(Tokyo Station)
(Tokyo Ohta Ward or so)
(Tokyo Tama River)Different Motivations in the Same Circumstances
To tell the truth, I have no statistical data on what kind of viewers have accessed this blog since 2005.
However, poor men and women working hard in a difficult situation are always assumed to be.
If you lose great possessions through failure in your attempt to be, say, a king or a queen or some such, you are welcomed.
If you lose great possessions through success in your attempt to be, say, a king or a queen or some such, you are welcomed, too.
SECTION I: Rare Earth
Special metals or elements called "rare earth" are essential for manufacturing hi-tech devices, such as those used in a mobile phone and a hybrid car.
Global shares of rare-earth-elements reserves in 2008 are as follows:
#.......Country......Share
1.......CHINA...........31%
2....Ex-USSR States...22%
3.......USA.............13%
4.......AUSTRALIA....6%
5.......INDIA...........1%
(Source: The Nihon Keizai Shimbun newspaper)
Unlike the case of crude oil, the rare-earth resources seem to be well positioned around Japan in a global scale.
The Asian Continent will have more weight in the 21st century.
As for actual output of rare-earth materials, China's share was 97% and India's share was 2% in 2008.
Finally, blessed is Japan, since China and others are blessed with rare earth!
SECTION II: Capitalism and American Christianity
Columbus, Washington, Lincoln, and JFK are really heroes in the American history.
However, true heroes might be prisoners since the beginning of cultivation of the North American Continent by Europeans, since capitalism looks like a sin in Christianity.
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HISTORY IS A WEAPON
Prison Labor, Slavery & Capitalism In Historical Perspective
by Stephen Hartnett
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Historical Perspectives on Prisons, Slavery, and Imperialism
It is important to recall that many of the first settlers of the "New World" were actually British, Scottish, Irish, French, German, and Dutch convicts sold into indentured servitude. Selling "criminals" to the companies exploring the Americas lowered the cost of maintaining European prisons (since they could remain relatively small), enabled the traditional elite to rid themselves of potential political radicals, and provided the cheap labor necessary for the first wave of colonization. Indeed, as detailed in both Peter Linebaugh's The London Hanged and A. R. Ekirch's Bound for America, there is a strong historical relationship between the need for policing the unruly working classes, fueling the military and economic needs of the capitalist class, and greasing the wheels of imperialism with both indentured servants and outright slavery.
An early US example of this three-pronged relationship occurred in Frankfurt, Kentucky in 1825. Joel Scott paid $1,000 for control of Kentucky's prison labor to build roads and canals facilitating settler traffic westward into Indian lands. After winning this contract, Scott built his own private 250-cell prison to house his new "workers." In a similar deal in 1844, Louisiana began leasing the labor of the prisoners in its Baton Rouge State Penitentiary to private contractors for $50,000 a year. California's San Quentin prison illustrates this same historical link between prison labor and capitalism. In 1852, J.M. Estill and M.G. Vallejo swapped land that was to become the site of the state capital for the management of California's prison laborers. These three antebellum examples are not typical of pre-Civil War labor arrangements, however. The institution of slavery in the South and the unprecedented migration of poor Europeans to America in the North provided the capitalist elite with ample labor at rock bottom prices. This left prison labor as a risky resource exploited by only the most adventurous capitalists.
Prison labor became a more significant part of modern capitalism during Reconstruction because the Civil War made immigration to America dangerous, left the U.S. economically devastated, and deprived capitalism of its lucrative slave labor. One of the responses to these crises was to build more prisons and then to lease the labor of prisoners, many of whom were ex-slaves, to labor-hungry capitalists.
...
http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/hisprislacap.html
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Giving a rough explanation, in the Bible, only one prisoner appeared: Jesus Christ.
Ideally, Christians must try to find a Jesus in every prisoner.
Accordingly, capitalism incubated in the prison system cannot be tolerated.
Yet, American Christianity gave a tacit nod to prison-based American capitalism, according to the above account.
SECTION III: Jesus' Disciples
Jesus' disciples had thought that one had to be rich to be saved.
Jesus Christ told them to change their belief in this context.
It was the very moment that Jesus Christ introduced revolution to Judaism 2000 years ago.
Mar 10:22 And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions.
Mar 10:23 And Jesus looked round about, and saith unto his disciples, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!
Mar 10:24 And the disciples were astonished at his words. But Jesus answereth again, and saith unto them, Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God!