Wednesday February 15, 2012

ambrosia's past comments

  • 1

    ambrosia

    It's not exactly correct to say that ge overstayed his visa by 20 years. He turned himself in a long time ago and as a result had to go to immigration offices monthly to register his existence, so to speak. This is part of the process / a type of punishment one goes through when immigration thinks their case is worthy of being reviewed. This "registration" can be endless, and yes, I do mean endless.

    Any resistance he might have offered would no doubt have been due to the stress of the whole process, treatment by officials and anxiety over not being able to take care of relatives in his home country because I guarantee you he was supporting many. Ghana is a poor country but it is a relatively stable, safe one as well so I highly doubt he feared returning.

    He broke the law, that is a fact. There are repercussions for breaking the law and that is also a fact. What is not a fact, is that the result of breaking immigration laws should ever result in death. There are numerous ways this could've been handled where Mr. Saruj would be alive now. We visited his grave the last time we were there and there were other people there. He was a human being, with people who loved and mourn for him. Save your vitriol for criminals who had victims and harmed other people. His main crime, as I see it, was having the bad luck to be born in a country where getting a visa from Japan, the US, etc. isn't quite the walk in the park that it is for white North Americans and Europeans regardless of their lack of qualifications. He was trying to make a living, not trying to rape your sisters and daughters, to steal from you or to take your job. You wouldn't have done the work he had to do anyway nor accepted those wages or conditions.

    If you are 100% sure that all of your friends pay their taxes, pensions and insurance in full then you can - possibly - claim not to keep company with criminal sorts. If you can't say that with certainty you may want to get off your high horse as it coukd be a long, hard fall when you learn the truth.

    Posted in: The case of Abubakar Awudu Suraj: A PR nightmare of Japan’s own making

  • 0

    ambrosia

    While I am not condoning people breaking the law, I think Japan shoots itself in the foot with it's severe overstay policies. If you don't know what they are, read below. They are so onerous for most people, particularly the ones most likely to overstay, those being low-paid laborers from developing nations, that it is almost better for them to continue overstaying, saving what they can and taking their chances with getting caught. Additionally, you are far more likely to face the strictest points in this policy if you are not white. As someone who is married to a black African I can tell you that he is regularly stopped by the police in our own neighborhood despite having been in Japan legally and having lived in the same building for many years. I know of no white men or women who get stopped as often as he or his friends.

    "*Despite UN and Prime Ministerial studies clamoring for more immigration and foreign tourism, Japan is not doing itself any favors with its recent legislation on overstays. Last Thursday, May 27, 2004, Japan's more-powerful Lower House passed an amendment to the "Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law", which takes effect six months after its imminent promulgation.

    http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20040528a1.htm

    This amendment enacts stricter punishments for those overstaying their visa. Banishment time from Japan has been doubled from five to ten years. Maximum fine increased tenfold from 300,000 to 3 million yen (more than a year's salary in most countries). Those who go down to Immigration to come clean before being caught are merely deported faster. This in addition to the already-enforced incarceration with other criminals for at least several days (sometimes at a charge of 60,000 yen per day), without access to family, a consulate, or even a lawyer." *

    Posted in: The case of Abubakar Awudu Suraj: A PR nightmare of Japan’s own making

  • 3

    ambrosia

    It's actually not safer to ride on sidewalks. Not only for the reasons below but for this reason: drivers of cars have more to risk for being unpredictable (though taxis seem to go against that logic). Not only will they damage their cars, which is expensive to repair but they could be seriously injured and as we all know, in Japan if they hit a cyclists they'll be held accountable regardless of who was really at fault. People walk out of stores and don't pay attention on the pavement because they imagine that the worst that'll happen is they'll collide with another person. Especially here in Japan, people tend to assume to bigger, more powerful person, vehicle, etc. is looking out for the smaller one. Ride your bicycle on the sidewalk and that's the total unpredictability you'll encounter.

