Wednesday, November 22, 2006

early summer 2006

IN THIS ISSUE
1) War and Peace and the Police State in our Midst
2) Urgent Petition--signatures still needed
3) Top Lies on Iraq
4) U.S. “Double-Dealing Diplomacy, North Korea and Japan/北朝鮮ミサイル危機と日本
5) Japan at a constitutional and political crossroads
6) SINGAPORE: Crackdown Underway on Satirical Blogging
7) The United States and the Japanese Mengele: Payoffs and Amnesty for Unit 731
Scientists
8) Legitimizing Palestinian Bantustans9) Omiting Palestinian deaths
10) MEDIA ALERT: BLAMING THE VICTIM IN GAZA
11) Uri Avnery: THE REAL aim is to change the regime in Lebanon and to install a puppet government
12) The American Left and the Middle East: The Case of the Nation Magazine, II.
13) What Does Israel Want?
14) Race and Gender
15) Hip Hop’s Betrayal of Black Women
16) The Gay Rights Movement Has Hit a Brick Wall
17) LINK SECTION: Israel and Palestine links

WAR & PEACE AND THE POLICE STATE IN OUR MIDST
The War on Civil Liberties Continues
How to Spot a Terrorist: State and local law enforcement agencies have been eager to join in the terrorism investigation game with the availability of large amounts of federal money. Soon after 9/11, local officials in DeKalb County outside Atlanta, set up what they described as the nation’s first local department of Homeland Security. The county quickly obtained almost $12 million in federal grants to fight terrorism. A police intelligence unit was established......In one of the more bizarre episodes in a continuing saga of paranoia and silliness, the state of Texas issued a pamphlet alleged to help the public identify potential terrorists. Some characteristics people were advised to watch for were: the purchase of baby formula or beer, the wearing of Levi jeans, carrying identifying documents such as a driver’s license and traveling in the company of women and children. This quickly narrowed the range of terrorist suspects to about 80 percent of all men in the state.

This and more at
http://www.tokyoprogressive.org/index/weblog/print/tokyoprogressive-7-17-06/
戮をどうかやめてください」署名サイト

IF YOU SIGNED, PLEASE ASK YOUR FRIENDS TO SIGN TOO!

イラクの状況を変えるためにー皆様へお願い: Please join the Iraq Hope Network in signing a petition calling for an immediate end to the suffering of people in Iraq that is resulting from the violent and illegal tactics presently being employed by the U.S. military. The petition will be delivered to President George W. Bush, with a copy to the U.S. Embassies in Tokyo and Baghdad.

This and more at
http://www.tokyoprogressive.org/index/weblog/print/tokyoprogressive-7-17-06/

Top Lies About Iraq from the Bush Administration

(1) Iraq was a “grave and gathering threat”
(2) Iraq had “weapons of mass destruction” programs after the early 1990sv
(3) Iraq had “ties to Al Qaeda” and 9/11
(4) Our invasion of Iraq was to support “Security Council resolutions”
(5) Our invasion of Iraq was to “promote democracy”
(6) It is better to “fight them there” than on our streets
(7) If the lies were true, then we would have been justified in invading Iraq

This and more at
http://www.tokyoprogressive.org/index/weblog/print/tokyoprogressive-7-17-06/

d States and the Japanese Mengele: Payoffs and Amnesty for Unit 731 Scientists
Everyone has heard of Auschwitz, but what about Pingfan? This Japanese germ warfare headquarters and laboratory in Manchuria, northern China, did not hold as many victims, but atrocities committed there were physically worse than in the Nazi concentration camp, and lasted much longer.....

Dr. Ishii Shiro...was the chief of Japan’s well financed, scientifically coordinated and government approved biological warfare program from 1932-45....and supervised deliberate infection of thousands of captives with deadly diseases. He also conducted grotesque surgeries, but the unique medical specialty of Ishii and his surgical team were dissections, without anesthetic, on an estimated 3,000 live, conscious humans......In exchange for cooperation from the Japanese side, the horrific war crimes of Unit 731 were suppressed by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman was quoted by Reuters on April 19, 2006, as saying: “The government is not in possession of materials that tell us about the activities of this unit. If we do find some materials, we would accept it as a solemn fact of history.” The Japanese government, then, does not currently view Dr. Ishii Shiro’s atrocious programs as historical truth....Critics accuse the Chinese government of manipulating historical issues to foster nationalism and bolster the regime’s domestic legitimacy, while scoring easy points against Japan in the global arena of public opinion. But it was Japan, not China, which carried out the biological terror of Unit 731 and continues to evade accountability for it today—with more than a little help from its American ally.

