Category: Current Events

Ancient graffitti from Pompei

I love seeing graffitti in different places, and these translations of ancient Roman graffitti found in the ruins of Pompei are both informative and hilarious. Here’s a random selection from around the middle of the page. Isn’t it amazing how much it’s like what you see scrawled on bathroom walls across the globe even today?

VI.14.36 (Bar of Salvius; over a picture of a woman carrying a pitcher of wine and a drinking goblet); 3494: Whoever wants to serve themselves can go on an drink from the sea.

VI.14.37 (Wood-Working Shop of Potitus): 3498: What a lot of tricks you use to deceive, innkeeper. You sell water but drink unmixed wine

VI.14.43 (atrium of a House of the Large Brothel); 1520: Blondie has taught me to hate dark-haired girls. I shall hat them, if I can, but I wouldn’t mind loving them. Pompeian Venus Fisica wrote this.

VI.15.6 (House of Caesius Valens and Herennius Nardus); 4637: Rufus loves Cornelia Hele

VI.16.15 (atrium of the House of Pinarius); 6842: If anyone does not believe in Venus, they should gaze at my girl friend

VII (House of the Tetrastyle Atrium); 2060: Romula hung out here with Staphylus.

Japundit gets it wrong on MOAG

Japundit is celebrating its comment-generating post about the “controversy” over the Memoirs of a Geisha movie with a victory lap. But really, who cares? The blog, I assure you, is just playing into marketers’ hands.

What no one seems to be mentioning is that putting a Chinese woman in a Japanese role was more than likely an intentional decision by the filmmakers to generate buzz. Or even if the initial casting decision wasn’t made specifically to ruffle feathers, the race mix-up angle has been played up way out of proportion for that reason. It doesn’t take a genius to realize that the race-sensitive Asians and their apologists (at Japundit, MutantFrog.com, or other public forums) would get their panties in a bundle if those ignoramuses in Hollywood confused Japanese and Chinese people, so why not exploit that to get people talking about a movie that would otherwise not be very appealing to an uninitiated audience?

Because realistically, a movie about a “geisha” probably couldn’t sell itself. Enough people in the States are vaguely aware of what a geisha is to the point of it showing up in the dictionary, but are Americans dying to see a tragic tale of star-crossed love between two stiff, unemotional Asians? Most people would understandably say, “Geesha what?” And as we all know, Japan isn’t nearly as sexy as it once was, and with Japan-China tensions being the hot-button issue that they are, a good bit of controversy never hurt anyone.

So when you go see this movie, enjoy — but just remember that your thoughts on race relations, your expectations of artistic authenticity, and all else you hold dear are all being carefully manipulated by well-paid and savvy hucksters.

More boats, please

Quoth the Bloomberg:

Japan’s Coast Guard has sought a 68 percent increase in its budget to buy additional boats and planes to boost patrolling in the East China Sea and Senkaku Islands, the coastal defense agency said in a statement today.

The coast guard plans to spend 24.2 billion yen ($201 million) on new patrol vessels and airplanes and on increasing inspection in the year ending March 2007. Next year’s plans include buying 21 new patrol ships, 3 airplanes and 4 helicopters, the statement released in Tokyo said.

The Sankei newspaper today said the coast guard will spend 350 billion yen during the seven years starting April 2006 to conduct more patrols, including 24-hour monitoring, in the East China Sea and around Okinotorishima Island, the nation’s southernmost island.

Quite a turn considering that the JMSDF has been slowly downsizing over the last decade, thanks to the end of the Cold War and a perceived lack of nearby threats. Assuming this budget increase is approved by the government, it could signal that Japan’s Asia policy is harder than just uncompromising words. They’ve got seaman ship, too!

Lady Goes Crazy on Trading Spouses

Awesome! DARK SIDED!!!

Reminds me of when I went to Baptist services with my friends when I was a kid.

As shocked as I am to see such a misguided and hateful person, I have to admit that it’s a dream of mine to one day appear on television shrieking so violently that I need subtitles to be understood.