    "You're riding on the sidewalk and cross the street at a crosswalk, and a car makes a right turn, right into you. Drivers aren't expecting bikes in the crosswalk, and it's hard for them to see you because of the nature of turning from one street to another, so it's very easy for you to get hit this way. In fact, this collision is so common we've lost track of the number of people who've told us they were hit this way, such as Ray John Ray. One study showed that sidewalk-riding was twice as dangerous as road riding, and another study said it's even more dangerous than that." http://bicyclesafe.com/

    p://www.bicyclinglife.com/Library/riskfactors.htm http://www.bicyclinglife.com/Library/Moritz2.htm

    Another myth is that you'll be safer if you ride your bike as close to the left (inside lane) as possible. Ride too close to the left and cars won't see you because they're looking down the middle of the road. It also puts you at serious risk of riding into an open door of a parked car.

    It's a chicken and egg situation but the reality is that cars won't be comfortable sharing the roads with cyclists until more cyclists - safely - take to the roads but many cyclists won't take to the roads until they feel the roads are safer.

    The thing for all of us annoyed by cyclists using the sidewalks they shouldn't use is to do a few things:

    1) Don't move for the cyclists. If they need to pass you they can do so when there's an opening in the sidewalk. If they're coming down the sidewalk too quickly and you have a bag, hold it up and indicate that they'll be riding face into it if they don't slow down. It's risky but it's yet to not work for me.

    2) Every time you see a police officer and someone violating cycling rules, which is about every time I step out of my house, point it out and ask the police officer, politely but firmly, to do something about it.

    3) When you're riding on the correct side of the road and a cyclist comes at you the wrong way, pull to the side and force them to move out into the middle of the lane. If nothing else it may help them to realize how much danger they're putting themselves and others in, especially if a car is coming right at them.

    4) Lead by example. Wear the proper safety gear, pay attention when you're riding, ride on the road and encourage others to do so.

    Nothing will change until people realize that there is a way to make the sidewalks safe for pedestrians and roads safe for cyclists and until people demand nothing less! My general feeling is that if you don't feel safe riding on the roads then you're probably not a good enough or safe enough cyclist to be riding on the sidewalks either. That may be harsh and I know I'll take some slack for it so I won't bother responding . I'll just state right now that I stand by that comment.

    Posted in: Police to get tough on sidewalk cyclists

  • -4

    ambrosia

    "Comparatively quiet"??? He's either deaf or just never going to the places I seem to end up in. If it's not the "mood" music being played as loud as at a disco, you'll inevitably be surrounded by Japanese girls, ladies, whatever, who speak or shout at each other in a volume that reminds one of the drill sergeant in a typical army movie. I could understand it if they were a distance from each other across a big table but the loudest ones always seem to be right next to each other. No sense of volume.

    alpachinco: They know exactly what they're doing by calling it 'American Coffee' since it's the weakest coffee you'll be served in most of those places, often not very good and very reminiscent of coffee you used to get everywhere in America, especially diners and family restaurants. I do agree with whoever said they heat the milk too hot though. You should never scald your tongue when drinking a milk drink and the stupid, wasteful coffee cup sleeves would be far less necessary if they didn't heat them so high.

    Posted in: Japan's coffee culture

  • 0

    ambrosia

    "Acting" shy may be valued but that doesn't make the people shy so yes, you should amend your statement. As for Japan being unique, that's a meaningless statement when it's made with the suggestion that Japan is alone in being unique. I've been to many countries and met people from many more. Every country and every person has been unique. It does get a bit tiresome hearing how "unique" Japan is, as if everyone needs to be convinced of this for some reason.

    Posted in: Quirky video shows the 'real Japan'

  • 0

    ambrosia

    Following social conventions doesn't make you shy. It's a personal characteristic. There are shy Japanese just as there are shy people in every country in the world and there are outgoing Japanese just as there are outgoing people in every country in the world. I know plenty of Americans and Brits who are naturally shy but following their countrys' social conventions, have to act in a more outgoing manner than they are necessarily comfortable with. It's ridiculous, to say the least, to suggest that 125 million + people are shy. I could give you myriad examples that would prove quite the opposite. But hey, if it makes you feel better saying that "Japanese are shy" (codeword for - unique) then have at.

