In Japan, the same old problems – The Washington Post
So Japan’s debt will be 300+% of GDP by 2020, but nothing to worry but because 9%% of the bonds are domestically owned…. The government will also have to borrow even more money, issuing bonds. Over the next five years, Japan will need to marshal some $250 billion for reconstruction. The country is not on [...]
Theme of the day – faith in government is waning
The following excerpts pretty much speak for themselves, but because this is the media speaking, take a large lump of salt with all this. I’ll add my usual pearls of wisdom after you’ve read the quotes. “It breaks my heart that they did nothing for the children,” said Sadako Monma, herself a mother of two, [...]
Preparation saved one island’s residents | The Japan Times Online
Is there a lesson here? I think there is. Underline it. none of the approximately 80 residents on the island was killed by the tsunami, thanks to a disaster prevention map and an evacuation route created more than half a century ago.They had also prepared for the possibility of disaster by conducting emergency drills over [...]
The Struggle for a New Japan | The Diplomat
Another article cautiously praising the Japanese government’s response to the recent disaster (although after quickly glancing through the contents, it looks to be little more than a re-hash of what Karel von Wolferen wrote the other day): There are three things that stand out about the current Japanese response that distinguish it sharply from the [...]
Govt may spray resin on N-plant / Sticky material should keep down radiation : National : DAILY YOMIURI ONLINE (The Daily Yomiuri)
Commenter on this blog, Aldritch Parsons, suggested on March 30 some kind of tent of dome over the reactors to contain or limit the diffusion of radioactive materials. And today, I read on the Yomiuri (via the very useful NewsOnJapan.com): The government will likely go ahead with a plan to spray resin inside the troubled [...]
Japan orders immediate safety upgrade at nuclear plants
21:30 JST March 30: Japan ordered an immediate safety upgrade at its 55 nuclear power plants on Wednesday in its first acknowledgement that standards were inadequate when an earthquake and tsunami wrecked a facility nearly three weeks ago, sparking the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl in 1986. via Japan orders immediate safety upgrade at nuclear [...]
58% do not approve of govt handling of nuke crisis at Fukushima plant+
What about TEPCO? Their handling of their own reactors has in my opinion been a lot worse than the government’s. The government does not manage Fukushima nuclear power plant, TEPCO does. Fukushima plant+ AP – TOKYO, March 27 Kyodo—A survey released Sunday showed that 58.2 percent of respondents do not approve of the governments handling [...]
“The original goal was INDIVIDUAL freedom”
These days, capitalism has a bad name. Is capitalism evil? Is it an idea whose time has come and gone? Surely we need big government these days? Artist and journalist Jon Rappaport examines the original purposes of the U.S. founding fathers and of the Constitution, and produces one of the most succinct appraisals of the [...]
