The Problem of Civil Wars

These days, many countries small and large are coming face to face with turmoil within their own country confines. Some of these small skirmishes turn into large scale wars that last for years, even decades. It's very sorrowful to see civil wars happen because at times many precious cultural items are caught in the middle of gunfire and bombing, making areas not also dangerous, but devastated, and some violent acts eventually lead to all-out destruction. Small scale civil skirmishes often show up as interracial violence, armed terrorist conflict, and inter-faction fighting.
     In this case it's useful to differentiate between the cause and the symptom of civil warring, which is something many people, including scholars, tend to overlook. For example, political violence obviously has its roots in dissatisfaction with political leadership or governmental positioning somehow. The bi-product is an all-encompassing civil tension that eventually stretches and bursts, exploding outwardly, and is most definitely a symptom of something deeper. We can almost for certain say it is not a cause of unrest that leads to wars. People are people and most of today's living of life with financial, educational, and familial burdens can bring unrest for one reason or another. But what, then, causes violence and civil unrest? Is it just political dissatisfaction? For me, no. I think political unrest is just the springboard bringing to light things that lie deeper. I believe unrest comes from two major factors: 1) Proximal distress, which is the inability to live within close proximity with one another. Here, people are not able to coexist readily with other people in close situations, and the closeness makes people react negatively outwardly.  This also includes information explosion where one is so burdened by information overload that it makes one outburst negatively. 2) Financial and civil inequality, where the majority of people are dissatisfied with their financial and civil positions in life which also makes them react negatively because they feel as if they should have at least as much if not more than the general population. They feel they have been and continue to be treated unfairly which leads to negative outbursts as well. How then do we thwart the underlying causes of civil unrest? First of all we all should have more patience and compassion, and that includes governments. Civilians are important and are the major merit of any country. Without civilian life all countries would cease being countries, would they not? It's not until this point is solved that we can continue to move on in fruitful directions. Otherwise, we all might very well be doomed.

Future of Living

How will we live in the future? Will we live in large houses that consume a lot of electricity? Or, will we reside in smaller homes that need less energy and therefore consume less fossil fuels? Will we use practices such as composing, water recycling, home growing vegetables, fruits, and herbs? Will we use renewable energy. such as bio-gas, solar, wind, and water power? The answer to these questions for a sustainable world should be: yes! This world is becoming depleted, indeed, but actually it brings on a new and exciting time of examining new ways to live. I have often thought about this and realized that I don't like consuming so many things that get thrown away leading to nothing more than waste. Our human time of over-consumption perhaps has come to an end. Most of us have enough money to buy and use anything we want, but is buying too much useful or effective? Hmmm. Of course, we need to buy things as we don't know how to live off the land like our forefathers, but we should limit what we buy and not equate buying with money. I've studied development economics and here, we examine economic practices for enriching standards of living. Consumer economics studies those actions that overarching companies like Amazon and Apple take to be profitable. These actions trickle down sometimes negatively because wealthy corporations get wealthier, commodities' qualities get better (and therefore pricier), and this in turn, affects people with lower incomes negatively because they can't afford to buy new products like homes, cars, or computers, and can't even afford to live in simple apartments. This in the next turn forces them to look for alternative living styles out of necessity, but I say it's more out of desperation. This is exactly what we are seeing now: people living off the grid, fending for themselves, becoming less consumerists and more naturalists, which leads to many needing less and wanting less. But major companies still try to take advantage of economically disadvantaged. Are we as simple livers and consumers in peril?

My Hope for 2020

Well, time for predictions? Maybe, yes. This blog post is entitled, My Hope for 2020, and I intend it to be just that - a kind of political/social/economic glimpse into the futures. Yes, that's future with an S. The Olympics are in Japan next year - my own country of residency - and just how they will transpire is yet to be seen.

Basic English I - "Things Japanese" Info!

Here is your guide for your "Things Japanese in English" Presentations. You may use this as a guide, and hopefully only a guide! This means you can add your own information and use the following paragraph flexibly. I do not want you to read it exactly as it is, but rather to add and change the wording appropriately for your own presentations. As you see, there are rules, too, so please try to follow them! 

Good afternoon (or other greeting). I’m ( YOUR NAME ) My Japanese thing is (a) _____________. It is used for (to) ________________________________. The purpose is (to) _____________________. I chose this item because ___________________. I have used it (many times/sometimes/never). It was first invented in ( YEAR / ERA ) and it was invented by ( NAME OF PERSON OR GROUP ). You use it by ______________, _______________, _______________. It is made of (from) ________________. It is used on ( HOLIDAY OR FESTIVAL NAME ). It is made of (from) ______________________. Thank you for your attention.

RULES:

You must speak in English!

Please bring in the object, or have self-taken or self-created visual material.

Have good eye contact.

Speak in a loud voice.

Memorize your speech.