HOME FREE
Day 10 is over! *confetti* Yay. Was pretty okay, ho hum, same as usual. Went out for lunch with the office people, who are all really nice. And like, 30% are ex-R students. Or teachers. So it's kinda freaky? O_o Like, ex-V VicePrin, ex-N Prin, ex-N HOD... O_O But there is hope yet, all thee science students, for even people from trip science can do a happy englishy job like this. =D But most of them go "O_o HUH?" when I tell them I'm from science...
---------
Otouto is only good at racing, but not at all the little frills concerned with the game. Drac, on the other hand, sucks at racing but is pretty good at maps. Conclusion? Need for speed 2 is best played by two people. Backseat driving rocks. =D We've had 8min45s police chases! PHWOAR. $49,000 in bounty, $230,000 in civic damage. XD I am also starting to think that Mia is really going to sell us out to Razor, but oh well. =\
--------
Calendars are HERE! ^_^ Bleach calendar is the manga one (Ele-san, honestly, it's pretty nice. *shrugs* I always found the manga art prettier than the anime art, so maybe it's a question of taste...?) Spiral calendar is LOVE ♥. Absolutely. Mere words cannot express its beauty. So Drac will upload PICTURES, yes, taken by Leika-chan? ^________^ (... Which is a girl. Kinda weird. Most of my electronic stuff is male so...)
Leika-chan also has memory card errors. T_T Drac is just unlucky. Tou-san is bringing the cam to the shop to figure out what's the problem.
... I really should start studying for my SATs.
----------
Okay, before I deal with the new issue brought up by yanagiken and sansele, I'll say what I thought of the whole situation before that.
Honestly, I felt that China was overreacting. Yes, Japan has not been forthcoming with apologies. But China also has a huge hangup and tends to overreact. Look, the Japanese invaded Singapore too right? But comparing us and China, we have a friendly relationship with Japan, and even an FTA. We have joint defence exercises, we have school exchanges and technology exchange. Granted, Sinagpore may have suffered less than China, but the point is that China decided against a friendly relationship with Japan and instead opted for a confrontation. Has China considered that a less hardline view may actually encourage Japan to apologise more? Goodwill is always a mutual thing: to me, both countries are at fault here, Japan for not being fully contrite, and China for not being forgiving. The war is PAST. Make friends, dammit. Progress is not achieved by constantly looking over your shoulder at the people who once tripped you.
Though Koizumi, you idiot, what is up with the yasukuni shrine? Granted, to this is your own personal visit, and I too feel that it is meddling far too much in a country's internal practices (No one makes this kind of noise about Kim Jong Il's statues.), but this is rapidly blowing up into an international incident. For peace's sake, give in. You will win the victory by being gracious.
And just today, Kai and Ele-san posted two links, here and here. Frankly, I am disgusted. Why isn't anything being done about this? Shut them down and take the books off the shelves, and most importantly, ARREST those buggers who started it. This kind of thing is never to be tolerated, and it reflects very badly on Japan.
But food for thought really: number of copies sold: 360,000. Population of Japan: 127,417,244 . Ie: percent of population involved: 0.283%. In physics, negligible. But in the world? NOT.
The whole thing is rapidly spiraling out of control, really. Because of China, Japan is stepping up the SDF. And because of that, China will react again. Vicious cycle. Part of the problem is that Japan's economy, though still the second largest in the world, is slowing down, and China's is growing at about 10% per anum. Everthing boils down to money. The bad yuan peg isn't helping anything either, and China faces a real problem in terms of inflation. Actually, this is just stupid. Look, if South Korean, China and Japan decided to form some union, they'd probably have a bigger economy than the EU and US.
But why won't they? Because, they are all alike, and this is the vast irony. Because of the unbending, face-saving east asian mentality. Why can't China get over the war? Because they were humiliated. Why can't Japan, unlike Germany, aplease the world? Because this mentality cannot let them admit their error and their shame. Why can't Japan accept South Korea? Because of the superiority complex. It all boils down to the east asian mentality. Catch 22. The solution is inherent in the problem.
