Barthes and the Empire of Signs

Barthes and the Empire of Signs

ポスト構造主義の時期にはいったバルトの「記号の国」を解説した本。７１項ほどの薄さ。
ググると翻訳もでているね。
バルトと記号の帝国
記号の帝国に関するレビューはトム・ギル、「ジャパノロジー入門」資料 第１６回：「ロラン・バルト、『表徴の帝国』」


ポストモダニズムの本質的な洞察として、(他書からだが）

What does a "space" or "clearing" mean in this regard? Originating with Heidegger but taking on numerous other(yet related meanings, the idea is essentially this;reality is not a pregiven monological entity lying around for all to see; rather, various social practices and cultural contexts create an opening or clearing in which various types of subjects and objects can appear. For example, as I would put it, the magic wonder space creates a clearing in which animistic objects can appear;the mythic world space creates a space in with a caring God can appear; ・・・・None of those are simply lying around out there and hitting eyeballs of everybody. There is no single "pregiven world"(the essential insight of postmodernism)
cw 6:Sex, Ecology, Spirituality, 775 in the simple feeling of being 199)

・・・・実在は、誰もが同じように眺めることができる単一の視点から語られる所与の実体ではなく、むしろ、様々な社会的実践や文化的文脈が様々な主体や客体をあらわれる開かれた空間を創造するのである。例えば、魔術的な世界空間では、精霊があらわれ、神話的な世界では、慈愛にみちた神があわれる・・が、こうした世界は誰の目にも同じようにあらわれてアルわけではない。単一な所与の世界などないのである。

　逆にいうと、時代や文脈から独立・超越した世界があり、それを単一の視点から描写できるような言葉があり、それを獲得することが、科学なり哲学なりの伝統的なイメージだったのであるが、そうした企ては無理・無意味なんだ、という自覚がポストモダンの前提になっている、というわけだね。

　じゃあ、ポストモダンになったからといって、科学や思想の主流がポストモダンになったかというと、そうではないわけだが、とにかく、ポストモダンといわれるような人たちはこうした洞察を前提に分派していったとみてよいのではないか、と思う。

　まあ、それはいいとして、

page 39
What does 'reality' look like outside of discourse? How would we access　it　independently of language?

page 41
Because ideology influences perception and therefore the reading and writing of history, instability characterizes the signified-signifier relations posed within its textural representation of culture. Access to the real is deferred



page 19
What Barthes knows about Japan is always already filtered through an 'emptiness of language which constitutes writing.' Meaning is delayed, access to truth prevented .

文脈や対話・対論から独立した実在なんてなんだかわからないし、言葉から独立した実在に接近することもできない。ものの見方や、それゆえ、歴史について読んだり、書いたりすること、もうイデオロギーにつねにすでに汚染されているから、実在や本物を獲得することは、原理的に、常に、先延ばしされる。

As an outsider to Japanese cultures, Barthes must locate himself within the ethnocentrism and cultural blindness of a narrow range of meanings that the image of Japan stimulates in the Western reader.

page 20
Barthes' knowledge of Japan is limited to what has read of its history and seen of its images,either through experience or in the media. The exposure to a Western Archive of texts and images that are call ed 'Japan' establishes myth of Japan as part of Oriental culture as opposed to an Occidental culture. ・・・

page 21
This image　of of 'Japan'---its myth is consequently　an invention of the West. It bears no resemblance to the real Japan. ・・・・・So in one respect, nothing stands behind the empire of signs that Barthes call Japan.
・・・・He therefore chooses to invent Japan、to write a fictional representation which does not have the pretensions of Truth and History as its grounding .

・・・なんていうか・・・例えば、芸能人なんか週刊誌やテレビを通じて知っているわけだが、週刊誌やテレビでの描出にかなり偏向があって、その芸能人のイメージは作りものなわけだ。それと同じようなことが外国人からみる日本についてもいえる。
　で、実際に日本にきて日本について語ろうとしても、その見方、その語る言葉自体が文化の影響というか、レンズを通してしかできない。
　本物の日本に接近することはできない。（著者はそう書いているわけではないが、かといって、日本人ならそれができるか、というとそれもできない。）

page 50
This conceptual opposition repeats what Derrida has called the binary logic of Western metaphysics, in which two items are set in opposition so as to enable their conceptualization ,and thus a gauge their values, though the identification of differences between them.

Barthes acknowledges the limitations of his own perspective. Empire of Sings thereby leaves open the possibility for reassessment.




page 52
Empires of Signs is record of personal experience, a journal of the short trip that Barthes took to a country called Japan. Its significance is in the process of writing as a moment of reflection on the substance of experience, rather than in the truth of the message.

