Cold in Cherry-Blossom Time

Cold in Cherry-Blossom Time

(Froid dans le temps des cerisiers en fleur)


Last night after watching a late-night TV news program (in which a newscaster advertised a book on a medication scandal around which she also contributed to helping its victims by having invited them to the studio ahead of other TV stations), I took cold medicine and went to bed.

********************

This morning, I accessed a very popular blog managed by a newspaper company’s reporter stationed in the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs who wrote about a view of life as something transient and empty (proving his religion, Buddhism) posting a picture of a dead sparrow on a concrete alley and a cabinet approval rating being dropped to 23.8% while Prime Minister Mr. Yasuo Fukuda yesterday visited a gallery to see a picture with a stone statute of Buddha and cherry blossoms around it, according to the TV news last night.
(http://abirur.iza.ne.jp/blog/entry/532595 )

Then, I traced a source of one of comments to the blog and found another interesting opinion on Tibet and Soka Gakkai, a huge religious body in Japan at the helm of New Komeito Party, one of the ruling parties.

As Soka Gakkai is based on Buddhism, a religion of peace, as its fundamental principle, the blog writer has claimed that Soka Gakkai and its supreme leader Mr. Daisaku Ikeda should contribute to the peace in Tibet. I feel the same way, since it cannot be an honor for Mr. Daisaku Ikeda, reportedly a pious Buddhist, to love Beijing and Chinese communist leaders but not poor Buddhist monks and Lhasa under suppression by the Chinese Communist Party and their troops.
( http://webtoy.iza.ne.jp/blog/entry/532317 )

Then in this blog, I have found a link to a site run by Japanese emigrants to Brazil. It is very interesting, since it leads to an article written by one of its members with the title “Morals in Brazil.” The author, a Japanese woman living in Sao Paulo, got indignant at the complete lack of manners and courtesy among Brazilians she met on the street and at a subway station. She is also resentful at sons of rich families becoming festive with beers on the street as they have passed an entrance examination to a university, sine only rich families can send their sons and daughters to universities in Brazil.

Everything seems wild, immoral, and ruthless in Brazil, though she seems to love to live there leaving the second largest economy in the world, Japan.
（http://www.100nen.com.br/ja/kana/ ）

And now, the Saturday noon is nearing and I have checked the New York Times online:
- Clintons Made $109 Million in Last 8 Years
- Democrats Call for New Aid Package as 80,000 Jobs Are Cut

Then I have returned to check Japanese blogs, selecting the one run by one of Opposition leaders. He wrote that he was happy to see a Japanese professional baseball team, namely, the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, stretching its winning streak to seven after four consecutive losses. The Rakuten Eagles were organized just four years ago when the Japanese professional baseball business was at a crisis due to financial problems resulting in breakup of one team which led to the spawning of the Rakuten Eagles.

( http://katsuya.weblogs.jp/blog/2008/04/post-75d1.html )

********************

Japan in March was in turmoil.

The Governor of the Bank of Japan was not decided due to the opposition from opposition parties.

The extra gasoline tax was abolished due to the opposition from opposition parties, though the Government tried to maintain it to secure the precious source of revenues.

Handling the budgetary bills in the Upper House was halted for a month due to the opposition from opposition parties.

Japan's diplomatic authenticy and dignity were tested by the irresponsible Chinese behaviors on contaminated foods and violence in Tibet as well as a murder case in the naval city Yokosuka committed by a US navy sailor.

Hence, a cabinet approval rating has dropped to 23.8% while Prime Minister Mr. Yasuo Fukuda is busy preparing for G8 Summit.

But, if the grand coalition plan targeting the Democratic Party of Japan had been successful as a certain newspaper-company chairman dreamed of last fall, everything would have been smoothly processed as the Government wishes.

But, as the very chairman had failed four years ago in his plan to unify two professional baseball leagues in Japan for reducing the number of teams and thus increasing revenue of a specific team (which belongs to the newspaper company) under his control, now people including some politicians can enjoy the great achievement by the Rakuten Eagles which were precariously established four years ago with players no other teams wanted then.


(Now, my cold seems to be being conquered.