This and more at
http://www.tokyoprogressive.org/index/weblog/print/tokyoprogressive-7-17-06/

Legitimizing Palestinian Bantustans
How much money are we forced to pay to support the Occupation? When will people realize that Palestinians are not facing a humanitarian crisis, but a political attack on their lives? How can we continue to shun our responsibilities to uphold Palestinian rights and international law?
...The Occupation might want to “converge” or to “disengage,” but it is doing so in pursuance of racist and colonial interests to ensure all that remains for Palestinians are enclaves without sovereignty. “Disengagement” from Gaza resulted in social and economic suffocation, continuous shelling and killings of “liberated” people within their prison walls. It shows that redeployment of settlers cannot be equated with liberation and justice.

More on Palestine Israel
As Brian Dominick,editor of THE NEW STANDARD, notes: “The quality of journalism on this story has declined rapidly, as the initial acknowledgement of asymmetry and the preponderance (near exclusivity) of civilian suffering in Lebanon has given way to the need for apparent “balance” (parity). The latest ridiculousness is dutiful identification of who supplies Hezbollah’s missiles without ever noting who supplies Israel’s missiles. I can’t really recommend any of the links I’m finding (except IPS) at this point; if you see good coverage (not commentary), please bring it to my attention. “ Meanwhile, here are a few stories:

Omiting Palestinian deaths
On June 28, CBS Evening News anchor Bob Schieffer turned to CBS reporter Bob Simon for analysis of the current Israel-Palestine crisis. What Simon offered, however, was a familiar scenario that puts the blame squarely on the Palestinian side....From the start of the Intifada in September 2000 through March 17, 2002, the three major networks’ nightly news shows used some variation of the word “retaliation” ("retaliated," “will retaliate,” etc.) 150 times to describe attacks in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. About 79 percent of those references were to Israeli “retaliation” against Palestinians. Only 9 percent referred to Palestinian “retaliation” against Israelis.

This and more at
http://www.tokyoprogressive.org/index/weblog/print/tokyoprogressive-7-17-06/

MEDIA ALERT: BLAMING THE VICTIM IN GAZA
From MEDIA LENS (UK): “In the last six months, approximately 80 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza due to Israel artillery firing… There have been exactly eight Israelis killed in the last five years from the Kassam missiles. Again, we have a huge disproportion, a huge discrepancy.” (’AIPAC v. Norman Finkelstein: A Debate on Israel’s Assault on Gaza,’ June 29, 2006).....The extent of media bias is exemplified by the New York Times which reported July 3: “for all the pyrotechnics, the [Israeli] operation has been relatively restrained”. (Ian Fisher and Steven Erlanger, ‘Israel steps up Gaza raids in bid to free soldier,’ New York Times, July 3, 2006). This represents the view of Western journalists numbed to the suffering the West and its allies consistently heap on impoverished Third World people. To merely inflict intense suffering on hundreds of thousands of people, rather than to kill them, is “relatively restrained” for elite media executives...On the BBC’s July 3 Newsnight programme, anchor Jeremy Paxman reported breaking news that a Palestinian had been killed and two wounded in an Israeli airstrike in Northern Gaza. Paxman then went on to interview an Israeli government spokesman, Mark Regev. Regev said: “Our preference, our chosen policy preference, is that he [Shalit] is released and this can end peacefully.” Paxman said not a word in response about the death he had just reported, about the five other deaths, or about people dying because of the attack on the power station.

Uri Avnery: THE REAL aim is to change the regime in Lebanon and to install a puppet government. That was the aim of Ariel Sharon’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982. It failed. But Sharon and his pupils in the military and political leadership have never really given up on it. As in 1982, the present operation, too, was planned and is being carried out in full coordination with the US. As then, there is no doubt that it is coordinated with a part of the Lebanese elite. That’s the main thing. Everything else is noise and propaganda. See also Uri Avnery: “Stop That Shit”

This and more at
http://www.tokyoprogressive.org/index/weblog/print/tokyoprogressive-7-17-06/

The American Left and the Middle East: The Case of the Nation Magazine, II.
Perhaps you have not heard the news because the western news has not been reporting it. Perhaps you have seen the pictures because the western news is not printing the pictures (the media has access to the pictures, but is choosing not to print them).... People have protested in Australia and in Germany. Protest in the United States, as well! Protest in solidarity with the Lebanese people—who are standing united in the face of this aggression. The division is from the politicians, but not from the people. Protest in solidarity with the Palestinian people—who have been standing strong for decades in the face of Israeli aggression. We Americans, you Americans, have a particular responsibility: these weapons that are being used to massacre and destroy are paid for by US taxpayer dollars, and supported by George Bush and an acquiscent Congress.
Also see

