3/11:The Fallout

3/11:The Fallout
Just what the heck is going on?

Friday 7 December 2012

3/11: The Fallout - now on sale


It's been a long and difficult path, but "3/11: The Fallout", written by Patrick Fox, formatted by Cheryl Perez, cover designed by Danielle Drake, and put together by the Excalibur Crew - is now on sale. You can find it here. 

Saturday 17 November 2012

Japan Dissolves Government: Media Blackout over Protests




As we count down to the publication of "3/11: The Fallout" at the end of this month, Excalibur Books has been trying to keep up with events in a rapidly changing political landscape.
On Friday 16th, Prime Minister Noda dissolved the Lower House, paving the way for an election he has called on Dec 16th. An election he has a good chance of losing, because the opposition wolves have smelled blood and the media vultures are circling overhead.
This means that for one month, Japan has effectively NO GOVERNMENT. Do you really think anyone can tell the difference?
Japan's administration has given us a 20-year recession and government debts of 240% of the GDP - which is TWICE that of Greece. Flagship companies like Sony and Panasonic are posting record losses and Sharp is facing bankruptcy. It's getting increasingly hard to hide the fact that this is not a recession any more; this is a permanent decline.
The fights between politicians have been getting ever more bitter, vindictive and petty. The opposition were able to prevent PM Noda from making his customary policy address in November through legal technicalities. Yesterday, Sat 17th, aging right-winger Shintaro Ishihara merged his new Sunshine Party with the Japan Restoration Party, led by rising young opportunist Toru Hashimoto. They have almost nothing in common regarding policies; this is purely a gambit for power, to drive out the current rulers and put themselves in government as quickly as possible.  



Ishihara was responsible for the recent conflict with China regarding ownership of the uninhabited Senkaku Islands. At a time when Japan should be expanding its diplomatic power and attracting international investors, why is it actively trying to drive non-Japanese people away? Why, 65 years after the end of World War Two, does it want to make Asia angry again?
Perhaps the old bastards who run this country are committing a kind of slow-motion suicide. They will do anything to stay in power and keep their 'honor'; if that means destroying their own country, so be it. Japan might be a miserable, decrepit, geriatric third world country in the future - but it's THEIR country. Japan for the Japanese!

This has been going on at the same time as the 'Occupy Tokyo' movement has been growing. Every Friday, protesters gather at the entrances to the government Diet buildings and the Prime Minister's residence in Chiyoda-ku. They campaign peacefully, with speeches, songs and placards, for an end to political corruption in general and nuclear power specifically. Across the street, they face hundreds of police officers wearing helmets and riot shields, and carrying riot equipment such as water cannons and pepper spray. Those weapons have not been used ... yet.

Has this been reported on Japanese television? No.

They're too busy hypnotizing the masses with celebrity gossip, gourmet food guides and crappy comedians. THEY LIVE: WE SLEEP.   

It doesn't have to be this way. Please, please share this post. Pass the word on. Switch off your TV, put down your iPhone, turn to your loved one and say ...

No.

No, we are not going to put up with this.

Saturday 3 November 2012

Homage to Catalonia



For the second time in two years, we have seen images of disaster arising from the sea, ships and tankers washed inland, families evacuated from their homes, cities in darkness. In the forthcoming "3/11:The Fallout", writer Patrick Fox asks what lessons have we learned from Japan's earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown (or in the case of the Japanese government, what lessons have they refused to learn, and what responsibilities have they tried to avoid). The book also examines how you and your family can prepare for natural disasters and what economic forecasters call "Black Swan" events that could disrupt power, transport, communication and food supplies. 


Before the book is published, let me ask you these questions, and leave you wondering how they relate to the contents of the book.


1.  What do you do when you find yourself without electricity or gasoline?
2. Why are Venice and Catalonia suddenly campaigning for independence?
3. Why is a global media blackout concealing recent political developments in Iceland?
4. Who is Rebecca Solnit, and what is "A Paradise Built in Hell"?
5. Who is Hakim Bey, and what are Temporary Autonomous Zones?  

More later. 