Every disease is for the glory of God to be manifested.

Indeed, as I got low-keyed in spirit this morning due to the cold, I have written this way…

And, don’t you know the traditional expression, “cold in cherry-blossom time” in Japan, since even the spirit of the air envies cherry blossoms? )








　　

GOLD AND FRIENDS

GOLD AND FRIENDS

('or et les amis)


If one man in the society knows different or unique 100 individuals as a relative, a friend, a business partner, a colleague, or just an acquaintance, you can connect anybody to any given person in the world in five steps, in theory.

For example, 100 x 100 x 100 x 100 x 100 x 100 = 1,000,000,000,000.

(Usually they say it is six steps, since the global population is six billion.)

Therefore, you can connect yourself to the Pope, the Dalai Lama, or Mr. Nelson Mandela in five steps from your door.

If the intermediary substance that links you to your neighbor or somebody is love, friendship, compassion, or goodwill, there are no problems.

But, that substance can be gold if not a huge amount of money. In either case, the big amount of profits will persuade people to do anything against their conscience. This is what Jesus Christ condemned 2000 years ago and the Buddha abhorred 2500 years ago.

In this context, I am interested in Barrick Gold Corporation, the largest pure gold mining company in the world.
(click for a large view)

You can refer to the following, if you want, though I do not assure authenticity of their contents:

Barrick Gold Corporation (set up by international arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi who's first employer was the Bin Laden family and has close ties to the British throne; Barrick also employed Bush Sr.; the later discussed Rothschild buddy Vernon Jordan; and was headed by Peter Munk, a 1001 Club member and skiing partner of Prince Charles). http://www.pehi.eu/introduction.htm

Adnan Khashoggi:
a Bush-allied Saudi billionaire and arms trafficker, founder of the Barrick Gold Corp.; famous for his illegal weapons sales to Iran.

Peter Munk:
a business failure who became a protege of the British royal family, and Khashoggi's partner. Munk is chairman of Barrick Gold Corp.
http://www.afrocentricnews.com/html/bush_gang.html


“Munk is originally from an Israelite Hungarian family and now engaged with Nathaniel Philip Rothschild in developing recreational facilities in Hungary and East Europe, since East Europe is a domain of the Rothschild brand…”
http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E4%B8%96%E7%95%8C%E3%82%92%E5%8B%95%E3%81%8B%E3%81%99%E4%BA%BA%E8%84%88-%E8%AC%9B%E8%AB%87%E7%A4%BE%E7%8F%BE%E4%BB%A3%E6%96%B0%E6%9B%B8-1927-%E4%B8%AD%E7%94%B0-%E5%AE%89%E5%BD%A6/dp/4062879271


(Gold is not bad. It is one of metallic elements the God created at the core of fixed stars, such as the Sun, in the universe through nuclear fusion for a certain holy purpose mankind is yet to comprehend.

What is bad is an economic system of mankind that adopts gold as a measure of the ability to satisfy their material desire against the teaching of God, the Buddha, Jesus Christ, and Islam.

Therefore, the more you love gold, the more you have to communicate with followers of God, the Buddha, Jesus Christ, and Islam, since it is not gold that heals people but love from Heaven.

Have a nice weekend, friends.

Remember that in five steps, if you like, you can connect with “anybody,” though my million steps might lead to the last holy gold mine in this world or in Japan and here and there.)

Home or Heaven

Home or Heaven

(Accueil ou Heaven)



If you have the wife and children, they connect you to this material world; thus you cannot achieve enlightenment the Buddha achieved.

If you have a house, it connects you to this material world; thus you cannot achieve enlightenment the Buddha achieved.

If you have earnings, they connect you to this material world; thus you cannot achieve enlightenment the Buddha achieved.

Truly, Jesus Christ said that a happy man does not need God.

Without doubt, such a happy man must become a homeless in Heaven even if so admitted as more than deserved.


SECTION I: Japan’s Former Premier and Homeless

It is former Prime Minister Mr. Jyunichiro Koizumi that has been enjoying the most popularity in the Japanese society as a politician.