What Does Israel Want?
Alternative routes for the conflict are not even raised in Israel, not even by the Zionist left. No one mentions commonsensical ideas such as an exchange of prisoners or a commencement of a dialogue with the Hamas and other Palestinian groups at least over a long ceasefire to prepare the ground for more meaningful political negotiations in the future. This alternative way forward is already backed by all the Arab countries, but alas only by them. In Washington, Donald Ramsfeld may have lost some of his deputies in the Defense Department, but he is still the Secretary. For him, the total destruction of the Hamas and Hizballah – whatever the price and if it is without loss of American life – will ‘vindicate’ the raison d’être for the Third World Theory he propagated early on in 2001. The current crisis for him is a righteous battle against a small axis of evil – away from the quagmire of Iraq and a precursor for the so far unattained goals in the ‘war against terror’ – Syria and Iran. If indeed to a certain extent the Empire was serving the proxy in Iraq, the full fledged support President Bush gave to the recent Israeli aggression in Gaza and Lebanon, shows that may be pay off time has come: now the proxy should salvage the entangled Empire.

This and more at
http://www.tokyoprogressive.org/index/weblog/print/tokyoprogressive-7-17-06/

Hip Hop’s Betrayal of Black Women
Unlike men, women in hip-hop don’t speak in a collective voice in defense of themselves. The pressure on women to be hyper-feminine and hyper-sexual for the pleasure of men, and the constant threat of being called a bitch, a ho—or worse, a dyke—as a result of being strong, honest, and self-possessed, are real within hip-hop culture and the black community at large. Unless women agree to compromise their truth, self-respect, and unity with other women and instead play dutiful daughter to the phallus that represents hip-hop culture, they will be either targeted, slandered, or ignored altogether. As a result, female rappers are often just as male-identified, violent, materialistic, and ignorant as their male peers.
The Gay Rights Movement Has Hit a Brick Wall
The gay rights movement has hit a brick wall. Yes, we have same-sex marriage in Massachusetts. Yes, the Supreme Court overturned state anti-sodomy laws. Yes, gay characters are all over mainstream TV. Still, after 35 years of slow, incremental progress, we are at a decisive crossroads. Simply put: to bring about social change—dependent on truly transforming hearts and minds—we need to reassess what kind of a movement we want it to be....While the aim of the fight for privacy was to keep the government out of people’s bedrooms (a good thing), it also perpetuated the idiotic and incorrect idea that homosexuality was a completely separate aspect of a person’s identity. The “privacy” argument was attractive to mainstream culture because it kept gay people invisible. But the downside was that it also continued the social isolation of gay people, removing them from the public sphere. A right to privacy is no help to the openly queer high- school student who is forbidden by school administrators from forming a gay-straight alliance or wearing a gay T-shirt in the hallways. The right to privacy is of no use to the gay man who is visibly living with HIV/AIDS or to the lesbian couple with kids facing discrimination in school or housing.

Printable Version

summer news 2006

ORWELL ROLLS IN HIS GRAVE
http://www.orwellrollsinhisgrave.com/trailer.htm

ITEM TWO
lst Annual Japan Writers Conference
Ochanomizu University, Tokyo, Japan
(English map at http://www.ocha.ac.jp/english/access/index.html

SEE BELOW FOR A FULLER DESCRIPTION OF ITEM TWO

◆Peace Not War Japan：
CD リリース・パーティ＆ピース・フェア
ライブ＆DJセット、ダンス・パフォーマンス、ビデオ上映、平和団体インフォ、平和団
体＆社会問題
ディスカッション・テーブルなど…
【出演者】Bhang Lassi、Young Jeff、
DJ Bertie B、Megumi Dance Duo；　VJ : SpinDry

PARTY SEPTEMBER 9
http://www.super-deluxe.com/schedule/schedule.php?lang=JP
http://www.super-deluxe.com/schedule/schedule.php?m=09&y=2006&lang=EN

MAP

http://www.super-deluxe.com/JP/map/index.php?m=09&y=2006&lang=JP
http://www.super-deluxe.com/EN/map/index.php?m=09&y=2006&lang=EN

PNWJ CDリリース　?平和な世界の実現を願って?

