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Freedom
I am free right where I am. Sunday, April 19, 2015
http://www.dailyword.com/dailyword/freedom-sunday-april-19-2015 While on my daily walk, I enjoy the freedom of the outdoors. I see freedom in a robin’s flight. I hear freedom in the rhythm of the rain. I feel freedom in the wind’s warm caress. It occurs to me that like the robin, rain, and wind, I am an expression of freedom. Regardless of my circumstances, I choose to affirm freedom. I experience freedom with my mind, body, and soul. My unlimited spirit can never be bound by outer conditions. One cannot bind peace, joy, or love. I express my spiritual gifts with every thought of forgiveness, every moment spent with a friend, and every word of kindness. As I share my gifts, I experience liberation. I am free right where I am. For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters.—Galatians 5:13 |
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TIME 100 2015
By Robin Wright April 16, 2015 Iran's dealmaker Mohammad Javad Zarif is the happy face of Iran’s stern revolution. I’ve known him three decades, as he helped end the Iran-Iraq War, free American hostages in Lebanon and broker a new Afghan government after the Taliban’s defeat. Now, as Foreign Minister, he’s the pivot in nuclear diplomacy. For 18 months, the world’s six major powers have courted him as they have no other foreign official. The goal is to formalize the blueprint of a nuclear deal by June 30. Educated at two American universities, Zarif is well qualified to reconcile the revolutionaries and the world. As Iran’s ambassador to the U.N., he engaged many in Congress. In March, an Iranian poll picked Zarif as man of the year. When he returned from the talks, he was mobbed. After a deal, Zarif would be the natural go-to guy for broader détente with the world too. Wright is a joint fellow at the U.S. Institute of Peace and the Woodrow Wilson Center |
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South Korea and Japan
Tentative two-step The two countries hold their first security talks for five years Apr 18th 2015 | SEOUL AND TOKYO | From the print edition http://www.economist.com/news/asia/21648688-two-countries-hold-their-first-security-talks-five-years-tentative-two-step IT IS a feature of the fraught relationship between Japan and South Korea that the two are at once able to bicker and to work together. Last week South Korea summoned Japanese diplomats to protest over revisions to school textbooks, which it said were a fresh attempt by Japan to gloss over the evils of its wartime past. South Korea’s prime minister, Lee Wan-koo, said Japan would face “grim judgment” if it failed to admit the “realities of history”. fraught：悲惨な、危険な
bicker：口論する
grim：厳格な、恐ろしい Yet on April 14th the two countries met in Seoul, the South Korean capital, for their first high-level security talks since 2009—a further sign of a thaw in relations after a three-way summit last month between the foreign ministers of China, Japan and South Korea. At the bilateral talks, foreign-affairs and defence officials chiefly discussed Japan’s military policy—in particular, the first revamp in two decades of joint-defence guidelines between America and Japan. It would allow Japanese forces to support American troops in the event of a crisis on the Korean peninsula. thaw：雪解け
revamp：改善
An agreement on the final guidelines is expected in late April, when Shinzo Abe, Japan’s prime minister, will visit Washington. In parallel, Japan’s government is also revising constitutional interpretations to allow its forces to take part in collective self-defence. South Korea has been wary of Mr Abe’s dream of reinterpreting Japan’s pacifist constitution. It has called for reassurances first from the former occupying power on Japan’s views on history. wary ：注意深くする、油断なくする
Revisionist voices have grown louder in Japanese education. Last week the government approved a set of school textbooks that dilute references to wartime atrocities, including the forcing of “comfort women” into brothels by Japan’s imperial army. Many of them were from South Korea. All the textbooks stress that a group of rocks controlled by South Korea (which calls them Dokdo) and claimed by Japan as Takeshima, are Japan’s “inherent territory”—which is nonsense. Equally nonsensical, South Korea claims that Japan’s review of its defence arrangements would allow it to push South Korea about. dilute：薄める nonsensical：無意味な、ばかげた
That the talks went ahead despite tensions suggests that both sides are eager to improve co-operation in dealing with a shared security worry: North Korea. America’s heightened keenness that its two allies should get along has helped, too. On a visit to the region this month, Ashton Carter, America’s defence secretary, promised to deploy more state-of-the-art weaponry to counter North Korea. China’s growing willingness to talk to Japan may also have spurred South Korea to overcome its scruples about doing so. Last month China and Japan met for their first high-level security talks in four years. By meeting Japan, however, South Korea could also be signalling to China that it still sees itself as part of America’s network of alliances. It does not want China to meddle in its defence decisions, such as whether to accept an advanced anti-missile defence system from America. China fears the system could be used against it. Further improvement in relations between Japan and South Korea will depend on what Mr Abe says in a series of statements this year on Japan’s wartime history, culminating in a speech in August on the 70th anniversary of the end of the second world war. The South Korean public is still in no mood to forget. From the print edition: Asia |