　で、どうしても作られた「西洋」のイメージとの対比での２項対立という極めて西洋的な思考法で、フィクションの「日本」ーーー”本物”の日本の描写する道は（日本人にも）外国人にも閉ざされているーーーを語り、評価してしまうことになるが、バルトはそういった限界もわきまえており、絶えざる再評価が可能である、ということも自覚している、という。ーーーー可能というより、必要なんだろうと思うけど・・・


　実在や本物は本当に接近できないのか、あるいは、それができないとして、我々に突きつけられる現代的問題に対してどうすべきか、などなど様々な問題があるが、少なくとも、

　
　物事・事件・事態のの叙述や評価について、（全面的共約不可能ではないにせよ）それぞれの文化の枠組みがあり、自分の枠組みが他文化でも全面的に通用しているし、通用すべきだ、という素朴な発想は幼稚で、ときに傲慢でさえある、というのは、日本人が外国・外国人をみるとき、外国人が日本・日本人をみるとき重要な視点だと思う。

外国企業に乗っ取られる不安

Dutch fear foreign take overs of utilities

Friday 30 January 2009

Two-thirds of the Dutch population are concerned about Dutch energy firms being taken over by foreign companies according, to a study by Blauw Research.

Almost 90% of those questioned were aware that the country’s two largest power firms, Essent and Nuon, are in the process of being sold off to foreign firms.

Meanwhile, the latest (2007) European Commission survey on nuclear power concludes that almost 25% of the Dutch are positive about increasing this form of energy compared with a European average of 14%, reports Friday’s NRC. dutchnews

http://s03.megalodon.jp/2009-0130-1920-49/www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2009/01/duth_fear_foreign_take_overs_o.php


オランダ　３分の２以上の人がオランダのエネルギー関連企業が外国企業に乗っ取られることを不安に思っている、という。

不法移民と犯罪の報道

<Hispanic Group Alleges Hate Speech on Cable News

・・・・NHMC, a nonprofit LA based media advocacy group, cited a 2007 Media Matters study that concluded that "the alleged connection between illegal immigration and crime" was discussed on 94 episodes of CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight, 66 times on Fox's Bill O'Reilly, and 29 times on Glenn Beck's Headline News show.・・・・魚拓

　不法移民と犯罪との関係に関する嫌疑についての報道が多すぎるということで、アメリカのCNNとFoxテレビが非難されています。
　産経どころではないようですね。

'British jobs for British workers'.

By Nick Britten
Last Updated: 10:04PM GMT 29 Jan 2009

Hundreds of factory workers protested outside one of the country's largest oil refineries against the use of foreign workers on a multi million pound construction project.telegraph魚拓

イギリス
オイルの精製所で外国人労働者を使うな、イギリスの仕事はイギリス人に！！！という大規模な抗議があった、ということです。北アイルランドと違って素直?ですね。

　日本で同じ事があると、日本のゼノフォビアや排他性、後進性、未熟性、島国根性などなど、いきおい日本特殊論として論じられることになるのでしょうが、イギリスでこうした報道があったことで、こうしたことがグローバルな傾向として受け取られることになるでしょう。
　まっ、エゲレスさまですから・・・・


ちなみにこっちはフランスの大規模なデモMassive protests across France

こっちはロシア

”Fuck off we are full"

THE photo fanned fires of outrage across NSW and beyond.

Two Sydney girls and a boy, draped in Australian flags with sketches proclaiming F*** off we're full on their stomachs, celebrating Australia Day with a message of anti-immigrant hostility and smirks on their faces.

Fuck off　we are full「失せろ！オーストラリアは満員。」とでも訳せるのでしょうか、とにかく、移民を排他するがごとき文言を国旗と共に体に書いた、若者が非難を浴びているが、その内の一人の若者がラジオインタビューで、「後悔している、悪気があったわけじゃない」という趣旨の発言をしている。
インタビュー

I’m not racist, I’m just stupid
It would be nice to just laugh at the teenagers behaviour but the power of their message is so much greater than the power of their brains.
news.com.au

単にお馬鹿な若者だったというには、メッセージは度を超えていた、という非難。


ここらへん考えさせられますね。

仮に、政治家からこうした言葉がでれば非難されるのは当然でしょう。

では、私人が、こうした発言を公的な場所でした場合どうか？

オーストラリアのケースは一つの見本を見せていると思います。
つまり、社会全体がこうしたことは是認しませんよ、とはっきり表明している。
これは社会内部からも外部からもわかりやすい。