    Posted in: Quirky video shows the 'real Japan'

  • 6

    ambrosia

    And, contrary to what the video said, Japan didn't renounce war because it was hit by two nuclear bombs. It renounced war because of the post-war constitution that was imposed on them by the occupying forces. I say this not because it's a bad thing that the constitution requires this but because I get tired of hearing people, ignorant of their own history, say it as if they all saw the light one day and decided to be a "peaceful" nation.

    Posted in: Quirky video shows the 'real Japan'

  • 3

    ambrosia

    The graphics were kind of fun and if you know nothing about Japan it might've been interesting but the whole "Japan is a strange country" theme just seems like another way of saying "Japan is unique". Japan isn't the most crowded country in the world, doesn't have the highest suicide rate, isn't the only country that wastes food and other resources and isn't the smallest country in the world by far. It's the 61st or 62nd largest country, bigger than Germany, France, New Zealand, etc. Don't even get me started on the whole "Japanese are shy" nonsense! Really? Then who are all the half-naked girls staring at us from the pages of newspapers and the ubiquitous porn magazines. Adhering to social protocol which dictates you (generally) keep your opinions to yourself is not the same as being shy.

    Posted in: Quirky video shows the 'real Japan'

  • 1

    ambrosia

    I also played on the street when I was young, all the kids did. The thing is that we were never alone. There were always at least two kids but usually more like five or six and one of us was always watching out for cars. Someone's parent was also poking their head out regularly to make sure we weren't getting into trouble or not looking for cars. It helped too that the adults in our neighborhood were known for taking down license plates of cars that went too fast and giving them to the police, or as with my kind of crazy dad, spraying them with the hose if he was out during yard work while they sped past. Heaven help the driver who was foolish enough to stop and say something to my dad about the water! Unfortunately for this little boy someone didn't have his best interests in the forefront of their mind.

    It's a myth that driving in the countryside is safer. It isn't for many reasons, not the least being because people tend to take more chances and drive faster than they do in the city simply because they think it's safer in the countryside. Plus, there are more accidents where there are more cars and people in the countryside generally all have cars because the trains aren't as centrally located for them. This is something pedestrians and cyclists should always be mindful of but we know how that works in Japan. Cycling toward cars so that you turn right into them and walk with your back to traffic so you have no idea what's behind you.

    I'm sorry for this boy and his family but also for the driver. It may well have been the fault of the parents for not keeping a proper eye on their son but at the end of the day it's the driver who's going to pay.

    *"Number of automobile accident fatalities from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare's vital statistics. In order to average the variation depending on year, the average numbers of automobile accident fatalities in each prefecture for the 10 year period from 1998 to 2007 have been compared.

    During this 10 year period, an average of 11,200 people per year have died due to automobile accidents, and the number of automobile accident fatalities per 100 thousand population is 8.765.

    The number of automobile accident fatalities per 100 thousand population is greatest Kagawa, with 16.302. This is 1.86 times the national average, and the deviation value, 74.7, is also high. The number of automobile accident fatalities per 100 thousand population in Kagawa is 1.2 times that of Saga, ranked second, indicating that number of automobile accident fatalities in Kagawa is incomparably high. Of the top 5 prefectures, 4 prefectures, Kagawa (1st), Kochi (3rd), Tokushima (4th) and Ehime (5th), are in Shikoku, and the high number of automobile accident fatalities in Shikoku stands out.

    In view of the rates per 100 thousand population, the numbers of automobile accident fatalities in Aichi and Osaka, in which there is said to be reckless driving, are not that high and fall below the national average. This is believed to be due to the low rate of automobile usage in urban areas, and thus few fatalities from automobile accidents.

    The correlative ranking shows that is is highly correlated (0.7 or more) with the number of Automobiles Registered, indicating that there are many automobile accident fatalities where there are many automobiles."

    http://stats-japan.com/t/kiji/11911*

    Posted in: 5-year-old boy playing in street dies after being run over by car

  • 1

    ambrosia

    Yes, there are plenty of things we can and should emulate from developing nations and I'd think that you'd completely agree since you seem to want to return to a (mythical) time when we were all from developing nations. I'm married to someone from a developing nation and have learned a lot from him and his family about life, lessons I wish all people from so-called developed nations would learn. Although to do so would require putting aside your "1st world" ego and arrogance, which not everyone is capable of doing.

