Kurashi - News From Japan

I have been thinking about biodiversity for a while, mostly because of work, doing some preparations for the UN Biodiversity Summit in Nagoya in October 2010. Often, the issue is abstract and very difficult to communicate. One story I like a lot because it brings home the urgency is about the Akita dog , a breed from northern Japan that almost became extinct around the time of WW2. The local breeders were killing the last dogs, selling the fur to the military in order to line the winter coats of officers. Yet, Morie Sawataishi decided to take action to save the Akita (and what a difference one person can make!) as described in the book Dog Man: An Uncommon Life on a Faraway Mountain by Martha Sherill. Working for Mitsubishi in the remote snow country, Morie decided to rescue Japan's noble, ancient Akita breed—whose numbers had already dwindled before the war—from certain extinction. Raised in an elegant Tokyo neighborhood, his long-suffering wife, Kitako, hated country life, and ...

YouTube: Kermit the Frog , 40 years ago. I loved The Muppet Show as a kid. Jim Henson was a genious. It was written for the Sesame Street by Joe Raposo in 1970. Ray Charles did a fantastic version in 1989. One comment: My lil nephew used to break out singing this when he had the blues. Boy! Talk about blue! We used to giggle, but he was so serious! Here's another comment: 1969. New York. So much racial tension goin' on. So Jim Henson asks "what can we do to help kids feel better about all this racial stuff?"... How about Kermit accepting his own color in front of them? Subtle, deep... effecting, soothing. This is the earliest version. There is a more famous version. But this one - so raw - so careful to be true to the children... this one makes me weep.

Japan doesn't have an active Green Party*, although there have been efforts over the years to start one, and some success on the local level. Some bloggers are comparing the main parties and their national policies. I thought I should sum up some of my finds: Greener World compares what LDP and DPJ say about biodiversity. Noting that both parties are concerned about loss of biodiversity, the blogger points out that LDP seems aware of Japan's responsibilities next year, when Nagoya is hosting the UN Biodiversity Conference . LDP wants Japan to "exhibit global leadership" at the meeting. DPJ has "rather strong measures to protect biodiversity" and both parties mention the need to protect satoyama, the farm/forest areas that are so important for food security in Japan. Greener World gives LDP a paltry 10 points, while DPJ gets 60 points, noting that "LDP needs to put on their geta (wooden sandals)" and go out and do something, not just pass the buck ...

I added a new blog I like, called Ten Thousand Things . Hope they keep up the good work. Their noble goal is to "create a netroots venue that supports actions for peace, sustainability, social justice, & creative expression in Asia (and everywhere)." –– Kim Hughes, Jen Teeter, & Jean Downey

Winifred Bird has written a great article about biodiversity over at Japan Times, glad to see these issues being taken seriously. She notes that biodiversity is threatened not just by the loss of virgin nature but by changes in Japan's satoyama — the carefully managed forests/fields that make up Japan's traditional rural landscape: Humans have been shaping the natural environment in Japan for a very long time. Starting with the advent of rice cultivation more than 2,000 years ago, virtually every accessible patch of land on these small and crowded islands has had its vegetation cut, cleared, burned, tilled or otherwise transformed. But surprisingly, say those who study the ecology of Japan's traditional rural areas, that may not have been such a bad thing for the archipelago's biological diversity. Back before humans settled down in villages and learned about agriculture, Japan's wet and mountainous terrain was mostly wooded. "Japan was a land of trees," ...

Floria Tosca: Hildegard Behrens, 1985 New York Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Giuseppe Sinopoli conductor Of course this is Puccini, and Hildegard Behrens was more famous for her Wagner work, but it works well for me, hope it works for you. Frau Behrens died this week in Japan, on her way to a workshop in Kusatsu, Gunma prefecture. Murder scene here ("And all Rome trembled before him...!") Tosca: Vissi d'arte, vissi d'amore – “I lived on art, I lived on love”; Scarpia: Sei troppo bella, Tosca, e troppo amante – “You're too beautiful, Tosca, and too loving”) Rispetto! Nun können Sie mit den Engeln singen! RIP! Italian Translation in English Vissi d’arte, vissi d’amore, non feci mai male ad anima viva! Con man furtiva quante miserie conobbi aiutai. Sempre con fè sincera la mia preghiera ai santi tabernacoli salì. Sempre con fè sincera diedi fiori agl’altar. Nell’ora del dolore perchè, perchè, Signore, perchè me ne rimuneri così? Diedi gioielli della Madonna al man...

Very interesting front page article in this week's issue of Time Magazine . Many of the questions they raise will be familiar to readers of Kurashi, but I hadn't thought this would be so suddenly put so high on the public agenda. While we often complain about Big Media, perhaps there is hope. The food crisis is real, and Bryan Walsh at Time Magazine deserves credit for a very bold and urgent article. Let me quote the entire opening paragraph: Somewhere in Iowa, a pig is being raised in a confined pen, packed in so tightly with other swine that their curly tails have been chopped off so they won't bite one another. To prevent him from getting sick in such close quarters, he is dosed with antibiotics. The waste produced by the pig and his thousands of pen mates on the factory farm where they live goes into manure lagoons that blanket neighboring communities with air pollution and a stomach-churning stench. He's fed on American corn that was grown with the help of governm...