　日本の場合だったら、どうでしょうか？
　例えば、「支那人は出て行けー」などというプラカードを持った人がかつて日本でもいました。


　例えば、右翼の街宣車なんか、外国人には目立つが、日本人は内心良かれと思っていなくても無視する。
　外から見ると、日本人はこうした活動を是認しているのか、否認しているのかわからない。
しかし、社会が無視しているからこうした活動は決して勢力を持ち得ない。
こうした活動が勢力を持ち得るのは、むしろ、例えば、靖国参拝で激しい抵抗にあうようなとき逆に力を発揮してしまう。だから一概に否定しまえばよいというわけでもない。いわゆる「黙殺」の方が有効な場合もある。


　ただまあ、穏やかな形で、こうしたことは、馬鹿げて失礼ですよ、と表明していくのが、日本の子供たちにも、また外から日本の社会を眺める人にもわかりやすい。また、それは、日本の文化風土には合っているような気もする。


　みなさんはどうお考えでしょうか？

アパルトヘイト

Police Investigate Segregationist Signs at Kennesaw State
January 14, 2009 05:03 PM ET | Alison Go | Permanent Link | Print
Police at Kennesaw State University have no suspects as they investigate two signs placed over Student Center water fountains last month, one that read "whites only" and the other, "blacks only," the Sentinel reports. Discovered on December 9, "the signs bring to mind a painful and oppressive time in our nation's history," said the director of student life. "The person who posted these signs either doesn't know and understand the serious nature of this history or knows and is subjectively and [secretively] expressing contempt for it."
usnews.com

　これ以前紹介したかもしれませんけど、アメリカの学校の水飲み場で、白人専用、黒人専用、と書かれた落書きがあった。で、こうしたことは痛ましい記憶を蘇らせる、というわけです。
　
　人種差別というのはいわば迷信に基づいた、直接間接の不当な弾圧ですけど、しかし、我々日本人も、これは甘くみてはいけない。憎しみの連鎖というか、スパイラルというのは社会に異常な亀裂をもたらすわけです。

　
　痛ましい記憶というのは、例えば、学校に限っていうと、写真は１９５７年で白人専用の学校に入学を許可された黒人が軍隊に保護されて登校したときのものですが、この白人女性の憎悪と侮蔑の顔つきを見て下さい。

　随分昔の話だ、と思う人がいるかもしれませんけど、おじさん、おばさんにとってはつい最近のことです。

で、こうした学校における人種差別はいまでも横行している。アフリカ系アメリカ人の蔑称を用いて、おまいらは、首つって死ね、などという落書きが学校にある。WFMY News 2 - Racism in School（ビデオ）

　こっちはその歴史を扱ったビデオですが、白人が涼む木陰に黒人が行ったら、その木に首をつるロープがかけられた最近ーー数年前のーーー事件など紹介しています。

　あの写真の白人女性の憎悪と蔑視がいまでも一部には続いている。

　で、こうした憎悪と蔑視の目で有色人たる日本人も一部の欧米人から見られている。

　欧米の黒人さんのなかにはそうしたヒエラルキーを無意識に身につけてしまって、自分の肌の色を憎むとともに、一部の欧米優越意識が乗り移ってしまって、日本人を蔑視している、と思えるひともいなくはない。

　
　在日の欧米人の中にも、残念ながらあの写真の白人女性と同じ意識を持っていると思わざる得ない態度をとる人がいないとは言えない。インテリや海外特派員の中にもいます。


　いや、日本人の中には欧米のこうした感覚に迎合してしまって、欧米的中心主義的なレンズから日本を眺めて欧米のポチのように、欧米人の優越意識をくすぐって喜ばすようなことをしている西洋かぶれもいる。


　もっとも、こうしたことを乗り越えて平等意識をもっている人も沢山いる。

　そして、こうした歴史があるからこそ、欧米人のなかには無実な表現に対して過剰反応を起こしたりすることもある。
　

　われわれも人種問題を軽くみてはいけない。
　過剰反応するのも可笑しいが、繊細な問題だけに繊細にあつかっていかなくてはいけない。


　例えば、学校で言えば、

　肌の色や顔の彫りなどが違う人をからかうのはくない。

　おまえ日本人じゃないだろう、とか、やああい、外国人！、外人！　○○人！なんていうのも相手の心を傷つける。

　そうしたことは周囲の大人たちが気をつけてあげなくてはいけない。

　くだらない迷信やちょっとしたからかいから憎しみの連鎖を増長させないとはかぎらない。決して甘くみてはいけない。

　とはいえ、ちょっとした優しさと配慮さえあれば、こうした問題はうまくいくんではないか、と思う。


　まずは問題意識を高めていくことが重要だと思う。

　外国出身の親を持つタレントの人が、さらっと「ガキのころって、すげええ、傷つくんだよなあああ」とか、いう場面がある番組なんかも作ってもらえればいいと思う。

　もっとも、欧米人の肌の色や人種に関する階層意識やその否定の歴史を輸入する必要はない。

　日本人が欧米に行ったり、欧米にメッセージを送るときは、もちろんそうしたことを知り、かつ配慮する必要がある。そうしたことを知ろうせず、配慮もしなければ、無知で、文化的配慮に欠けると非難されるのは、それらの国で、あるいは国へ、メッセージを送る側です。