What really needs to be done is for the whole thing to be diffused. Not by America or Europe - they cannot understand this East Asian mentality. (Look, Britain and France still hate each other's guts, but this doesn't stop them from cooperating on a whole spectrum of things.) What needs to be done is that an asian nation needs to step up and diffuse it. Unfortunately, any country that could have the clout is embroiled in the conflict. And honestly if Singapore tried to intervene they'd probably bomb us off the map. But Japan vs China vs South Korean is spiraling out of control. Regional war on the cards. Don't forget - Japan may have a no war policy, but it does not have a no stockpiling policy, and China is as nuclear as they come.
And this isn't going to be solved by something simple like time either. Firstly Japan has happily brainwashed the school textbooks to show that they haven't done much wrong. (Question: What did Germany do anyway? Tell all their school kids that they annihiated the Jews and bomb half of Europe? Interesting thought.) China has also vigourously stroked nationalist sentiment: why do you think they train so hard for the olympics? It's not just glory - it's nationalist education. And unlike Singapore, they have a vast, uniform population that easily identifies within itself, with a strong national identity, and they actually win medals. And part of their nationalism is their past - guess where WWII crops up. Boom. Japan vs China till 2020 and beyond.
This is the superpower problem. Big country, clout, vast hordes of people, huge economy, and in China's case, armed to the teeth. To digress a bit, I am very much in favour of annexation. We should annex China, Russia and America. Problem solved. Look at the EU - it's no threat because no one can agree on anything. But by the same token, you could create another Korean war - but it is indefinitely more attractive to watch small countries have a spat than big countries duking it out. The only point being, that no one will ever agree to annexation...
The point being: we should all stop aportioning blame and taking sides. That is not how you solve a conflict. Conflicts are solved through neutrality, and the conflicting parties seeing the situation from another point of view. Negotiation, not confrontation. The UN should step in. (Seriously: UN, where have you been for the past 6 months? Iraq, Japan vs China, Israel, Darfur, Pakistan vs India, Gaza, Sri Lanka. What's going on?) Put both China and Japan on the security council, bump China up a bit in the WTO, tell off both countries, and threathen them with sanctions from the EU and US. Carrot and stick, to applease this silly east asian mindset. Arguments, like clapping, need two sides - by default then, in any argument both sides are at fault. It's time to stop this silly nonsense and get on with progress.
---------
Otouto is only good at racing, but not at all the little frills concerned with the game. Drac, on the other hand, sucks at racing but is pretty good at maps. Conclusion? Need for speed 2 is best played by two people. Backseat driving rocks. =D We've had 8min45s police chases! PHWOAR. $49,000 in bounty, $230,000 in civic damage. XD I am also starting to think that Mia is really going to sell us out to Razor, but oh well. =\
--------
Calendars are HERE! ^_^ Bleach calendar is the manga one (Ele-san, honestly, it's pretty nice. *shrugs* I always found the manga art prettier than the anime art, so maybe it's a question of taste...?) Spiral calendar is LOVE ♥. Absolutely. Mere words cannot express its beauty. So Drac will upload PICTURES, yes, taken by Leika-chan? ^________^ (... Which is a girl. Kinda weird. Most of my electronic stuff is male so...)
Leika-chan also has memory card errors. T_T Drac is just unlucky. Tou-san is bringing the cam to the shop to figure out what's the problem.
... I really should start studying for my SATs.
----------
Okay, before I deal with the new issue brought up by yanagiken and sansele, I'll say what I thought of the whole situation before that.
Honestly, I felt that China was overreacting. Yes, Japan has not been forthcoming with apologies. But China also has a huge hangup and tends to overreact. Look, the Japanese invaded Singapore too right? But comparing us and China, we have a friendly relationship with Japan, and even an FTA. We have joint defence exercises, we have school exchanges and technology exchange. Granted, Sinagpore may have suffered less than China, but the point is that China decided against a friendly relationship with Japan and instead opted for a confrontation. Has China considered that a less hardline view may actually encourage Japan to apologise more? Goodwill is always a mutual thing: to me, both countries are at fault here, Japan for not being fully contrite, and China for not being forgiving. The war is PAST. Make friends, dammit. Progress is not achieved by constantly looking over your shoulder at the people who once tripped you.
