Nagasaki, Japan June 23, 2010

It's been over a month now since I posted last, and I figure I should post again!

I'm coming close to the end of my stay in Japan and so I wanted to explain a little about Nagasaki and start posting pictures.

Nagasaki is a fairly small city in (as Tokyo dwellers like to refer to it as) a backwater part of Japan known as Kyushu. It has about 400,000 people, though some of these must live in the outer-reaches of the city. It has an excellent tram and bus system. It is nestled in-between mountains on three sides and surrounded around three sides (passed the mountains in some cases) by ocean, meaning that in Nagasaki especially there is a rich variety of seafood.

Why Can't One Person Live Like Another? May 14, 2010

I don't understand why people have problems with so-called "illegal immigrants", they go through hell to get to where they can live the "American Dream", but then they find the country doesn't want them--no matter how hard they work or for what wages. They are not given citizenship when they ask for it. Some have children in the united states and those children are still classified as illegal immigrants, even though they are born in the united states and speak English.

If you have a problem with illegal immigrants, I want to see you doing the jobs they do that keep your country afloat. Degrading jobs that ordinary citizens don't want to do anymore-whether out of laziness or contempt. I don't have a problem with an illegal immigrant or their child going to my school or working at places where I may want to work because I believe in equality. I believe all human beings are equal, and that no land actually belongs to us, so why build a fence around it to keep others out?

You don't have the right to.

Fuck Arizona and fuck racist Palin.

Iran vs. United States -- May 4, 2010

The Iranian leader raised quite a few good points in his speech at the United Nations. He accused the west of double standards--which is true.

"Regrettably the united states has not only used nuclear weapons, but also continues to threaten the use of such weapons against other countries, including my country. So one may ask, how much could nations possibly trust the united states to implement its commitments? What guarantees are there that it would live up to such commitments, and what are the tools for independent verifications of its guarantees?" Iranian president.

Hilary Clinton comes back with this pathetic little school girl response, and everyone claps for her. People simply walk out at the Iranian speech. She mentions that his accusations are false and wild.

But the United States has used nuclear weapons, and thereby scarred the world. They DO continue to threaten other countries, whether verbally or simply by having that many weapons to use against dissenters. No one does trust the united states and the only reason some of the european countries walked out is because they are scared of the united states. And since the United States would control its own inspection, since it controls everything anyway, it could easily escape the verifications that the Iranian president is asking about.

If the United States wants a fair world, and a world without nuclear weapons, it is going to have to be the bigger state and STEP DOWN. No one else will do it first, because no one trusts that their asses will be protected if they relent before the united states do.

This world is in a sorry state of affairs.

Things I Can't Quite Get -- May 3, 2010

I find it ridiculous that the so-called most powerful country in the world can't fight an oil spill. I also find it ridiculous that the so-called most powerful country in the world can't stop a few terrorists.

I find it sort of funny that the people of the so-called most powerful country in the world hate their president, when with him they rose from Rank 40 to Rank 20 of the most Freedom of Press countries. Canada was 13 but we've dropped to 19, which makes me upset.

A lot of Americans don't understand why Canadians are so critical of them, but that was one of the reasons. The American people are more enslaved to the government than we are, and won't listen to us when we try to point out that they need to fight for themselves. I met an American who told me that Canadians do have a right to be critical of America, which surprised me. I sometimes think we are too critical of them. Sometimes I think we are becoming just like them.

I think Denmark sounds cool, it seems like the most cosmopolitan, happy place in the whole world to live, by statistics. Maybe too much perfection would drive me crazy. They have the longest standing tolerance towards homosexuals in the world. They are very much into gender equality. But an American would find it hard to live in such an amazing country because of the different manners. In a Scandinavian country, one finds that one is expected not to make too much noise or draw too much attention to oneself. Scandinavian people generally consider everyone and everything equal. Americans view this as communism, which it isn't.

Death Penalty April 25, 2010

My host grandmother came back from Osaka (or Tokyo) the other day, so today I ended up with a golden bear cell phone strap, what seems to be tiny, cute note paper, a prayer plaque from some 八坂神社(I don't know the romaji for that, but it means Eight Hills Shrine in English), a pretty little handkerchief and some more paper cranes. The last trip she went on, she brought me back cat note paper.

I just finished watching some news from Aljazeera and I found myself reminded that the death penalty is still legal in my lovely neighbour to the south. Why is there such thing as a death penalty in the modern world? If you kill a murderer, you yourself are a murderer, that murderer's family do not find themselves at ease once their family member is killed and the victim's family members do not rejoice either. It seems like a waste of life.

