The US media loves to speculate about what is going on in China. There are riots there, unrest, workers striking, politburo infighting, corruption and other woes. Throughout all this, China continues to build itself bigger and better over time. On the other hand…the US and Japan are doing the opposite. Pointing to China and sneering at them is stupid. It is like mocking someone for a flat tire while your car is going off a cliff, is on fire and your passenger has a gun and is preparing to shoot you.
The US and Japan have been on a downward trajectory in mutual embrace. This problem both countries have mirror each other. Japan won’t let in any foreigners even those it desperately needs while the US lets in millions of illegal aliens, a fair number of whom are criminals. Japan had a trade surplus which is dwindling fast but is rapidly moving its own industries out while the US has done this for generations already. The US and Japan have joined with the desperadoes running the EU off the cliff to isolate a list of oil exporting nations for political geo-power politic ends which are leading to all other nations with some power to ditch the EU/US/Japan banking system especially since it has driven itself off the cliff while the Derivatives Car is on fire.
In the past, I have written many articles about ‘sovereign wealth’. Some EU nations (Germany in particular) have sovereign wealth. The US doesn’t. The nations that are sovereign wealth powers (except for Japan) have begun to build up their alternative systems to eventually replace the US dollar banking system.
When the US foolishly decided to cut Iran out of international banking systems, I predicted this would motivate the Chinese and Russians to push forwards their alternative system and…it has happened: Chinese president calls for promoting BRICS cooperation to new level – Xinhua | English.news.cn
The creation of an investment bank, or “BRICS Bank,” the grouping’s first institution, was also on the agenda. The summit concluded with a Delhi Declaration on major world and regional issues.
BRIC initially grouped Brazil, Russia, India and China, but was enlarged last year to include South Africa and renamed as BRICS. The first BRIC summit was held in 2009.
With roughly 42 percent of the world’s population, BRICS has a combined nominal GDP of 13.6 trillion U.S. dollars in 2011, or 20 percent of the world’s total, according to estimates by the International Monetary Fund. The bloc aims to expand their inter-trade from 230 billion dollars last year to 500 billion dollars by 2015.
The US, so anxious to use military power to gain advantage, in its benighted effort to encircle both Russia and China, has made a massive diplomatic strategic error: our State Department stupidly shoved Russia and China, often enemies, into each other’s arms. They are now forming more and more deep alliances and this will grow greater what with GOP candidates openly calling for a new Cold War with both nations.
We barely survived the first Cold War intact ONLY because Russia and China’s communist dictators hated each other. This kept them very divided and they even went to war in the mid-1960’s over the border between Manchuria and Siberia. Now, we made them best buddies. A major mistake. Then, Putin won his election even as the US screamed hysterically about how it was a bad election (as if our messy garbage-raddled elections are anything to boast about!).
Now, on to Japanese news today. I believe that that nation’s fate will entwine itself with our own messes here to create a collapse of the New World Order unless Europe decides to go ballistic and ape Yugoslavia and fall apart while everyone screams tribal hatreds at each other. Asian neighbors of Japan haven’t forgotten WWII anymore than anyone in Europe has forgotten: NHK WORLD English
Japan has dismissed a South Korean protest over the approval of high school textbooks describing a disputed group of islands as inherent Japanese territory.
Japan’s education ministry completed its screening and approval of senior high school textbooks on Tuesday. An increasing number of the textbooks refer to the Takeshima Islets in the Sea of Japan. One book says South Korea is occupying the islets illegally.
On Wednesday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura told reporters the Japanese Embassy in Seoul had received the protest the previous day from South Korea’s foreign ministry. He said the government had dismissed the protest, stressing that the islets are an inherent part of Japan.
Exactly like Israel, Japan’s ability to do even the most basic form of diplomacy has vanished due to using US military power to overwhelm anyone they want to stomp. So they stomp on toes here, there and everywhere. Arrogance oozes from every pore of the gang that rides the US tiger, put into labor for them after the US assumed we won WWII (obviously, we lost).
