There seems to be at least one odd man pundit in any country’s expat community.

Over The Peking Duck,the China blog a few days ago.The moderator had opened a thread on a guy named Phillip J.Cunningham a frequent CCTV commenter who had recently written an article furiously condemning Mia Fallow on International Herald Tribune.(The reason,she bashed my beloved China and hurt the pride of billions by connecting marginal topic like Durfur.That bitch!)He’s been known for defending China occasionary in human rights field and condemned American hypocricy.
Hundreds of posters rushed to the thread and the moderator eventually shut down the whole thread.Something I really hoped I could join in.So I can understand why JJ wants to chime in to this long end conversation of ours even what he writes totally derails context and lacks content.

The news Cunningham got a job as the professor in media study at Doshinsya and coming back from the retired home of disgruntled ex-Japan hand,the Thailand last year gave me a dizziness.(the professors there have such a warped idea on media even Noam Chomsky sounds like Rupert Murdoch)
This is a man with a philosophy that CCTV is practicing more journalism while NHK airs propaganda(he used to work for NHK back in the early 90’s for joint project with CCTV called China NOW,a nightmarish Chinese propaganda) and writes repeatedly China has more open and free media environment than Japan (because there are huge and lively bootleg VCD market in China while Japan has kisya club)And now he is teaching Sino-Japanese media and it’s implication to bilateral relation in Kyoto….
I don’t hate him entirely since he did write a jolly book which was also his debut as a writer that mysteriously disappeared from his bio called “Insert Please異国の肌に群がったTOKYO女事情”.

Got a go.Must do the laundry.

Yes, we have better things to do with our lives than re-start threads that finished a year ago.

“I, as many others here will agree, don’t think the Thai work ethic will change much any time soon”

So your interjection into this long-finished debate is that you think Thais are on CPT?

Anyway, I got down to Bryce’s post, my mind went numb and was unable to read I further, but I just wanted to reply to this bit:

‘I wonder how many of those Thais that constitute a charming daily spectacle for Kerr, and who are probably on the average Thai wage – or lower – would agree with him. I wonder if the women on the river who serve him his daily snacks wouldn’t prefer to live in an albeit smaller but modern Japanese-style apartment and be on the Japanese average wage and the opportunity to go overseas for a few days every couple of years than live day to day in a shack with no hot running water. I’m sure many of them would trade that for the privilege of watching large white men sipping expensive hot drinks and reading the foreign press in exclusive establishments designed to cater for tourists. Even if they did have to put up with hayfever.

Doesn’t that say something about Japanese modernisation vis-a-vis the alternative?’

I think your missing a point. I think most of those women would agree, although their inherent ‘Thainess’ would likely have them not really much give a shit to really try one way or the other. Think about that. And then thing about ‘modernisation’ and all it entails. Their attitude, which Thais are renowned for, might be replaced with a lifestyle spiked with stress-induced pangs of acid-indigestion.

I’m not taking sides one way or the other here.

Thailand is a highly corrupt country though, and I do feel terrible for the hard-working ladies here who struggle day in day out to make $150-200/month. And here’s our dilemma.

He did find the house but he also turned his back on it, and now after a few years away has become interested in it again.

the 2 current staffers at the project are not by any mean fans of alex or clones, personally kerr winds me up, but what can you do, the man is like a monstrously brainy child with a temprament to match…

First off, that infamous scene in Bangkok. Quite aside from the ‘Foreigner Concession’ aspect of it that has already been touched on, the hotel he is at, the Oriental, is frequently rated among the very top if not the very top hotel in Asia: of course it’s going to have all these wonderful perks and international things. Compare apples with apples please – not with mice.

Another bugbear is the frequent rants about all the concreting of Japan’s rivers. Kerr seems to think that’s only done in order to have somewhere to PUT all this pork-barrel concrete. But Japanese rivers are short and steep: they have a historical tendency to flood very often. All these dams and raised embankments are there to stop that. The slathering of concrete barriers over mountains is there to stop massive landslips and even worse. While I certainly do not deny the existence and even general extent of pork, it’s not all just to spend money.

I would loathe Kyoto station a lot less if the architect didn’t try and fool us into thinking it was based on traditional Japanese architectural styles. There’s a signboard to that extent on the viewing deck, or was last I was up there. One of my uni profs said it reminded him most of the Yamato (from the tracks side).... Whatever else it is though, I wouldn’t call it ‘baroque’ myself. But I think even the nicer parts of Kyoto are rather over-hyped myself. However there are some decent corners, and there is a very definite preservation movement (not led by Kerr though) that even takes care of its Meiji-Taisho era western-style buildings.

Those old Japanese houses that Kerr loves (and to be honest so do I – suitably restored) were condemned even by prewar urban planning experts – the rise of the ‘bunka jutaku’ was in direct response to the old dirty dark and generally unhealthy machiya of the common folk.

I suppose I respect Kerr’s passion and his ideals, but – rather like Debito – I don’t always agree with his specific arguments and methods. I’d much rather hear about what Japanese are doing about this issue (and there are a lot of concerned people out there) than some token gaijin who can’t understand why people don’t all want to live in unheated uninsulated dimly-lit wooden houses with no sewers. Frankly I think Kerr likes Bang kok for the funky roofs the Thais still love to put on everything: hey, it LOOKS authentic man….

But I really got pissed off with Kerr when he described Japan as arguably one of the world’s ugliest countries. Okay, it may not be Prague or Vienna or Venice set in Middle-Earth, but if it is ugly (and much of it is) it is the ugliness of wealth, not poverty. I’d prefer to live in say Kamagasaki in Osaka than a Thai slum any day.

And for what’s worth, I loath Kyoto tower, but I think that the bizarre and baroque Kyoto Station is wonderful. Whatever you say about Kyoto Station, it isn’t a copy of anything.

As for Kyoto, I agree that Kyoto Tower is a blight. However, if you go off the beaten path, you will see many authentic sights, not prepackaged tourist stuff like the “Gion Corner” show. Gion (as in Bryce’s post; Gion may also extend across Shijo northward) and Pontocho (west on Shijo, across the Kamogawa) are still considered geisha (geiko, more properly in Kyoto; the trainees are called maiko) neighborhoods. My otosan’s gilds kimono fabric, and much of his business originates at least indirectly from geiko and maiko, as there is not much call among the general populace for kimono any longer, except for special occasions.

My okaasan’s oneesan is married to a person in the upper reaches of the Japan Highway Public Corp (the tollway authority)...anybody want to talk about ‘roads to nowhere’?