But he is also the most attacked and abhorred conservative politician by liberals as well as other conservatives who have had a strong tie with North Korea (and China) due to big money ethnic North Korean residents in Japan could provide for them.

Recently Mr. Jyunichiro Koizumi addressed an assembly of supporters for one of LDP lawmakers, referring to a law that is intended to help self-help of homeless people in Japan, the number of whom is estimated to be roughly 20,000.

It is Mr. Koizumi’s administration that this homeless-helping law was passed several years ago in the Japanese Parliament, which however has been criticized by some liberals as a bad law restricting freedom of homeless by putting them in a shelter with too many rules and treating them with a manner harming their dignity.

Yet, the former Prime Minister pointed at the law in his address as an example that the Government is not simply neglecting the poor, though liberal critics often cast a blame for an increasing gap between the rich and the poor on Mr. Koizumi’ s policy introducing the law of jungles of the American market into the Japanese economy.

“When homeless people tired of living on the street begin to think that it was time for them to live under a roof, eat meals three times a day, and soak in a bath, our Government can offer suitable facilities to them at any prefecture in Japan.

Also, people released from a prison should be taken care of until they can help-support themselves. I am now recommending Prime Minister Mr. Yasuo Fukuda to take into consideration the introduction of such a post-prison care system…,” said Mr. Jyunichiro Koizumi in a lecture meeting held to boost popularity of one of his favorite female lawmakers (an ex-Ministry-of-Finance executive), which is one of rare occasions that the general public sees him since his leave from the premiership in 2006, though an admission fee to the venue was reportedly 10,000 yen (100 dollars).

( http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/katayamasathuki2007/5576838.html#5614081 )


SECTION II: Hiroshima Homeless

Hiroshima is a Japanese city that suffered a US nuclear bomb attack in the summer of 1945 at the end of WWII.

Hiroshima is also well known as a city having suffered fierce antagonism and duels between gangsters after WWII, which was once a common theme of Japanese entertainment films.

Hiroshima is also a home ground of Mazda Motor Corporation, associated with US Ford, and a professional baseball team “Hiroshima Carp.”

Yet, everybody in Hiroshima City, where about 130 people are reportedly living a homeless life among 1.2 million ordinary citizens, today knows one prominent homeless man called “Hiroshima Taro.”

The homeless, Hiroshima Taro, has been in a state of homelessness for 35 years since he was 25.

When a young man from Tokyo was conducting a personal interview with Hiroshima Taro on the street of Hiroshima City, a puller-in for a shady boite or the like in black handed him a 500-yen (five-dollar) coin, saying, “I like to give 500 yen to you, man.” Mr. Taro Hiroshima, the notable homeless in Hiroshima, accepted the big coin, saying dryly, “Thank you, man.”

After the interview in which he especially gave a warning to the young man from Tokyo on a possibility of the eruption of Mt. Fuji that could destroy Tokyo, Hiroshima Taro got on his bicycle equipped with 11 small baskets, into one of which he put a cat looking hungry, and left the young man watching a yellow mantle on the back of the old bicycle rider melting into darkness of a night in the big modern city Hiroshima, Japan, in this winter of 2008.

( http://yukuri.exblog.jp/ )

I honestly hope that Mr. Taro Hiroshima becomes a national lawmaker someday, if the God allows one holy miracle in Hiroshima.


SECTION III: US Reconnecting Homeless Youth Act

--------
The facts are astounding and devastating. As many as 3 million minors experience disconnection. Some of them are born homeless, but most run away to escape mental, emotional or physical abuse. More than a third of them — roughly a million children — are victims of sexual abuse in the home. A third of them attempt suicide. For these young people hope is a distant concept, and the future is little more than a dead end.
…
Our top priority was guaranteeing the organizations that work for disconnected youth have the full funding they need, because they already work to provide the tools kids need to reconnect — Safe Place has reached more than 100,000 children in my home state of Kentucky alone. The bill more than doubles RHYA funding to $200 million per year, to ensure that the resources are in place for community-serving organizations to reach every kid in need…
--------

http://thehill.com/op-eds/we-must-pass-the-reconnecting-homeless-youth-act-2008-02-04.html