Taken from AndrewSullivan.com.

After some thought, I have decided that you can keep reading this blog even if you don’t believe in Jesus.

More Makiko Fujino Hijinks

This is from a little while ago, but whatever:

LDP’s Makiko Fujino under fire after skipping Diet session for talk show

Newly elected Diet member Makiko Fujino has come under fire for skipping a plenary session of the House of Representatives to attend two talk shows in Fukuoka.

Fujino, a food researcher, explained her absence from Thursday’s session by saying she had made a promise to appear in the shows, but some residents remain critical of her actions.

Fujino traveled to Fukuoka on Wednesday evening and on Tuesday afternoon she gave a food-related charity lecture and appeared in a cooking talk show titled “Beautiful Italy,” before returning to Tokyo.

Her appearances resulted in her missing a plenary session of the Lower House, in which the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) presented an explanation of its counterproposal on postal privatization and various parties presented questions over a period of about two hours and 20 minutes.

The 56-year-old Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) member’s secretary defended her actions, saying she had decided to keep a promise.

“One of the shows was a charity effort to build houses in Sri Lanka, which was hit by the tsunami, and she had promised to attend before being elected. She was unable to change the date and fretted over her decision, but in the end she gave preference to keeping her promise,” the secretary said. “She will receive an explanation of the session from another Diet member and bureaucrats once she returns to Tokyo.”
Continue reading More Makiko Fujino Hijinks

Saru to Media: Did you even read Bush’s speech?

“Bush to China: Grant religious, civic freedoms” That’s the headline from a Yomiuri online story today. A quick glance at google news headlines reveals more of the same:

“Bush pushes China over freedoms” (CNN)

“Bush rebukes China on freedom” (MSNBC)

“Bush tells Beijing to model itself on ‘free Taiwan’” (Independent, UK)

And so on, and so on.

Unquestionably, the President’s speech in Kyoto on the 16th was intended to send a message (several, actually) to China and it no, not all of it was soft. Yes, he cited Taiwan as having “created a free and democratic Chinese society.” Yes, he put China in category 2, those “other Asian societies [that] have taken some steps toward freedom.” And yes, he did mention “worshipping without state control” and to “print Bibles and other sacred texts without fear or punishment.” In short, he did allude to some of China’s shortcomings in the area of freedom and democracy and there is little doubt that Beijing heard this loud and clear.

But, his message could have just as easily been interpreted as one of economic determinism – “if you continue economic liberalization, you will have not choice but to become more democratic.”

In this sense, it was more a statement of facts, not of demands:

“In the late 1970s, China’s leaders took a hard look at their country , and they resolved to change. They opened the door to economic development — and today the Chinese people are better fed, better housed, and enjoy better opportunities than they ever have had in their history.”

“As China reforms its economy, its leaders are finding that once the door to freedom is opened even a crack, it can not be closed. As the people of China grow in prosperity, their demands for political freedom will grow as well.”

“…men and women who are allowed to control their own wealth will eventually insist on controlling their own lives and their own future.”

“X” follows “Y.”

As harsh as it got was this suggestion:

“By meeting the legitimate demands of its citizens for freedom and openness, China’s leaders can help their country grow into a modern, prosperous, and confident nation.”

To describe it as “telling” China to become more free, “rebuking it” about a lack of freedom, or even “pushing” it on freedom seems a bit of a stretch to me and it misses the subtlety (and frankly, we should be thankful to see some from this administration) of the speech. Looking at the text, it’s clear that the only things Bush said China “needs to take action to ensure” are the correction of its current account surplus, greater protection of intellectual property rights, and a move towards a flexible, market-based exchange rate system.

Bush even made some concessions to China. After the Taiwan section of the speech, reaffirmed the one China policy. He recognized the “important role China has assumed as host of the six-party talks.” And finally, he closed the speech with a nod to Chinese history, recognizing that they were around a long time before Jefferson and Lincoln.

It could have been a lot worse.

