Japanese Story

I watched Japanese Story Last Night.

Roger Ebert: "What does another person mean to us, really, if they are not available to share our lives, and we cannot really know them -- but we cherish them for the transient joy they have shared with us? Who was he, really?"

My favorite Japanes things:

1) Haruki Murakami
2) Kenzo
3) Yukio Mishima
4) Shinjuku
5) Tokyo Train stations
6) Tokyo Leica shops
7) Salmon Sashimi
8) Akira Kurosawa

The other night I watched Yojimbo, then A Fistful of Dollars then Last Man Standing. A steady decline.

It's ok Harry

While I recognise what Harry did was in poor taste ... wasn't that the point?

People are being awfully pious about the Nazis when Mao Tse Tung, Stalin & other despot memorabilia does not carry the same stigma.

Poor Harry. Sometime soon he's going to go really nutty because we've pushed him to far.

The fake condemnation, the self righteous judgement thats so much easier to give than anything real.

John Howard,you've done the right thing ... but ...

I think John Howard has done the right thing with the Aid Package for Indonesia ...
But it's not $1 million. It's less than that but it's a great start.

And he has skewered Mark Latham in the process.

But as Anne Summer's notes:

"Although we are close to Asia and many of us travel there, we have not always been so big-hearted. We are, after all, the same people who in October 2001 averted our eyes when the SIEV-X, a creaky boat overladen with asylum seekers from Indonesia and bound for Australia, sank and 353 people, mostly woman and children, drowned. And we continue to tolerate those who do make it to our shores being locked up in detention centres for indefinite periods. While some are busy collecting for tsunami victims in Sri Lanka we should not overlook the fact that there are Sri Lankans detained at Baxter who cannot even get their visa applications processed.

I am sure we all feel great pride in the fact that our country heads the list of donor nations with our unparalleled billion-dollar rescue package for Indonesia, but in the same week that the Prime Minister, John Howard, announced this aid, the Finance Minister, Nick Minchin, confirmed a 50 per cent blow-out in the cost of the detention centre being constructed at Christmas Island.

We are spending $336 million on an 800-bed centre in this remote outpost even though, Minchin said in a press release, there has not been an unauthorised boat arrival at Christmas Island since December 2001."

Australia's chance

John Quiggan:

"... But with Indonesia being the country hit hardest by the [Tsunami] disaster, Australia in particular is faced with a challenge, an opportunity and a test. We can, if we want, send a few emergency missions, then return to business as usual. Or, we can make it a major policy priority to help our neighbours, and particularly Indonesia, rebuild over the next few years."

Let's see what John Howard does.

Anyway, Australia's winning the cricket versus Pakistan, the fireworks in Sydney went ahead despite the Tsunami and the Baktiyeri family were finally deported.

Please make a donation for the victim's of the tidal wave.