Only a Blockhead

September 11

Trilling crickets

Few streetlights

The magic of a rural road at night

 

Coronavirus is ongoing.

Today, looking out at a busy Japanese street at noon, someone not wearing a mask as they walked was the rare exception. Many cyclists, and drivers inside their vehicles, also wore masks. Some wear masks to protect themselves, and the rest (me included) do it without a second thought as a social obligation.

This and other behavior correlates with the currently decreasing infection numbers. More than that (cause and effect) isn’t determined. But I’m so glad to live here in Japan.

Thought of the day

I’m passing on a Thought of the Day that I came across.

This is the start of something big… Inequality eats away at the heart of a society, breeding disdain, resentment, envy, suspicion, bullying, arrogance and callousness. If we want a decent future we have to push away from that, and I think we’re starting to… There’s so much to do, so many possibilities. 2017 should be a surprising year. (--Brian Eno)

It struck me because it identifies a problem, and offers hope. I have no idea how to push back against inequality, so I look forward to what the year might bring. "2017 should be a surprising year” is a welcome antidote to the dread brought on by current politics.

--Julian

Balance

As 2016 drew to a close, The Guardian had a counter-intuitive article about positive trends in the world. At the same time as the media reports of war, as we continue to do too little to stop climate change, as inequality widens, it seems important to also know that…

War: Compared to the 167,000 people who died in 2015, (slightly) fewer people died through armed conflict in 2016.

Climate: Although 2016 was the hottest year ever recorded, and Arctic winter temperatures are 20C above normal, after 150 years of growth, carbon emissions have flatlined for 3 years in a row. Moreover this has happened at a time of quickening economic growth “showing that increasing prosperity and lifting people out of poverty need not come at the expense of the climate.” (EcoWatch reported this week that in the US, solar now employs more workers than coal, oil and natural gas combined.)

Crime has halved in the UK since 2000. World homicide rates continue to fall.

Disease: In 2016, Sri Lanka became the latest country to be malaria-free. 30 countries hope for the same in the next 4 years.

Poverty: Steep declines continue. “The number of poor people around the world has more than halved since 1990.” Every day, the number of people living in poverty declines by 137,000.

 

--Julian

There are No Coincidences.

—David

Brexit

I read the Guardian (on the web) (without paying for it), and it seems every day there is a lead story that Brexit will bring this or that negative consequence (and, boy, are they negative consequences). And tonight’s headline is:

“Brexit would bring stock market crash and plunging house prices.”

Which makes me think: isn’t that, in the interests of equality, good? People who use their money to make more money are going to get less for it. And people who want to buy houses are going to be better able to afford them. Equality.

I have been horrified by the idea of Britain divorcing from Europe. But this… seems… good? (Comments, please.) (Garrin?)

[Footnote: Why does English have the verb spelled “read” to mean both the present read and the past [red]. Doesn't it need to get its act together?]

--Julian

Perspective

Fires are over for the winter. Yesterday I swept the chimney.

Soot is the blackest, wickedest stuff. If I was a chimney sweep, I could imagine never getting completely clean again. In London, they used to send little children up chimneys because they could fit.

For all he would do, I don’t think Donald Trump would ever send children up chimneys. And so I believe things are getting better, year by year. Things, for all their awfulness, are slowly improving.

--Julian

Losing it

Once in awhile, I cry at what I read, listen to, watch, but it happened twice today. The first time was listening to James Taylor’s “Angels of Fenway” (on his extraordinarily good new album Before This World). I think the tears were in part about following a team, and feeling their victories and defeats as if they were family. And in part for the grandmother in the story. This evening I was snipping edamame off their stalks in the kitchen as I listened, and the tears blurred my vision, making it difficult.

The second time was after dinner, for Hosoda Mamoru’s animated movie Wolf Children. This is a director who, years ago, was hired and fired by Ghibli. I think this is his third feature and, exciting as the previous two were, here he is firmly in Miyazaki/Totoro and masterpiece territory. The scene of the family arriving in the country is a homage to Miyazaki and Totoro. And the story, about becoming who you are, is beautifully realized.  My tears were a reaction to the love and caring of all the characters.

I wonder if I’ve been softened up by what happened in the United States these last few days, gay people being granted full civil rights. As a gay person born, growing up and living in the shadow of shame, it’s quite extraordinary to feel that lifted.

--Julian 

Tigers!

