1.
NEWS: Komura: Security bills to deter ‘real threat’
POINTS & CASES: the
military threat of other countries, the US request of the Japanese involvement
in the counterattack operations against potential enemies, deterrent.
conscription system, Constitution, the Supreme Court decision, collective
self-defense, renunciation of war, Article 9, amendment, terrorists, expatriate
employees and their families, involvement in wars and invasions by the US,
rescue operations in disasters, military-industrial complex, imperialistic
operations, soft power, pacifist nation
Task: Summarize the
explanation of Mr. Komura.
Question: What are you most
concerned about this change of the Japanese security policy? What should be done to avoid it now that the security bill is passed?
Although it is not so much a concern
as repugnance and melancholy that I feel about the passage of the security
bills, I feel depressed that now the day is certain to come when Japanese
nationals kill people in other countries, especially in those countries where
some of the people who were left behind or exploited in globalization have
resorted to violence. SDF troops which have already been deployed off the coast
of Somalia to watch pirates might be the first. Also, those attacked will be
very likely to include innocent civilians as seen in often reported US “friendly
bombing.” These operations and accidents would be reported through the media first,
but as the same cases repeat the public would get used to them and might not be
aware of the fact that our tax money is used to kill other nationals under the
name of collective-self-defense. In addition to this, Collective-self-defense
could be used as an excuse for collective-offence. Japanese groupism, if driven
by a lie promoted through the media by the government, could allow a war to
happen quite easily. Another depressing matter is that having a more active
military than now can work as a stimulant rather than a deterrent in
counterterrorism. The enactment of this bill verifies Japan as a full-fledged US
ally and exposes Japanese nationals abroad as targets of terrorism such as
suicide bombing. What those who do not want to kill as well as not wanting to
be killed can do would be to strive to make a sound reality of peaceful global
community. It is not military operations but good relationships that avoid
terrorism and war.
Migrant Crisis: What else
could Europe try? BBC World Service, The Inquiry
POINTS & CASES: IS,
Iraq-Afghan wars, Arab Spring, civil wars, globalization, immigrants, economic
refugees, displaced people, Japanese immigration policy, aging society,
discrimination
Question: Is there anything
that Japan can do for refugees and immigrants?
For decades, Japan has been
financially and technologically supporting American military operations, which
have directly caused chaos in the Middle East. Also, Japan has mostly merited
in globalization which have often destroyed the lives of the people in weak
economies. As a country which is responsible to their plight, not to speak of
humanitarian point of view, Japan should offer acceptance of refugees who are
willing to come and work over here with fair and warm treatment.
POINTS & CASES： the wealth gap, globalization, consumerism, sweatshop, fair trade
QUESTION: Slaves exist
since ancient times. Do you think we can do without exploiting and abuses?
As slavery is part of
economic structure, it might be very difficult to do without it. Some people
need to buy leather shoes and suits for work. Growing up children may eat a lot
of meat and fish. Most people need a cellphone. It is often difficult to
imagine how many others are suffering for us to maintain or satisfy our lives. Also,
in a broader sense, most of us are economic slaves. The very action we take to
sustain our life, like saving a penny by choosing the cheaper, will beat down
the price, which will enslave the workers on the production lines and in the
distribution networks, who cannot quit for economic reason. Bonded labor and
child labor are the lousiest end of this economic slavery system. As long as we
live in this system, no matter how careful to be fair we are, we cannot stop
exploiting and abusing the weakest of the weak. Changing the whole system in a
short time is impossible, but at least on the conscious level, we should and
can try to get rid of violation of fundamental human rights. Trying not to buy products
of the companies whose contractors have bonded laborers or sweatshops or not to
use services that take advantage of the weak would be some of the things we
could do to eliminate slavery. We must give up the mindset of minding only
ourselves at the expense of others.
4.
NEWS: Heirs to the Rockefeller family, which made its vast fortune from
oil, are to sell investments in fossil fuels and reinvest in clean energy. BBC
NEWS
POINTS & CASES: global
warming, CO2 in the atmosphere, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) assessment report, obligation of rich countries, international
cooperation, ongoing oil mining projects, emerging economies, population
growth, recycling
QUESTION: Do you think moves
to stop drilling fossil fuel are significant?
I definitely think it is
significant to stop drilling fossil fuels. Burning of oil, coal and natural
gas, as well as other byproduct of their productions, will increase CO2 in the
atmosphere and thus accelerate global warming. If fossil fuel is dug out, it
must be sold to make up for the cost, and the buyer must burn it to make
products of provide services for profits. Measures for the shift to alternative
energy sources are to slow to come to avoid catastrophe and stop the habit and
think about how to make up for it later would not be a bad idea as this is a
pressing issue.
5.
