JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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- 秘書及び業務サポート
- 加治金属工業株式会社, Tokyo
- Salary: ¥4.0M / Year
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- English Instructor (Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe)
- Berlitz Japan, Inc. (ベルリッツ・ジャパン株式会社), Kansai
- Salary: ¥125,000 ~ ¥250,000 / Month
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- ALT - Mie Prefecture - Yokkaichi City - June start
- NPO法人グローバル教育推進機構（GLAD), Mie
- Salary: ¥230,000 / Month For a full working month. Some months differ.
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Staffan Carle
If I get it right the tsunami caused big companies such as Toyota to broaden their connenction with other firms (to have better control on their suplyers and what they supply). Which suggests that the tsunami (and other natural disasters as well) not only shows to what extent the world is connected through the problems that emerged all around the world (such as shortages of supplies even for companies outside of Japan, and the global suffering at large) but actually forces us to connect more between eachother which, with the right aim, is something positive. Remember now that Kanji of the year last year in Japan was "kizuna" which means "bonds" or "ties" between people. If the aim of the connection can come to aim for other things than economic growth as in this case, there will be a reason to really talk about positive effects of the tragedy.
Posted in: Tsunami forced manufacturers to rethink globalized production
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Staffan Carle
The climate is a part of nature's global system, a system which humans affect greatly by cutting down trees and overutalization of soils etc etc. Not saying that humans cause the climate change, but can't say the opposite either since all human activity is a part of the same chain of cause an consequence as the rest of nature. It's all connected. And moreover, humans are the only species that have the capability (and the will) to actually change the whole system. So far we've only changed it for the worse, destroying nature. Things like global heating and cooling and natural catastrophes simply let us become aware of this fact - that we're a part of the system not only in that we can affect it but in that we are affected by it too a muh greater extent than what we affect it. If we would affect it in a good way we would probably be affected by it in a good way. What else could be the benefit from reading these articles? I'm not asking to be told what is happening with the climate, I just read the newspaper. What do I care about climate problems; what do I care if I'm the cause of it? Becoming aware of that I'm a part of the system? Why would I want that?
Posted in: Melting Arctic is causing snowier winters, say researchers
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Staffan Carle
Elbuda Mexicano:
I think you're right, I think FB is here to stay. The question is what benefit it will do. Well, as you say, it's a great tool to connect people. The purpose for which we connect is up to us but of course, FB itself sets the limits of how to use our investment (of time and information posted) according to what they want to make out of it. It would be silly to think that the answer to that is not money, even though Zuckerberg says he wants to connect people. Of course he wants to connect people as much as people wants to connect, and of course he wants to make money as much as everyone wants to make money.
The question is what the real benefit will be (suggesting that money is not a real benefit ...).
Posted in: Facebook to seek to raise $5 bil in IPO
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Staffan Carle
WilliB: Ok, you're right about easy on the sound bites. It's easy to oversimplify these things. But what can we do? Even the people that are supposed to know what they're talking about, the politicians and the experts of society, don't know how to solve this thing. It seems to me everyone's working in different directions. Some say that capitalistic system is the problem while others mean that it is the politicians that don't know how to run things ...
No, of course not. No one can. I think Einsten said that We can't solve problems by using the same way of thinking as we used to create them. Perhaps wealth is not what we're looking for. Statistics show that people with high income are less happy than people with a normal income. Developing countries seem to be happier than developed countries ... What if we're all off in the wrong direction? What if the crisis is unsolvable?
What I mean is that the politicians and the high economic layer are too immersed in the system to be able to objectively look for a true solution. ...
Posted in: Eurozone crisis biggest threat to world economy, Noda tells Davos forum
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Staffan Carle
WilliB>It is fashionable to blame the US for everything, but the Eurozone disaster is quite separate of the US. The Eurozone disaster would have happened even if the USA did not even exist.
It's fashinable to blame the US and it's human to blame anyone other than oneself. Economy and all other the parts of the global network today are so interconnected that it's impossible to say where something ends or starts or what is who's fault. All we know is that all the crisis that happen today, including the economic crisis, are human crisis (even the environmental crisis). The only thing clear is that humanity, we, started it.
The problem is that this way of pushing the problems around not wanting to "get dirty" is in our nature, it's true on every level from individual to nation or union. It's not just the politicians. And it's the only way we know. So what to do? If we can't force the Europeans to get a grip of themselves we're forced to find another way.
Noda points to the problem as Europe's here. The problem is ours, it's common. If every nation (or union ... or perhaps most important - individual) could find a way to turn its attention inward and find the point where it can contribute to the whole, perhaps that would be a start to finding a sollution.
Can we change ourselves? No, humans cannot change themselves. Then what? We have to try. Starting on the individual level with education.
The crisis will bring unemployment to new hights and we'll have plenty of free time. It's also in governments interest. Uprisings and social unrest will escalate when jobs and money run out and both government and financial elite will come to see that it will take more than media-control and deceiving to keep people calm. Rather they will need to educate us, letting us know about the systems in charge of us (such as capitalism and exaggerated consumerism, but also the systems of nature and humanity itself).
In short, Noda and economic summits all miss the point; the era of capitalism and flat egoistic calculations are about to reach a dead end and they still refuse to deal with the true problem. So do we, but we're already ahead of them finding the true sollution!
Posted in: Eurozone crisis biggest threat to world economy, Noda tells Davos forum
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Staffan Carle
tokyokawasakiJAN. 24, 2012 - 03:58PM JST
You're right life's too short. How many people would leave if some super respected expert science team tomorrow would tell us that the risque is actually 90%?
I move to another part of Japan. The next month they tell me that here at this new place i moved to the risque is from here on 95%. So I move abroad, to some country that doesn't have earthquakes. The next month a war starts in the very same country (totally from the blue), so I move again to the safest country in the world all categories, just to find out that I have caught a deadly virus during my travels ...
They tell me the only doctor able to treat the illness lives in Tokyo ...
So I go back to Tokyo, get treatment and get well. The 90% earthquake risque still remains. What do I do next?
Posted in: Big quake could hit Tokyo within 4 years, researchers warn
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Staffan Carle
I heard someone say that today's economic crisis started in Japan 20 years ago.
Comparing to then the countries in the world today are more connected to eachother and the world, including the economy, is more global so I guess we will all be affected soon or later, wherever we are. So I guess it will "come back home" to Japan also to a a larger scale than before.
I don't think this is a Euro crisis or a crisis of the western world, not even an economic crisis. I think it's a human crisis ... We see that there's nothing to do about it. No political or economic measures helps ...
I think that the cause of the crisis is really me. I want what is best for me, my country wants what is best for my country and so on. As long as that doesn't change there will be no solution to the crisis. How can I come to even ask what is best for my friend or my neighboring country ... or even the world?
Posted in: Greece heads into debt talks as German growth falters