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Welcome counter-narrative to the usual Western picture of Japan today (4.5 stars) 2015/2/22
投稿者 A. J. Sutter - (Amazon.com) This book fills an important niche in Western commentary about Japan. It provides a passionate, coherent narrative that ties together many aspects of Japanese history, political economy and even society, written by someone who's lived here a long time and who cares about the country's future. As a roughly 400-page book from a major academic press, it may seem a bit odd that it lacks a proper bibliography and set of foot- or endnotes. But even though I wished that the sourcing were better in a couple of places, this book doesn't seem intended to serve the purpose of a usual academic study. A better way to think of it would be like a transcript of a two- or three-day orientation seminar about modern Japan by a very intense expert who wants you to see through the conventional wisdom. I certainly didn't agree with all of it, and I would have emphasized some topics that the author mentions only in passing, if at all. But if you're not already convinced that Japan's problems stem from economic inefficiency, protectionism and a racist population that refuses to acknowledge history, this book will vindicate your reluctance to accept such clichés. And if you admire Paul Krugman and Joe Stiglitz, or believe the Obama Administration is more high-minded in its foreign policy than was its immediate predecessor, this book could give a healthy shake to your confidence in your views. In what follows, I'll start by explaining what's special about this book's point of view (1), and highlight some points that most aggressively challenge the received wisdom about the country's current condition (2). Then, after mentioning some missing details that would have lent even more support to the book's argument (3), I'll conclude with a focus on some significant blind spots (4 and 5). Although I'll go on at some length about this last category, you can see from the star rating that these criticisms, though substantive, don't greatly dim my overall recommendation of this book. 1. Let's start with how this book differs from more conventional works about Japan. Most Westerners' access to information about Japan is filtered through people who are just passing through, physically and/or intellectually. There are a few classic types: General news reporters sent here for a couple of years of purgatory before going someplace they believe is really exciting, like China, some war zone, or at least Seoul. Business reporters who freely spout off about what Japan needs to do, based on ideas they learned from Econ 101 and the investment bankers they interview. Long-term bureau chiefs who've figured out what types of stories will fit the preconceptions of their editors in New York, D.C., Atlanta or London, and who write a longish memoir around the time they leave Japan to become one of those editors. Callow grad student and post-doc bloggers who spend a couple of years here before returning to a perch in the US or elsewhere from which to continue pontificating without having to suffer the consequences of policies implementing their thoroughly conventional advice. And let's not forget op-eds by superstar economists who spend a couple of tightly-packed days here wheeled around in a pumpkin coach, visiting suitably august members of the Japanese elite. (To be fair to superstars, I got the impression that Thomas Piketty was more willing than others to speak truth to pumpkins during his January 2015 whirlwind visit here -- but on the other hand he doesn't show up so often in the New York Times.) The author of the present book (RTM) is distinguished from this motley bunch in at least two ways. First, he's already been here more than 20 years and has put down emotional roots in the country. Second, he's a former investment banker who later published in New Left Review, so he's capable of evolving his views. Of course, there are a number of long-term foreign residents and maybe even a handful of short-termers, both academic and not, who have very valuable and insightful things to say abut Japan. But all too often their material is hard to find, stays close to some specialty (e.g. civil liberties, energy policy, etc.), and in some cases may even affect to disdain the word "should" when they write about Japanese policy. A virtue of this book is that RTM presents a much more encompassing and interconnected view than you can get even from excellent monographs or online articles. And it's a view that isn't afraid to say that something bad is bad -- nor, by the way, to offer a variety of idiosyncratic commentaries about pop divas, TV shows, anime songs, handsome politicians and schoolgirl fashions, among other things. At least when it comes to matters of politics rather than pulchritude, this isn't so much "bias," as an opinion backed up by an historical argument. |
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Prosperity
Wednesday, April 15, 2015 I am swimming in a sea of prosperity. I am prosperous in countless ways! Whenever I doubt my well-being, I think about my blessings, and realize I am swimming in an ocean of good. I have my health and well-being; the ability to breathe, think, and move about. I see prosperity in the comfort of my home, my place of employment, and the beauty of nature. I am blessed with free will—I choose how to spend my time and where to place my attention. All my relationships are prosperous, and I receive abundant acceptance and love from friends, family, coworkers, and pets. I am thankful for my greatest fortune: the constant presence of God in my life. I am swimming in a sea of prosperity! And my God will fully satisfy every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.—Philippians 4:19 |
