By now many of you have probably heard that Bobby Fischer has been granted citizenship by the government of Iceland and should be well on his way there. This was accomplished through a special act of the Icelandic parliament, sponsored by a Mr. Saemundur Palsson, who have the following comment to the press, “I hope that he will stop cursing the Americans now. It has gotten him into so much trouble.” Unfortunately, Mr. Fischer was not quite so sensible. The NYT quotes him as saying, “This was not an arrest, it was a kidnapping cooked up by Bush and Koizumi. They are war criminals – they should both be hung.”

Bobby Fischer is of course the former world chess champion, on the run from US authorities for playing a chess match in a country which no longer exists in violation of economic sanctions. Despite actually being Jewish, he became a rabid anti-Semite and after years of hiding resurfaced as a caller to radio programs in Iceland and the Phillipines ranting about how fantastic it was that the World Trade Center had been destroyed and calling for the extermination of the Jew-infested US Empire (his sentiment of course, not mine).

More information on Bobby Fischer, as well as links to recordings of some of his insane radio interviews can be found here.

Considering how his bizarre anti-Semitism, I was curious how this attitude might fit into the general perception of Jews in Iceland, and after a little research found this article, which is very likely the best word on the topic on the entire Internet. I would like to quote from the conclusion:

However, one cannot say that Iceland was a case of “antisemitism without Jews”. Iceland’s antisemitism first appeared concerning the Bolshevik connection, but only in small measures. It was not until the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Germany that Icelandic antisemitism became transparent. The anti-communism elements in Iceland, most notably the newspapers Morgunblaðið and Vísir, showed considerable antisemitism, especially when the persecutions in Germany became more visible. After the Kristallnacht the existing support for Germany decreased, and vanished almost completely after the Russo-German pact of 1939. Consequently, criticism of the German antisemitism inflated and antisemitic remarks receded.
Iceland’s Jewish policy was in most ways similar to these of other Nordic countries. However, what differed was Hermann Jónasson’s lack of flexibility while, on the other hand, other Nordic governments allowed proportionally more Jewish immigration on humanitarian grounds. On the total, it seems that Iceland took much less part in the rescue of German Jewry than most, if not all, European countries, contrary to Jónasson’s statement of the opposite. Although the general Icelander was usually friendly and compassionate towards the Jewish refugees, the Government showed a totally different attitude.

Anyone interested should read the entire paper.

最近はGREEを友達に紹介してもらってハマってる。GREEとは、自分の母校や友達や趣味を登録することで、その友達の友達や同じ趣味の人のプロフィールを見て連絡することもでき、人脈をどんどん広げていくためのサイトである。例えば、「ワシントンに住んだことがある」と検索したらなんと「この人知ってる！」って人の画像がいっぱい出てきた。日本で出会った懐かしい仲間たちを見つけるのが楽しい（まだ一人しか見つかってないが）。やってみたい方は招待が必要なので、ぜひ俺に頼んでください。

A friend recently turned me on to GREE, a kind of Japanese Friendster. Like Friendster, you can use the site to register friends, hobbies, alma maters (almas mater?) or whatever. Another great feature is that it lets you run your blog’s RSS feed through the site, which I have done. You need an invitation to join, so anyone who’s lived in Japan, reads Japanese reasonably well, and wants an invite can feel free to ask me for one. Enjoy!

Danwei reports that Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series is finally being published in Chinese, and in honor of this the Beijing News has put out a special science fiction issue. In addition to articles on Chinese language SF, they have also managed to get an interview with the man himself, (English translationthe first he has given since passing away in 1992.

Isaac Asimov passed away on 6 April 1992, so to be able to conduct this interview we must thank a scientist named Vikkor Mallansohn – according to Asimov’s novel [The End of Eternity] he invents something in the 24th century that makes a “time kettle” possible.

Among the highlights of the interview is this exchange on the much discussed Al Qaeda connection. It’s worth noting here that (according, again, to Danwei), both ‘Al Qaeda’ and ‘Foundation’ are translated the same in Chinese (基地)

TBN: What a terrible reader. Reportedly there are people who have examined Bin Laden’s choice to name his terrorist organization “Foundation” (Al Qaeda) and have concluded that it is perhaps because of your influence, that he was a science fiction fan in his youth. What is interesting about this is that you wrote the Foundation under upon the instigation of Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, and many scholars today believe that the United States is a New Roman Empire.

