地球市民 Citizen of the Earth

Board game diplomacy

2010-01-04T02:51:00.003+09:00

I shared this game from (Southern) Africa with friends in Fukuoka, Kyushu, Japan - by making the board and the pieces from memory. I think they enjoyed it, and it diversified the world of board games in Japan just that little bit - and hopefully increased international understanding. The game is called Morabaraba and it is big in parts of South Africa.

The game is also referred to as Twelve Man's Morris, different from Nine Men's Morris, which was played in the Roman empire. Description of game is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morabaraba

Just for show?

2009-11-04T02:29:00.004+09:00

In the photo is a vehicle with a sign showing commitment to stop idling, the practice of parking a car and continuing to run the engine, which is common in Japan.

It is clearly better for a car not to idle than to do so. However, are such campaigns of much value when the companies that operate the vehicles, and the cities and countries of which they are citizens in, face no limits on CO2 or any other pollutants? If one　cannot idle a vehicle, but can drive as far as one can, emitting as much CO2 as possible while conducting business, what has one achieved? There has indeed so far been little incentive to reduce the CO2 emissions from vehicles.

Such is the international situation currently when it comes to CO2 and other pollutants. What good is a little here and a little there when we set no overall limits?

Basis of Society

2009-05-11T02:43:00.003+09:00

While visiting a friend on 25th September 2008, I managed to forget my laptop bag in the basket of my bicycle, outside the apartment block I was visiting. When I came out after more than 30 minutes, I realised I had forgotten in on the bicycle, and further, that it was still in the bicycle basket, all contents intact. Why is this important?

Much has been written about what creates civilisation. Technology, ideas such as democracy, the existence of this or other resource (like crude oil) and so on. However, in a moment of reflection, one may quickly come to the realisation that the basis on which a society seems to function is the acceptance and pursuit of certain ideals by people within the civilisation. What are examples of these? Respect for the law, people and their property, a commitment to the public good and excellence. In truth all these are not tangible, and to know whether they are being pursued, we listen to factual stories and ask our hearts how it feels. Then, the ideas mentioned are given a mental and emotional form. It does seem that a purely material world would be very crude indeed. It would have to be kept together by a series of rules, that is, dos and don'ts, which could not possibly cover all areas of life necessary to allow sufficient harmony in society.

The people who walked past that laptop bag in the bicycle basket in the middle of that night are affected by the power of those intangible yet effective ideals.

The Silent March into the Future

2009-03-14T20:23:00.004+09:00

There is certainly no shortage of advertising by entities who claim to be promoting sustainability. Once in a while, you come across an initiative that is not widely trumpeted, but certainly moves the world towards sustainability. Such is the use of these reusable plastic containers, instead of cardboard boxes, to transport consumer goods to convenience stores in Japan. I was definitely enthused to see this, when considering the number of cardboard boxes, which are often used only once, that are being saved by the use of these plastic containers.

Look out for more of the same, such as when plastic bags are no longer given without request (or sometimes payment) at supermarkets, when a skylight or a solar water heater are installed in a building, when a concrete only neighbourhood is infused with plants, thus decreasing the heat island effect, when your town puts in a bicycle roadway...yes, the silent, elegant march to a future you can bare to dream about.

Originally published at http://dlamini-dlamini.blogspot.com/

The vanished differences: Gospel Music in Japan.

2009-01-03T17:08:00.010+09:00

(Originally posted with photo(s) at http://dlamini-dlamini.blogspot.com/)
Day by day, it gets more difficult to find any meaningful differences between countries and regions among the human family. Here is a stark example.
15th September 2008, I was invited to go and see a friend perform in a gospel choir. "This will be interesting" I thought, given that gospel music originated from a place which seems culturally very different from Japan, where only about 1% of the population is Christian, and monotheism is not a hot topic among the part of the population which practices religion in any form.
With such ideas in mind, I entered the church with my friends. What followed was probably the most animated gospel performance of my life - all 90 minutes of it!
More than this, the congregation was really a Christian congregation, and I could sense the conventions and attitudes that I had experienced while growing up in a Christian family. Indeed, the experience was replete with no-less lively a 10 minute sermon. Amen.
Since the experience, I believe I have no choice but to remove any remaining constructs in my head that try to qualify real differences between one human group from another. I would invite the masses to do so too. Yes, we choose conventions which are not uniform worldwide, but anyone, it seems, can happily adopt the conventions and behaviour of any other group or nation, and they would most likely not manage to remind themselves to lament the loss of anything, after a couple of months
...yes, no exceptions - a Palestinian has the potential to do whatever Israelis consider most honourable, and an Israeli is capable of doing whatever it is that Palestinians consider most honourable.

