Showing posts with label Japan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Japan. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 7, 2015
Video: Andrea Petkovic vs Naomi Osaka Highlights - 2014 Bank of the West Classic
Andrea Petkovic takes on Naomi Osaka (Haiti) in the second round of the Bank of the West Classic.
She was born in Osaka, Japan. Her father was born in Haiti and went to college at NYU before moving to Japan, where he met and married her mother. When one reporter asked her if it was a coincidence that her last name also happened to be her hometown, Osaka deadpanned: "No, because everyone that was born in Osaka, their last name is Osaka." Her older sister Mari is two years older. She also plays tennis and was playing doubles in Stanford this week. - SI
Video: Naomi Osaka Biography (Tennis Player)
She was born in Osaka, Japan. Her father was born in Haiti and went to college at NYU before moving to Japan, where he met and married her mother. When one reporter asked her if it was a coincidence that her last name also happened to be her hometown, Osaka deadpanned: "No, because everyone that was born in Osaka, their last name is Osaka." Her older sister Mari is two years older. She also plays tennis and was playing doubles in Stanford this week. - SI
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
Fukushima and Crimea -- Crisis Mis-Management 101
Governments find it hard to do the right thing for their people -- why?
There are those who say that the idiots running western and allied governments (the "civilized" countries) are pitching the world towards a pair disasters, the full realization of either of which, in its most extreme form, would likely change life on earth for the worse for most folks, whether it's the continuing, unabated nuclear meltdowns in Fukushima or the continuing, unabated political meltdown over Ukraine that risks nuclear war. There are also those who don't say that these leaders are idiots. We'll see how things turn out.
As mid-March 2014 unfolds, neither Fukushima nor Crimea is yet at the brink of global catastrophe, apparently, but neither seems subject to safe and sane response from people in authority, either. That's not to predict an end-of-the-world scenario for either disaster, just to remind people that, at the extreme end of these uncontrolled events, there are horrendous logical risks that our leaders are amiably accepting (or urging) on behalf of the rest of us. And they seem to expect our gratitude, for their efforts in Ukraine or their lack of efforts in Fukushima, more or less equally.
Even though it's Japan's third largest prefecture, Fukushima is a relatively small place, as those things go: 5,321 square miles, a little smaller than the state of Connecticut. With a population of about two million, Fukushima is comparable to New Mexico (Connecticut has 3.6 million people). Fukushima is unique in the world in having suffered the March 11, 2011, earthquake/tsunami/triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station. This three-part event has so far killed some 20,000 people, with 2,600 more still missing, and it's turned another 300,000 people into internal refugees with little or no hope of returning home (terrible numbers that pale in comparison to Syria, whose disaster started about the same time). The world's response to Fukushima has, in all respects, been spotty and ineffective. Japan's response to the needs of its own people has been spotty and ineffective, except for the robust insistence on re-starting all its nuclear reactors.
There are those who say that the idiots running western and allied governments (the "civilized" countries) are pitching the world towards a pair disasters, the full realization of either of which, in its most extreme form, would likely change life on earth for the worse for most folks, whether it's the continuing, unabated nuclear meltdowns in Fukushima or the continuing, unabated political meltdown over Ukraine that risks nuclear war. There are also those who don't say that these leaders are idiots. We'll see how things turn out.
As mid-March 2014 unfolds, neither Fukushima nor Crimea is yet at the brink of global catastrophe, apparently, but neither seems subject to safe and sane response from people in authority, either. That's not to predict an end-of-the-world scenario for either disaster, just to remind people that, at the extreme end of these uncontrolled events, there are horrendous logical risks that our leaders are amiably accepting (or urging) on behalf of the rest of us. And they seem to expect our gratitude, for their efforts in Ukraine or their lack of efforts in Fukushima, more or less equally.
Even though it's Japan's third largest prefecture, Fukushima is a relatively small place, as those things go: 5,321 square miles, a little smaller than the state of Connecticut. With a population of about two million, Fukushima is comparable to New Mexico (Connecticut has 3.6 million people). Fukushima is unique in the world in having suffered the March 11, 2011, earthquake/tsunami/triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station. This three-part event has so far killed some 20,000 people, with 2,600 more still missing, and it's turned another 300,000 people into internal refugees with little or no hope of returning home (terrible numbers that pale in comparison to Syria, whose disaster started about the same time). The world's response to Fukushima has, in all respects, been spotty and ineffective. Japan's response to the needs of its own people has been spotty and ineffective, except for the robust insistence on re-starting all its nuclear reactors.
Monday, February 24, 2014
A Salute to Yuri Kochiyama
With raw courage on one hand, and a comrade’s love in the other, she rushed onto the stage, literally, before the gun smoke had cleared, and cradled the head of “Our Shining Black Prince,” as he lay dying at the Audubon Ballroom, that fateful Sunday afternoon of Feb. 21, 1965. Urgently, she pleaded with her comrade and friend Malcolm X not to die, as she tried to comfort him. This heroic gesture was captured in the photo that appeared in Life magazine and once in the hardcover edition of Malcolm’s autobiography.
The oppressive state had finally succeeded in carrying out its cowardly plan, beyond contempt, that had been years in the making. A body of work out there underscores the fact that this “executive action” was government created.
Never a headline grabber, Yuri Nakahara Kochiyama has spent more than 50 years in the trenches, fighting on the illustrious side of human decency and liberation. These roots run deep and include fraternal connections to Workers World Party. And I’m sure editor Deirdre Griswold can share some awesome anecdotes about this with today’s cadre.
It is important to note that Yuri Kochiyama is of Japanese ancestry. She was born May 19, 1921, sharing a birth anniversary with the venerable Vietnamese revolutionary Ho Chi Minh and with Malcolm X, among notable others. Her numerous admirers always mention this fact with unrestrained pride. And rightly so. She is historically linked to both giants.
The oppressive state had finally succeeded in carrying out its cowardly plan, beyond contempt, that had been years in the making. A body of work out there underscores the fact that this “executive action” was government created.
Never a headline grabber, Yuri Nakahara Kochiyama has spent more than 50 years in the trenches, fighting on the illustrious side of human decency and liberation. These roots run deep and include fraternal connections to Workers World Party. And I’m sure editor Deirdre Griswold can share some awesome anecdotes about this with today’s cadre.
It is important to note that Yuri Kochiyama is of Japanese ancestry. She was born May 19, 1921, sharing a birth anniversary with the venerable Vietnamese revolutionary Ho Chi Minh and with Malcolm X, among notable others. Her numerous admirers always mention this fact with unrestrained pride. And rightly so. She is historically linked to both giants.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Audio: Jeneral Killa - The Jap Gurl
MUSIC: Jeneral Killa - The Jap Gurl
Jeneral Killa, a Haitian hip-hop artist, single titled 'The Jap Gurl'.
Buy: Jeneral Killa - Men Jeneral La