日本の様々なアーティストが、新しくリリースされたこのCD を通して平和を訴えてい
ます。

2006年 8 月19 日、ついに Peace Not War Japanがリリースされました。このCD は、
戦争の終結と平和を訴える日本のアーティスト達の声を集めたユニークな作品に仕上がっています。

発売元はダイナスティックレコード。日本初のコンテンポラリーピースミュージックのコンピレーションCD です
。

PNWJ: http://www.pnwj.org
Dynastic Records: http://www.dynasticrecords.com
Peace Not War (UK): http://www.peace.fm

Contact information:
ロブ・シュワルツ（Rob Schwartz） // Dynastic Records // //
090 6541 8895

このCD は、日本全国のCD ショップ（タワーレコードや HMVなど）で販売されます。価
格は税込2625 円。小売店でのリリース後、各種平和団体による販売やオンライン販売、またライブイベントなどでも販売される予定です。

参加アーティストはソウル・フラワー・ユニオン、 Dry＆Heavy 、琉球アンダーグラ
ウンド、寿（KOTOBUKI）といった有名アーティストから、インディアーティストまで、幅広いメンバーとなっています。それぞれのアーティストが、このプロジェクトの為に楽曲を提供し、世界平和や戦争の恐怖や現代社会が直面している様々な問題をテーマにメッセージを投げかけています。

また、今回のコンピレーションアルバムには、ロックやダブ、ブレークビーツ、ヒップ
ホップなど多様なジャンルの楽曲が収録され、聴き応えのある内容に仕上がっています。

このCD は、まさに今我々の社会が抱えている様々な問題に対する日本人や日本を拠点
に活動する様々なアーティストたちの生の声が収録されています。このＣＤのリリースにより、地球規模で広がる昨今の紛争に反対し、 21 世紀の反戦音楽を再定義するアーティストや平和活動家が中心となる国的な連立に日本も参加することになります。

PNWJの活動目的は、日本において平和と戦争の終結を訴えること、そして様々な市民レ
ベルの平和活動を支援することにあります。ですから、 CD販売利益は日本で活動を続ける各種平和団体へ寄付されることとなっております。

また、様々な平和団体がCD の販売も行う予定です。このようなDIY （ Do It Yourself
）方式の活動により、PNW はこれまでに1000000ドル以上を世界各国の平和活動に寄付してきました
。

平和活動をされている方で、私たちPNWJ の活動に参加を希望する方は、下記の連絡先
までご連絡下さい。

公式リリースパーティーは、PNWJ 参加アーティストのライブとDJをフィーチャーし、
9月9日、六本木の Super-Deluxeで行われます。詳しくは PNWJのサイトか、 http://www.super-deluxe.comをご覧くださ
い。

また、より多くの方にこのCD について知って頂き、PNWJ の活動を広めるために、この
メールを皆様が参加するメーリングリストに転送していただければ幸いです。ご協力をよろしくお願いいたします。

PNWJ CD release: Help to spread the word for peace

Japanese artists call for peace on unique new CD
August 19 2006 saw the Japanese release of ‘Peace Not War Japan’ (PNWJ) &#8211 ; a unique collection of artistic voices that are calling for an end to war and for peace in our time. Released on Dynastic Records, it is the first compilation of contemporar y Japanese peace music.

It is available across Japan from regular music stores, such as Tower Records and HMV, for 2625. After the retail release, the CD will also be made available through o ther outlets, such as from peace groups, online and at selected live events.

Featured artists include the well known, like Soul Flower Union, Dry & Heavy, Ryukyu Underground and Kotobuki, and also independent musicians, many of who have wri tten and recorded material specifically for this project. Together, they come from acro ss Japan (Tokyo, Hiroshima, Osaka, Okinawa, etc) and unite around themes of peace, the horrors of war and other social issues facing the modern world. The collection also spans many genres, taking in rock, dub, breakbeat, hip-hop and others.

This CD provides a perfect opportunity to hear new Japanese voices taking part in a world dialogue on the direction our troubled times are taking. With it, Japan joins an international coalition of artists and activists who are opposed to the rise i n global conflicts in recent times and who are also redefining protest music for the 21 st Century.

The PNWJ group’ s mission is to raise awareness in Japan about peace and war, and to nurture the grassroots of the Japanese peace movement. This will be done by do nating proceeds from the sale of CDs to non-violent groups working to end war and cre ate global peace. Peace groups will also be able to sell the CDs themselves. This DIY met hod of fundraising enabled the UK-based parent organisation Peace Not War (PNW) to do nate over $100,000 to the global peace movement. Please contact us on the given details below if you represent a peace group that would like to work with PNWJ.

The official release party, with live and DJ sets from featured PNWJ acts, wil l be held at Super-Deluxe in Roppongi on September 9th. See the PNWJ site or http://www.super-del uxe.com for more information and updates.

Please help us to spread the message about this CD release and new peace effor ts in Japan by sending this mail on to your contacts and mailing lists.

