Recently, Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto, a prominent Japanese politician, raised a storm in Asia when he pronounced that the "comfort women" Japan enslaved during WWII as "necessary." According to this BBC report, Hashimoto said: In the circumstances in which bullets are flying like rain and wind, the soldiers are running around at the risk of losing their lives.... If you want … [Read more...] about Hashimoto’s “Comfort Women” Statement – Is it Really So Bad? A Comment about Why Japan Needs to Give a Real Apology.
politics
South African President Jacob Zuma on Libya, Syria, West, and China
Opinion: Free the Lewchew Islands from Japan
On May 8, Japan's government lodged a "strong protest" with the Chinese government over an article that had run in the People's Daily in which two academics questioned the basis of Japan's sovereignty over the Lewchew 琉球 (in Japanese, Ryukyu) islands. The Chinese side of course rejected the protest, and opinion columnists the world over have been weighing in. The current press … [Read more...] about Opinion: Free the Lewchew Islands from Japan
Opinion: Why There Is So Much Pro-War Reporting in the West? A Comment on Bloggers, Tyranny, and the Fourth Estate
Once in a while one runs into articles that seem to fly against convention wisdom, that seem to tear at the veil of world injustice, that seem to open one's eyes to provide insight into the causes of so many of today's ills. This article titled Why There is So Much Pro-War Reporting from "the Big Picture" blog is one of them. In reading this article, I note how the article … [Read more...] about Opinion: Why There Is So Much Pro-War Reporting in the West? A Comment on Bloggers, Tyranny, and the Fourth Estate
Psychological projection and the western mind
There is an interesting phenomenon known to psychologists as projection. I quote at length from wiki’s entry on the topic. Psychological projection was first conceptualized by Sigmund Freud as a defence mechanism in which a person unconsciously rejects his or her own unacceptable attributes by ascribing them to objects or persons in the outside world instead. Thus, projection … [Read more...] about Psychological projection and the western mind