Category: Current Events

Newsweek Covers

My friend Lars brought over two issues of Newsweek today, the Japanese and American versions of the same issue. The contents are never identical, but major articles are often translated from English to Japanese. This time, however, the contrast between the covers of the February 3rd (US) and February 5th (Japan) issues are interesting…

The title of the US issue is “Hell Bent on War: Will Attacking Saddam Really Make Us Safer” set on a background of a young soldier (American?) with perhaps a hint of anxiety in his look.

The cover of the Japanese Newsweek issue is a cartoon globe with a rather comical depiction of Bush riding (and holding the reigns of) a bomb marked with the US flag, reminescent of Dr. Strangelove. The cover line is ブッシュは世界の敵？正義を掲げるカウボーイの異常な「戦争愛」 which I guess can be translated as “Is Bush the world’s enemy? A Cowboy’s twisted love of war in the name of Justice” (leave a comment if this is off) The major cover article on “War and its consequences” in the US magazine is translated into Japanese and included in the Japanese issue with all the usual maps and military statistics, though the title of the Japanese version is translated oddly as “The Attack on Iraq cannot be Avoided”

State of the Union

Most of my friends know that I am no fan of Bush. I have never been really impressed with his speech writers either, and Tuesday’s State of the Union speech was no exception.

Around the world everyone who cared enough to listen were waiting to hear how soon the small “coalition of the willing” were going to go to war and whether the US had come up with any compelling reasons to do so. Unfortunately, there was much of the usual, though there was a promise to reveal evidence. I think the last time that was promised we were told of aluminum pipes that the IAEA believe can be unrelated to nuclear arms research.

The speech was, however, an interesting study in what has increasingly become the debate over America’s approach to foreign policy and the terms it uses…
Continue reading State of the Union

Shrine trouble again

Koizumi whipped up controversy again amongst his neighbors by visiting Yasukuni shrine last week. Even today, days after the event, it is still making news in the Chinese media (Sina) although it has dropped off the scopes of the CCP’s People’s Daily.

In Japan, NHK and Asahi, did their usual critical approach, with emphasis on the reactions of Korea and China or critical voices at home but within a few days there were plenty of articles noting the “well planned” and “strategic” timing of the visit (See Mainichi Daily News and Yomiuri articles, both English, for example) which avoided the upcoming transfers of power in Korea and China and the need to visit again during the key August 15th date.

江藤隆美 (Et� Takami or perhaps Takayoshi), an LDP right-wing politician who is famous for losing his cabinet position with the 1995 declaration that “Japan also did good things for its Korean colony” declared on the 18th that since the Russian Prime Minister visits military memorials, why is it objectionable that Japan visits Yasukuni. Besides the obvious historical fact that they aren’t paying homage to convicted war criminals, on the pragmatic end he doesn’t seem to have noticed the different diplomatic climate which Japan continues to face. Your comments are welcome…

Eldred v. Ascroft

The net is abuzz with word of the controversial Eldred v. Ashcroft hearing by the Supreme Court, an incredibly important decision with regard to the state of copyright law in the US. As a supporter of copyright reform, and more broadly the public domain and open source movements, I am as concerned as most people. Read more about this huge ruling:

O’Reilly.com Article
Lessig’s Blog
Salon.com Article by Siva Vaidhyanathan