PNWJ (inc. artist profiles, peace messages, samples jukebox, etc): http://www.pnwj.or

Dynastic Records: http://www.dynasticrecords.com
Peace Not War (UK): http://www.peace.fm

Contact information:
Dom Pates // Peace Not War Japan // // 080 3385 0982
Rob Schwartz // Dynastic Records // // 090 6541 8895

Forced to ‘Choose’ its Own Subjugation: Okinawa’s Place in U.S. Global Military Realignment
Japan’s Quake Standards Fall Victim to Greed

Rightist textbook adopted for use by public junior high school in Tokyo

【重大発表エジンバラ国際映画祭が、ボイコット計画に呼応してイスラエル出資金を返却】Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign

【ギリシャがイスラエルの映画祭から撤収】The Daily Star, Lebanon(2006/8/2)

All at
http://www.tokyoprogressive.org/index/weblog/print/tokyoprogressive-august-06-2006/

WAR & PEACE. TERRORISM, AND THE POLICE STATE IN OUR MIDST
Terrorism. Lebanon. Israel and Palestine. Issues in the news, and yet how little of the information one gets from the news media is reliable. if there is one thing that is striking is that almost no-one in the mainstream media is connecting the rise of “terrrorist threats” with the ongoing policies of death and destruction of the Bush and Blair regime. Israel and the West are portrayed as innocent victims of a culture war. As was true after 9-11, we are still expected to believe that envy or resentment of our freedoms is what it is all about. That all 3 countries do retain the rhetoric of democracies and and an almost fanatical faith in their status as democracies, and since those who do not challenge the prevailing assumptions are rarely on the receiving end of repression, it is easy for the average television viewer to conclude, falsely, that democracy is under attack from cultures that do not share “our” democractic values.

TokyoProgressive does not pretend to know all there is to know about these issues, but in the interest of counterbalanacing the assumptions and biases of the mainstream media, which are clearly those of the elites, we present the following commentaries by Americans, Israelies, and British writers who do not buy into the prevailing assumptions. Inclusion here, as always, does not automatically mean we endorse evereything the individual writers say. Nor does it mean there may not be other voices worthy of being heard. Their inclusion here, IS intended, however, underscore how the mainstream media systematically denies its audience an opportunity to learn what is really happening or, at least, that there are views other than those the mainstream media and those in power would like you to know about.

Terrorism: The Real Threat We Face In Britain Is Blair
On 12 August, the Guardian published an editorial ("The challenge for us all"), which waffled about how “a significant number of young people have been alienated from the [Muslim] culture”, but spent not a word on how Blair’s Middle East disaster was the source of their alienation. A polite pretence is always preferred in describing British policy, elevating “misguided” and “inappropriate” and suppressing criminal behaviour.

Read more:
Pilger: Blair is Terrorist Threat

Also:
We should be sceptical about this alleged plot, and wary of politicians who seek to benefit
(Written by the former British ambassador to Uzbekistan)

Plus the following stories as well, all at:
http://www.tokyoprogressive.org/index/weblog/print/tokyoprogressive-august-06-2006/

Noam Chomsky on Media Treatment of Israeli attacks on Lebanon
The posture of outrage over the capture of Israeli soldiers is cynical fraud, facts underscored by the (null) reaction to the regular Israeli practice over many years of kidnapping Lebanese. It also follows at once that there is no moral legitimacy to either of the two major escalations against the populations of Gaza and Lebanon. And of course if we look at the ratio of killings, it’s overwhelmingly US-Israel, always....

Israeli Left

http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en
Avnery’s organization

http://www.mideastweb.org/

http://www.alternativenews.org/
Joint Palestinian-Israeli organization

http://otherisrael.home.igc.org/contents.html

http://www.btselem.org/English/index.asp

http://www.oznik.com/
Israeli resistance organization

http://electronicintifada.net/new.shtml

US Jewish Left
http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/

Other
http://www.muscanet.com/~ampal/
American and Palestinian

http://www.jfjfp.org/
Jews for Justice (UK)

http://electronicintifada.net
“The Electronic Intifada (EI) publishes news, commentary, analysis, and reference materials about the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict from a Palestinian perspective. EI is the leading Palestinian portal for information about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its depiction in the media.”

See also:
What are they fighting for?
Tanya Reinhart, The Electronic Intifada, 14 July 2006
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article4995.shtml

http://www.middleeast.org/mereport/index.cgi
Middle East Report

Printable Version

oct 2006 news

OCT 2006 NEWS

JAPANESE LANGUAGE SECTION
http://www.tokyoprogressive.org/index/weblog/print/japanese2006oct
Articles on Abe, more)

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JAPAN AND ASIA IN ENGLISH
http://www.tokyoprogressive.org/index/weblog/print/japanese-eng2006oct

People’s News From Asia: Interlocals.net
Reactions to the North Korean test from around Asia

The Boom Heard Around the World
[F]our other countries officially--Britain, France, India and Pakistan--officially joined the nuclear club, with another, being Israel, unofficially a member. There was no alarm registered in Washington at Britain’s application for membership and very little at France’s. India and Pakistan provoked a bit of a shock, but nothing truly substantial changed in their relationship with the US. The outcry from other nations not considered friends of Washington was less positive. At the same time, they couldn’t help but notice that a nuclear enemy of Washington was much less likely to be attacked than a non-nuclear one.....