　が、しかし、欧米人が日本に来たら、日本人は彼等とは違った価値評価・概念枠組みをもっているのだというを彼等が知って、それを尊重し、それを前提に話しをすすめていくのが筋でしょう。後者の場合、知る負担は来日外国人の側にあります。　
　自国における肌の色にまつわる階層意識や問題意識が日本でも同じように通用し、それを日本人も受け入れなければならない、と考えること自体が横暴です。この場合、無知で文化的配慮が欠けると非難されるべきは、来日外国人の側です。

　
　このように同じ人種問題といっても十把一絡げに扱うわけにはいかないが、こうした海外における人種間の問題をみて、われわれも多いに反省し、学ぶ点は大きいと思います。



　

またもや「英語しゃべれ！」と暴行

an 27, 2009
Man Assaulted In San Jose For Speaking Spanish
CBS 5 CrimeWatch
SAN JOSE (BCN) ―


A 28-year-old San Jose man was arrested on suspicion of committing a hate crime Monday after allegedly attacking another man because he was speaking Spanish, police Officer Jermaine Thomas said Tuesday.

The 53-year-old victim, who is Hispanic, was talking on his cell phone in Spanish in the area of Saratoga and Latimer avenues around 12:20 p.m. when the attack occurred, Thomas said.

The suspect, San Jose resident Scott Pontzious, who is white, allegedly told the victim during the assault that he needed to speak English.

Pontzious then fled but was later arrested nearby. He was booked into Santa Clara County jail on suspicion of battery and committing a hate crime, Thomas said.魚拓

携帯でスペイン語しゃべっていたら、英語しゃべれ、といいながら暴行。

参考投稿

英語しゃべらなければぶっ殺す

(ヘイトクライム）

警官がヘイトクライム

The newspaper delivery man who claims he was beaten and robbed by three off-duty Vancouver-area police officers last week says the officers involved should have been charged with a hate crime for shouting "we don't like brown people" during the alleged assault.魚拓

3 Canada Cops Arrested for Muslims Hate Crime pt１（ビデオ）


　カナダ
　勤務時間外の警官が有色人種の新聞配達員を強盗、茶色の人種は嫌えええ、なんだよ、といいながら暴行した、ということです・・・・なんでそんなに嫌いなんでしょうか・・・・わかりませんなあああ。

　（ヘイトクライム）

人種差別的失言の大臣 失職なし

Racist joke minister retains jobBritish politician jokes 'UK could put golliwog back on jam jars now Obama's been elected'

イギリスの大臣が、「オバマが当選したんだから、イギリスでも、ジャムの瓶のラベルのキャラの黒い顔もラベルとして復活させてもよいだろう。」と言ったら、人種差別的発言として非難されていた、ということです。
　で、このgolliwog とそれにまつわる匂い、というか、意味合いが、僕にはいまいちわからない。
写真のようなお人形さんなんですが、しかし、これが例えば、日本で、肌の部分が、白だったり、あるいは、典型的な日本人や中国人の色だったら、可愛らしいお人形さん、ということでおしまいだったろうと思うのです。

　それはともかく、イギリスでは、この写真のキャラがジャムの瓶のラベルに使われていて、かなり人種差別的ではないか、という論争があったらしい。企業は結局違う理由ですが、このキャラを取り下げたといいます。

British jam manufacturer James Robertson & Sons used a golliwog called Golly as its mascot from 1910, after John Robertson apparently saw children playing with golliwog dolls in America. Robertson's started producing promotional Golliwog badges in the 1920s, which could be obtained in exchange for tokens gained from their products. In 1983, the company's products were boycotted by the Greater London Council as offensive, and in 1988 the character ceased to be used in television advertising. The company used to give away golliwog badges making up different sets, such as playing jazz instruments, or with sports equipment, or other such themes. The badge collection scheme was retired in 2001.