Also you should notice that actually two million people have suffered foreclosure in the U.S., as I once estimated. And if one of ten families is faced with this tragedy of losing their homes, the military and economic super-power America will soon have 200,000 plus new homeless people.
-------
After nearly a year and a half of turmoil, over 2 million homes foreclosed upon, and the worst financial crisis to hit the world since the Great Depression, I would like to applaud the Bush administration for finally realizing that there is truly something wrong with our nation’s financial services regulatory structure. For far too long this administration has allowed Wall Street to pursue the politics of greed, the true cost of which we can now see in the form of devastated communities, homeless families, and shattered neighborhoods…
-------
http://blog.thehill.com/2008/03/31/not-just-a-credit-crisis-rep-keith-ellison/#more-5701


So, homeless and foreclosed people must march into Wall Street at the onset of the US Religious Revolution.


SECTION IV: Homeless World Cup

-------
Afghanistan's first Homeless World Cup team, organised by SDF, is made up of homeless people and orphans, the most deprived sectors of Afghan society. Rumour has it that they are excellent on the pitch and are even contenders for the Homeless World Cup Trophy.

-------
http://www.homelessworldcup.org/content/afghanistan

I found it interesting that Mr. Ringo Starr, an ex-Beatle, is one of supporters for this movement which seems to have been originated in Scotland which had better get independence from England like Tibet from China, if I may say so.


(I don’t think that Mrs. Hillary Rodham Clinton is a Rocky Balboa and Mr. Obama is an Apollo Creed.

However, the rivalry between “Hillary” and “Obama” must be regarded as one of Civil Wars in the U.S.

“Obama” from Chicago leads the Union Army and “Hillary” from a southern state leads Confederate Forces.

And, of course, everything will be gone for one of the two with wind this summer at the latest.

Yet, until the last homeless man is saved, the holy campaign in America must continue.

So, keep on presiding at whatever is entrusted to you if not in US Congress or the Japanese Diet, since the audience is large.)









　　

Princess Diana and Homeless in Paris

Old Imperial Train Car of Japan
In a Railway Museum around Tokyo


Princess Diana and Homeless in Paris
(Princesse Diana et de sans-abri à Paris)


You might be fed up with this theme.

But, it is very important for Her Majesty and His Highness if not Divine at all.



SECTION I: PRINCESS DIANA AND QUEEN OF ENGLAND

http://hotair.com/archives/2008/03/31/diana-inquest-no-grassy-knoll-in-paris/
------
Diana inquest: No grassy knoll in Paris
posted at 7:11 am on March 31, 2008 by Ed Morrissey

All of the news agencies have headlines on the wires over the conclusion of the Princess Diana inquest — more than a decade after her death, mind you — so I know it’s a Very Important Story. After months of investigation prompted by outlandish claims by Mohammed al-Fayed that the British intelligence community had nothing better to do than assassinate a former royal and the mother of the future King of Great Britain, the inquest announced that Diana and Dodi Fayed died in a car accident:...
------

I don’t think the Queen of England ordered physical disposal of Princess Diana and her Muslim boy friend.

I don’t think it is very appropriate to associate the Diana’s death in 1997 with JFK’s death in 1963 but not JFK Jr.’s death in 1999.

Anyway, one comment to the above article tells where people’s true concern lies:
------
The angle of marrying a muslim in 1997,
I think at the time was no big deal.
However after 911,that all changed,
Muslims decided to show the world
just how dangerous they are,but maybe
someone in Diana’s circle,or the Royals
knew something the rest of us didn’t
know in 1997!

canopfor on March 31, 2008 at 8:12 AM
------

Anyway, you cannot arrest scores of British noble families and Queen based on the conspiracy theory on the death of Diana.


SECTION II: THE 9/11 TERROR AND US PRESIDENT

Yet, some people are actually trying to arrest hundreds of high-ranking US officers, heads of FBI and CIA, Secretaries of State and Defense, and President Mr. George W. Bush for killing 3,000 people on Sept. 11, 2001 based on their conspiracy theory on the 9/11 Terror on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

I don’t think President Mr. Bush ordered the killing of 3,000 citizens and US officials in New York and Washington D.C. on Sept.11, 2001.