God's golden carpet

2008-11-12T11:31:00.005+09:00

(Originally posted with photo(s) at http://dlamini-dlamini.blogspot.com/)
Last autumn, while trying to balance enjoying the moment with friends, with giving due consideration to humanity's challenges, I came upon this sight.
It was a beautiful golden carpet of autumn leaves that the Creator had laid before us. It struck me how the relatively shallow science known to humanity has probably become a deity (god) in many minds, and seen as adequate to justify tearing up landscapes and replacing them with concrete. Is it always for the betterment of the human condition, or is it often driven by the blind pursuit of monetary gain (another way of saying 'limited interest')? What is the connection? Well, the sight of God's golden carpet was like the many wonderful phenomena that inspire us, like the sunrise, the rainbow, a lightning storm, a peacock, a formation of migrating birds, a flock of flamingoes, penguins taking to water, a rushing herd of antelope, the slow and deliberate majesty of the elephant, which all, without eliciting explanation or demanding social status of the viewer, show forth beauty and glory, and in a narrower sense, just sheer pleasure...and yet the destruction continues.
Why the seemingly illogical trend? The concept of social contract might hold the key. The terms by which we come together as a society are not obvious or uniform: some societies are more equitable than others, some administrative systems are less centralised than others, and so on. Why is this important? Because in a social system that upholds the right of a few to decide everything for the many, there has been the tendency to transfer between individuals and groups, the benefits and costs of our actions in the society. No wealthy family lives in a house next to a factory or power station spewing smoke, no political leader chooses to live on the banks of a polluted river. On the contrary, those with the power always seek out the spots surrounded by beautiful gardens, singing birds and a great view of the sunset. So the next time someone asks you to allow them to build a polluting factory or a large car park where your children play among the grass, trees and flowers, because they say it is progress, ask them a question: "If it is such great progress, why don't we build it in the place where YOUR children play?"

Gambling is illegal here!..

2008-10-06T01:40:00.007+09:00

(Originally posted with photo(s) at http://dlamini-dlamini.blogspot.com/)
Gambling is illegal in Japan, according to the Criminal Code. Indeed, there are no casinos in the country. Well, sort of. There is nothing named 'casino'. Instead, special laws have been made to allow betting on horses, a lottery and so on.
Of all these 'exceptions', the phenomenon of establishments called 'pachinko', such as 'Jumbo Slot', the one in the photo, has to be the most intriguing (photo taken at JR Notogawa station, Shiga Prefecture). Pachinkos are all over Japan, numbering 18,000 (http://mondediplo.com/1998/10/12japan) - somewhat comparable to the 25,000 post offices which are generally considered to be more vital. In the pachinkos, you pay, play and then, if you win many balls (which serve as tokens), you can exchange them, typically for little slits of gold encased in plastic. You may not exchange these for cash - at least not at the same premises, so every pachinko has a little 'exchange store' (in practice just an exchange window) next to it where you can get money for the little trinkets you have won...
Indeed, has the the spirit of the law currently gone out to lunch?

Retreat from peace

2008-09-11T00:42:00.007+09:00

(Originally posted with photo(s) at http://dlamini-dlamini.blogspot.com/)
North Korea walks into the Bird's Nest (stadium), Beijing. Probably the saddest moment in the 2008 Olympic games event was the entry of North and South Korea separately, reversing the tradition in recent games, of walking in together...
Who turned off the lights in the hearts of brothers?

Moment of Truth...how much Social Capital?

2008-07-20T01:23:00.007+09:00

(Originally posted with photo(s) at http://dlamini-dlamini.blogspot.com/)
I walked into a convenience store around 10 p.m. on Friday 18th July 2008, bought something and came out.
I searched my pockets for the bicycle key and thought: "I must have left it on the bicycle", and indeed I had, as the photo shows. This must surely be the moment of truth for any society...the answer to the question: "how much can we rely on each other?" ...this is social capital.

This was not the first time I had done this. In fact, that very day, I left the bicycle in the covered parking at the train station, for which I pay a monthly fee for, and soon after boarding the train, realised that I did not have the key with me, which meant it was on the bicycle that it is meant to lock. I was in no state of worry as I had done this before.

It is perhaps interesting that high social capital is not considered much in classical economic measures. However, a high level of interpersonal trust lowers the cost of security measure and increases the efficiency of an economic system.

Dare I say: "If it is efficiency that you seek, then strive to make the members of the social grouping as cohesive (bonded together) as possible".