I’ve been neglecting this blog, and resolve to write something sometimes, however trivial. So brace yourselves. 

Baseball. The playoff games for places in the (U.S.) World Series are getting a lot of attention, and things are coming to a similar climax in Japan as teams vie for a spot in the Japan Series. Archrivals Yomiuri Giants (Kanto) and Hanshin Tigers (Kansai) are in the middle of a best-of-seven showdown. The Giants went in with a one-game advantage as Central League champions. Hanshin won the first two games.

I only found all that out yesterday as I haven’t been paying much attention to baseball recently. But the prospect of seeing the Giants humiliated by the Tigers was attractive, and I told a sports-fan friend that I’d watch the game last night. 

“Don’t.” he said. “You’ll jinx the Tigers because you haven’t watched any games until now.” 

After dinner, I did turn on the game to see what was going on. 6th inning. The score tied 2-2. The Tigers had loaded the bases with two out. And their next batter grounded out. I turned off the TV immediately, having clearly jinxed them. 

This (Saturday) morning I found the Tigers had won 4-2. Which puts them one game away from a place in the Japan Series at the Giants’ expense.

I emailed the friend this morning, telling him what I’d seen and done last night, ending with,

“Wow, tonight’s game is gonna be exciting. I won’t watch, I promise.”

--Julian

[Saturday night update: (Unwatched by me) Hanshin Tigers won Game 4 and a place in the Japan Series (Game 1, next Saturday October 25).]

Headline news

A friend, seeing Steven Pinker’s The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined on my bookshelf, asked, “Is that true?” Our daily news diet certainly suggests the opposite.

 And now here’s another report, as incredible and counter-intuitive as the one about decreasing violence: Poverty in the developing world is shrinking rapidly. Two studies (one from Oxford University, the other the UN) find what the UN calls

an epochal ‘global rebalancing’ with higher growth in at least 40 poorer countries helping lift hundreds of millions out of poverty and into a new ‘global middle class’. Never in history have the living conditions and prospects of so many people changed so dramatically and so fast.” 

 The Oxford study says acute poverty is on track to disappear in countries such as Rwanda, Nepal, Bangladesh, Ghana, Tanzania, Cambodia and Bolivia, in some cases in as little as 20 years. Trade, international and national aid and development projects (schools, health, housing, infrastructure, access to water), are identified as the factors behind the improved conditions. Factors used to determine poverty in the studies included “nutrition, child mortality, years of schooling and attendance, cooking fuel, water, sanitation, electricity and a covered floor.”

 The last quote comes from the Guardian Weekly article that reported the studies. This is not the usual image of the developing world formed by my news diet.

 So I shouldn’t have been surprised that such momentous news was buried at the bottom of page 10.

--Julian

"Something worth celebrating"

Here’s a summary of Kristina Ross’s summary (Big Think, March 24) of where we are going with sustainable energy. “Our top scientists and field leaders seem to think: Solar Power will prevail.” The (“notably conservative”) International Energy Agency says “solar power could very well be responsible for over a third of our energy supply by the year 2060.” Ross continues,

If they’re predicting over a third, who’s to say we can’t reach a half, or even two thirds in solar contribution? Europe could spearhead the charge…. The European Renewable Energy Council has predicted an entirely renewable energy supply for European Union residents by the year 2050 (or earlier)…. The world will run on 100% sustainable energy by 2050. Or 95% or 80%. It depends on who you ask. The point is, we’re going to be a heck of a lot closer to complete sustainability than we are now. And that’s something worth celebrating.

Ross ends with a rallying cry to all of us.

What all these reports of augmented renewables have in common is their reliance on a smarter, more earth conscious society. If we’re going to get anywhere in the next half century, it has to be through our own doing. From the scientists at the tippy top of the production line all the way down to the consumers, it’s our privilege to be stewards for renewable energy.

I look outside at my modest array of solar panels. They were affordable, and they supply most—say 80%--of the electricity I use at home. The other day a friend told me we’ll soon have paper-thin solar collectors, which would mean they could be all over my roof as well, and I and anyone else could produce several times the electricity we use. Hearsay it may be, but the paper-thin thing is an exciting possibility.

I’m presently watching a heartrending documentary on the children of Fukushima, lives devastated by the nuclear power plant accident. (Children of the Tsunami, BBC, on YouTube).  There is also the matter of climate change, which is taking all of us toward devastation. In these contexts, the vision of a solar future makes my heart sing.                            

--Julian