SECTION III: Princess Diana’s Death and The 9/11 Terror

But, there is a strong link between the death of Princess Diana in 1997 and the 9/11 Terror in 2001.

It is because the Muslim boy friend who died with Diana was a nephew of Mr. Adnan Khashoggi.

http://questionsquestions.net/docs04/khashoggi-911.html
http://questionsquestions.net/docs04/khashoggi-911.html
------
Oryx, the demonic corporate brat of Khashoggi and Adham, has recently been linked by investigative reporter Daniel Hopsicker (Welcome to Terrorland) to Wallace Hilliard, proprietor of Huffman Aviation in Florida, where Mohammed Atta's suicide cult trained in aero-terrorism.

Of the 220 flight schools in Florida, Atta had to pick Huffman.

Wallace Hilliard, Khashoggi's lackey, bought Huffman Aviation in 1999, and hired Rudi Dekkers, a Dutchman, to run it. The following year, Hilliard's LearJet was stopped on the runway at Orlando Executive Airport by armed DEA agents…

In July, Daniel Hopsicker, after a two-year investigation into Huffman Aviation, offered from his MadCowMorningNews web soapbox the suggestion that Mohammed Atta had been engaged "in a lucrative drug trafficking operation which linked Osama bin Laden's thugs and drug lieutenants to their equally-thuggish American counterparts…
------

In short, Princess Diana, her Muslim boyfriend, his uncle Mr. Adnan Khashoggi, his junior business associate who owned Huffman Aviation in Florida, 9/11 terrorist Mohammed Atta who was trained in Huffman Aviation, Mr. Osama bin Laden, and American drug traffickers who dealt with Mr. bin Laden’s henchmen seem to be traced in one context which however must not include the Queen of England and the US President Mr. George W. Bush.

(Click to enlarge.)


SECTION IV: HOMELESS IN PARIS

Last year’s French Presidential Election might be a predictor for 2008 US Presidential Election or still an aftermath of the 1997 car accident that killed Princess Diana.

http://www.cafebabel.com/en/article.asp?T=A&Id=2475
------
Nabeelah Shabbir - Paris - 16.4.2007
…
'The government’s mentality and philosophy needs to change,’ says Casquette, a former reporter who has his own online press agency. 'My hunger strike is to remind those who are going to the polls what they are voting for.' In response to Sarkozy's manifesto promising that ‘no person will be forced to sleep rough' within two years of his election, Casquette reflects that the right-wing so far have wanted to 'create a society where on one side you have the super rich, and on the other the incredibly poor.'

There is a strong European perspective in the canal's book of solidarity messages. Swedes and Spaniards are amongst the tourists passing who have shown their 'appreciation for the revolution.' Mention Italy and Spain, and Casquette's keywords are Berlusconi and Zapatero. 'They (EU leaders) want a Europe, a monetary Europe, but they will get a revolutionary Europe. That's going to be dangerous.’

He momentarily disappears inside his tent, and reemerges with a copy of Sun Tzu’s Chinese military handbook, ‘The Art of War’. ‘But throughout Europe, we need to unite to fight these issues together. You want a united Europe, you want us to show that we have a united Europe, and it's exactly what we are trying to achieve.'
…
Meanwhile Casquette says he is campaigning not only for the homeless, but people like his neighbour in the tent opposite him who works twelve hour days beginning at 5am. His voice is for nurses, for interns, for a bit of balance in society.
…
On the canal, there’s not much hope as the country goes to the polls. It’s difficult to vote right or left, man or woman, in an election where France's 100,000 continue with neither home nor address.
------

They need to read and master Sun Tzu’s Chinese military handbook, ‘The Art of War’ to help homeless people in Paris, fighting against super-rich Europeans including French President and the Italian Mafia.

Again I say in a modern, fabulous international city where 100,000 homeless people are neglected and left, any conspiracy can be conducted on any individual.

But, you had better first read EEE Reporter before picking up the “The Art of War” which is one of common Chinese classics ordinary or intellectual Japanese are familiar with.


(The richer you become, the more you would meet devilish people.

