Last Gasp Japan: Dress Harajuku Style

Ok, since Japan's on the way out I thought we should have some fun. In an article on how to recycle your socks (oh, chance miracles of Internet!) I came across this tidbit:

Idea 23. Start a new trend. Wear two socks of different colors. Make sure that each color matches your outfit. It'd probably work well with Harajuku style. Art from the Middle Ages ("Les Tres Riches Heures de Duc du Berry—January") shows that royalty and the neighborhood landowner wore socks or stockings of different colors. They were actually very fashionable.

Isn't this part of westbank's signature style?

Ahoy, Tasties!

Melville should be required reading in Japan. I spied this on the newsfeed, but has anybody seen coverage of the renewed whale hunt in the Japanese press? Would be good for comparison.

Statecraft 101: Sanctions

A Waseda University professor makes an interesting but light call for Japan to wake up to the reality of its current relation with Burma and stop sending mixed signals. I'm curious where you guys fall on the utility of sanctions question. Many nowadays are siding with the soft power argument for continued engagement—the slow play that hopefully leads to openness and reform in repressive regimes. Still others are throwing the divestment and shareholder activism card pretty confidently.

Letter to Bush on Israel-Palestine

It's non sequitur, but I thought westbank et al might be interested in this letter and its signatories.

Robotics

What do you make of the conclusion to this article?

Mr. 10 Percent

on the political dynasties in south asia from japan's point of view


As Jemima Khan commented in Britain's Sunday Telegraph: "It's all totally bogus. Benazir may speak the language of liberalism and look good on Larry King's sofa, but both her terms in office were marked by incompetence, extrajudicial killings and brazen looting of the treasury." She ended by warning, "Make no mistake, Benazir may look the part, but she's as ruthless and conniving as they come--a kleptocrat in a Hermes headscarf."

kleptocrat - i think ms word is going to draw a red squiggly line about 10-15 times throughout my thesis - i fuckin love it.

Tips on English

From the Asahi Times.

Yes, Chairman... MEOW!!!

My, the times they are a-changin' in China. Little Red Book meet little black book. Further reading: Chinese Sexual Culture. Somebody please keep me away from the Mainichi Daily News from now on.

Say THAT five times fast

Bonus if swallow okara same time.

"Chicks dig guys with skills."

I can't tell whether this is beautiful or baffling. The Asahi newspaper is encouraging young people to kick butt in the World Skills Competition and consider careers in manufacturing because it's "what the nation's economy stands on." When will robots demand entry to this contest I wonder.

Edible Tofu Byproduct is "Industrial Waste"

A fertilizer producer got nabbed for dumping 18,000 cubic meters of okara, an edible tofu byproduct, on his company's property. Tofu producers were paying him on the cheap to cart it away. 1. Why is the guy arrested instead of a fine simply levied against the company? 2. The fact that something edible is labeled industrial waste when people are starving seems criminal in and of itself. Thank you Supreme Court of Japan. 3. 18,000 cubic meters of okara would make A LOT of sweet and sour meatballs. [Chef's recommendation: Add black cumin to taste. It cures everything except death.]

The Theme May Be a Challenging One

Good ol' teeth.

US-Japan Relations

This article by a colleague in Tokyo asserts that Japan's importance for the U.S. is waning.

The Emperor as Culture

this is a rather long but facinating article, part historical commentary, part cultural studies, alot of bullshit. you do get a rather interesting perspective on the conservative nationalist right in japan though. im curious as to what you guys make of it.

Mainichi Daily News

This paper is a total tabloid! Check out the rest of the most popular articles in culture/lifestyle.

You can't beat this headline

Diplomacy is a tough game

This in relation to the failure to reauthorize the Indian Ocean refueling mission: "Learning from past experience, the U.S. government apparently decided that high-handed pressure on Japan would produce a contrary result."

The hits just keep rolling in

I don't know what to say.

Unwilling Organ Donations

The really interesting thing about this article is that it is not dealing with people who are "forced" to donate organs for financial reasons, but rather with those who feel obligated to do so because of kinship ties.

Who Was Responsible?

Gosh, you know, I find myself wondering the same thing day after day. I wonder what all of these dessicated American professors will conclude?

Daily Yomiuri

So there is a video up in the world section entitled 'AP Video Window on the World'. It is a two-minute recording in Gaza City of an Hamas shooting. Why is this here, who filmed it, and why do you think that it is only in the English version of the newspaper? It is not given such a prominent position in the Japanese text.

a different moral topography

so everybody flinched when we heard bush talk about the axis of evil - yet few of us have problems with the 'free world' or carving up the world based on the ethics of human rights. so what do you make of Iran's global epistemology?

