Japan Again

Story1
On the latest flight out of SFO, the airline actually had an English language newspaper for a change, and I got to read a delightful story about Japanese politics.

For those who don't have the time to read the full story (I absolutely recommend it), here is the summary:
* The Japanese media does not print any big news story until the ruling party indicates the direction that it wants the story to take.
* This is why the story about the drunk Finance Minister at the Davo conference initially called it the result of fatigue. Later when party boss Mori indicated that Nakagawa (the Finance Minister) had been drunk, all hell broke loose and the newspapers were full of it, leading to his eventual resignation.
* Current Prime Minister Taro Aso's approval rating is single digit and the ruling party is worried they are going to lose.
* One strategy that the ruling party has used in the past has been to fill newspapers will manufactured controversies so as to prevent any meaningful discussion of issues or coverage of opposition figures.
* Such a strategy previously included Mori accusing previous Prime Minister Koizumi of serving him "hard, shriveled cheese", thus insulting him. The tabloids speculated that the cheese was in fact high quality mimolette.
* Mori is angry with the drunk Minister because his drunkenness has detracted the media from another round of invented controversies that he had lined up.

To put the sheer incredibleness of this story, lets put some American names in fictitious situations. How about Hillary drunk at a Middle Eastern summit? Or even better, a news story about Cheney.

Vice President Dick Cheney today called a press conference to allege that George Bush had insulted him by serving him Camel Meat. "It was very hard, unappetizing meat", claimed the Veep. The President's press office refused to comment, simply stating that attempts to reconcile with the Vice President were still ongoing.

However, it has been learnt from unoffical sources that the meat served to Cheney was in fact a new breed of Texan Longhorn, which Bush had personally purchased back in Crawford. There is intense speculation in the media that this is a fake controversy intented to divert attention from real issues and Bush's low approval ratings.

In today's other news, we are getting reports that the United States may have launched a full scale invasion of Canada.

We will keep you posted on the Camelgate controversy as the story develops.


Story2
At the Toshiba Oita factory, the Vendors are get to wear their own cleanroom suits.



My company's cleanroom suit must be the worst one ever invented. If you see a self consciously embarrassed figure slinking around the clean room, averting eye contact and walking in something that should be described as more a "gown" than a "suit", then you have just seen an employee of my company.

The silver lining is that if this whole semiconductor business does not pan out, the company has a bright future in Pakhtunwa's booming shuttlecock burqa market.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nazi Sympathizers in Britain

An illuminating article by Christopher Hitchens about how both the abdicating King Edward and the new King George were and remained Nazi sympathizers well after the Czech sellout. Hitchens cannot resist needling Churchill too. But Churchill's seems to have been found guilty mostly by association with King Edward, not because of any explicit Nazi sympathies. Here is however a funny line about how Churchill once called himself the lone warrior against the twin evils of Hitler and Gandhi! Hitchens is obviously disgusted with the British Monarchy and end the article by with memorable flourish. Almost the entire moral capital of this rather odd little German dynasty is invested in the post-fabricated myth of its participation in "Britain's finest hour." In fact, had it been up to them, the finest hour would never have taken place. So this is not a detail but a major desecration of the historical record—now apparently gliding unopposed toward a baptism by Oscar.
Read more

A historical perspective of India

Excerpts from what promises to be a brilliant book by Ramachandran Guha. The great 19th-century poet Ghalib thought that God was indeed on the side of India. All around him there was conflict and privation, but doomsday had not yet come. "Why does not the Last Trumpet sound?", asked Ghalib of a sage in the holy city of Benares. "Who holds the reins of the Final Catastrophe?" he continued. This was the answer he got: The hoary old man of lucent ken Pointed towards Kashi and gently smiled. 'The Architect,' he said, 'is fond of this edifice Because of which there is colour in life; He Would not like it to perish and fall.'
Read more

Indian Elections

In the recent elections in the North East, one election official dejectedly told the media how the politicians undermine the people's faith in democracy for 5 years and the Election Commission does its best to restore it, if only for the one day on which polling happens. This detailed and interesting article by Mr. Gopalaswami, Chief Election Commissioner of India about the recent election in UP is inspiring in that it restored my faith in the ability of our Government organisations to do their job exceptionally well. Since bogus voting can be largely prevented only if the identity of the voters is correctly established, a massive attempt was made to issue Electoral Photo Identity Cards (EPIC). Between December 2006 and the second week of April, 2007, a total of 2.69 crore EPICs were issued covering 22% of the electorate throughout the state, raising the coverage to an average of 80% in the state. As many as 85% voters who turned up to vote produced the EPIC as identity while the
Read more