It is what I am highly concerned about.

It is because even a queen or a president would not stop her subjects or his officials to try to stop a conspiracy against her or him by using a countermeasure that might look like another conspiracy.

So, good girls and Mlles., think about homeless families in America and homeless reporters in Paris to maintain your equilibrium in this material but empty world, though I can see miracles, holy or horrible, here and there so often. )








　　

From Saitama Museum through Tibet to Jerusalem

From Saitama Museum through Tibet to Jerusalem

(Musée de Saitama à travers le Tibet à Jérusalem)



SECTION I: The Dalai Lama

If you are born in an Israelite family, you will become an Israelite.
If you are born in a Christian family, you will become a Christian.
If you are born in a Muslim family, you will become a Muslim.

Therefore, religion in this world is relative but not absolute.

Accordingly, there must not be a religion called Buddhism but just the followers of the teaching of Buddha just like members of the Israelite tribe, the followers of the teaching of Jesus Christ, and believers in words of Allah.

Therefore, the Pope should always tell people not to respect him but Jesus Christ and the God.
Therefore, the Dalai should always tell people not to respect him but Buddha (Gautama Siddhartha).

It is because if people without making a full sacrifice of his time and energy to revering Jesus Christ, the God, Allah, or Buddha consume time, energy, and money for the Pope, the Dalai, and Islamic elites, they must be regarded as paying less respect to Jesus Christ, the God, Allah, or Buddha (Gautama Siddhartha).

So, I recommend the Dalai Lama to abandon every title that earns “religious” respect from people, since I am a worshipper of Buddha (Gautama Siddhartha) as much as anyone calling himself a “Buddhist” is.

Instead, the Dalai Lama should call himself the “King of Tibet.”

Then, he can lead people and legitimately claim his kingdom back from the Chinese Communist Party, based on his sovereign right.

The Dalai Lama is reportedly coming to Japan soon via Seattle and will have a news conference in Tokyo, for your information.


SECTION II: No.1 Homeless Family Blog

http://homelessfamily.blogspot.com/
------
My name is John,
2004 homeless with family
…
2008 elected to the Board of Directors of the Lead Agency in Jacksonville that spreads the money to the homeless service providers.

The announcement will be made public about me in this position by the Homeless Coalition in around seven hours of me posting this. At that time I'll be legally bound to Articles and Bylaws to not disclose certain things I become aware of through that position.

Homeless on a curbside at 4:00am outside a shelter with a wife and four kids. Four years later, part of the team that wrestles homelessness with every asset available in a multi county region.

Over a half a year ago this site hit #1 on Yahoo on a search for 'homeless family'. Recently on Google it hit #1 as well. Going out this way, I've got a lot to be proud of.
…
Lastly; but most importantly; this last paragraph is for anyone who's homeless. You can make it. Wanting it isn't enough. If you give up, where will you be in the morning? Me believing in you isn't going to help. You...need to believe in you.

Thank you, and from "Homeless Family on Blogspot"...

...goodbye!

------

Jesus Christ was a homeless preacher on purpose to make any homeless man believe in Him.

Every homeless man does not want to be in a state of homelessness.

But, Jesus Christ to save souls of homeless people and their families became a homeless preacher.

He would be homeless until the last homeless man is saved to have his own home, since Jesus Christ is the Son of God just like Adam was (read the Gospel by Luke in the King James Version).

Accordingly, the Bible must be No.1 blog, if it is, all time.


SECTION III: The Saitama Railway Museum

On March 31, 2008, the Railway Museum in Saitama City, north of Tokyo, had the millionth visitor since its opening five and a half months ago, which could be regarded as a miracle since it was just the end of FY 2007 for the Japanese Government.

You can find related pictures in EEE Reporter blog somewhere in addition to some presented today.

If I were the King of World, I would build a railroad line from Tokyo to Jerusalem.

Everyone can get on them free, since trains would run through Tibet and the old territories of Alexander the Great to Jerusalem where once every homeless in Palestine tried to gather to see the Messiah, the King of Kings.



(What would you do, if you, good girls and Mlles., were the Queen of World?
Riding a roller coaster at Kourakuen, Tokyo?)