In fact, it was the failure of Washington to follow through on its end of the deal brokered by Clinton’s administration--a deal that would have provided northern Korea with light-water reactors capable of making energy but not weapons--that some say led to the impasse between the two capitals. However, it should be noted that Pyongyang had frozen the reactor where yesterday’s test fuel came from after 1994 under the terms agreed to by Washington and Pyongyang. Indeed, it was only after George Bush included Pyongyang in his so-called axis of evil that the reactor was started up again and the process that led to the nuclear test restarted.

Bush and North Korea
The crisis with North Korea was entirely avoidable for anyone with even minimal diplomatic skills and an elementary understanding of human psychology. Instead, the Bush troupe persisted for 6 years with the same inflexible policy nudging Kim ever-closer to producing his first nuclear weapon.Now, half the population of the United States is in the gun-sights of a madcap tyrant whose basic grasp of reality has always been seriously in doubt.

Welcome to the Nuclear Club
For the next four weeks, the Bush administration will do its best to exploit the North Korean nuclear test to stave off a loss of the Republican majority in Congress. We should not allow those efforts to obscure how Bush’s reckless record has heightened the nuclear dangers for everyone.

North Korea: Tomorrow May Never Come

North Korean Nuke Tests Say World Must Return to Peace Agenda

The media wants you to think that the only threat to the peace of the world is North Korea, but here’re some articles that put the issue of nuclear weapons, who has them, and who uses them in perspective

Here is another listing (partially the same) that contains more references to North Korea and Japan

Here is a listing that focues on Hiroshima, partially the same

Here is a listening that focues on Japan, North, South Korea and the U.S.

Megumi Yokota: reader argues that taking the side of one’s nation can blind us to evils done by our own side
Abe’s “normal” Japan: a vision with a legacy

Abe supporter of right-wing textbook by “Tsukurukai”

Abe against gender Equality

Rising tide of conservatism threatens reproductive health and gender equality

Minoru Morita: Abe promises more of Koizumi’s Bush-style extremist politics

Abe and Ishihara promote censorship, anti-woman bias and repression

Gender-Free bashing

You can see LDP’s anti-women policy on “gender equality here

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OTHER NEWS
http://www.tokyoprogressive.org/index/weblog/print/OtherOct2006
Giving Terrorism a Reason to Exist
The war in Iraq: creating terrorism

More Dissention in the Ranks
U.S.　soldier refuses to fight

Just Say No to War in Iran

The Vocabulary of Fascism
“Over time it’s going to be important for nations to know they will be held accountable for inactivity. You’re either with us or against us in the fight against terror.”

– George W. Bush, 2001

“My party comrades, today the swastika forces the world to take a position for or against us. The world must decide, it has no choice. There can be no compromise.”

– Dr. Robert Ley, Nazi Reich Organization Leader, 1939

The War, Palestine and Clean Energy

Going beyond Disease to Address Disability

Everyday Eugenics

Nike to the Rescue? Africa needs better jobs, not sweatshops

IN ADDITION:

All the usual sections: Links, Creative and Education, Video, Audio…

http://www.tokyoprogressive.org/

Printable Version

Nov 22 2006 content

JAPANESE LANGUAGE SECTION
http://tokyoprogressive.org/november2006.html#j

フィリピンは日本の有害ごみ溜め？
日本は、自国内の廃棄物をリサイクルすることができない貧しい近隣国の中に有毒で危険な廃棄物を捨てるための場所を見つけました。日本の医療機関で働く看護士や介護士と引き換えに、フィリピンの7、100もの美しい島は、日本の海洋投入処分海域になるように受け入れられました。

― 被害者とメディアについて、河野義行さんに聞く―
　私は以前から松本サリン事件の捜査と報道に興味を持ち、個人的にこの事件の報道について調べていました。そして、今回河野義行さん（同事件被害者、前長野県公安委員）が２００６年７月５日、同志社大学今出川校地で学際科目、「マスメディアの現場」（科目責任者・渡辺武達教授）でゲスト講義に来られるということを浅野教授から聞き、翌日の７月６日午後６時から７時まで、河野さんと直接お話をする機会をいただきました (ASANO Ken’ichi)

and more
http://tokyoprogressive.org/november2006.html#j

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JAPAN AND ASIA IN ENGLISH
http://tokyoprogressive.org/november2006.html#je

Japanese Toxic Waste to be Dumped in the Philippines
JAPAN just found a site to dump Toxic and Hazardous wastes in a poor neighbouring country who cannot recycle its own domestic waste. In exchange for Nurses and Caregivers to work in Japanese Health Services, the Philippines 7, 100 beautiful islands accepted to be the dumping site for Japan.

