J in their names maybe next time.
See you later.