A Prelude to Massive Outpouring of Public Funds

A Prelude to Massive Outpouring of Public Funds

(Un prélude à l'effusion massif de fonds publics)



In May 2007 when the sub-prime loan problem was not so catastrophically shaking big players in the global money market, the BusinessWeek posed the following question to readers:
http://www.businessweek.com/debateroom/archives/2007/05/stop_fleecing_p.html

“The U.S. government should place greater restrictions on car sellers, pay-day lenders, and tax preparers who offer the working poor cash or credit with high fees and interest rates. Pro or con?”

Various answers and comments were presented as you see:

Nick
May 11, 2007 01:09 PM
Congress should definitely stop this fleecing of the poor. Mandate a halt to all these high interest rates and hidden fees that jack up the cost of the loans. This way, lenders will have no high yields to offset the high default rates of the poor, and be forced to stop giving credit to the poor. With no legitimate sources of credit, these people who consistently make bad decisions every day of their lives will make the decision to go to loan sharks. As they fail to pay off the loan sharks, the loan sharks will do society a favor and remove these idiots from the gene pool, preferably before they had spawned.
------

Apollia
May 11, 2007 10:49 PM
Fleecing isn't the word for all this predatory lending.

It's more like flaying--given how the chronic shortage of money resulting from diligently and honestly repaying one's debts can profoundly reduce the quality of one's life and future opportunities, due to the inability to buy needed items.

The lack of money can even jeopardize one's health and the health of loved ones, if one cannot afford medical care or enough nutritious food.

You also might suffer bad health effects from being totally overworked from trying to do multiple jobs merely to keep treading water--just so you can pay your mortgage every month so you don't lose your house, car payment so you don't lose your car, car insurance so you can legally driver, inevitable car repairs (so you can still get to work).
Not everyone is fortunate enough to be able to even get a better than minimum wage job, and all these expenses combine to make life very hard for such people.

You don't even have to be stupidly and exorbitantly waste money on foolish frivolities in order to be struggling--other, basic expenses are enough to drown many people.
And when you have to work so much merely to survive, you have hardly any time, let alone energy, left over to learn new skills that might get you better employment. And if you want to go to school, you'll likely have to take on tons of debt for that, which will just dig the hole you're in even deeper.

The working poor don't deserve all this. They are not lazy, immoral bums. They're working poor and trying not to steal for a living (unlike various predatory lenders) but instead resorting to whatever legitimate, legal means they have available to them to try to improve their situation…

I strongly support a credit card boycott (you can search the web--I recommend using Yahoo--and easily find my web page about it; I also recommend reading my blog, where I wrote a bit about this BusinessWeek feature). That's my only focus, because that is what has personally affected me the most. But it's obvious that credit cards are just the tip of the iceberg of predatory lenders.

However, I think a nice mixture of the following, and probably other ideas as well, may improve matters tremendously for the poor in general, regardless of the exact type of predatory lender:
* Regulation--usury laws put back in place, excessive fees forbidden, etc., so this legalized loan sharking once again becomes illegal, as it deserves to be.

* Consumer awareness, so people know to watch out for these predatory scum and do whatever you have to do to avoid dealing with them.

* Financial education. I like the idea of a class being given in high schools.

* Generous grants (not loans) to individuals from caring wealthy people. These will prevent people from resorting to borrowing from predatory lenders to begin with--and rescue already drowning people from a gigantic, all-consuming black hole they could never possibly get themselves out of. It's almost like a boycott. What this comes down to is putting the poor in a position to be realistically able to boycott the predatory lenders.

There are probably other good, useful ideas out there as well.

Anyhow, thank you to BusinessWeek for featuring all these very insightful articles on this extremely important topic.
------

Alec
May 13, 2007 09:27 AM
There's been a running theme throughout these comments, with perhaps the sole exception of Appollia, that poverty is a result of a failure of character. The reality is that America is the least socially mobile of all industrialized nations. If you're born into poverty, you're extremely likely to die there.
------

And after May 2007, to date, the whole scale of repercussions caused by the subprime loan on the global money market has come to be exposed day after day with new facts and new countermeasures, such as a total outstanding amount of subprime loans estimated to be $1500 billion, $100 billion infusion of money to the market by the Federal Home Loan Bank System, $64 billion by FRB, $330 billion by European Central Bank, further recently 200 billion-worth Treasury bonds promised to be lent to the market by FRB, etc.