In a statement reported by the BBC, Virginia (Ginny) C Knox, previously brand director for Robertson's and now Chief Operating Officer of the Culinary Brands Division of RHM, told the Herald Newspaper in Scotland in 2001 that the decision to remove the Golly (Golliwogg) symbol from Robertson's jam and marmalade jars was taken after research found that children were not familiar with the character, although it still appealed to the older generations. "We sell 45 million jars of jam and marmalade each year and they have pretty much all got Golly on them," said Ms Knox. "We also sell 250,000 Golly badges to collectors and only get 10 letters a year from people who don't like the Golliwogg image".[2]. Today, Robertson's Golliwog badges remain highly collectible, with the very rarest sometimes selling for more than ￡1,000, and even comparatively common and recent badges being worth ￡2.00–￡3.00.・

もっとも、イギリスでは、アフリカ人、イタリア人、インディアンなどの肌の色が濃い人たちを指称する蔑称になっている、ということですから、大臣の発言が失言であったには違いありません。

・・・・In Britain and the Commonwealth, "golliwog" perhaps became "wog" a racial slur applied to dark-skinned peoples worldwide, including Africans, Italians and other Mediterranean people, Native Americans, Middle Easterners, Hispanics, and Indians. wiki

　本で読んでは知っていましたが、イタリア人もdark-skinned なんですねええ。


　欧米人の一部の人の肌の色に対する細かな分類とそれに付随する人種の分類と、そのヒエラルキー、そうしたものに対するこだわりというのは我々にとっては非常に理解しづらいものがあると同時に、非常に根深いものがあるもんなんですね。

ふぐプランって河豚だったのか。

victory manualで紹介されていた本The Fugu Plan
いや、別に買って読もうとも思わないが、

Editorial Reviews
Product Description
If someone who is rich and powerful comes to you for a favor, you don’t persecute him – you help him. Having such a person indebted to you is a great insurance policy.

There was one nation that did treat the Jews as if they were powerful and rich. The Japanese never had much exposure to Jews, and knew very little about them. In 1919 Japan fought alongside the anti-Semitic White Russians against the Communists. At that time the White Russians introduced the Japanese to the book, "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion."

The Japanese studied the book and, according to all accounts, naively believed its propaganda. Their reaction was immediate and forceful – they formulated a plan to encourage Jewish settlement and investment into Manchuria. People with such wealth and power as the Jews possess, the Japanese determined, are exactly the type of people with whom we want to do business!

The Japanese called their plan for Jewish settlement "The Fugu Plan." The "fugu" is a highly poisonous blowfish. After the toxin-containing organs are painstakingly removed, it is used as a food in Japan, and is considered an exquisite delicacy. If it is not prepared carefully, however, its poison can kill a person.

The Japanese saw the Jews as a nation with highly valuable potential, but, as with the fugu, in order to take advantage of that potential, they had to be extremely careful. Otherwise, the Japanese thought, the plan would backfire and the Jews would annihilate Japan with their awesome power.

The Japanese were allies of the Nazis, yet they allowed thousands of European refugees – including the entire Mirrer Yeshivah – to enter Shanghai and Kobe during World War II. They welcomed these Jews into their country, not because they bore any great love for the Jews, but because they believed that Jews had access to enormous resources and amazingly influential power, which could greatly benefit Japan.

If anti-Semites truly believe that Jews rule the world, why don’t they all relate to Jews like the Japanese did?

The fact that Jews are generally treated as outcasts proves that people do not really believe that Jews are anywhere near as wealthy or powerful as they claim. It proves that anti-Semites do not take their own propaganda seriously.

当時の日本はユダヤ人は金持ちで権力がある、という宣伝を素朴に信じていた。もっとも、そんなにすごい奴らだから、危険でもある。だから、その危険を注意深くとりのぞけば、毒を除いた河豚のようにうまい、というわけだ。なるほどねええ。

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
INTRODUCTION TO THE CURRENT EDITION

Twenty-five years have passed since The Fugu Plan first appeared. In 1979, so little was known of Japan’s plan to resettle up to a million European Jewish refugees in its puppet state of Manchukuo that the New York Times published a news story about the book. Now, the fugu plan is widely recognized as one of the few positive, if strange, twists in the tortured fate of European Jewry.

Over these years, one person has come to be the human face of the fugu plan: Chiune Sugihara. From November 1939 to September 1940, Sugihara was officially the Japanese consul in Kovno (or "Kaunas"), Lithuania. In reality, Sugihara had been sent to Kovno to gather intelligence about Soviet and German troop movements in the area. Because he was there, however, and because of who he was, Sugihara became one of the crucial players in the fugu plan -- a scheme that, by the war’s end, would save the lives of thousands of Jews, as well as the entire Mir Yeshiva, whose scholars would survive to inspire a new era of Jewish learning in the U.S. and Israel.