Japan thinks, simply saying they own these islands they lost in WWII means they own it. To hell with China or Korea! This is how Japan deals with the multitude of rape and murderous actions they did during the occupation of all their neighbors. They just don’t care. The US never made them pay up and so they feel they can ignore demands for retribution. The same goes for whale hunting: everyone hates them for this but they stubbornly do it and don’t even pretend to be polite about it. They do it because they want to do it! To hell with everyone protesting.
But the Furies and Fates are hammering Japan: Fukushima No. 2 reactor radiation level up to 73 sieverts per hour – The Mainichi Daily News
Human beings could die within one month once exposed to 7 sieverts and within several days once exposed to 20 sieverts or more. Usually, when an ordinary reactor is not operating, the radiation level is low enough for workers to enter inside, according to the utility known as TEPCO.
This level kills in minutes if not seconds. And #2 is the nice reactor. #1 and #4 are ten times worse. It is obvious that things are out of control there and there is no human way of cleaning up the mess, there aren’t even tools created yet that can approach the torus where this 10X the maximum rate of radiation for one week survival is happening. That is, robots are unable to do this, running a simple camera set up to look briefly at things can be used only once and only a short while before going on the fritz.
So, why is the government of Japan going ape over some uninhabited islands they lost after WWII? They are going ape over MANY islands, big and small and want everyone to hand over everything they lost after they tried to enslave and rape all of Asia. This arrogance will boomerang in a huge way in the not too distant future.
Talking about pollution and not being able to stop things from happening, “May be months” to stop North Sea gas cloud – Total the oil company in Europe was trying to tap into gas fields in the North Sea when it went haywire like the Gulf of Mexico mess and exploded. Now, just like the Gulf of Mexico event, they can’t plug it so all shipping has to avoid the entire area or cause a HUGE explosion.
So, Fukushima isn’t the only energy event we have to worry about. Our quest for oil is causing wars, pollution and lots of CO2. While everyone at the top yells at us about CO2 pollution, they are also madly seeking out more oil, more gas and in between that, want to plop down more nuclear power plants. Are they insane? Of course: YES.
Back to the Japanese being increasingly arrogant, U.S. congressional panel advances bill on child abductions which is very much due to Japan and Saudi Arabia kidnapping children from mixed marriages and not letting the other parent see them again. Both do this arrogantly and openly and even when signing treaties about this, ignore it and refuse to cooperate. Many an American has made the mistake of marrying a Japanese man or woman only to suddenly discover they have zero rights in a divorce if the spouse can kidnap the child and hide it. Here are some comments from the above article from bereaved parents living in Japan or the US, desiring the US to punish the Japanese rulers financially (tariffs!) for enabling kidnappers:
-
-4
Patrick McPikeMAR. 28, 2012 – 01:48PM JST
-
2
DogMAR. 28, 2012 – 01:51PM JST
-
-
-2
Franchesca Miyara YangMAR. 28, 2012 – 04:10PM JST
-
Meanwhile, China has corruption but Japan has tons of that, too, maybe even worse since it makes the news over and over and over again yet nothing is ever done to stop it (sounds like here in the US!!!): 90 percent of pension fund workers in charge of asset management are amateurs: gov’t – The Mainichi Daily News
The survey found that of all the 721 retired national government employees who had landed jobs at the pension funds — up 75 from 646 in May 2009 when a previous survey was conducted — 689 were from the defunct Social Insurance Agency and the welfare ministry. Of the 200 corporate pension funds where their board members finished their term of office after September 2010 when the welfare ministry urged corporate pension funds across the country to accept applications from the public for their top executive posts, only 37 advertised for their top positions, the survey showed.
In Congress, aides to our ‘elected’ (sic) officials slide over to K Street all the time to become lobbyists or they get sweetheart jobs in industries and areas they are supposed to regulate. Ditto, Japan. This rot at the heart of both governments leads to disasters like Fukushima or the Gulf oil spill.