FOOTBEAT

2008-05-30T10:09:00.007+09:00

(Originally posted with photo(s) at http://dlamini-dlamini.blogspot.com/)
I had been neglegent of the experiences of my feet, until I posted this photo on my flickr site with the quote:
"Every detail a pleasure to behold."
to which a friend replied:
"except the pleasure of beholding your feet. :-P " (yes, with friends like these, who needs enemies :) )
...After a little reflection, my response was:
"Consider the journey of this right foot thus far, and you shall see things anew:
walking across grasslands, crossing rivers, scaling rocky slopes, traversing sandy beaches, beating on concrete pavements, knee deep in snow, the eternal staircases, the buses, trains, airplanes, ferries, motor cars, my beloved bicycles, breathtaking elevators, long escalators at railway stations, crossing ancient bridges, a pause on the northern slopes of Mt Carmel,
...that innocent but painful laceration on the right side of the foot by barbed wire during childhood,
...helping obaa-chan with the sweet potato planting, following a herd of cattle all day long, caught in a hailstorm, the athletics sessions, soccer games, sitting through those lectures, the times of worship, waiting below Japanese style tables....
FOOTBEAT!
That's the name of the book. Buy it when I write it."

Holy, beautiful, cold winter!

2008-02-28T00:58:00.005+09:00

(Originally posted with photo(s) at http://dlamini-dlamini.blogspot.com/)
And the the snow did fall, and we ventured out to see the cold beauty.
Shimogamo shrine looked like never before, a majestic bird preparing to take flight.
Her roofs, like wings no longer the usual dark brown of a tree bark,
but gleaming white in the occasional winter sun.

For posterity, on the same day I made this post, I recorded a question on facebook:
"Ndumiso would like to know if we really are here, or if the universe is one big facebook - content generated by some sort of consciousness...?"

New Year (shrine visits)!

2008-01-10T01:48:00.001+09:00

(Originally posted with photo(s) at http://dlamini-dlamini.blogspot.com/)
Another new year (2008), another night at the temples and shrines to collect good fortune for the coming year, as the locals do. This year we visited a small temple/shrine just west across the river from Shimogamo shrine, and then moved on to Shimogamo shrine itself. It was most enjoyable.
Many, many people stayed up until the morning of January 1st, walking around temple grounds. Many friends went to more crowded shrines and temples, such as Yasakusa, next to Gion district of Kyoto.
There are a number of such occasions in Japan throughout the year, each with its own excuse, when people get together to do something that is outwardly rather ordinary, including street festivals, watching a mountain lit up by with a pattern using firewood, watching cherry blossoms and so on. The joy derived must have something to do with the feeling that one is part of a larger group with similar customs (shared identity), and also with the fact that one chooses to sacrifice time and money to attend such cultural events.

The End of Suburbia

2007-10-10T16:21:00.003+09:00

(Originally posted with photo(s) at http://dlamini-dlamini.blogspot.com/)
It seems to be all going up in smoke as the oil price heads for the stars. Interestingly, I always cycle past the petrol station in the picture. A couple of days ago, I cycled past two old ladies near the petrol station. They were headed to a funeral I guess, because they were dressed in black, which is not a usual fashion colour for old ladies in Japan. If old ladies can cycle to such an auspicious (though sad) occasion, who has an excuse not to? Indeed its all in the mind.
When the extreme adverse weather is unleashed, and the sea bubbles onto the land, and new deserts are born, and disease ranges shift, then, I would guess, there will be no cries of 'but I love my car'. The dice will have been cast, the outcome unchangeable, and we will have to do whatever it takes: much greater use of mass (public) transit systems of transport, walking, cycling, stay home, source our products from close-by...
If this is very likely our inevitable destination, why not behave now as if the dice had already been cast?... because it has.
Watch the 52 minute documentary: 'The End of Suburbia' if you can find it somewhere (It seems to be on Youtube.com and video.google.org).

The concrete and the trees

2007-05-30T10:06:00.004+09:00

(Originally posted with photo(s) at http://dlamini-dlamini.blogspot.com/)
Having spent my first five years on the planet in countryside, I have all my life been conducting an enquiry, internally and externally, on what it is that I might embrace as the meaning of true progress. As my life has progressed, I have had to stirke a few contenders from the list. Among these are: industrialisation, a world ruled by corporations, assuring a material paradise for all, absolute personal freedom, wellbeing through expert scientific pursuit only, political rule by a technocracy, central planning and possibly many others in their different forms. As primary goals of any society or civilisation, these are dead-ends it seems. The human reality is a mysterious jewel that will not show its beauty to the visible world unless you shine on it a light of adequate colour, with the adequate intensity, at the adequate time. Ignorance of human subtleties in history have made the difference between times of peace and progress, with their legacy of learning, architecture and scientific progress on the one hand, and times of continuous war, savagery and ignorance on the other. The image above (from my private collection) is of a view in a public park/garden in Tokyo called Yoyogi. It is at such times that the peace of being among nature, while always feeling the pressure of the ever-expanding domain of the concrete-filled world, that one is called to question the apparent paradox of modernisation: should we destroy what brings us peace and indeed sustains us, in order to 'make progress'.