Books and articles in English, Japanese, Hebrew and Chinese, running the gamut from scholarly to mass-appeal, are now being written about Sugihara – "the Japanese angel". In Japan, the name ‘Sugihara’ has become a symbol of one who takes care of others. His life is the subject of a secondary school English language text. A plaque at the gaimusho, the Japanese Foreign Ministry, commemorates his humanitarianism, in spite of the fact that he had disregarded orders from his superiors. In Israel, Sugihara is honored by Yad Vashem among the "Righteous of the Nations". And in the spring of this year, PBS will air, nationwide, an award-winning documentary, "Conspiracy of Kindness" about Sugihara’s life and the lives of a few of the many people he saved.

Over the past 25 years, we have learned a great deal about this man. Chiune (or Senpo, he used either of two first names) Sugihara was born with the century, on January 1, 1900, and was raised in the bushido/samurai philosophy of his mother’s family. Though his father – in pre-war Japan, the unquestioned authority in such matters -- directed him to study law, Sugihara’s own interests were in foreign languages and cultures. Circumventing his father, he applied to the gaimusho and was sent to Harbin, Manchuria, to study Russian. For the next ten years, Sugihara remained in Manchuria, marrying and later divorcing a Russian woman, and only rarely returning to Japan for brief visits. Starting with his posting to Lithuania in 1939, he spent eight years in Europe, going wherever the gaimusho saw fit to move him: Berlin, Prague, Konigsberg, and finally, at the war’s end, Bucharest, Romania. There, he was arrested by the incoming Soviet forces and, with his wife and three children, interned for two years before being allowed to return to Japan.

In post-war Tokyo, there was little work available for a former, low-level diplomat. Sugihara managed to keep his family together only with small jobs that made use of his language skills. He worked intermittently at the American PX; he served as an announcer for the foreign language bureau of NHK, Japan’s national radio; he free-lanced translation and interpreting services; and finally, in an almost unbelievable quirk of fate, he was hired by a Ginza clothing store whose owner, Anatole Ponve, had been one of the leaders of the Kobe Jewish community which had cared for the ‘Sugihara refugees’ when they first arrived in Japan in 1940. But in spite of seeing Ponve virtually every day, Sugihara never mentioned his own role in the rescue of the Jewish refugees.

I asked him about that a few years before he died.

"I never knew what happened to the refugees," he said. "I never knew if they got past the Soviet Union, if they actually came to Japan, if they ever found safety. I didn’t want to discuss it because perhaps I had only led them to their death. I was afraid to bring it up."

Did he know, I wondered, about the fugu plan?

"I only knew about that when you told me. If I had known, it would have been much easier for me. I wouldn’t have felt the sole burden of responsibility for issuing the visas."

Finally, I asked him the one crucial question: Why did he do it? To the best of anyone’s knowledge, before July 1940 Sugihara had never had any personal contact with Jews. Why, then, did he risk his career and possibly his life to save the lives of these refugees?

He looked at me as if he didn’t really understand the question. "I just did what we as human beings should do. One of my best teachers, in Harbin, once told me: You do the right thing because it is the right thing. Not for gain. Not for recognition. Just because it is the right thing. The refugees were people who needed my help. I could give help to them. It was the right thing to do. That's all."

In the midst of the horror of 1940, it was the extreme good fortune of thousands of Jewish refugees, and tens of thousands of their descendants, that a rare man such as Sugihara was there when their lives depended on it.

Marvin Tokayer
2004

ユダヤ人難民を救った杉原さんのことも好意的に書いている。

Empire

（←意識は相変わらず？）


Empire
紀伊国屋で・・・・てか、アマゾンと値段違いすぎだよ、紀伊国屋さん！！！

速攻でのぞいてみると・・・

まず、定義

page 30

An empire is a large composite, multi-ethnic or multinational political unit , usually created by conquest, and　divided between dominant center and subordinate, sometimes far distant peripheries.

Imperialism is used to mean the actions and attitude which create or uphold such big political units--but also less obvious and direct kinds of control or domination by one people or country over others. ・・・・

Colonialism is something more specific　and strictly political systems of role by one group over another , where the first claim the right ・・・to exercise exclusive sovereignty over the second and to shape its destiny.


page 31

Colonization refers to large scale population movements, where the migrants maintain strong links with their or their ancestors former country, gaining significant privileges over other inhabi9tants of the territory by such links.

　帝国とは征服によって形成され、中心と従属的辺境地からなる多民族国家、とでもいおうか？もっとも、著者はこれですべて割り切れると言っているわけではない。例えば、アメリカのフィリピンに対する、あるいは、ソビエトにポーランドに対する間接的な政治上の支配が植民地化といえるか、どうかは境界例であろう、という。


　帝国の典型例であるローマ帝国について

page42
The system rested on exploitation:tribute in cash, in kind, or in slaves sent from the peripheries to the imperial centre. Some contemporaries , and many later historians, believed that this reliance on subject peoples to play for the empire to sustain the relative wealth(and thus supposed idleness and decadence)of the rulers, and increasing to fight their wars for them too, gradually undermined Roman power and led to the empire's collapse.
・・・・・
we can surely speak of Rome's empire as a multi-ethnic or multiculural one , but also one where what a later age would call cultural assimilation-ism was vigorously practiced and widely accepted.