From the point of view of the lamp...

Evan O'Neil said...
Letting the GINI out of the bottle again, eh? So you've been to this transplendently egalitarian country. Is it paradise on ice? A little koan: If you cite one statistic in a vacuum, is it significant? What about unemployment, alcoholism, suicide, STD pervalence, energy expended per unit of economic output, patent applications per annum? Sorry to be rubbing the lamp so hard on this one, but sometimes the gilt comes off in your hands.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

yeah the GINI's out and it has but one wish - to be taken as a fuckin fragment. its sick of watching livecams of supermarkets and photoblogs be digested as acceptable pieces in the montage that is Iran and wonders why it needs a voodoo ensemble of economic data to validate itself.

you want koan:
if you stare at the GINI long enough, the GINI stares back

A New Idea - Redux

Evan O'Neil said...
I'm all in favor of expanding membership to keep things bubbling. How about we each elect one person?

I love that plan. how about two each since im sure one out of two of our nnominees will bail?

Life Goes On In Tehran

Here's a vivid photo blog from Tehran. Maybe not as voyeuristically compelling as the Bucharest supermarket webcam, but a good look behind the [WARNING: Orientalism impending] veil.

Mehmet's Monthly GINI Report

USA 45
Iran 43

sweeden, the lowest has a rating of 25 - Zimbabwe has one of the worst at 52.

goes to show you that the only people who really suffer when two powers go at it is the poor.

For a definition of the GINI Index - Click on the link.

Satanic Sports? Apparently Not.

Ive been watching this for awhile and can difinitively say that official demonization of the US does not extend to its basketball league. I can also say that the guy nipping articles from the AP also seems to love to Lakers.

Opposition press

Has anyone found any evidence of an opposition press? Iran Daily is my favorite source so far, but it's nothing but a digest of world news sources, with the occasional US critique.

This is beyond scary

Birth Defects Linked to Pollution
Birth defects in Chinese infants have soared nearly 40 percent since 2001, a government report said, and officials linked the rise to China’s worsening environmental degradation.The rate of defects had risen from 104.9 per 10,000 births in 2001, to 145.5 in 2006, affecting nearly one in 10 families, China’s National Population and Family Planning Commission said in a report on its website, reported Reuters.Infants with birth defects now accounted for “about 4 to 6 percent of total births every year,“ the family planning agency said. Of these, 30 percent would die and 40 percent would be “disabled.“The World Health Organization estimates about 3 to 5 percent of children worldwide are born with birth defects.China’s coal-rich northern province of Shanxi, a centre of noxious emissions from large-scale coke and chemical industries, had the highest rate of defects.

Tehran Avenue

Am I the only one who finds this publication baffling? Any article I read, I feel like I'm watching the Matrix on the upside of an acid trip.

A new idea

Hello,

So Mehmet and I were talking last night about the blog, and wanted to throw an idea out. As it is a given that everyone's level of participation will vary throughout this project, it sometimes becomes a truncated conversation. Can we bring several (3 or 4) other people in to expand the range of opinions? We've thought of a few people but please feel free to bring in others. It wouldn't be too helpful to open the site up to as many people as possible; however, it might be more interesting to have 8-10 people involved.

Anyhow, comment away, please.

JT

Since its Halloween and because this Article Rocks

Kissinger: Defender of Israeli hegemony

TEHRAN, Oct. 30 (MNA) - Machiavelli must be turning in his grave with envy to see Henry Alfred Kissinger practicing diplomacy and journalism. Had he been alive, he would have seen how the famous octogenarian American is following him in both letter and spirit.
From 1969 on, he has influenced American policy in a way that Machiavelli could only have dreamed of for his Prince. With his advice, he has striven to make this world unlivable for the poorest nations, and has supported despotic regimes across the globe. His words and deeds worked wonders in Chile, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, East Timor Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay -- and the list goes on....

nationalism through external validation

its something we turks know about...


Noble laureate Pamuk names Rumi as an Iranian poet
TEHRAN, Oct. 28 (MNA) -- The renowned Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk, who won the 2006 Nobel Prize for Literature, has referred to Molana Rumi as an Iranian poet who was influenced by ancient Persian literature.
He told Mehr News Agency that Persian literature has had a great influence on contemporary Turkish poetry.

He noted that he is not fully conversant with the Persian language and that he became familiar with Persian poetry through English and Turkish translations.

my question is this: do you think with this and the foucault piece that there is a sort of philosophical or intellectual renaissance going on in iran at the moment or is it a fluke? i was on an overnight ferry boat from Stokholm to Helsinki a few years back and there was this 20 something thick bearded pony-tailed man drinking what i thought was vodka but what turned out to be apple juice reading a worn out copy of Nietzsche's gay science in farsi. Neither that nor habermas is translated into turkish (but zizek is!)

