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Why no looting in Japan?

caffertyfile.blogs.cnn.com

171–180 of 191 posts

Re: Why no looting in Japan?

#171
post #140
post #10

From Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! ; Feynman and a colleague are staying at a traditional Japanese hotel in Kyoto: The next morning the young woman taking care of our room fixes the bath, which was right in our room. Sometime later she returns with a tray to deliver breakfast. I'm partly dressed. She turns to me and says, politely, "Ohayo, gozai masu," which means, "Good morning." Pais is just coming out of the…

A foreign minister that calls gang rapists "virile" and all sorts of extremely mysoginistic pop culture suggests not that "the Japanese are so civilised ", only that they are merely different. White friends of mine recall looking for a flat in Japan and being constantly rejected with "you're white, we don't lease to whites", which is not a problem there. There are second-generation Koreans living in Japan who can't g…

I'm sorry,but let me point out one thing.

>>There are second-generation Koreans living in Japan who can't get citizenship or the vote.

It's not about discrimination why Koreans are not becoming Japanese citizen, but it is their choices. Because Koreans in Japan have privileges and immunities which people with Japanese citizenship or other nationalities don't have.

Re: Why no looting in Japan?

#172
post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A foreign minister that calls gang rapists "virile" and all sorts of extremely mysoginistic pop culture suggests not that "the Japanese are so civilised ", only that they are merely different. White friends of mine recall looking for a flat in Japan and being constantly rejected with "you're white, we don't lease to whites", which is not a problem there. There are second-generation Koreans living in Japan who can't g…

I'm sorry,but let me point out one thing. >>There are second-generation Koreans living in Japan who can't get citizenship or the vote. It's not about discrimination why Koreans are not becoming Japanese citizen, but it is their choices. Because Koreans in Japan have privileges and immunities which people with Japanese citizenship or other nationalities don't have.

Could you explain the "privileges and immunities"?

Re: Why no looting in Japan?

#173
post #83
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It strikes me as a theory with very poor explanatory power. We've seen many crises in the US as well, and Katrina was an exception . There have been a couple of others within my lifetime, but it's not politically correct to point out what similarities they may have. (I suppose I should point out this isn't a veiled reference to race , it's actually 100% cultural , but it's still not politically correct to discuss.) I…

Sorry, not trying to anger anyone or anything, I am genuinely interested. Where in the US was there a natural disaster of significant scale where there was no looting? I'm actually from Wisconsin, but was living in Cedar Rapids during the floods, and there was looting there. My neighbor was the cop chasing these guys down. I am just curious how other communities were able to avoid looting. BTW, Cedar Rapids is in Iow…

Not a disaster quite, but in Houston everyone evacuated from the hurricane and no one I knew reported any looting happening.

Re: Why no looting in Japan?

#174
post #140
post #10

From Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! ; Feynman and a colleague are staying at a traditional Japanese hotel in Kyoto: The next morning the young woman taking care of our room fixes the bath, which was right in our room. Sometime later she returns with a tray to deliver breakfast. I'm partly dressed. She turns to me and says, politely, "Ohayo, gozai masu," which means, "Good morning." Pais is just coming out of the…

A foreign minister that calls gang rapists "virile" and all sorts of extremely mysoginistic pop culture suggests not that "the Japanese are so civilised ", only that they are merely different. White friends of mine recall looking for a flat in Japan and being constantly rejected with "you're white, we don't lease to whites", which is not a problem there. There are second-generation Koreans living in Japan who can't g…

all sorts of extremely mysoginistic pop culture suggests not that "the Japanese are so civilised", only that they are merely different.

It's interesting that sexual violence strikes such a chord with us westerners, but we think nothing of glamorizing gratuitous, sadistic physical violence. We have a popular television series where the hero is a psychopath serial killer with a heart of gold. In some of the Hannibal Lecter movies, Hannibal was arguably portrayed as a hero and he cannibalized people!

Re: Why no looting in Japan?

