Tuesday, May 20

My most popular photo, hit with perverts

CIMG1741

This is my most viewed photo. Yesterday it got a boost of 1,151 views because it was linked from sites like (not safe for work), this and this.

1,151 views in one day! It's not even that revealing a picture, one girl has trousers on and the other isn't embarrassing herself.

Oh well, T.I.J.

Sunday, May 18

This woman is a dick!

My reply to this vlog!

"First off, you look great in that bathing suit, well done.

But...

Harangued much!

Wow, who's the audience for this video?

Being ignorant about vaginoplasty doesn't make someone dumb, it just means that they're not as well read as you on a subject that isn't common knowledge.

Also; "construction worker types", wow! How about being a bit more class prejudice... "Who ever you can dredge up to bump uglies with after 17 beers", could you seem anymore judgmental?"


Calpernia [at time of writing] is online responding to all her critics, and I'm hoping that she will reply to mine.

I'm sorry that this video is 14 minutes long, it could have been 3 minutes long and it would have still said the same thing: "When talking to anyone, be considerate, and don't say anything that may upset them."

Which I agree with wholeheartedly... and Calpernia, it's a two way street.

Oh, and beginning the vlog by pretending that you've just been interrupted whilst reading a book, kind of reminds me of this.



Saturday, May 17

About my dreads and Japan

I needed this, like 2 years ago, but I needed it in Japanese.

Just the other day at a bus stop outside my school and right by a hair dressers I was attacked by an excitable young hair dresser who thought that my leaning away from her and saying "No" was a playful game of 'tag' or 'piggy in the middle'. I actually shrunk away from her because I don't like strange people simply inviting themselves into my hair.

I don't know if this T-shirt is actually needed in English, I've never had an English speaking person just reach up and grab my locks without invitation, in fact most people don't even ask for it. However Japanese people will grab at it before even asking my name, sometimes they simply grab it and then don't even speak to me afterwards.

And that's not even starting on the stupid questions I get asked about them, most of which are plain offensive. Actually Japanese people aren't the only culprit here:

I feel like naming names, so I will; Shiv, a former JET and an otherwise OK guy, likes to make "it's because you're black..." jokes, and "is this a black thing..." jokes, in a very 'I can joke about it because I'm liberal and we're both of colour so we're brothers' sort of way. This is tolerable, it's not as amusing as Shiv thinks it is and betrays how very un-liberal he is more than anything. Well, the other day he casually joked about me not washing my hair for 3 years in front of Alex and Patrick, to which my response was "who wouldn't was their hair for three years? That would be gross"... the question was met with awkward, knowing silence and the subject was changed.

Now let me ask a question, it's a simple one and I think you may be able to answer it: When my hair gets dirty what else would I do but wash it?

I've told people that I wash my hair with sand before now and they've wholeheartedly believed me... honestly, how ignorant/stupid can you be to believe that hair can be washed with sand!? And where would one get sand in the Midlands, so named because it's no where near the coast.

People see dreadlocks and they lose their heads, Japanese people suddenly think it's OK to treat people without consideration and the rest of the world suddenly believe that sand is a solvent and a detergent.

If we're still not on the same page then let me break it down for you.

YES- I was my hair.
WITH water and shampoo.
NO- My dreads don't suddenly become an afro if I wash them
BECAUSE- They're not held together by dirt

I would like to give people the benefit of doubt, and think that they could come to these conclusions by themselves, it's not cool to just grab at strangers and the only way to keep something clean is to clean it, but apparently it's that much easier to look down your nose at someone, make assumptions (probably based upon prejudices from less enlightened times), snigger, laugh and mock.

Thursday, May 15

Disappointment and Untitled



I would be wise not to become
Invested in expectation

It’s always weighted in trepidation

And as often as there’s elation

There’s disappointment

But,

Where as one leaves a soul enlightened
The other is burdensome and governed

By a record of past excitement

Which soon became present dismay




Interested in nothing but myself
This sphere around me
This bubble
My health, my wealth, my future
My…

Invested in nothing but myself
My own wellbeing
What I’m seeing
How I’m feeling

Only concerned when it concerns me
What’s in it for me is key
My name on the bottom line
My money, my time
My…

Self-centred, selfish
Self-serving, tight fisted
Seldom selfless
But always ready to
Remind you of it when I am

Wednesday, May 14

An Eye for an Eye

Please read this article, to put this blog entry into context.

The other day I made an address in front of the E.U. Ambassador. I explained that historically speaking, Japanese civilization personifies symbiosis with nature, and therefore places extreme importance on the sanctity of life. For that very reason, we feel extreme anger toward those who rob another of life. We have a culture of repaying a death with a death. I feel proud to have been born into such a culture. I feel that, on the contrary, giving someone life in prison rather than the death penalty no matter how many people they kill I is a dry and coldly logical way of thinking.

A quote from Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama


How about compassionate? Giving someone a chance at redemption is neither cold nor logical, it takes faith in the human spirit, that by itself, given the act that the culprit put in prison, isn't logical at all. Faith that someone can change after a crime of that magnitude isn't logical.

Death for Death, or an Eye for an Eye isn't the Japanese way at all. If it is, should America be expecting some sort of retribution for Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Should killing real beget killing? And is an executioner really better than a murderer, how is one justifiable and the other not?

Execution isn't a punishment, living with guilt, trying to forgive yourself, trying to find forgiveness from those you've injured and attempting to redeem yourself is punishment. Often it's a burden that is never lifted. Execution on the other hand puts fear into you, fear of the unknown, but it's shortlived. And as I don't believe in an after life where people are held accountable for their crimes, it's ultimately unsatisfying.

I feel ambivalent about stories like this, part of me thinks "well, it's Japan, and I really couldn't care less because nothing I say will change the 'proud' Japanese 'civilization'" and another part of me wonders how long it will take for humanity to all be on the same page and wants to do something to bring about change. Stories like this just make me feel impotent.

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