All about Theory

’Habermas Critical Introduction’ Available Soon
A book about the works of German philosopher JŸrgen Habermas, titled ’Habermas: A Critical Introduction’, has been translated into Persian and will be published by Akhtaran Publications.Compiled by William Outhwaite and translated by Hassan Chavoshian and Leila Joafshani, the book provides a concise introduction to the works of Habermas, an influential philosopher of Frankfurt school, reports ISNA.The 240-page book contains ten chapters dealing with the roots of Habermas’ theory, modernity and philosophy, social relationships and responsibility.Akhtaran Publications will also publish ’Culture and Everyday Life’ written by Andy Bennett and translated by Chavoshian and Joafshani.The 360-page book looks into the views of 21st century thinkers about the manifestations of everyday life and subjects such as the Mass Culture Debate.

Global Energy Redux

Any theories on why the global energy section has entirely to do with alternative fuels?

International Headlines

Under the IRNA's world section are offered headlines from dailies around the world. Today I found Serbia, Malaysia, India and Pakistan. Perhaps a little preview of the weeks to come.

Two more weeks?

There were times when Phileas Fogg fell behind schedule so i ask you, why cant we? Sarah's been trying to find a place to live, ive been trying to get a job, and evan's been trying to get internet. Meanwhile really interesting things are going on in Iran. I propose we add two weeks to this one, and like Phileas, try tomake up for it somewhere later.

Drink Water for Your Children

What? Is this just a problem of translation?

Iran produced over 10.5m tons of petrochemicals in 6 months

This is printed as a source of pride, I'm assuming, whereas I can't remember when I last read an article in a US paper lauding some production figure.

PKK=Terrorists=Foreigners

The hands of the Zionist regime are everywhere, even in the PKK.

40% of World Wants Less Powerful US

“there seems to be increasing support for countries whose rise is not connected in the global imagination with military might“

Asymmetry

Is it me or is that "grenade launcher" a model airplane? For comparison: MQ-1 Predator.

Foucault and Islamic Revolution

Foucault Seminar at Youth Center
two-day seminar on the 20th century French philosopher Michel Foucault will be held as part of a series of discussions titled ’Those Thinking’ at the Youth Thought Center on October 21-22.According to Fars news agency, at the event sponsored by Students Basij (volunteer forces) of Tehran University’s literature and humanities faculties, noted scholars such as Reza Davari-Ardakani, Hossein Kachoeian, Mohammad Reza Rikhtehgaran, Darioush Rahmanian, Hamid Reza Namazi, Mohammad Eivazi, Davoud Firahi and Shahriar Zarshenas, will review the views of the philosopher.Main subjects of discussion at the gathering include ’Review of Foucault’s Thoughts’, ’Foucault and Review of History’, ’Foucault and Society’, ’Foucault and Narration of Death’ and ’Foucault and Islamic Revolution’.The center has so far organized similar seminars on Friedrich Nietzsche and Martin Heidegger, both German philosophers.Foucault (1926-1984) was a French philosopher, historian and sociologist. He is best known for his critical studies of various social institutions, most notably psychiatry, medicine, the human sciences and the prison system.Foucault’s work on power, and the relationships among power, knowledge, and discourse, have been widely discussed and practiced.

Global Energy

I didn't even know about water-powered cell phones. Nor did I know that Friends of the Earth has a world-wide presence.

An auspicious start

Just a teaser...

Time for a Change

Hello everyone,

Three weeks is up. Our next country is Iran, and let's also all weigh in on the three-week time span.

I'll post the newspapers later.

Moribund?

For various reasons it seems we've all lost momentum on Romania. We're nearing the end of our three weeks...should we move on a few days early?

Kafka Grabs DNA

Has anybody else read The Trial? I've seen frequent stories covering DNA in Nine O'Clock. This other publication seems to think they're violating common judicial practice in their pursuit of corrupt officials, giving too much power to the executive branch.

Rockville in Romania, or 'The city grows for you'

The Baneasa Project seems to be a nice bit o' sprawl. You can take the Tur Virtual, and here are some gems from the interview:

On alienation: "You have to be relatively well off to live there, but its more a question of buying into a lifestyle and an ethos, than wanting to get away from everybody."

On transition: "This is something I believe is a reawakening for Romanians—for so many years they were told, 'You go and live there, or there, or there,' and all the accommodation was exactly the same—you kind of gave up on the choices. The only question was whether you would have a three room apartment or a four room apartment."