    Are 50% of British stay at home moms upper class? Probably middle-class or upper because they were able to afford educations which enabled them to get jobs which pay more than welfare benefits for staying at home. I've not been able to find exact statistics but it is fairly easy to deduce that if you can't get a well-paying job due to a lesser education, it is financially better to stay at home and collect the dole, which doesn't mean that that is necessarily what they want to be doing. And if 50% of British moms are staying at home shouldn't the crime rates be decreasing not "skyrocketing" since previous rates suggested that 2/3 or lower and lower-middle class women worked?

    As for the new item that you've lifted (but not quoted) from, you left out this nugget, which concurs with what I said about childcare, "The OECD suggests that this may be to do with the quality of childcare in the UK. Good childcare is the most expensive in the Western world."

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1381332/Britain-world-leader-working-mothers-And-harming-childrens-development-warn-global-report.html#ixzz1YaLVuRpd

    Additionally, this larger, more comprehensive study gives different results than the one you read so yes, it can be disputed.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/children_shealth/7921052/Working-

    "As well as examining factors like family relationships and household income, they assessed children's vocabulary, reading ability and academic test scores, and asked teachers and parents to rate their behaviour. Working mothers had better mental health, were able to build healthier relationships within the family, and boosted the household income - all of which aided the child's development, the researchers found. Children whose mothers worked were also likely to benefit from higher-quality childcare outside the home, because their parents could afford to shop around for the best nannies and nursery places. Though babies suffered some ill effects when their mothers returned to work within a year - such as spending less time interacting with a parent - the researchers found that the net effect on their cognitive and social development over time was neutral."

    What societies should be doing is not debating whether or not women should work. If women want to work and are qualified of course they should be able to work. What they should be discussing is how to create a better work-life balance for men and women. They should be discussing quality, affordable child care, especially as families are now much smaller, affording children fewer opportunities to interact with other children if they don't attend childcare. They should be discussing how neighbors and communities can work together to create better lives for everyone from children to working moms, to stay-at-home moms to working dads to stay-at-home-dads, etc.

    Again, you have the right to think whatever you want but having a right doesn't make you right.

    Now, I'll say this as politely as possible. You can respond if you want but I won't be responding back. I know what your views are and now you know mine. Further discussion is futile and I've got better things to do.

    Posted in: 'Mad Men' 2011: Japan’s gender equality debate

  • 2

    ambrosia

    steve: I usually tend to ignore your posts on this topic simply because they are so predictable. And as you may know, tmarie and I have had our disagreements. This time however, she is in the right.

    The idea of a stay-at-home-mom is a privilege afforded to the upper classes and that has always been the case. It is certainly not a concept made up by the modern working woman. Travel around the world a bit and you'll see that in developing countries women work. They have to! The difference being that in developed societies women also work but want careers and to be treated equally, with respect. They have gone through the same educational institutions as men, done the same work and want the same opportunities. " ...most women in Victorian society, in the two thirds of the population below the upper and middle classes, worked for wages." http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/womenswork01.shtml

    I'd like to know where your facts on skyrocketing crime and child abuse come from. Crime, violent and otherwise is at an all-time low in the U.S. and much of that is attributed to a lack of lead in paint and gasoline, lead being a major cause of brain damage which leads to violence. It has no connection to mothers working or not working. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/02/050223145108.htm

    As for a history of crime, again where are your facts? Crime has always been a part of life. The difference now is that it is widely reported, more people can read and so do read about crime, making them think it is more common now than before and the lower classes are considered (somewhat) more worthy of having crimes against them reported and recorded. Again, nothing to do with working moms. http://www.edge.org/3rdculture/pinker07/pinker07index.html

    Child abuse. Is it something new? Hardly. Child abuse, like violence has always been with us. The difference now is in what we consider abuse and how it is reported and dealt with. Certainly having a support system in place for parents would help them in terms of dealing with the frustrations of having children. Japan has that and it's called kindergarten. As has been stated already, many stay-at-home-moms in Japan avail themselves of that system. One of the myths of the stay-at-home-mom is how happy she is when in reality many of those moms feel isolated, under-appreciated and depressed.