Japan is in desperate need for foreigners to take care of them as they slowly die off: 36 foreigners pass care worker exam amid dropping applicant numbers – The Mainichi Daily News
It was announced on March 28 that 36 Indonesians and Filipinos had passed the first care worker exam in Japan under Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with those nations — a pass rate of 37.9 percent.
However, the number of foreigners coming to Japan to take the exam has dropped to less than a third of that during the program’s peak, apparently due to language barriers and the one-shot exam system…Though the pass rate for the care worker exam exceeded that for a similar exam for foreigners aspiring to be nurses in Japan — which hovers around 10 percent — the care sector remains jittery in the face of labor shortages and the world’s fastest-aging society…
…The government’s equivocal attitude has resulted in a decline in the number of care facilities that are willing to accept foreign care worker candidates. While there were 53 facilities that accepted Indonesian candidates in fiscal 2008, that number had dropped to 29 by fiscal 2011. Likewise, while 92 facilities accepted Filipino candidates in fiscal 2009, the figure dwindled to 33 in fiscal 2011.
One of the contributing factors is the difference in nursing care subsidies provided to facility operators. While a care facility must maintain a ratio of one employee for every three residents, foreign care worker candidates are not regarded as “employees,” and their salaries are therefore not covered by the government subsidies.
The futility of the government is very vivid in this story. They desperately need these nurses but they don’t want them due to racist reasons so, like Israeli Jews, they have to abuse ‘guest workers’ and drive out anyone from Asia who might live there permanently. The nurses that do manage to hike over have to study Japanese, a difficult language, while working. This is nearly impossible. And the government doesn’t care! End of story.
Meanwhile, the US is going insane: Passengers subdue crazed flight captain who screamed about bomb. Our airports look more and more like the Soviet Union. People go mad because it is a mad, mad, mad, mad airport world here. Who wants to participate in it? Only people who must. The man was screaming about 9/11 and Iraq while running up and down the aisles. Maybe he should run for President.
And news from our Knesset here that lavishes money on Israel’s defenses: Pentagon backs expanding Israel’s anti-rocket defenses. Namely, we get to pay 100% the cost of protecting Iron Dome, the place where all the nukes are hiding. Great, isn’t it? Maybe I should run up and down the aisles of a jet screaming about this.
Email:
emeinel@fairpoint.net
MAILING ADDRESS:
EMS NEWS
P.O. BOX 483
BERLIN, NY 12022
Make checks out to ‘Elaine Supkis’
Click on the Pegasus icon on the right sidebar to donate via Paypal.
Culture of Life News 
“The creation of an investment bank, or “BRICS Bank,” the grouping’s first institution, was also on the agenda. The summit concluded with a Delhi Declaration on major world and regional issues.”
Do you know what the difference is between this BRICS Bank and Iraq central bank, Libyan central bank, Egypt central bank and the Iranian central bank?
– 3500 nuclear warheads
Did you know how many bank resignations worldwide till now?
http://americankabuki.blogspot.ca/p/131-resignations-from-world-banks.html
Just passing on part of an email from an activist acquaintance in Tokyo who runs small events with Japanese and non-Japanese members to discuss various social issues. Yokohama is the city just south of Tokyo (30 minutes by normal train).
“i just came back from a protest meeting (3/29) in yokohama, kannai…i don’t know how many of you know this but the welfare office of yokohama, that is supposed to help the weakest and most destitute members of society, has started hiring retired policemen to deal with (false and violent, according to the office officials) welfare claimants…i was told that osaka has already hired 80 retired policemen for the same purpose…japan is escalating its war on the poor…there are already poor people who are refusing to go to the office to get their welfare benefits or ask for welfare out of fear…these policemen have most likely been hired to intimidate people, to turn them away so they wouldn’t collect their welfare benefits…i believe this is just the beginning to full war on the poor, drastic decrease if not total elimination of welfare benefits…one of the officials in charge of answering our questions kept repeating the same excuse for hiring those retired/ retiring policemen (who will be paid with our tax money), it is for safety reasons because claimants (VERY LOW NUMBER actually!!) get violent and to put an end to false claims…anyway, it was lies after lies after lies…
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/03/18/sea-ice-news-volume-3-2/
off topic but I think Elaine might like that.