#175
post #56

http://partialobjects.com/2011/03/is-looting-our-default-rea... when you feel like you’re on your own, when you feel abandoned and the only one who you can depend on is you, then yes, you’re going to do what you have to do to survive. This has been seen around the world in many countries and cultures. The big difference in postwar modern Japan is that people are confident that help is on the way. ... Here’s where you…

Can you imagine the same happening in the US?

No, we would have both tax cuts and relief efforts funded by deficit spending. That's something you can do when your debt to GDP ratio is 60% and when the world considers your bonds to be risk free.

It's trickier for Japan to do that - their debt to GDP ratio is 200% already (second only to Zimbabwe).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_by_pub...

Re: Why no looting in Japan?

#177
post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My current hobby is to make a visible point of calling out litterers and picking up their litter if they don't (especially cigaretes). So far, I've gotten ignored a lot, a couple of sheepish looks or mutterings, and I've been assaulted once (after returning a dropped cigarette to the owner, she threw the coffee drink at me, littering further.) I strongly exhort all decent people to make a point of transmitting their…

That approach is a risky one: a) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6947744.stm b) You are directly trying to impose your value over someone else's value, with the assumption that you are correct. One has to be very careful sure you are not just projecting your frustration at the littering. What they are doing is completely correct for their worldview, which has a boundary round about where their clothing is.…

> You are directly trying to impose your value over someone else's value, with the assumption that you are correct.

I feel this takes political correctness too far. What if someone else's values are that theft is fine, if they need something. If you see someone stealing a bike, should you do nothing because you don't want to impose your values on them?

Re: Why no looting in Japan?

#178
post #83
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It strikes me as a theory with very poor explanatory power. We've seen many crises in the US as well, and Katrina was an exception . There have been a couple of others within my lifetime, but it's not politically correct to point out what similarities they may have. (I suppose I should point out this isn't a veiled reference to race , it's actually 100% cultural , but it's still not politically correct to discuss.) I…

Sorry, not trying to anger anyone or anything, I am genuinely interested. Where in the US was there a natural disaster of significant scale where there was no looting? I'm actually from Wisconsin, but was living in Cedar Rapids during the floods, and there was looting there. My neighbor was the cop chasing these guys down. I am just curious how other communities were able to avoid looting. BTW, Cedar Rapids is in Iow…

I'm from Cedar Rapids as well. You really need to qualify the claim there was looting in CR. The term is rather loaded and conjures visions of angry Iowans raiding the local Casey's on John Deeres. The burglary rates did rise somewhat; but there was definitely not a feeling on lawlessness or looting. During the height of the flood, thousands of citizens from across the city helped sandbag. The only thing that saved the last remaining water pumping station was a concerted effort to build a large sandbag wall against the Cedar River.

After the waters receded many groups helped clean up countless houses in the hard-hit areas. While I wouldn't say we have quite the serene calm of the Japanese, I think communities in the United States still can effectively work together.

Re: Why no looting in Japan?

#179
post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My current hobby is to make a visible point of calling out litterers and picking up their litter if they don't (especially cigaretes). So far, I've gotten ignored a lot, a couple of sheepish looks or mutterings, and I've been assaulted once (after returning a dropped cigarette to the owner, she threw the coffee drink at me, littering further.) I strongly exhort all decent people to make a point of transmitting their…

That approach is a risky one: a) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6947744.stm b) You are directly trying to impose your value over someone else's value, with the assumption that you are correct. One has to be very careful sure you are not just projecting your frustration at the littering. What they are doing is completely correct for their worldview, which has a boundary round about where their clothing is.…

1. The murder in that news story was not triggered by the anti-litter. It seems highly likely that he murderer was already out for blood.

2. Litter travels beyond the boundary of the litterer's clothing, so I do not see the consistency of your model.

Re: Why no looting in Japan?

#180
post #149

The answer to this question is completely obvious to people who spent formative years in Asia and are free of American/Western taboos (we have other taboos no doubt but not these). Here is why there is no looting in Japan. Across the world -- in the US, UK, Canada, Brazil, South Africa and any country where they live side by side -- people of primarily Northeast Asian descent tend to commit crime at lower rates than…

Conflating race and socio-economic status is a pretty classic justification for racism.
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