Asimov: I don’t know whether Bin Laden really understands English. “Foundation” (Al Qaeda) does resemble a group exiled from civilization, but they are at a lower level rather than a higher one. The US is unquestionably the most powerful country today, but I have a hard time determining whether it is in a process of decline akin to that in Foundation. This is perhaps the mystique of history; we can learn lessons and gain inspiration from similar historical situations. But I must point out that the “Empire” in my novels is not a country, but rather a description of a stage in the progression of the people of Earth. You can see that personal names are of all different types, not merely American.

The Ansible website has a good (if somewhat tongue in cheek)article on this theorized connection.

The small but alarming coincidence is that this is Asimov’s “Foundation” series (Seldon’s outfit is called the Foundation), allegedly popular among Arabic-speaking SF readers under its translated name Al Qaeda. Usually rendered into English as The Base, this also means The Foundation.

So, was Osama bin Laden inspired by Asimov’s fiction to establish his Al-Qaeda in an impoverished country, there to await and assist the fall of the West, issuing portentous videotapes the while?

Interestingly, while the Al-Qaeda/Foundation link is still a matter of controversy, it is generally accepted that the Foundation trilogy was in fact an inspiration for Shoko Asahara, the founder of the Aum cult responsible for the Tokyo subway sarin gas attacks several years ago.
More on this later when I have time to do some checking.

More Waiwai nonsense:

She thought something was amiss when the doctor told her to strip naked—she only had a painful chest. Still, her physician was one of the most famous in Japan, so she assumed he knew what he was doing.

She even went along when he told her to get on all fours and crawl. And she still didn’t complain when the doctor pulled out a digital camera and began taking photos. But she knew something was really wrong when she wasn’t charged for the examination.

Sadao Tanabe, the renowned cardiologist from posh government-run Bokuto Hospital who probed the young woman, was arrested on March 10, Shukan Jitsuwa (3/31) notes.

“Loads of filthy photos were found on the personal computer seized from the doctor’s home. He’d downloaded most of them from adult sites. But there were also photos of about 20 naked women. They were nearly all in their 20s or 30s and there was about 10 shots of each of them,” a police investigation source tells Shukan Jitsuwa. “The photos were of women standing up, lying down, crawling on all fours. The ones on all fours were most frequent. The cameras were taken at all different angles, from the side, from behind, whatever. I don’t care how famous a doctor he was supposed to have been, I can’t believe he had the temerity to take photos like these.”

Via ZAKZAK:

Hiroshima Prefectural Police announced Mar 18 that their Bosozoku/Youth Crimes Division, which was responsible for controlling the activities of “Bosozoku” or Japanese youth biker gangs, would merge with the Youth Development Division on April 1 to become the new Youth Crimes Division. Most of the gangs have disbanded, creating less of a need to monitor them.

Since installing the Counter-Bosozoku Office in 1994, a Division with the word “Bosozoku” in it will disappear from the Prefectural Police after 11 years.

Bosozoku clashed with riot police in 1999’s Ebisu Matsuri (festival). Since then, a movement to eliminate the Bosozoku came into being, with a Bosozoku Banishment Ordinance and other measures. At the end of last year, membership in Bosozoku had decreased to under one third its peak number (in 1999), 119 people.

My Comment: I knew that Bosozoku were out of style, but at this rate maybe they’ll disappear entirely within a few years.

The Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on March 18 that they will be providing 200 Judo uniforms to the Iraqi Judo Federation. Their stated purpose is:

to promote friendship with Iraqi people and to deepen their understanding about Japan and also strengthen their hope toward the future through Judo, which is one of the national sports of Japan that place importance on the spiritual side.

This is in addition to the $91,000 of judo and soccer (football for you non-Americans) equipment that they donated to Iraq just short of one year ago.

Apparently judo has a sizable presence in Iraq, with over 25,000 members in their national judo federation, and it seems that the sport is taken quite seriously there. According to this article on one Iraqi Olympic athlete (in another sport):

Iraq’s judo champion, who will carry the national flag at the opening ceremony, and his coach were once incarcerated in Uday’s private dungeons after performing below expectations.)

The BBC reports that:

A chewing gum which the makers say can help enhance the size, shape and tone of the breasts has proved to be a big hit in Japan.

B2Up says its Bust-Up gum, when chewed three or four times a day, can also help improve circulation, reduce stress and fight ageing.

Japundit brings us a translation of a kooky ad I saw on my trip. It’s a clever ad in that it appears to invite people to imagine how great learning English could be while in reality doing the imagining for them:

If I could speak English, I would . . .

Read the rest over at Japundit or NEOMARXISME. We can’t make these up folks!