    Let's not even get into intact families because that's going to be a very subjective topic. If by intact, you mean married, yes, more Japanese families are intact than American or British. If by intact you mean, healthy and happy, well .... Divorce is nothing new to Japan. Pre-Meiji Restoration, Japan had some of the highest divorce rates in the world, shocking Europeans with how easy and often it was done. Were Japanese families less or more intact then? Was that because of working moms?

    The fact is that many women in Japan stay with their husbands because they have to do so in order to have any kind of financial security in their old age. They have to be married for 20 years in order to be able to collect half of his pension. Jukunen rikon is the largest group of divorced couples in Japan, which says something about how intact and happy those families were if they only stayed together for money. You can blame the women for being lazy or greedy but the fact is that if she delayed work or left work to have and raise children, she will be rendered unemployable or will be underutilized as a worker when she tries to re-enter the work force, making financial independence largely impossible. There is no punishment for men who don't pay child support so you can understand why women feel stuck in bad situations or don't want to have kids at all.

    (Race for the Exits: The Unraveling of Japan's System of Social Protection. Leonard J. Schoppa.) (Divorce in Japan: Family, Gender and the State. Harald Fuess.)

    You can continue beating the same drum, that's your right. I don't disagree with the notion that it would be best for children to be taken care of by someone who loves them but that someone can be a mother, father, grandmother, grandfather, aunt, uncle, etc. Continuing to hold on to what you assume the past to have been is convenient when it suits your point but is probably less so when you consider the reality of history. Keep on truckin' though! It's amusing if nothing else.

    Posted in: 'Mad Men' 2011: Japan’s gender equality debate

  • 1

    ambrosia

    Would that be at-risk fetuses in-utero? Either way, I think my point is clear.

    Posted in: Japan may soon lose top longevity ranking

  • 4

    ambrosia

    If the Japanese diet is supposedly the reason for their longevity then why were they only living into their 50's before the turn of the century when they were eating nothing but Japanese food? Health care and sanitation made the biggest strides in increasing longevity worldwide, including Japan. Health care, sanitation and activities levels which have surely declined over the past 100 years. Also, we're seeing more cancer and heart problems in developed countries because people are living longer making the odds of getting these kinds of diseases higher. And before we go blaming America for the supposed decline in Japanese food culture, let's not forget tempura, karagae chicken, tonkutsu, white rice, etc. are not exactly health food if you're honest about it. The amount of food served and eaten is considerably smaller in Japan which goes a long way towards explaining the smaller number of obese people in Japan. That said, skinny doesn't equal healthy. I know loads of Japanese who are thin but live off of convenience store bentos (Japanese) and have no muscle tone at all. I also know loads of western women who come here and gain weight because they can't get the salads as meals that they're used to and have a hard time fitting work outs into their schedules. Keeping crazy work hours isn't helping the Japanese either. As a final note, it's worth mentioning that when it comes to infant mortality the criteria used for considering a baby to be a stillbirth or dead within 24 hours is significantly different in Japan and the U.S. The U.S. is often cited for having a low infant mortality when in actuality it considers babies born of rather low weights who die within 24 hours to have been born alive whereas Japan and other countries consider them stillbirths. Also, the U.S. is much more aggressive in trying to save at-risk infants in-utero. The result is that the U.S. ends up with statistics that make it look like more babies die in infancy when the reality is a little more complicated. This lack of standardization is but one bit of information that skews certain statistics in Japan's favor. I'm not knocking Japan's neo-natal care, I'm just saying that the different ways of considering information changes overall statistics, including longevity.