Sure, prisons fill up quickly, but for life without parole individuals, you could make them work at jobs that educated people don't want to do, and it would help the country out. There is also rehabilitation. If you can make sure that the individual is safe to go back into society, release them. There are so many tests and things you could do and that many of the advanced countries in the Scandinavian region do to make sure that criminals are fit for society. There is a much lower crime rate in those countries. Even jail for a short time can ruin an individuals life, and they find themselves repeating past actions because they have no other way to survive, say, having missed out on an education while in jail.

There are so many ways to just not use the death penalty. We as a people have moved beyond that--a medieval practice. Where is the compassion that the United States, a country filled most with Christian-faith followers, teaches? Why is there still government ok-ed torture and murder happening?

My fellow North Americans, where is your freedom?

A murderer, most often than not, is a person who has a mental handicap. What sort of person can take another person's life other than someone who has a lot of problems? Think for yourself, imagine going up to someone and killing them, for any numerous reasons that you may or may not have thought of. We all hate someone. Could you put your hands around their throat and watch as the light drains from their eyes? If you are a normally functioning person, then you should answer no to this question. I could never take the life of someone, no matter how much I hate them or say I would love to kill them. In reality, this is morbid, not the topic of a movie or a drama. Could you then, out of compassion, fix what is wrong with a murderer, so that they never take life again? There is therapy for mentally handicapped people, why is there no therapy for murderers, who are also a type of handicapped persons?

You say, "I hope that person gets the death penalty," but could you pull the trigger, is death penalties reversed from a needle back to a gun? Could you look that person in the eye if they killed your loved one and shoot them? Maybe you could. I would not be able to. The person I am pointing the gun at, the person who killed my loved one, is human too.

I am human. They are human. Why would I take their life and make myself like them? We're taught these lessons in kindergarten, and through the Bible or any other multiple cultures that have the "do unto other as you would do unto yourself".

That's all for now.

May we be blessed.

Immigrant Deportation

Arizona has passed a new law stating that anyone who seems to be of immigrant status can be stopped by the police and questioned. If found without their immigration papers they can be detained and fined money.

But what if they are non-white American citizens? They won't feel the need to carry around citizenship papers in their own country, and they most certainly won't be carrying around immigration papers.

This law is a racist one. On top of the fact that a human being should be allowed to live wherever he or she wants to live, and especially if their labour is making the government money, then the government should not be concerned.

People in Arizona should be speaking out against the racists in their government. People all over the world should be fighting to protect their fellow man. I cannot understand how anyone could be so blind when there is information technology all around us. It makes me sick to my stomach knowing that too few people care about the situations around them.

May the gods bless.

March 25, 2010 Socialism

I will do the often done thing here and first quote from www.dictionary.com to find out what exactly what socialism is.

Dictionary.com says: "–noun

1.

a theory or system of social organization that advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, of capital, land, etc., in the community as a whole.

2.

procedure or practice in accordance with this theory.

3.

(in Marxist theory) the stage following capitalism in the transition of a society to communism, characterized by the imperfect implementation of collectivist principles."

Now let's define a few of those terms as well for those of us not up-to-date on political science and sociology terms.

Vesting - "the granting to an eligible employee of the right to specified pension benefits, regardless of discontinued employment status, usually after a fixed period of employment. "

Collectivist - "–noun

the political principle of centralized social and economic control, esp. of all means of production. "

(If you need other terms explained, the dictionary.com link is available ^^ )

When a society becomes socialist, many things are instead done by the government than they are by the people. It is a long way away from communism, but it seems Americans can not escape their cold war prejudice.

Of course, if you tell an American that going to school for free is the same as getting free health care, and thus putting them in so-called socialism, when really they are just moving a little left from center, they would deny it. If President Obama decided to do away with America's dangerous Free-Trade agreement (which is currently endangering my home town and is trying to destroy our clean drinking water), this would be another step in the left direction, but President Obama is not a socialist and would not do this.

A civilized country is a country where people are taken care of when they get to stage in their life when they can no longer give the government money. This includes when they are sick. A civilized country is socialist enough to realize the benefits of giving their students free education. Not many Americans are willing to hand out thousands of dollars a year so that their child can go to some fancy private school, so why are Americans so willing to pay the insurance companies thousands of dollars for crap health care? The only way that private health care is better than public health care is because rich people are chosen over poor people when it comes to deciding who will get the organ transplant, but that in and of itself is wrong. Why should a rich person get a better treatment than a poor one?

Why are Americans insisting in staying a third-world developed country? (honestly, that should not even be possible!)

President Obama's Victory Speech: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xh2yPfD5F-4