Turns out we had some data of arctic sea ice from before 1979.
And guess what it looked like in 1970’s.
😀
Japan is distressed beyond comprehension. From their zombie bank economy to the Fukushima disaster that looms over their very existence, I imagine the focus on the islands is an example of redirection.
Redirection is an art of turning the attention from something too big to take in to something that is somewhat of a canard. It doesn’t surprise me that the government PR machine would want to gin up something that’s jingoistic for the people to rally around, while the country slowly slips into ruins. It fits into their cultural xenophobia.
Also when the economy is in tatters, the poor will suffer most. I also recognize the same things happening here as the white man, who feels victimized by its own leadership uses their prerogative by racial and gender “supremacy” to knock the black and female competition for jobs out of the running.
Yes kill the black who looks like he might be a problem and cut off women from birth control and the freedom the make choices to get her out of the job market.
Of course if you insist on believing in creationism instead of evolution and hate education, that is why you can’t compete in the global economy, even if the practice of globalism weren’t so destructive to the US labor force.
They remember the ‘good old days’ of Jim Crow. I lived in that and it was horrible but it has been replaced with something just as horrible today.
The gangsta culture is making it literally impossible to live in a black community and I lived in more than one black community before that culture overran everything. What a great loss!
My son is finally coming home from Tokyo this coming month after living there and teaching English for the last couple of years. His Japanese fiance will be joining him in another few months. I wish it had been many yesterdays ago. I know that most of the Northern Hemisphere has been severely dosed with Fukushima radiation, but him being in Tokyo so close to the source has been a quiet nightmare for myself. I also know that not every single soul will get cancer, and there are also some things that we can do to protect ourselves from the effects of radiation, but I am not so naive as to not understand the gravity of the situation. No one gets out alive from here anyway, I know, but I am not so stoical or nihilistic either to not have some despair about the merciless and relentless historical forces that are insidiously undermining the future prospects of the coming generations, and the little ones who are already with us right now. Not to mention our neighbors and relatives, all the other plant and animal species who we share this beautiful and fragile home with… sigh…
Peace and understanding to all the good souls who visit this blog, and thank you Elaine for all your brave efforts.
ΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩ
ELAINE: Good luck to your son and his wife! I hope they are safe!
My kids love Japan. My son was supposed to study there but ended up not going. Both can read and speak Japanese. Take very good care of your son’s wife when she comes. She will be lonely, it is very hard to leave the intense social matrix there. I have very dear friends who are Japanese here who go back and forth from Japan mainly to demonstrate against nuclear power…before the disaster! Now, they are desperate to do something and yet, unable to do much except educate people. There is much more support for stopping nuclear power now, unlike a year ago. A LOT more. Good for them!
“merciless and relentless historical forces”
A good description of fate. Since we all are inextricably apart of a captive audience to the unfolding drama, some more aware, therefor painfully agitated or cynically numb, than those mindlessly going about the business-as-usual of creating a destiny that is not in their best interests.
The great ‘Chain of Being’ is dragging us along handcuffed to a conga line of a chain of fools.
May humor give us strength and dance in our step.
Elaine,
If you go berserk on a plane, please don’t do it in April on a flight to Orlando. I don’t want to get diverted….
@ emsnews
> Good points!
@ professacatapillar
> If your son is planning to marry a Japanese national… I *highly* recommend that you have him study up on the issue of Japan and International Child Abduction. My children are victims of this, and it is virtually unavoidable the way things stand in Japan today.
One day your marriage seems fine… the next day the wife is gone; and the kids have disappeared with her. And neither Government will do anything to get your children back OR even to let you see them.
I have not seen/spoken with/heard about my children in over a year.
After children, the husband becomes an ‘inconvenience’ to the Japanese wife. The more involved you try to be with your children, the less they like it. Eventually, they just decide that you are unnecessary and run off with the children so that they can have complete control.
“millions of illegal aliens, a fair number of whom are criminals”
Correction, 100% of illegal aliens are criminals by definition.