    Posted in: Japan may soon lose top longevity ranking

  • 0

    ambrosia

    I understand that the scams can be quite elaborate but I stand by what I said. They work because they appeal to weaknesses in the human character. I'm not sure what kind of elderly people you know but the ones I count as family and friends are neither naive nor lacking common sense. I find it implausible that someone still in control of their senses believes that paying a supposed victim is the legal thing to do before they speak face to face with a police officer and the son, husband, daughter, etc. who supposedly caused the accident or commited the crime. I understand that victims of crimes and accidents do get compensated but even as a non-Japanese I know that you go through legitimate procedures before you do that. To do otherwise is circumventing the law and trying to cover-up what happened, dishonest in other words.

    Posted in: Elderly woman transfers Y29 million to man posing as son in trouble

  • 0

    ambrosia

    Taka313: I'm not including your parents in my harsh assessment of people who fall for this kind of thing because when you throw a second or third country into the mix I think you enter a whole different realm of the unknown and legitimate fear of what could happen. Still, a code word would've helped in that situation too, no?

    Posted in: Elderly woman transfers Y29 million to man posing as son in trouble

  • 0

    ambrosia

    For those lacking common sense and honesty, consider establishing a code word that will prove the identity of the caller to be legitimate or not. Say the mother and her son had decided their code word was unicorn. The first time she got a call like this she could've asked the caller the code word. When he couldn't give it she'd know it wasn't her son. If her son is giving out the code word to shady friends then she's got a whole other problem on her hands.

    Posted in: Elderly woman transfers Y29 million to man posing as son in trouble

  • 0

    ambrosia

    All good scam artists know their victims. Sadly the proliferation of this kind of scam in Japan is an indication that people are not as honest as they like to think they are. I'm talking about the victims. The bottom line is that when you're willing to send this kind of money to bail someone out of a dubious situation you are not honest. Since when do police make you pay on-sight for damages resulting in a car crash? Since when do victims of sexual harrasment or molestation demand money without a lawyer and who would just pay them without having their own lawyer? A lot of this ore ore business comes down to people wanting to pay off people to avoid scandals or legal trouble. A truly honest person would see through the scam, double check the information to prove it true or not and act appropriately. The scams in the U.S. often appeal to people's greed or desire to save a buck. In Japan they appeal to people's desire to avoid trouble at all costs. Either way, if you're in control of your mental faculties and possess a modicum of common sense and honesty, you can't be taken advantage of unless you let yourself be.

    Posted in: Elderly woman transfers Y29 million to man posing as son in trouble

  • 2

    ambrosia

    Nippon Nation: You need to get a better grip on the language you're posting in. Hanging oneself is suicide therefore hanging oneself is equal to suicide.

    As for the government not being responsible for solving everyone's problems, I agree, but how about them solving at least one or two and not creating any more?

    Posted in: Suicides add to despair in Tohoku disaster zone

  • -2

    ambrosia

    Gyouza: If by the same you mean completely different then I see your point. Sadly, you can't just change the meaning of words to suit your needs, if you want others to understand you. Acknowledging something exists is hardly the same as condoning it. If you tell your teenage child to try defensively because there are loads of bad drivers are you condoning bad driving? If you tell your daughter not to be too trusting of men she doesn't know because there are dodgy ones out there are you condoning that dodgy behavior? Do I need to give you more examples? Neither I nor any of the other posters are condoning the taunts. We are though choosing to live in the real world where those taunts and worse exist. We are choosing to acknowledge that Kawashima will likely face worse so he needs to continue to be strong in the face of them. This only equals condoning if you have no understanding of what the word means. You might like to think you're better than others but the problem is that change doesn't happen if no one acknowledges there's a problem. Apparently you'd like to pretend that the taunts don't exist so Kawashima doesn't have to worry about dealing with them. Awesome! Where can I get some of those rose-tinted glasses?

    Posted in: Belgian soccer match halted after Fukushima taunts

  • 0

    ambrosia

    Freakshow: How many times are you going to post the same thing? I've answered your question more than once already so this will be the last time. If he cried off the pitch, no harm no foul. If he cried on the pitch he needs to keep that in check or the taunts will just continue and perhaps be worse now that they know his Achilles Heel. As I said, I couldn't tell from the video if he cried or not so I was basing my opinion on the media sources which said he did. If you have a problem with their reports take it up with them.

    Posted in: Belgian soccer match halted after Fukushima taunts

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