ジーン先生ってスゴい! 他

Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2011

LIFELINES
Landlords have right of entry ― the roaches don't
By ANGELA JEFFS and KEN JOSEPH JR.


先日有道氏と悶着していたKEN JOSEPH JR氏によるJapan Timesの記事。普通の記事で、役所や関連業界などに質問したりして、在日外国人のために貢献しているのではないだろうか？

同じくJapan Times

Last straw from Arudou
Re: "MOFA gets E for effort in 'with or without U' farce" by Debito Arudou (Just Be Cause, Dec. 7):

Can this guy find anything else about Japan to complain about? Why does The Japan Times keep publishing him?

だよねええええ。
うん、うん、うん。
(*^-゜)vィェィ♪ъ( ゜ー^)イェー♪(○゜ε＾○)v ィェィ♪

I have lived and worked here as an assistant language teacher for 15 years, and I have to ask: If he dislikes Japan and the way things are done here that much, why doesn't he go back to the States?

We've all had to deal with misspellings, misunderstandings and mistakes in our time here, and I imagine that it would be the same no matter what country I lived in other than my native country, the U.S. Converting a family name to katakana is never going to be as precise as one might like, but if it works for the Japanese ― here, in Japan, the country where we chose to live ― we should shut up and deal with it.

I choose to live here because I love this country ― "warts and all," as my grandmother used to say. I choose to live here because it is not the U.S. with all of its needless litigation and senseless acrimony.

I have held my tongue on the issue of Mr. Arudou and his hostility towards Japan for many years now, but I feel that his constant harping about Japan does more harm than good for the cause of foreign residents in Japan ― which, ironically enough, is exactly the opposite of his stated mission in life.

ようやく浸透してきたかな？

When I lived in the States, I worked as a bakery manager for a large grocery store chain. One of my employees was a very good baker who just couldn't get along with anyone. He and I were chatting one day and I asked him why he had worked at so many different bakeries in the course of a 20-year career as a baker.

The guy explained to me that "all of my bosses were jerks." Another gentleman overheard our conversation and asked the guy, "Did you ever consider that the jerks might not have been your bosses?"

I would like Mr. Arudou to consider the same thing. Maybe his problems with people in Japan have less to do with the Japanese and more to do with how he deals with them.

There are two sides to every story. Lighten up, Mr. Arudou. It is a beautiful country full of wonderful people if you would just open your eyes and take a look.

GENE WHEELER
Kakegawa, Shizuoka

ジーン先生ってスゴい!

僭越ながら、なにかありましたら、どうぞ、ご相談下さいませ。m(_ _)m

お金のことは無理ですけど・・・・人種差別反対、日本でハーフの子どもたちがすくすくとそだってくれることを願っております。
もっとも、地域社会の人々とうまくいっているようですから、あまり問題もなさそうですが・・・・
あと、有道グループからの人格攻撃にはくれぐれお気をつけ下さい。


Driver 'claimed racism to avoid paying ticket'


Published on Tue Jan 11 14:58:48 GMT 2011

A Hampshire-based man falsely claimed a traffic warden had racially abused and attacked him in order to avoid a parking ticket, a court has been told.

Ben Hlal had parked on double yellow lines outside a supermarket in Fareham, Hampshire, when he was approached by Andrew Lynch, a civic enforcement officer (CEO) from the local council.

Portsmouth Crown Court heard that Mr Lynch had told the 45 year old that he was parked illegally and would issue him with a parking ticket if he did not move. By the time he returned to the vehicle Hlal, originally from Tunisia but lives in Fareham, had told another CEO that Mr Lynch had racially abused and assaulted him.

Mr Lynch was later arrested and interrogated by police for three hours, and was suspended from his job at Fareham Borough Council while the case was investigated. He was only allowed back to work five weeks later when police decided there was no case to answer.

Mr Lynch told the court: "I went up to the vehicle and said to the driver that he needed to move. At this point he said to me that he was on the phone to the police and that I had assaulted him.

