I haven't written for a little while now, because it's been a bit crazy round here. Standing between me and Japan are:
One (1) 3000 word essay to finish my summer subject and thereby finally conquer my bloody undergrad degree, five years on
One (1) messy room and unpacked backpack. Actually, I don't even own a backpack yet.
One (1) good friend's excruciating breakup, resulting in soaring emotional requirements
One (1) newly returned lover, complete with ambiguities/tension/revisionist history
Also, in no particular order:
- No certain job as yet, just interviews
- No Japanese ability. People tell me I'm stupid. Or will look stupid.
- The big question: why am I going? I think I have the beginnings of an answer now - To see what Melbourne looks like in the rear view mirror. If sleep is the little death, travel is a middle death.
- Lots of people I love and haven't said goodbye to.
- The ending of my house, a slow sad leaking away of the people and vibe that made it wonderful
I really hope this works out. I haven't uprooted myself like this before. I expect to feel like shit for the first month, and then love it. But who knows? I might be back sooner, or later, or not at all.
----
Hunting for jobs in Japan, I came across one which read: Unique skills available. Below the title, it ran something like this: I possess unique skills, and require a unique employer with knowledge of the Yakamura. I am loyal and strong.
My interest piqued, I googled Yakamura (not sure of the spelling) and found it was one of the biggest yakuza clans, the Japanese underworld. It's either remarkably stupid of this footloose footpad to advertise his services openly, or the yakuza are much more mainstream than I had thought. Probably the latter: new recruits have the tip of their little finger chopped off to prove themselves, and as an identifying feature. Capsule hotels often specify that they don't want men with tatts or a missing finger joint staying. I wonder what happened to his former employer?
-----
The elections in Iraq are over, hooray hooray, and look! A Shii-dominated state seems likely, which will complement Iran's Shii theocracy nicely until the US invades Iran too. How much blood does it take to avenge 3000 American lives? At the going exchange rate of one American life to ten Arabs/Afghans, America should be about square by now. My summer subject dealt with modern Middle Eastern history, and we learnt a lot about the horrors of Saddam's regime, stuff I tended not to believe because it was fed to us as a post-invasion justification for war. It's made me even more ambivalent about the Iraq war. WMD's and other dubious rationales aside, the West has allowed dictators to flourish as counterbalances or pawns for too long. America is unchallenged by any serious single power; the Cold War is over and with it the age of influence and proxy wars. So why not topple the Cold-War era dictators, and their newer kin? Why not use the US army more, rather than keep them bored and cloistered away. But if the terror wars are strategically motivated, not motivated by humanitarian concerns, then what? I've got an idea: the world's first paramilitary aid organisation. Why should aid organisations have to bow to internal politics; allow their shipments to be commandeered by tyrants; act as sycophants to autocrats to aid the poor? Why not tackle the problem of autocrats from the top down, by directing aid funds into a paramilitary force specialising in the removal/killing of longstanding dictators? When the power vacuum is filled by a crony, kill him too. The eternal problem of politics is that those who want to rule are not those who should be ruling; skimming off the crazies would introduce firm accountability at the top level. The International Criminal Court is largely toothless, thwarted by national jurisdictions and US noncompliance. If populations are too heavily repressed to mount their own uprisings, let revolution be outsourced to the specialists. It may sound crazy, but it would be effective and cheap in aid terms, while doing away with the agonising cost/benefit analysis of the numbers killed by a repressive regime versus the numbers killed in an Iraqi-style war. In effect, it would minimise the loss of life, and challenge the bureaucracies of terror and fear and repression from the top down, rather than creating incentives for bottom-up revolt. There, I've done it - finally advocated practical violence as a solution. It feels good.
One (1) 3000 word essay to finish my summer subject and thereby finally conquer my bloody undergrad degree, five years on
One (1) messy room and unpacked backpack. Actually, I don't even own a backpack yet.
One (1) good friend's excruciating breakup, resulting in soaring emotional requirements
One (1) newly returned lover, complete with ambiguities/tension/revisionist history
Also, in no particular order:
- No certain job as yet, just interviews
- No Japanese ability. People tell me I'm stupid. Or will look stupid.
- The big question: why am I going? I think I have the beginnings of an answer now - To see what Melbourne looks like in the rear view mirror. If sleep is the little death, travel is a middle death.
- Lots of people I love and haven't said goodbye to.
- The ending of my house, a slow sad leaking away of the people and vibe that made it wonderful
I really hope this works out. I haven't uprooted myself like this before. I expect to feel like shit for the first month, and then love it. But who knows? I might be back sooner, or later, or not at all.
----
Hunting for jobs in Japan, I came across one which read: Unique skills available. Below the title, it ran something like this: I possess unique skills, and require a unique employer with knowledge of the Yakamura. I am loyal and strong.
My interest piqued, I googled Yakamura (not sure of the spelling) and found it was one of the biggest yakuza clans, the Japanese underworld. It's either remarkably stupid of this footloose footpad to advertise his services openly, or the yakuza are much more mainstream than I had thought. Probably the latter: new recruits have the tip of their little finger chopped off to prove themselves, and as an identifying feature. Capsule hotels often specify that they don't want men with tatts or a missing finger joint staying. I wonder what happened to his former employer?
-----
The elections in Iraq are over, hooray hooray, and look! A Shii-dominated state seems likely, which will complement Iran's Shii theocracy nicely until the US invades Iran too. How much blood does it take to avenge 3000 American lives? At the going exchange rate of one American life to ten Arabs/Afghans, America should be about square by now. My summer subject dealt with modern Middle Eastern history, and we learnt a lot about the horrors of Saddam's regime, stuff I tended not to believe because it was fed to us as a post-invasion justification for war. It's made me even more ambivalent about the Iraq war. WMD's and other dubious rationales aside, the West has allowed dictators to flourish as counterbalances or pawns for too long. America is unchallenged by any serious single power; the Cold War is over and with it the age of influence and proxy wars. So why not topple the Cold-War era dictators, and their newer kin? Why not use the US army more, rather than keep them bored and cloistered away. But if the terror wars are strategically motivated, not motivated by humanitarian concerns, then what? I've got an idea: the world's first paramilitary aid organisation. Why should aid organisations have to bow to internal politics; allow their shipments to be commandeered by tyrants; act as sycophants to autocrats to aid the poor? Why not tackle the problem of autocrats from the top down, by directing aid funds into a paramilitary force specialising in the removal/killing of longstanding dictators? When the power vacuum is filled by a crony, kill him too. The eternal problem of politics is that those who want to rule are not those who should be ruling; skimming off the crazies would introduce firm accountability at the top level. The International Criminal Court is largely toothless, thwarted by national jurisdictions and US noncompliance. If populations are too heavily repressed to mount their own uprisings, let revolution be outsourced to the specialists. It may sound crazy, but it would be effective and cheap in aid terms, while doing away with the agonising cost/benefit analysis of the numbers killed by a repressive regime versus the numbers killed in an Iraqi-style war. In effect, it would minimise the loss of life, and challenge the bureaucracies of terror and fear and repression from the top down, rather than creating incentives for bottom-up revolt. There, I've done it - finally advocated practical violence as a solution. It feels good.
posted by Doug @ 2/07/2005 08:55:00 am
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