However, these huge amounts of money were all made public and transferred after the discussion hosted by BusinessWeek in May 2007

So, we had better review those comments as a last warning or a proof on which the God might decide the final course of the event.

And, you will understand that you cannot expect any solutions from super-rich people, since it is not a problem for them.

Or, ancestors of today’s super-rich people became very rich by conducting business similar to selling subprime loans to the poor on purpose.

As super-rich people do nothing and governments are spending public money to stop the collapse of the financial framework of economy, things will not be settled in favor of the poor if ever settled in future.

That is why I am telling you that you cannot expect any decisive solutions but the Religious Revolution to be pursued here and there.

There are no limits in desire of people in the money market and thus no limits of allowable profits in economics they love, which means winners in the market or super-rich people and those who want to be super-rich will not mind if millions of poor people die simply due to the lack of money.

Jesus Christ is completely against those winners in the market or super-rich people and those who want to be super-rich.

Jesus Christ orders people to give money to the poor unconditionally.

This is the only solution and it can be only accomplished after the success of the Religious Revolution.

It is because the Revolution is aimed at forcing people to obey orders delivered by Jesus Christ unconditionally.

Even laws, far unholy compared with words of Jesus Christ and the God, are allowed to force citizens to do something reasonable on the street and in office; so, it is natural for citizens to be forced by words of Jesus Christ and the God.



(One big difference between mankind and animals is of the propensity to money.

If you feel sympathy or friendship to, say, vanishing polar bears, orangutans, or elephants, it may be because they do not have money at all.

So then, the God must love the poor more than those with much money.

Indeed, as the money contaminates the nature, we have to use something else to save the nature, such as sympathy or friendship to animals being endangered or vanishing.)



“The Ruler of This World has already been Judged.”

(Der Herrscher dieser Welt schon verurteilt ist)




　　

God Created the Devil, Adam, and Jesus

God Created the Devil, Adam, and Jesus

(Dieu a créé le Diable, Adam et Jésus)


…
Luk 3:30 Which was the son of Simeon, which was the son of Juda, which was the son of Joseph, which was the son of Jonan, which was the son of Eliakim,

Luk 3:31 Which was the son of Melea, which was the son of Menan, which was the son of Mattatha, which was the son of Nathan, which was the son of David,

Luk 3:32 Which was the son of Jesse, which was the son of Obed, which was the son of Booz, which was the son of Salmon, which was the son of Naasson,

Luk 3:33 Which was the son of Aminadab, which was the son of Aram, which was the son of Esrom, which was the son of Phares, which was the son of Juda,

Luk 3:34 Which was the son of Jacob, which was the son of Isaac, which was the son of Abraham, which was the son of Thara, which was the son of Nachor,

Luk 3:35 Which was the son of Saruch, which was the son of Ragau, which was the son of Phalec, which was the son of Heber, which was the son of Sala,

Luk 3:36 Which was the son of Cainan, which was the son of Arphaxad, which was the son of Sem, which was the son of Noe, which was the son of Lamech,

Luk 3:37 Which was the son of Mathusala, which was the son of Enoch, which was the son of Jared, which was the son of Maleleel, which was the son of Cainan,

Luk 3:38 Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God.

Luk 4:1 And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,

Luk 4:2 Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered.

Luk 4:3 And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread.

Luk 4:4 And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.

Luk 4:5 And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
…



God created the Devil, Adam, and Jesus in order to prove His Glory.

God created every one of you in order to prove His Glory.

But why? Is He playing a game by exercising His omnipotence?

Anyway, compared with the significance of the answer, all the assets and money on the American continent, the Japanese islands, and the European Continent, and in the rest of the world are nothing, in my humble personal view.


(Is your love part of God’s glory, like Cherry blossoms and Mt. Fuji around me?)