"He said that I had grabbed him around the face and had hit him against his headrest. I said: No I haven't. I stepped back and went to issue a penalty charge notice."

Mr Lynch added: "I was suspended from patrolling, from doing my job. I thought I was going to lose my job."

　駐車違反を逃れようとして、人種差別的な嫌がらせをうけたと虚偽の通報をした、と。UK
ーーーーいけませんなああ、人種差別をネタにこういうことしちゃ。


Those who give freedom of expression a bad name in Finland
Posted on January 9, 2011 by Enrique 11

By Enrique Tessieri

One of the most incredible claims by anti-immigration groups like the True Finns is that they are not allowed to criticize immigrants and Muslims in particular. When they bash and insult minorities they claim that all they are doing is exercising their right to freedom of speech.
I sometimes get really confused when I hear the True Finns and other anti-immigration groups’ reasoning. On the one hand they claim that nobody can criticize immigrants and religious minorities in this country because the law “protects” them. A quick visit to their blogs would, however, reveal another reality.
Let’s get one matter straight: People who have been accepted in our country as legal immigrants or have refugee status are not perceived as a threat by society. If their backgrounds have been rigorously checked and double-checked by the authorities, why do some like far-right groups insist on seeing them as a threat?
When speaking of freedom of speech, there is a big difference if we live in a country where the government abuses human rights. Censorship and self-censorship are never acceptable under such circumstances. Many anti-immigration groups treat and attack immigrants and refugees as if they were despotic regimes. They do so because they don’t have the faintest idea of what it would mean to live in a totalitarian society.
Whenever you hear a True Finn or another candidate of the far-right claim that certain immigrant groups are being protected from their criticism they should take a look at what they say publicly.
What you will see are their blatant and shameful remarks.

　フィンランドでは合法移民も一部の反移民団体から脅威として描写されている、と。

JAN
09
White Power, White Terrorism, White Mainstream
By Jessie

Hate group monitors, including Chip Berlet of Political Research Associates and Mark Potok at the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), have noted the ties Loughner had to white power groups through his posting to various web sites and his YouTube channel. Elise Foley, reporting at the Huffington Post, suggests that Loughner had ties to the American Renaissance, a white nationalist group that operates under a pseudo think tank called the New Century Foundation. Among a number of notions it holds rooted in white supremacy, the American Renaissance is also opposed to the entry of “non-whites” into the United States and supports Arizona’s SB 1070 immigration law. The group is known for its anti-semitism and a number of media outlets have pointed to the fact that Hitler’s Mein Kampf was listed as one of Loughner’s favorite books, leading to questions about whether anti-semitism and anti-immigrant hostility were motives in the shootings. Giffords is the first Jewish U.S. representative to be elected in Arizona (and an opponent of SB 1070) and Gabe Zimmerman, a Giffords aide who was killed in the shooting, was also Jewish. Potok is more circumspect when he observes:

I didn’t see anything that suggested racial, anti-Semitic or anti-immigrant animus in Loughner’s writings. Certainly, there’s nothing I saw at all reminiscent of American Renaissance, which focuses heavily on the alleged intellectual and psychological inferiority of black people. At this early stage, I think Loughner is probably best described as a mentally ill or unstable person who was influenced by the rhetoric and demonizing propaganda around him. Ideology may not explain why he allegedly killed, but it could help explain how he selected his target.
One thing that seems clear is that Giffords … was the nearest and most obvious representative of “the government” that Loughner could find. Another is that he likely absorbed some of his anger from the vitriolic political atmosphere in the United States in general and Arizona in particular.

