(Toward Ueno/Shinjuku, Tokyo)Undisciplined Elites
They were stupidly laughing and smiling in a Q&A session of the National Diet, Tokyo.
Those Japanese national lawmakers are apparently brainwashed by an old standard of value: Lawmakers are the elite so that they are respected by ordinary citizens, especially voters.
They do not look like being afraid of checks by the audience who are watching live broadcast from the parliament. They lack ability to correctly measure the ability needed to address challenges they are expected to tackle. They are not learning anything from plights Mr. Hatoyama, Mr. Ozawa, and even Mr. Kan have been forced to face.
So, I saw a car with a license number plate showing "11-07."
Then I saw other showing "44-04."
A snap election will be probably held in the next April, with a result symbolized by "44."
SECTION I: American Whaling
Americans killed almost half a million whales in the past.
Yet, Hollywood praised the movie "The Cove," accusing Japan of its humble hunting of dolphins as traditional foods.
Accordingly, the God punished America around the Gulf of Mexico with crude oil.
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Marine Science
American Whaling
...
American whaling centered on the sperm whale with long voyages using a new type of ship. American whaling ships were outfitted with ‘try pots’ where the blubber was cooked on board ship, yielding the coveted oil. The oil was stored in barrels and, unlike fresh blubber, would not spoil because it had been cooked for a long time. Whaling voyages became longer and longer (up to five years) as the sperm whales in the Atlantic declined. By the late 1700s most voyages were all the way to the South Pacific (sometimes by way of the dreaded Cape Horn, at the tip of South America, and sometimes by the longer route around the Cape of Good Hope, at the tip of South Africa).
Sperm oil, spermaceti, and ambergris were the primary products from sperm whales. The sperm oil resulted from the 'trying out' of the blubber (cooking the blubber in the try pots on the whaling ships) and was used in lamps and as a lubricant...
The height of American whaling was from 1820 to 1850 – killing around 10,000 whales each year, sailing over 700 ships and employing over 70,000 people. The original techniques of the Basques (small open boats with a harpooner and long rope on the harpoon) prevailed as the primary killing mechanism. The long ride that many of these whale boats got after harpooning a whale became known as the "Nantucket sleigh ride."
...After the Civil War petroleum products began replacing the sperm oil in lamps and spermaceti in candles. Not much of the American whaling industry remained after 1925.
...The Charles Morgan is the only surviving American whaling ship. It is kept for public display at Mystic Seaport in Connecticut. Mystic Seaport is committed to keep this ship repaired and in use for public education.
http://www.marinebio.net/marinescience/06future/wham.htm
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SECTION II: Chinese Bubble to Burst
Japan and America cannot sacrifice 10% of its population for economic growth.
But, China can do 30% of its people to keep economy growing.
In a free democratic society, 10% of insurgents cannot be contained by legal power a government has.
But, in the Chinese society, 30% of insurgents can be easily contained by whatever power the Chinese Communist Party can abuse.
Accordingly, the Chinese economic bubble can continue more than in Japan or America.
Yet, when it blasts, damages China will have to suffer can be enormous.
II-1: The Bursting of the Chinese Bubble in 2010
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The Bursting of the Chinese Bubble in 2010
However, China’s debt concerns many experts; China’s national government owes a debt equal to roughly 70% of the 2009 Chinese GDP. By contrast, the United States’ national government owes a debt equal to roughly 50% of the 2009 U.S. GDP. Experts worry that the more debt that is on the books, the more vulnerable borrowers will be to shocks.
http://yermag.com/post/434338021/the-bursting-of-the-chinese-bubble-in-2010
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II-2: What happens if China's 'bubble' pops?
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What happens if China's 'bubble' pops?
By Katie Benner, writerFebruary 5, 2010: 2:24 PM ET
"The government can really push money into enterprises to keep them going even amid a crisis," says Peter Morici, a public policy professor at the University of Maryland. "You wouldn't see a credit shortage like the one we saw in the U.S."
As for the rash of bad loans that could be made amid a period of forced lending, China has an answer to that, too. The government pushes debt problems off into the future and is notoriously opaque when it comes to reporting problems. For these reasons, bad debts would surface in a slow and hopefully orderly manner, Fitch wrote in its recent report.
...
As we saw with the massive $585 billion stimulus plan that China enacted amid the global financial meltdown, the government can move quickly without worrying about opposition parties or congressional slowdowns. During a crisis, time plays a huge role in damage control.
...
Bubbles in China are about much more than finance. Economic upheaval is a source of potential mass unrest, threatening the Communist Party. "
http://money.cnn.com/2010/02/05/news/international/china_bubbles.fortune/index.htm
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II-3: Is the China bubble about to burst?
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Is the China bubble about to burst?
By Hari Sud
Column: Abroad ViewPublished: January 29, 2010
Consider this: real estate values increased by 70 percent in Chinese cities in 2009, far beyond the average household’s affordable level. The stock market has skyrocketed by 80 percent beating even the best predictions for 2009. As the average Chinese have major investments in both these sectors, there will be turmoil if both sectors crash in 2010. If so, the U.S. recession of 2008-2009 would pale in contrast and China’s economic crisis could rival the U.S. depression of 1930.