The image to the left (from my private collection) is of a scene in the same park, but looking towards a tower in Shinjuku, trespassing on the peaceful view, and the a lone refugee (bottom left) from the crazy 'busy-ness' of the world occupied with industrialisation. Let us assume that it is desirable to industrialise and create an artificially built environment at all costs. Then we have to answer the question: why is it that those who have enough money to choose how to live in this 'modernised' world will not choose to remain in the concrete jungles any longer than they need to, in order to attend meetings etc, but will create plenty of space around them, through a large home with a garden, by buying a home in the countryside, by flying to distant islands where only the relatively few rich are accommodated, far out of reach of the majority human multitudes? Consider, consider, and it becomes clear that at the very least, urban areas should have a generous amount of space for deep breathing and reflection, which is best achieved through green space it seems. If we consider the paradox on a deeper level, then we move from the mere existence of green space to issues important issues such as mobility and access to the planet. The story goes as follows: for much of history, we have been free to roam the planet, and faced only natural barriers such as water and mountain ridges, which have remained barriers until we devise measures to overcome them - the story mankind. Does this freedom still exist? How many of us can walk freely across our countries from one end to the other (at least the dry land part), in a fit of explorational frenzy, with no barriers but nature's rivers, gorges, mountains weather conditions? If the prospect is hard for you to imagine, as it no doubt is in many of the world's countries, then we should realise that somewhere in the enthusiastic pursuit of modernisation (or less noble goals such as mere industrialisation), we lost the rights and reasons to celebrate our individual and collective achievements. Harshly put, we made no overall progress. It does depress many to raise questions and not propose some answers. Here are some suggestions then. Minimum standards of free access in cities and countries. You must be able to walk or cycle virtually anywhere in a country or city. Why walking or cycling? Indeed nobody is born with a motor vehicle attached to them, many of us in communities have the time and energy, but not the space to explore what we would like to. The desire to move around and do what we like is very human. Indeed, those of us who can afford it often drive to places from where we walk through a wilderness areas for perhaps a few days at a time. Let's give this freedom to all. Can it be achieved? Firstly, countryside trails develop if access is allowed. Private land ownership is not sacred above the common good, so access should be ensured. Secondly, there are cities that have bothered to plan for walking and cycling infrastructure, in contrast to many cities have decided to back the motor car. The cities that have allowed freedom through walking and cycling no doublt reap the benefits of a more content and more productive citizenry. Among them are Amsterdam, Copenhagen and, to a slightly more modest extent, Tokyo and some other Japanese cities and towns. There are other examples. After ensuring basic mobility, perhaps the next duty is to make rapid travel (i.e. motorised) serve the public first, in the form of efficient and affordable public transport systems.

Indeed, mobility and access is just one issue among the questions raised by the contrast between the concrete and the trees. Below are some photos inspiring the move to a world with better access and mobility:

Countryside trail on the way to the top of Kilimanjaro, Tanzania.
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Bicycles in the Netherlands, from pdf at:

www.renegademedia.info/media/article-pdfs/greenliving-winter-2005.pdf
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Tokyo walk and cycle way (from my private photo collection). This is in one of the most crowded cities on earth, so no, the implementation has nothing to do with space so much as commitment.
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Tokyo again (from my private photo collection)... day and night, the pedals are a popular mode of transport.

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Curitiba, Brazil: it is not common that a city view is dominated by a streamlined bus system, and not cars.

Source: from a pdf available at: www.renegademedia.info/media/article-pdfs/greenliving-winter-2005.pdf

(Originally posted with photo(s) at http://dlamini-dlamini.blogspot.com/)

始まり。。。京都　(The Beginning...Kyoto)

2007-04-02T23:32:00.002+09:00

(Originally posted with photo(s) at http://dlamini-dlamini.blogspot.com/)

As the locals say: Konnichiwa!

I have been in Japan for just over 6 months now. It has been a peaceful time. I have not witnessed a fight, nor has anyone been agressive to me, let alone use violence...believe me, this is useful when you are in a new country.

The food is good, and the social scene has been good, particularly the time spent meeting other students from Japan and other countries. I always hunger to interact with ordinary people, so I have looked for these, and sometimes been successful in finding them.

...Ok, yes... there are too many public announcements, at railway stations, on trains, on escelators, elevators, even vending machines sometimes... "...Shijo....Shijo desu!... migigawa no doa ga hirakimasu, gochui kudasai!"
Overall, it's all good, and I am trying to focus on the books while learning as much as possible from the sea of humanity around me. I have not seen so many people in one place before as in Japan. It is only the peaceful demeanour of the people that keeps me calm in some places, especially parts of Osaka and Tokyo.

The study environment has thus far been quite encouraging. I might yet learn a thing or two about Japan and the world :)

Originally posted with photo(s) at http://dlamini-dlamini.blogspot.com/
More pictures of my adventures at:
www.flickr.com/photos/dlamini/
for a positive view of the future, visit:
www.bahai.org