　米銃乱射犯人についてである。現段階でたいしたことはいえないかもしれないが、

　”白人”至上主義者、反移民などの団体と関係はあった。しかし、
　それが直接の動機ではない。もっとも、
　アメリカ、特にアリゾナで、こうした事件の促進するような政治的な雰囲気があった、

　とも言われる。これについては、

OP-ED COLUMNIST
Climate of Hate
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: January 9, 2011

When you heard the terrible news from Arizona, were you completely surprised? Or were you, at some level, expecting something like this atrocity to happen?
ghts on this article.
Read All Comments (22) »
Put me in the latter category. I’ve had a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach ever since the final stages of the 2008campaign. I remembered the upsurge in political hatred after Bill Clinton’s election in 1992 ― an upsurge that culminated in the Oklahoma City bombing. And you could see, just by watching the crowds at McCain-Palin rallies, that it was ready to happen again. The Department of Homeland Security reached the same conclusion: in April 2009 an internal report warned that right-wing extremism was on the rise, with a growing potential for violence

Conservatives denounced that report. But there has, in fact, been a rising tide of threats and vandalism aimed at elected officials, including both Judge John Roll, who was killed Saturday, and Representative Gabrielle Giffords. One of these days, someone was bound to take it to the next level. And now someone has.

It’s true that the shooter in Arizona appears to have been mentally troubled. But that doesn’t mean that his act can or should be treated as an isolated event, having nothing to do with the national climate.

Where’s that toxic rhetoric coming from? Let’s not make a false pretense of balance: it’s coming, overwhelmingly, from the right. It’s hard to imagine a Democratic member of Congress urging constituents to be “armed and dangerous” without being ostracized; but Representative Michele Bachmann, who did just that, is a rising star in the G.O.P.

And there’s a huge contrast in the media. Listen to Rachel Maddow or Keith Olbermann, and you’ll hear a lot of caustic remarks and mockery aimed at Republicans. But you won’t hear jokes about shooting government officials or beheading a journalist at The Washington Post. Listen to Glenn Beck or Bill O’Reilly, and you will.

　via mozu

経済学者のクルーグマンなども同意見のようだ。

　最初の記事では、

While lots of liberal bloggers have picked up this white-terrorism meme, there is almost nothing in the mainstream media about the whiteness of this suspect. The white mainstream is already framing this shooting as the act of a crazed, lone gunman, rather than part of a consistent pattern of right-wing violence perpetrated almost exclusively by white men who are responding to a political climate that is increasingly stoked by vitriolic rhetoric.

　メディアの２重基準について指摘している。

　これが例えば、犯人がイスラム教徒なら、犯人をテロリスト、イスラム教徒全体がなんらかの形で非難の的になるだろうに、今回は、大手のメディアは、犯人をテロリストともしないし、”白人”全体の右翼暴力的な傾向について云々することもない、というわけだろう。

因みに、今回の事件
現場の女性が、交換中の弾倉奪う…米銃乱射
ということで、


Woman Wrestled Fresh Ammo Clip From Tucson Shooter as He Tried to Reload
Patricia Maisch Hailed as One of the Heroes Who Stopped Tucson Slaughter

48 comments By KEVIN DOLAK and JUSTIN WEAVER
TUCSON, Ariz. Jan. 9, 2011
みると、ごく普通の年配のおばちゃん。




で、こっちはおばちゃんになる前の成人になりたての女性
晴れの日、ハプニングにも笑顔

式場を出た途端、強い風にあおられる新成人たち（１０日午後、東京・墨田区で）＝松本剛撮影
　１０日昼過ぎ、東京・錦糸町では、墨田区の成人式を終えた着物姿の女性たちが、式場のホールから高架上の歩道に出た途端、折からの強風にあおられ、振り袖が派手に舞い上がった。

　しかし晴れやかな笑顔はそのまま。仲間と記念写真に納まっていた。

（2011年1月10日21時57分 読売新聞）

　若いということはいいことですな。光陰矢の如しですぞ。
　風に吹かれる着物というのもなんかいいね。


米中、軍事交流強化へ　国防相合意　年内に新指針

2011年1月10日
　この動き事態は悪くはない。米中の緊張緩和は望ましいが、しかし、日本の対中外交で、米国は後ろ盾になるより、なだめ役になる、ということになるかな？

US-China move to mend military ties
Defence chiefs make first strategy agreement in years, marking an end to suspended military ties between the two powers.
Last Modified: 10 Jan 2011

When asked if China would eventually become a threat to US supremacy, Richard Bitzinger, a senior fellow at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, told Al Jazeera that China "is going to start asserting itself and become more aggressive".