NEWS: Farmers from across Japan staged a protest in Tokyo on
Tuesday over signs that the Japanese government will soon sign on to join
negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership "free-trade" agreement
with the U.S. and other nations. The
Japan times
POINTS ＆ CASES: free trade, protectionism, Korean FTA and NAFTA, domestic
producers, self-sufficiency, regulations, financial meltdown, social welfare,
environment, copy-rights, investor-state disputes (ISD)
QUESTION: Who do you think would benefit most from TPP?
It is clear that large
corporations especially those of the US will benefit the most based on the TPP
procedure and contents and results of the agreements similar to TPP. Those who
are in discussion behind closed doors are politicians and corporate lawyers and
it is unlikely that they make efforts to make the public benefit except in the
case of their interests. Both NAFTA and Korean FTA show that fair trade
agreements are actually unfair trade agreements that benefits US industries and
get rid of small businesses and farmers in signatories.
Noam Chomsky: Austerity is
just class war
POINTS & CASES:
stimulus, punish the weak, international community,
QIESTOPN: Which would you choose
austerity or stimulus if Japan were in the same situation as Greece?
Even though they might not be very
different as stimulus increases national debts and makes people suffer later
while austerity instantly punishes the weak, stimulus would be a better choice
than austerity, for Japan still has not lost power to raise productivity and
punishing the public would damage the economy in the long run, not to speak of
ethically wrong.
7.
ISSUE: Can we learn to live with nuclear power? BBC World Service, The
Inquiry
Japan restarts first
nuclear reactor since Fukushima disaster
POINTS & CASES:
Chernobyl disaster, Three Mile Island disaster, meltdown, radiation, other
energy sources, global warming, the industry, saving on electricity, changing
lifestyle
QUESTION: What can we do to
transform our society into one free from nuclear power plants?
First of all, we should not
learn to live with nuclear power even though we can do it. The idea of using
nuclear energy for generating electricity in itself is dubious from the
beginning as it is the byproduct of the invention of nuclear weapons. It is
true that today’s advanced civilization needs a large amount of energy to
maintain itself, but it is not true that we have to keep living in the same
way. Nobody dies, for example, if toilet sheets are not warm in winter and underground
walkways that became darker after the Fukushima reactor meltdown have just made
us realize we had overused electricity. There are many other ways to keep the
turbine running which are safe and clean such as solar and wind energy.
Geothermal energy and bioethanol are other ways for it. It is often said that
we have the technology but we do not have the will. Japan, as a country that
experienced the negative side of atomic power twice, atomic bombing on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Fukushima disaster after tsunami, should be wise
enough to learn the lesson from this accident and make it a turning point of
its energy policy. No one would blame us if we said we have had enough of nuclear
energy.
8.
NEWS: In July, 2014, the UN’s human-rights committee demanded that Japan
add hate speech to legislation banning racial discrimination.
POINTS: long history of
discrimination against non-naturalized Koreans, xenophobia, globalization,
bullying, war-time sex slaves (comfort women) issue, violence, freedom of
expression
QUESTION: Do you think this
is a fair demand or not. Why?
1) I think the demand fair, even overdue because Japan has a long
history of discrimination and abuse against some minorities. Above all,
non-naturalized Koreans have seen the darkest side of Japanese society and its
individuals. Hate speech related to them, including comments on the Internet,
graffiti and literatures, do not go without noticed every day. Harassment and
violence, including those inflicted to innocent school girls, are also often
reported. Unreported heinous activities could be countless. Some might think
that hate speech is different from other acts of discrimination, but words are
as painful as physical harm and words also nurture in those who use, hear, see,
or read them prejudice, aggression, and sadism against the targeted people.
This problem should be monitored and addressed on a daily basis.
2) It is strange that we Japanese are relatively tolerant to some minorities
like gays and those who have abortions while cold to foreigners like Koreans or
Chinese as well as aboriginal people like Ainu people or Okinawans. Some might
say that gays and those with pro-choice idea have been in our tradition, but
Koreans and Chinese have existed throughout our history too and many of them
have contributed to our society and culture. They are not given proper respect
no matter how long they have lived with us. Naturalization is not the key
factor as is clear in the case of the Ainu and Okinawan. Also, many Japanese
know that they themselves would not naturalize were they to be in the same
situation in a foreign country. Giving up one’s nationality is largely a matter
of identity. It is different from having a membership of a society, and each
member of a society should be paid the same respect to that the other members
are paid to. The issue of coexistence with people with different backgrounds
should be dealt with in view of building a peaceful and productive living
environment for each member. A society whose members hate each other calls for
its own demise. Our deep-rooted xenophobia needs some intervention. The demand
from the biggest international organization to ban hate-speech would therefore
help change the situation for the better.
9.
NEWS: Satire The first cover of Charlie Hebdo after the shooting featured a man
who looked like Mohammad holding the “Je suis Charlie” under the expression, “Everything
is forgiven.”