Bush’s NHK Interview

If you weren’t convinced that listening to our President speak in public is like watching a drunk make his way across 32 lanes of fast moving traffic frogger-style, while you stand on the other side watching helplessly, unable to do anything about it, then just read this interview he gave to NHK last week.

He’s just a — well — he’s just a bad speaker. He doesn’t speak well. He’s just — inarticulate — I think that’s what it’s called. And when he talks, it just isn’t — I mean, he just can’t say — he doesn’t really know what he’s talking about.

Frogger

Here are a few of my favorite nuggets:

On Japan’s concern that it might be drawn into U.S. international strategy:

THE PRESIDENT: Well, first of all, Japan makes the decisions that the government thinks is necessary. Japan is, of course, a sovereign nation.

Glad that’s cleared up, but I’m even more glad no one asked him about Taiwan.

On the SDF redeployment:

Q:And will you be urging Prime Minister Koizumi to prolong its deployment period as the mandate expires next month?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I’m aware the mandate does expire.

Oh, well that’s good that you know and all, ’cause y’know, the reporter just told you five seconds ago.

And finally, on beef imports:

Q: Lastly, it has been two years since Japan has banned imports of beef.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes. (Laughter.)

Q: What do you expect?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I understand this is a very — that the — this is a difficult issue. I’m also pleased to see that the food safety commission — I think that’s what it’s called —

Q: Yes.

THE PRESIDENT: — has ruled that U.S. beef is safe. Of course, our cattlemen here believe the beef is safe. I’m more than willing to eat U.S. beef, and do — eat a lot of it. And my point is, is that I hope that the government follows through with the recommendations of the safety commission — or just decides about opening the market and listens to the safety commission because we feel like not only our beef is safe, but it’s an important part of our cattle industry to be able to sell to the Japanese consumer.

Wait a minute, what was your point again?

I feel sorry for whoever had to translate this into Japanese.

Ghosts in Burma

At precisely 6:37 a.m. last Sunday, according to one account – with a shout of “Let’s go!” – a convoy of trucks began a huge, expensive and baffling transfer of the government of Myanmar from the capital to a secret mountain compound 200 miles to the north.

Diplomats and foreign analysts were left groping a week later for an explanation of the unannounced move. In a country as secretive and eccentric as Myanmar, it is a full-time job to try to tease the truth from the swirl of rumors and guesswork, relying on few facts and many theories. (NYT)

Over 1200 years ago, the Japanese Emperor moved his capital from the unfinished Nagaoka-kyo to the site of present day Kyoto to escape from the vengeful ghost of a falsely accused prince. It would seem that Burma’s military government has just done the same thing.

While many experts consider this move to be a strategic relocation to a seat of government from which they can more easily suppress peasant rebellions, the bizarre secrecy and inexplicable suddenness of the move have given rise to two competing theories about the reasons behind the move.

First, like Japan’s Kanmu Emperor, to secure a location more suitable to the channeling of the beneficient energies derived from Chinese geomantic superstitions known as fung-shui.

“Myanmar leaders might have sought astrologers’ advice and believe the move can improve Myanmar’s feng shui [the Chinese belief in energy flows depending on wind and water] of Myanmar” U King said.

“Myanmar leaders are strong believers in feng shui. When Ne Win ruled Myanmar [from the 1960s to the 1980s], he considered relocating the capital for the sake of feng shui,” U King said. (Taipei Times)

Second, to fortify themselves against an imagined attack by the Americans.

Seen from their perspective, the notion of an American invasion might not seem far-fetched. They are a ruling clique of soldiers whose background is jungle warfare and who know little of the outside world.
[…]
In January, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice included Myanmar in a list of “outposts of tyranny,” along with North Korea, Cuba, Iran, Zimbabwe and Belarus.
[…]
“The joke going around is, ‘After diamonds, gold,’ ” he said. In the Burmese language, “sein” – as in Saddam Hussein – means diamonds. “Shwe” – as in Gen. Than Shwe, the leader of the military junta – means gold. (NYT)

Burma’s rulers seem to be spooked by things that go bump in the night, but exactly which ghosts are they so scared of?