"Certainly not to crowd out the US but to equal the US as a power to be reckon with," he said.

　アルジャ。中国は米国を押しのけはしないが、米国と等しい勢力をもち、より、強引になっていくであろう、、というシンガポールの大学の研究員の予想を紹介している。
　だろうね。

【主張】中国の核　疑念を残す「先制不使用」
2011.1.11

日本が直視すべきは、中国核ミサイルが日本に照準を合わせていることだ。米国防総省がまとめた「中国の軍事力」によると、日本を射程内に収める中距離核弾道ミサイルは１００基前後に上る。
　核兵器を先制使用しないとの中国の宣言に、日本の平和と安全を委ねるのは危うすぎる。日本に対する「核の傘」が機能しているかどうかの検証こそ求められる。

で、検証したら機能していない、ということだったらどうするの？
主流のメディアは、見たくない、知りたくないものは見ない、という方針じゃなかったのかな？

で、その日本。

消費税「１７％」衆院の優位性確保し「ねじれ解消」－経済同友会提言
2011.1.11 20:40
　

経済同友会は１１日、消費税率を平成２９年度に１７％まで段階的に引き上げて基礎年金や地方自治の安定財源を確保するほか、衆院の優位性を確保し、ねじれ国会による政策の停滞を防ぐことなどを柱にした提言「２０２０（平成３２）年の日本創生」を発表した。桜井正光代表幹事は「提言を土台に議論を進め、国民が納得できる国の形を作ってほしい」と訴えた。
　提言は、少子高齢化や新興国の台頭といった日本を取り巻く環境の変化にもかかわらず、「政治は問題の解決を先送りしている」と指摘した。その上で、政府に対し、消費税率を１７％まで引き上げて１０％分を年金財源に充て、国民の将来不安を払拭すべきだとした。並行して成長戦略に取り組めば、３１年度には基礎的財政収支の黒字化が可能とも試算した。
　消費税率の５％程度は地方財政に充てると同時に、３０年度に現在の都道府県を廃止して全国を１１～１２の道州と東京特別州に分ける「地域主権型道州制」を導入し、地方自治を拡充する。さらに、首相直属の「国家戦略本部」を設置し、国の役割を経済財政や外交、安全保障などの重要政策に絞るよう提言した。
　政策本位の政治を目指し、衆参の議決が異なる場合の衆院の再議決要件を現在の「３分の２」から「過半数」に緩和する国会改革も提唱した。提言は、高い技術力など日本の「強み」を生かす経営や、女性や高齢者の活用で企業が成長を牽引（けんいん）することも求めた。

　これはいいんじゃないかね。
ただ、その前提として、行政改革、また、議員定数の大幅削減などの象徴的な行為をしないと、国民は納得しない、とおもう。
朝日社説

2011年1月11日（火）付印刷

国境を越える若者―アジア支える大学教育を

これはどうかなああ？
まず、日本の大学でちょこっと英語の授業をしたからといって頭よくならんと思うけどな。

学校で早い時期に、日本語で、賛否はどっちでもいいから、議論の当・不当を論拠とともに吟味する訓練をしたらどうかな？

日本人学生の場合、あと自分が言いたいことがあるか、どうか、が問題で、文法・語法の正誤についてちまちまやるのは二の次にすべきだ。



Suspect in Texas Serial Rapes Is Prison Employee
Texas authorities say suspect in rapes that terrified elderly women is prison employee
The Associated Press
Post a Comment EDNA, Texas January 10, 2011 (AP)

連続レイプ犯の職業は看守だった、と。

Half a Million Rape Kits Not Tested
Victims speak out against unprocessed rape kits throughout the country.

レイプされても、レイプの証拠を残すレイプキットは使われていない、場合が多い、と。