Monday 29 October 2012

Japan's Right-Wingers make their move; Tohoku disaster funds go missing



Japan was rocked last week when the current Governor of Tokyo, Shintaro Ishihara, suddenly announced that was resigning his post and launching a new political party. He intends to run against the DPJ and LDP in the next general election.
This move has shocked the public because of its unexpected nature, and also because Ishihara has suddenly dropped the cause he was so passionate about - promoting Tokyo as a venue for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Ishihara is a confirmed nationalist, and it is largely his interference in the Senkaku Islands land dispute that angered China and Korea and raised the possibility of armed conflict breaking out in South East Asia.
This development is one more sign of Japanese politics edging towards the right wing. In his career, the 80-year-old Ishihara has consistently made racist and sexist comments that have angered just about every sector of society, and is a self-confessed believer in the Imperial, disciplinary ideology that led to Japan's 1930s military government. 
Some observers have speculated that Ishihara's sudden move was a reaction to the growing popularity of a much younger politician - the Mayor of Osaka, Toru Hashimoto, and the political party he has created (Nippon Ishin no Kai). Hashimoto certainly cuts a dashing figure in the media, but observers have pointed out his worrying off-the-cuff comments that bordered on social elitism and racism. His autocratic nature was further revealed this month when an article attacking Hashimoto, written by journalist Shinichi Sano, was published in the Shukan Asahi magazine on Oct 16th. Hashimoto's reaction was to unleash a tirade of hate against the Asahi in general and Sano in particular, threatening them with lawsuits, and forcing an apology.
         Ishihara? Hashimoto? Saviors of Japan? No. They are not "The One". Conservative? Yes. Nationalistic? Yes. Racist? Yes.
         Fascist?
Whoa now. That's a strong word to use. If you want to start throwing the word "Fascist" around, you'd better understand what the word means. If we take the textbook definition, as stated here -
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to unify their nation based on commitment to an organic national community where its individuals are united together as one people through national identity.
 Then yes, let's use it.
Why now, you might think? Why Japan? Why does Ishihara suddenly feel the need to go into national politics?
Because it is becoming increasingly clear that Japan's economic woes are not a "recession", but a permanent decline.  As Japan keeps aging, it will lose 1% of its GDP every year from now on. Some politicians have given up trying to compete internationally and are circling the wagons. Relaxed immigration would give society a shot in the arm and create a multi-racial, multi-cultural transport hub like Hong Kong or Singapore; but of course the fascists don't want that. They want "Japan for the Japanese", and they will be prepared to shut the doors and kick the foreigners out, just so they can hold on to their own power.
The government has failed. The promised political and economic overhaul after 3/11 did not happen. The public is getting angrier and angrier, and the politicians are getting scared - after all, look what happened in Iceland after the credit crunch. Forcing their own government to resign and nationalizing the banks? Throwing out their constitution and rewriting a new governing document for the nation by asking for suggestions from Facebook and Twitter?
Why have we not heard of this? Because there's a media blackout, that's why. The fascists of Japan realize that if millions of Japanese people catch on to the truth and decide they've had enough, then - that's it. Game over.  

The day after Ishihara's announcement, more disturbing news emerged, this time concerning the Government funds pledged for the reconstruction of the devastated Tohoku area.  Yoshimitsu Shiozaki, a professor at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto who is an expert on reconstruction of disaster areas, was put in charge of examining the third supplementary budget for the fiscal year, which included ¥9.2 trillion for 488 "reconstruction" projects. He found that at least 25% of that money is going to projects that are the "brainchildren" of individual politicians, and have nothing to do with the disaster-hit zones in northern Japan.
 These projects include ¥500 million for road construction work in Okinawa, ¥330 million for repairs to the National Stadium in Tokyo's Yoyogi district and ¥10.7 billion in subsidies for a government-linked nuclear power research organization, much of which will be used to study nuclear fusion.
The Justice Ministry meanwhile secured about ¥30 million to purchase power shovels for prisons in Hokkaido and Saitama prefectures, and the fisheries ministry was given ¥2.3 billion for countermeasures against the Sea Shepherd antiwhaling group (i.e. protecting whaling ships against those pesky foreigners who would prefer whales to stay alive).
Of the ¥19 trillion earmarked for reconstruction, the government will come up with ¥10.5 trillion by keeping higher rates for income, corporate and residential taxes by up to 25 years.
"Taxpayers accepted the tax hikes because (they thought) the money would be used for helping disaster victims. And disaster victims were thanking them," Upper House member Kuniko Tanioka of the parliamentary group Midori no Kaze said during a recent Audit Committee session to scrutinize reconstruction spending.
"But it has turned out that (the funds) have been used for (projects) they never imagined. . . . It has dampened the disaster victims' will to rebuild their lives," she said.

 Patrick Fox, in the forthcoming book "3/11:The Fallout", says that the seismic event that changed Japan forever would spawn a whole new school of literature, film and drama. The first results are now being seen - such as the new movie on general release, entitled "Kibo no Kuni (The Land of Hope)", from director Sion Sono. The 37-year-old Sono is best known for his underground hit "Jisatsu Sakaru (The Suicide Club)" - and this new film may repeat his knack for capturing the spirit of the time and courting controversy while doing it.

The setting is a near-future rural Japan that has suffered another Fukushima-style nuclear accident, and the story focuses on two families, the Ono and the Suzukis, whose property lies on the periphery of the evacuation zone. 
Although the film uses the same disturbing images from last year's crisis, such as white-suited and gas-masked technicians marching through eerie, deserted town streets, the film doesn't go for sensation-seeking. It aims for challenges a lot of the popular myths that surround 3/11 - such as the popular conception of the "stoic, selfless" Japanese. Sano's cast behaves not like stereotypes, but real people, reacting to the danger with fear, anger and frustration. The film also is a merciless attack on Japan's corrupt and incompetent bureaucracy, setting the blame for the film's events - and by extension the real 3/11 - firmly at their feet.
 Needless to say, Sono found it hard to raise funds to make the film. "The theme of nuclear power is still taboo in Japan," he explained in an interview with the Japan Times on Oct 26th. "I finally ended up getting the money from England and Taiwan."
Though hundreds of news programs and documentaries have been made about the triple disaster by the mass media, Sono claims they often do not tell the truth about the victims' real feelings, preferring instead to show their public face.
"The people I had connections with spoke frankly to me, but when NHK interviewed them, they went like this," he says, making a faux-polite face, "and talked about how hard it was. When the camera was on, they said something different from what they had told me. I realized that they would be more honest if I didn't film them and just listened sincerely."
Sono spoke with dozens of victims and, when he finally wrote the script, put in what much of the news media had left out, including not-always-noble words and emotions.
The film is currently showing in Tokyo cinemas.