　自分らの為に従属国を搾取したのであるが、搾取する過程で依存度を増やし、かえって没落する。ヘーゲルの主と奴、マルクスの王様と臣民の議論を髣髴とさせるね。

page 49
despite the political fragmentation, much of Europe possessed important elements of a common culture
at least among members of the ruling groups---it was, one could say, that commonality which produced the very idea of Europe, The Church and the use of Latin were naturally crucial in this and became ever more so.

”ヨーロッパ”という一つの表象が形成された理由として、ラテン語と教会という共通性を挙げている。

人口面では、植民地化されたところはめちゃ減少した。

page 67
Some popular African-American writers assert that 150 or 200 million Africans were enslaved or killed and that lower estimate is a racist evasion . The probable real total of 12 to 15 million victims is surely terrible enough.

page 70
Indigenous populations throughout the New World　and on many Pacific islands were reduced to a fraction of their former numbers, of entirely wiped out. I parts of Africa, too the collision with Europe produced demographic catastrophe it has been estimated, for instance, that the population of the Belgian Congo diminished by nine of ten million in the decades following the con1uests.

　あまり関係ないけど、ここいらの表現が面白い。アフリカ系アメリカ人の論者たちは、１億５千万から２億の人が奴隷化あるいは殺されたといい、それ以下に評価すると人種差別主義者だと言い立てるが云々・・・・・・という言い回し。
ま、それはいいとして、


植民地化の肯定面・否定面として、

page 78

Colonized areas were forced into acting as sources of under-priced raw materials for European industry and of cheap, often forced or enslaved labour.・・・Where there was not savage exploitation , there was utter neglect :colonial governments spent almost nothing on education, health care, social welfare, of infrastructure・・・・・

The positive case argues that , on the contrary, colonialism played economically progressive role. Colonial rule was the means to which European technology , culture and institutions---the things which had enabled Europe itself to develop and industrialize--were spread across the rest of the world.

まず否定側は、教育や健康面、あるいは、インフラなどほとんど配慮しなかった、と。
肯定側は、なんやかやいっても技術面など産業や制度など進歩した面も多い、と。


植民地化を「正当化」する偏見として、

page86
page in may versions, more specifically northern Europeans sometimes called "Aryan' and 'Nordic' or particular nationalities like the English or Germans, were at the top.　Many Asian peoples occupied intermediate positions, Some were acknowledged to possess considerable intelligence, and Indian , Chinese or Arab civilizations achievements could not be entirely denied . But　they were widely believed to possess profound flaws in their collective character, being >congenitally dissolute,idle , dishonest, cruel and son on.

page 92
The late-Victorian propaganda of empire did not only stress modernization but standardly depicted its pioneers ---explorers, soldiers , missionaries , frontiersmen---as paragons of rationality maturity, and self-control, in stark contrast to the wild ,unruly, often childlike people they met and dominated.

まあ、ここらへん、今でもかわらない、といえばかわらない。

page 95
If Africans of Indians had united against the colonialists, the colonization would have been impossible, except at staggering , unacceptable human and financial cost. But to do that , they would have had to think of themselves as 'Africans' or 'Indians' single people with shared interest in the first place. Before the 20th century, very few could even potentially do so.

なぜ、植民地化に抵抗できなかったか、というと、やっぱ、印度人なりアフリカ人という国民/民族意識が形成されていなかったから団結も出来なかったわけだね。

このようにして、civilizing mission(page 95)　、文明化をしていく使命を「野蛮」な地域に対してはたしいくわけだが、

page 97
the responses to colonialism and to the West of Indian intellectuals were not simply polarized between imitation and reject, collaboration and resistance. They didn't accept colonialist claims about their own natural inferiority; but nor were they simpleminded enough to believe that 'Europe' was a single homogeneous entity. They know they could pick and choose among the things British rule and 'European culture' offered them--or sought to impose on them . They accepted some adapted some to their own purposes, rejected others.