Though Koizumi, you idiot, what is up with the yasukuni shrine? Granted, to this is your own personal visit, and I too feel that it is meddling far too much in a country's internal practices (No one makes this kind of noise about Kim Jong Il's statues.), but this is rapidly blowing up into an international incident. For peace's sake, give in. You will win the victory by being gracious.
And just today, Kai and Ele-san posted two links, here and here. Frankly, I am disgusted. Why isn't anything being done about this? Shut them down and take the books off the shelves, and most importantly, ARREST those buggers who started it. This kind of thing is never to be tolerated, and it reflects very badly on Japan.
But food for thought really: number of copies sold: 360,000. Population of Japan: 127,417,244 . Ie: percent of population involved: 0.283%. In physics, negligible. But in the world? NOT.
The whole thing is rapidly spiraling out of control, really. Because of China, Japan is stepping up the SDF. And because of that, China will react again. Vicious cycle. Part of the problem is that Japan's economy, though still the second largest in the world, is slowing down, and China's is growing at about 10% per anum. Everthing boils down to money. The bad yuan peg isn't helping anything either, and China faces a real problem in terms of inflation. Actually, this is just stupid. Look, if South Korean, China and Japan decided to form some union, they'd probably have a bigger economy than the EU and US.
But why won't they? Because, they are all alike, and this is the vast irony. Because of the unbending, face-saving east asian mentality. Why can't China get over the war? Because they were humiliated. Why can't Japan, unlike Germany, aplease the world? Because this mentality cannot let them admit their error and their shame. Why can't Japan accept South Korea? Because of the superiority complex. It all boils down to the east asian mentality. Catch 22. The solution is inherent in the problem.
What really needs to be done is for the whole thing to be diffused. Not by America or Europe - they cannot understand this East Asian mentality. (Look, Britain and France still hate each other's guts, but this doesn't stop them from cooperating on a whole spectrum of things.) What needs to be done is that an asian nation needs to step up and diffuse it. Unfortunately, any country that could have the clout is embroiled in the conflict. And honestly if Singapore tried to intervene they'd probably bomb us off the map. But Japan vs China vs South Korean is spiraling out of control. Regional war on the cards. Don't forget - Japan may have a no war policy, but it does not have a no stockpiling policy, and China is as nuclear as they come.
And this isn't going to be solved by something simple like time either. Firstly Japan has happily brainwashed the school textbooks to show that they haven't done much wrong. (Question: What did Germany do anyway? Tell all their school kids that they annihiated the Jews and bomb half of Europe? Interesting thought.) China has also vigourously stroked nationalist sentiment: why do you think they train so hard for the olympics? It's not just glory - it's nationalist education. And unlike Singapore, they have a vast, uniform population that easily identifies within itself, with a strong national identity, and they actually win medals. And part of their nationalism is their past - guess where WWII crops up. Boom. Japan vs China till 2020 and beyond.
This is the superpower problem. Big country, clout, vast hordes of people, huge economy, and in China's case, armed to the teeth. To digress a bit, I am very much in favour of annexation. We should annex China, Russia and America. Problem solved. Look at the EU - it's no threat because no one can agree on anything. But by the same token, you could create another Korean war - but it is indefinitely more attractive to watch small countries have a spat than big countries duking it out. The only point being, that no one will ever agree to annexation...
The point being: we should all stop aportioning blame and taking sides. That is not how you solve a conflict. Conflicts are solved through neutrality, and the conflicting parties seeing the situation from another point of view. Negotiation, not confrontation. The UN should step in. (Seriously: UN, where have you been for the past 6 months? Iraq, Japan vs China, Israel, Darfur, Pakistan vs India, Gaza, Sri Lanka. What's going on?) Put both China and Japan on the security council, bump China up a bit in the WTO, tell off both countries, and threathen them with sanctions from the EU and US. Carrot and stick, to applease this silly east asian mindset. Arguments, like clapping, need two sides - by default then, in any argument both sides are at fault. It's time to stop this silly nonsense and get on with progress.