Why are so many economists and brokers forecasting China’s internal implosion? Simply because they are reading about China’s US$580 billion stimulus package, the US$1.4 trillion lent by banks to the rich and powerful in China and the US$80 billion in foreign direct investment received in 2009. These are huge amounts of money that cannot be ignored.
This river of money has ended up in China’s real estate and stock markets. Everybody in the West knows what happens when markets shoot up too fast. They drop as rapidly as they rise, sinking tons of money. In the event of a stock market crash, all this money will evaporate and ruin the financial health of the country for a long time to come.
It is difficult to pinpoint when China will implode, but it seems certain that the laws of economics will take their due course. In this scenario, opportunists from the West, backed by Western money, will come into China’s financial markets and buy healthy Chinese companies on fire sale. Chinese investors will cry foul but to no avail. This will not be an end of the Chinese economy but rather a sobering reminder.
http://www.upiasia.com/Economics/2010/01/29/is_the_china_bubble_about_to_burst/5940/
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II-4: Nomura's Sun Says China Property 'Bubble' Will Burst
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Nomura's Sun Says China Property 'Bubble' Will Burst; Prices to Drop 20%
By Shiyin Chen and Rishaad Salamat - Jun 16, 2010 11:57
National real-estate prices may drop between 10 percent and 20 percent on average, compared with an increase of about 22 percent last year, Sun Mingchun, a Hong Kong-based economist at Nomura, said in a Bloomberg Television interview.
“If you look at housing prices to disposable income in Beijing and Shanghai, they are 13, 14 times,” said Sun, whose team was ranked third in Institutional Investor’s 2010 Asian poll for China research. “There’s no way you can say there’s no bubble.”
Real-estate prices jumped 12.4 percent across 70 cities in May, adding to the 12.8 percent surge in April that was the most since the data series began in 2005. The gains suggest that measures ranging from a ban on loans for third-home purchases to higher mortgage rates and downpayment requirements for second- home purchases have yet to cool the real-estate market.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-06-16/nomura-s-sun-says-china-property-bubble-will-burst-prices-to-drop-20-.html
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II-5: Bank of Japan's Shirakawa Sees Chinese Bubble Risk
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Bank of Japan's Shirakawa Sees Chinese Bubble Risk (Update1)
June 18, 2010, 5:33 AM EDT
(Updates with Bank of Japan comment in sixth paragraph.)
By Tatsuo Ito
China, the fastest-growing major economy, has been driving the global recovery. Exports jumped the most in six years in May, property prices rose at a near-record pace and inflation jumped to the highest in 19 months, putting pressure on Chinese authorities to let the yuan rise and increase interest rates.
Japan has relied on demand from China, the country's biggest overseas market, to fuel its own export-led rebound. Shipments abroad contributed the most to Japan's 5 percent annualized expansion in the first quarter. China grew 11.9 percent in the period, the fastest pace in almost three years.
Shirakawa said policy makers in China are addressing the risk of overheating, according to Tsumura. The central bank governor spoke in response to a question by Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-06-18/bank-of-japan-s-shirakawa-sees-chinese-bubble-risk-update1-.html
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*** *** *** ***
During WWII, in an island of the South Pacific, some remnants of a Japanese platoon were wandering in the jungle as these soldiers had no foods, ammunition, and an effective command line after fierce battles against large American forces.
When they sat or lied down waiting for death. An aid man of a certain unit appeared with a syringe in his hand. He started to make an injection to each soldier. One after another, the wounded or starving soldiers fell down. But, to the last one, the medical orderly said, "Sorry, no more injection solution"; and he disappeared into the jungle like a ghost.
The last soldier started to wander again eventually to a newly built road leading to a base of some American troops. So, he sat on the road side, waiting for something.
There came a jeep with "white" soldiers on it. They saw the half-dying Japanese soldier but passed by.
After a long while, there came another jeep with "black" soldiers on it. They saw the half-dying Japanese soldier but passed by. Yet, it halted at some distance and came back to pick up the enemy soldier.
The Japanese soldier returned to Japan after the war. He started to work as a driver of a Tokyo street car and then a Tokyo city bus.
He, namely a miracle veteran of WWII, sometimes recalled the incident, saying to young friends, "I was saved by black guys (but not by white guys) in the South Seas."
(http://www.janjanblog.com/archives/10942)
I am afraid of what might happen when all the veterans of WWII have gone out of Japan to Paradise.
So, I am reporting some to meet the deadline of this era.
( http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~UD3T-KRYM/902-jasrac/40510-soranihoshigaaruyouni.htm
Stars are in the sky like sands are on the sea, or seasons are for sentimental souls...)
Act 8:3 As for Saul, he made havock of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison.
Act 8:4 Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word.
Act 8:5 Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them.
Act 8:6 And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did.