NATIONALIST EDUCATION AND |GOVERNMENT CONTROLLED JAPANESE MEDIA
Article 1
Government confirms it planted pre-scripted questions at town meeting on education

Article 2
Shii demands thorough discussion on 3 issues before voting on education bill

Article 3
Opposition parties agree to jointly block government bill to revise education law

Government orders to NHK of what to air in violation of freedom of press
Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Suga Yoshihide on November 10 ordered NHK to air programs on North Korea’s abductions of Japanese nationals on Radio Japan, NHK’s international shortwave radio service.

http://tokyoprogressive.org/november2006.html#je

The Okinawan Election and Resistance to Japan’s Military First Politics

The National Politics of Yasukuni Shrine
Takahashi Tetsuya’s “The National Politics of the Yasukuni Shrine,” is among the most important statements to emerge from the debate over Yasukuni Shrine, historical memory and war nationalism.

North Korea’s Nuclear Test—Bush’s Godchild?
Politicians have hastened to express moral outrage even if, and perhaps especially if, they come from countries which have many nuclear weapons and have conducted tests. Journalists have been having a field day, many delighting in the opportunity to write lurid stories unencumbered by the need to check facts and qualify opinions. Under the circumstances, it is more necessary than ever before to keep a clear head and try to disentangle fact from fantasy, to unearth what has been going on, and what is likely to happen.
http://tokyoprogressive.org/november2006.html#je

ADDED 24 OCTOBER
Reporter Eric Johnston on McGowan victorious appeal
On Oct. 18th, the Steve McGowan case ended with a partial victory, when the Osaka High Court awarded him 350,000 yen. McGowan had sued Takashi Narita, the owner of an eyeglass store in Daito, Osaka Pref. for racial discrimination after Narita barred him from entering his store and told McGowan he didn’t like black people. (debito.org)

http://tokyoprogressive.org/november2006.html#je

ENVIRONMENT-JAPAN: Readying for Life Without Bluefin Tuna Dishes
[A]landmark agreement, based on evidence that Japan had caught 1,800 tons of southern bluefin tuna more than permitted, was reached during the Oct. 10-13 meeting of the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna in Miayazaki, southern Japan. (interpress)

http://tokyoprogressive.org/november2006.html#je

“We Don’t Negotiate with Evil” :How the US Declared War on North Korea
As Bush entered office, physicist Gordon Prather writes, “according to the IAEA, there were no nuclear programs peaceful or otherwise underway in Iraq or North Korea.” But in 2002 the U.S. administration claimed that Pyongyang “had violated the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty by obtaining unbeknownst to the IAEA prototypes of high-speed gas centrifuges from Pakistan and that by 2001, DPRK engineers were producing unbeknownst to the IAEA enriched uranium in significant quantities.” As in the case of Iraq, U.S. officials claimed to have “intelligence” at variance with U.N. inspectors’ reports.

http://tokyoprogressive.org/november2006.html#je

Economic Reforms Breeds Young Underclass
According to experts, this growing young underclass is the product of new economic reforms in Japan, launched five years ago, to reduce the national budget deficit, by cutting down on public spending and the squeezing of costs on personnel by private companies. (interpress)

Women In Action: Cultures and Diversity
Women In Action covers a broad range of issues affecting women globally, but focusing on the particular needs and concerns of women in the Global South, and forwarding a progressive perspective tempered by the experiences of the thirld world women’s movements. Some of the topics included here are:
Strengthening Counterculture, Group Rights vs. Individual Rights? Navigating the Tension in Western Liberal States, Putting You in Your Place: Culture and the Filipino Lesbian, Turbulent Times for Multicultural Societies: Gap between Cultures in The Netherlands Widens Drastically, Boys Don’t Learn!!! Also see this issue: Queering: Social Movements and Queer Theories, which includes a review of the book Queer Japan. (isiswomen)

http://tokyoprogressive.org/november2006.html#je

Japan Aids Prevention Awareness Network Newsletter
Information for teachers, students, everyone. Where to go to get tested. Japanese link such as the CAMPUS AIDS INTERFACE
　HIV感染者・AIDS患者に対する偏見・差別の払拭を、感染者・患者と共に考え、社会的啓発活動を"楽しみながら"行う大学生/OB・OGを中心とした団体です。なお、政治団体・宗教団体との関わり合いは一切ありません。 (Louise Haynes)
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OTHER NEWS
http://tokyoprogressive.org/november2006.html#w