On post-Xmas commerce: "you have them to keep people coming to the stores during what would technically be a 'fatigue period' for shoppers"

On mentality: "there wasn't really a retail mentality here until a few years ago... I mean, that whole side of capitalist consumerism is only in its infancy here."

They claim the project has environmental motives, but they seem to be environmental in that way suburbs were in the U.S. a long time ago: cars and lawns and the drive for fresh air.

Aside: Does anybody else find themselves reading in a Romanian accent?

UN opening

The interests of France and the U.S., despite their protests to the contrary. are just so provincial. Romania has no problem attending its committee meeting with Iran.

Climate Change, etc.

Has anyone found any articles pertaining to climate change/global warming concerns?

Coalition of the Willing

Romanian soldier's body repatriated.

Beat This Spread

I was reading the Oltchim won the Champions Trophy article and about a paragraph in I realized I had no idea what sport they were talking about.

Romanians win a European handball final

Curious

Which source are you all most hooked on?

EU Parliament Election Looming

Interesting piece on how the Romanians are unmotivated for and unaware of the upcoming europarl elections, which contrasts with their usual political behavior:

To put this into context, Romanian elections are usually a frenzy of lively televised debates; floods of posters, leaflets, ads and volunteers in T-shirts; hurried visits to the villages with bags of flour and promises to peasants—and epic struggles within the parties to get onto the official list of candidates.

Author says nobody wants the plush job, not even Nadia Comaneci. And that low turnout allows the extremes to more easily field candidates.

Shopping

Traffic

Jen:

Is this one article or three? No women in government, no aesthetic sensibility? My memory of Bucharest is loud, big, grey and unforgiving. So far--team--I like the advertisements.

Urban planning

Read it.

Dracula Castle for Sale

Wow. A thirteenth century Teutonic castle built to repel the Ottomans and once occupied by Vlad the Impaler... for 40 million sterling? What a deal. I can't believe the Romanian government actually gave the thing back to the Habsburgs last year.

Romania's international partners

Besides Chile and China, what else do we know of Romania's favorable international relations? Also, how long has the EU been granting 'association agreements' to countries around the world?

JT

The GINI Index

This index measures the degree of inequality in the distribution of family income in a country. The index is calculated from the Lorenz curve, in which cumulative family income is plotted against the number of families arranged from the poorest to the richest. The index is the ratio of (a) the area between a country's Lorenz curve and the 45 degree helping line to (b) the entire triangular area under the 45 degree line. The more nearly equal a country's income distribution, the closer its Lorenz curve to the 45 degree line and the lower its Gini index, e.g., a Scandinavian country with an index of 25. The more unequal a country's income distribution, the farther its Lorenz curve from the 45 degree line and the higher its Gini index, e.g., a Sub-Saharan country with an index of 50. If income were distributed with perfect equality, the Lorenz curve would coincide with the 45 degree line and the index would be zero; if income were distributed with perfect inequality, the Lorenz curve would coincide with the horizontal axis and the right vertical axis and the index would be 100.


Romania's GINI Index -- 28

by comparison:

USA's GINI Index -- 45

outside info

for good basic overview of romania - you can always trust the agency...
ill look around for a good brief synopsis of post-89 politics.

noob question. am i supposed to post this as a comment on jenn's post or a new post?

in Rompres:

click on more at end of page then you get a whole bunch of other articles- like this:

Bucharest, Sept 18 /Rompres/ - Only a wise demographic policy will help us, whereas an ill-chosen one will set on the future generations a burden almost impossible to carry under the projected circumstances, President Traian Basescu stated on Tuesday in Sibiu. Attending the opening of the International Conference on population and development - 'Romania's population - where to ?,' the chief of the state underscored that demography is a vital issue.'For the country's population to keep at the current level, the birth rate should be at least 2 children per woman. (...) The population's decline is so steep that even if we reach measures to increase fertility the population will rise only after 2060. The freedom gained after 1989 is not enough for having children. We also need solidarity and economic and social cohesion,' said Traian Basescu.

Focus?

I'm curious as to what everyone's reading - I've been focusing on world news and politics in the nine o'clock; as for rompress, english readers can only access the front page. I've decoded some world headlines in that, but only spottily.

Is anyone else completely baffled by Romania's internal politics?

Petropolitics Stab at Heart of Romanian Industry

The CEO of Rompetrol, a big Romanian oil company, just sold a 75 percent stake to the Kazakhs for around $2.7 billion, despite the fact that he's charged with money laundering and insider trading in relation to the privatization of that very company. Globalization of the oligarchs?