受け取る方も、そう単純ではない。相手さんの力と知識を換骨奪胎していくのである。

page 117


The new idea of empire is like the ancient Roman and medieval Christian ones, ・・・・in that it is,or aspires to be a universal order. The United Stated, with its close allies, is the only force that can maintain global peace and just ---if necessary, by force,---no in the pursuit of a nationality or a power hungry agenda,but to uphold these universal values.
Such argument・・・probably and simply makes the United States sound more powerful than it really is. It underestimates the actual and potential tensions between universalism and narrower national interests in American thought ・・・・

で、現代では普遍主義を唱えて、正義を布教していこうとする点で帝国主義的という論者もいるが、それは、合衆国を過大評価しすぎているし、また、普遍主義と国益との緊張関係について過小評価している、という。

増加する反移民団体、移民への襲撃

・・・・Unfortunately, tough economic times seem to be the natural ally of hate groups. Memberships swell with new recruits who blame their troubles on minority groups. For example, the SPLC reports that known anti-immigrant hate groups have increased from 602 in 2000 to 888 in 2008―a 48 percent increase. This prompted Jeff Schoep, leader of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement, to crow, "This immigrant thing ... has been the greatest boon to us."
Fueling more hate group activities are the election of the first black U.S. president and a new U.S. Census report predicting America's whites will lose their majority status by 2040.mtexpress.魚拓

アメリカーーー経済不況のため、憎悪を扇動する団体が増加し、弱者（マイノリティー）を非難している、と。
さらに、弱者グループ出身のオバマ氏が大統領になったことや、２０４０年までには白人がマジョリティーではなくなる、ということもこうした傾向を強める要因になっている、とのこと。



Posted on Sun, Jan. 25, 2009

Immigrants becoming targets of attacks魚拓

有色人はロシアに行かないほうがいい。

Moscow Through Brown Eyes wouldn't advise “a young person of color” to come to Russia for long-term study: “The world is large and there are many options. You shouldn't have to fear for your life every day.”（Global voices)
　ロシアのブロガーの記事を紹介。有色人に対する襲撃があまりにも多いのでロシアでの長期滞在は避けた方がええんじゃないのか、という記事

Banning any more Indian restaurants

Kebab shop ban prompts charge of racism



Published Date: 28 January 2009
COUNCILLORS in the Tuscan town of Lucca have been accused of racism after banning any more Indian restaurants or kebab shops from opening up.
The edict has been passed by the right-wing Popolo della Liberta party – headed by Silvio Berlusconi, the prime minister – whose councillors want to see more traditional Italian dishes being served, banishing anything else.

Filippo Candelise, a Lucca councillor, said: "To accuse us of racism is outrageous. All we are doing is protecting he culinary patrimony of the town."

Alessandro Tambellini, an opposition councillor, said: "This is blatant discrimination. They are saying French or German cuisine is acceptable but Indian or Arab is not."

イタリアのとある町で印度料理屋の新規営業を禁止する条例をだしたら、差別やないけ、と非難された。法案提出側は、差別やない、伝統保護やねん、と主張しております。

"Don't "speak white? Don't bother"

"Ghetto" Bikini Girl Declined Job, Cites Racism
NBCNewYork.com
updated 9:16 a.m. ET Jan. 28, 2009
Don't "speak white?" Don't bother
mns

　ニューヨークでビキニで接待する店があるらしい。そこに応募したら、ラティーノ系の女性が英語が白人風じゃないから、拒否されたということです。

New york　Daily の元記事を捜しますと、

Melody Morales said she was rejected for a job by a manager at the Times Square restaurant who griped, "You don't speak white" and "you are ghetto."

白人風の英語しゃべらん、お前さんゲットーやないけ？ーーと。ここらへ言葉にまつわる情緒がわからない。

さらに、

a manager told her to get lost, saying, "I am not going to ruin my business with your Latin accent."

失せろ！お前のラテン訛りで店つぶしたくねえんだよ！

another manager instantly rejected her, telling her, "We will not hire you because you have a speech problem," and "You have a Latin accent."

言葉に問題があるから、雇わないよ。ラテン訛りだからな。
・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・
更新
Yasu
Selena

Youtube で　Selena The Movie part 6　を検索してください。（リンク張れませんでした。）
6:40頃から見てください。
メキシコ系アメリカ人が成功するのに、どれだけ努力がいるか、言葉の問題がどれだけ障害になっているか、アイデンティティーとは何か、など考えさせてくれます。　Selena The Movie part 6　
・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・


弁護士さんによると、

"It is 100% illegal to discriminate because of where you're from or because you have an accent," said her lawyer,NYD

出身地や訛りによって雇用差別するのは１００％違法である、と。



英語が理解できれば訛りがあってもいいんじゃないですかね？

もっとも、この商売はどうか、わかりませんけど、やっぱ、ある程度の英語が必要な商売もあるんじゃないですかね？、英語がしゃべれない日本人を通訳をつけて私的企業、あるいは、少なくとも公的機関は、雇用してくれるようなるんでしょうかね、アメリカは？