ADDED 17 NOVEMBER
War Crimes Suit Prepared against Rumsfeld (Democracy Now)
Watch 128k stream Watch 256k stream Read Transcript

http://tokyoprogressive.org/november2006.html#w

Donald Rumsfeld: The War Crimes Case
JURIST Contributing Editor Marjorie Cohn of Thomas Jefferson School of Law, president of the National Lawyers Guild, says that although Donald Rumsfeld is resigning as US Secretary of Defense, steps should be and will be taken to hold him accountable for breaches of international law and even war crimes sanctioned in Iraq and Guantanamo during his tenure. Read more…

http://tokyoprogressive.org/november2006.html#w

North Dakota Braves and the Atomic Bomb: Priest and Two Veterans in WMD Protest Sentenced for Prayer for Peace (Updated)
On August 6, 1945 the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Three days later, it dropped another atomic bomb on Nagasaki. These nuclear weapons killed over 200,000 people, almost all civilians, and injured many more.

http://tokyoprogressive.org/november2006.html#w

On Tuesday morning, June 20, 2006, a Roman Catholic priest and two veterans were arrested at a nuclear missile silo in North Dakota. Fr. Carl Kabat, 72, Greg Boertje-Obed, 51, and Michael Walli, 57, sit in jail in North Dakota awaiting a federal criminal trial because of weapons of mass destruction and because of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

http://tokyoprogressive.org/november2006.html#w
Let’s now charge the accomplices (John Pilger)

Why isn’t George Bush Snr being charged.....Why isn’t Douglas Hurd being charged...Why isn’t Donald Rumsfeld being charged...Why isn’t Madeleine Albright being charged...Above all, why aren’t Blair and Bush Jnr being charged with “the paramount war crime”, to quote the judges at Nuremberg and, recently, the chief American prosecutor - that is, unprovoked aggression against a defenceless country? Read more…

http://tokyoprogressive.org/november2006.html#w

The Terrorists Who Aren’t in the News
Anti-abortion fanatics spread fear by bombings, murders and assaults, but the media take little notice. Read more…

http://tokyoprogressive.org/november2006.html#w
Rhoderick Gates page

1. Gaping Flaws of the Intellectual Community
2. The Tide Has Turned
3. Dissent, Destruction and Consequences: Anti-Imperialism Without Prisoners

http://tokyoprogressive.org/november2006.html#w

IN ADDITION:

All the usual sections: Links, Creative and Education, Video, Audio…

http://www.tokyoprogressive.org/

Copyleft 1997-2007
tokyoprogressive dot org
All opinons are those of the original authors

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for by copyright law in several countries. The material on this site is distributed without profit to make available it research and educational purposes.

Printable Version

Nov 22 2006 content

JAPANESE LANGUAGE SECTION
http://tokyoprogressive.org/november2006.html#j

and more
http://tokyoprogressive.org/november2006.html#j

------------ ------------ ------------

JAPAN AND ASIA IN ENGLISH
http://tokyoprogressive.org/november2006.html#je

NATIONALIST EDUCATION AND |GOVERNMENT CONTROLLED JAPANESE MEDIA
Article 1
Government confirms it planted pre-scripted questions at town meeting on education

Article 2
Shii demands thorough discussion on 3 issues before voting on education bill

Article 3
Opposition parties agree to jointly block government bill to revise education law

http://tokyoprogressive.org/november2006.html#je

The Okinawan Election and Resistance to Japan’s Military First Politics

http://tokyoprogressive.org/november2006.html#je

OTHER NEWS
http://tokyoprogressive.org/november2006.html#w

ADDED 17 NOVEMBER
War Crimes Suit Prepared against Rumsfeld (Democracy Now)
Watch 128k stream Watch 256k stream Read Transcript

http://tokyoprogressive.org/november2006.html#w

http://tokyoprogressive.org/november2006.html#w
Let’s now charge the accomplices (John Pilger)

http://tokyoprogressive.org/november2006.html#w

The Terrorists Who Aren’t in the News
Anti-abortion fanatics spread fear by bombings, murders and assaults, but the media take little notice. Read more…

http://tokyoprogressive.org/november2006.html#w
Rhoderick Gates page

1. Gaping Flaws of the Intellectual Community
2. The Tide Has Turned
3. Dissent, Destruction and Consequences: Anti-Imperialism Without Prisoners

http://tokyoprogressive.org/november2006.html#w

IN ADDITION:

All the usual sections: Links, Creative and Education, Video, Audio…

http://www.tokyoprogressive.org/

Copyleft 1997-2007
tokyoprogressive dot org
All opinons are those of the original authors

Printable Version

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Copyleft 1997-2007
tokyoprogressive dot org
All opinons are those of the original authors

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for by copyright law in several countries. The material on this site is distributed without profit