POINTS & CASES： violence,
satire, freedom of expression, anti-Islamism, feelings of Muslims, hypocrisy of
the world leaders who participated in the Paris rally
QUESTION: What message do
you think the cartoonist who drew it send?
His message would have been
that he as part of the team of the publisher will forgive the shooters as
forgiveness is universal teaching in any religion or ethical education, while
he has no intention to give up his job of satirizing things he finds funny or
strange. He is probably also implying that most Muslims, including the prophet,
are feeling distress because the original teaching of Islam does not allow such
violence. It is a message of a grown-up child who loves not only mankind but
also satire, having been hit by those whom he has made fun of but having stood
up each time saying that he was sorry that they did not like his joke but that
was what he is and he cannot stop being it.
10.
Why ISIS Murdered Kenji Goto / Japan at a Crossrlads (The New Yorker)
Should Anyone Ever Talk to
IS? BBC World Service, the Inquiry
POINTS & CASES： religious cult, no yield to terrorism, ransom as funding source,
international society (developed countries), Japanese militarization, PM’s
speech to support Israel and paying $0.2 billion, for humanitarian purposes,
self-responsibility, life above everything else, 1970’s hijacking of a JAL
plane
QUESTION: What can we do
for Kenji Goto to be able to rest in peace?
The goal of Kenji Goto as a
journalist was to report the situation in which ordinary people in the area of
unrest live. He asked the Japanese not to retaliate those who killed him. Therefore,
what he wanted us to do would have been to learn how the people in Iraq and
Syria had their life disrupted and build public opinion to increase humanitarian
aides to those areas, displaced people and refugees without losing ourselves in
prejudice and discrimination against Muslims.
11.
NEWS: Kawasaki teen murder highlights hardships faced by single parents
in Japan
POINTS & CASES： wealth gap, child poverty, single mother, welfare programs, community,
volunteer. education, competition, breakdown of the community and family
relations, materialism
QUESTION: What is necessary
not to repeat this kind of tragedy?
It is necessary to build a
society where working women can give birth to and raise children in almost the
same manner as full-time mothers. It must be difficult but the idea of seeing
children as children of society, in other words children of the nation, in a
not too intervening way would help realize a society which can protect minors
from hazards and nip the bud of juvenile delinquency. Daycare centers and
after-school schooling should be supported more with public money. Also,
educating adults to be more aware of the hardships and needs of children in
poor families would help prevent another death of a child.
12.
ISSUE: Is There A New Nuclear Arms Race? BBC World Service, The Inquiry
Task: Summarize the podcast
of this title.
Race in developing new types
of nuclear arms, localized arms races, and new generation without crisis consciousness
with relatively handy weapons are the new factors to make us rightly worry
about nuclear threat. By the end of the Cold War, when disarmament efforts
started, most western powers and some very unstable countries had possessed
enough nuclear war heads to destroy the earth. Now a new arms race has started.
Nuclear states are racing to upgrade nuclear arsenal technology and make new
kinds of nuclear weapons. At the same time, arms control efforts have stopped as
US-Russia relations deteriorate. To make matters worse, generation turnover is
making the sense of nuclear threat obsolete. It is dangerous to have new world
leaders and the public without alertness and knowledge about this weapon of
mass destruction. India and Pakistan having been racing to have enough nuclear
warheads to destroy each other entirely without disarmament talks nor clear red
lines, unlike US and Russia during the Cold War can actually use nuclear
arsenals if there is a trigger like a terror attack because battlefield nuclear
weapons allow commanders, not Presidents, to order their use. We should be
aware of the fact that, despite disarmament treaties, there are still thousands
of nuclear missiles all over the world that can destroy the whole world many
times and risk factors are plenty.
13. Crowdsourcing data analysis: Do
soccer referees give more red cards to dark skin toned players?
Crowdsourcing research can balance
discussions, validate findings and better inform policy, say Raphael Silberzahn
and Eric L. Uhlmann. Posted
by Andrew on 27 January 2015
Task A: Discuss the result of this research giving
examples that you think are related.
As the finding shows, prejudice against
people of darker skin seems to exist and affect actions. The repeated police
shootings of unarmed black males in the United States might be related to this
phenomenon. Although there are many other factors related to killings, as the
real world and the football pitch are different and discrimination, rather than
prejudice, could be the stronger force behind the actions in most of the cases,
some sensitive cases may have been triggered by the policeman’s unconscious
reaction to the color of the skin of the victim.
Task B: What kind of problems can you expect
in crowdsourcing data analysis in general?
1.
Quality
control: Not all participants might not be qualified or hardworking.
2.
Security:
Protecting confidential or personal information might be difficult.
3.
Credit:
The results could be shared by outsiders before they are made public.
QUESTIONS
AND POINTS & CASES ON OTHER ISSUES
