I don’t normally like to write about breaking news because generally I find that I have neither the first-hand expertise nor the retrospective hindsight to comment on most real-time events non-trivial. The story would be very different if the earthquake had happened three weeks later when I will be in Tokyo and perhaps Kamakura and/or Tochigi, but it didn’t.

That said, I feel compelled to write something about the largest earthquake ever recorded in Japan after spending the past two days following the continuous Twitter updates and watching NHK and TBS news streams. So here it is.

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Read the rest of Tohoku Pacific Earthquake (1,138 words)

© DarkMirage for Ramblings of DarkMirage, 2011. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: earthquake, japan, nuclear power, tohoku, tokyo, tsunami, twitter

“I thought what I’d do was, I’d pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes”

WikiLeaks may turn out to be the real-life Laughing Man. Whether as a hero or villain, it has already secured a spot in history with the release of US embassy cables.

The release of a quarter of a million confidential to secret diplomatic cables will be remembered as another milestone heralding the rise of non-state actors as a major influence on the development of the global order. But is it still too soon for the digital rebel to triumph over the physical establishment?

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Read the rest of WikiLeaks (1,266 words)

© DarkMirage for Ramblings of DarkMirage, 2010. | Permalink | 16 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: anarchism, democracy, free speech, laughing man, politics, wikileaks

Like any modern metropolis, Tokyo’s glittering skylines carefully conceal a more sinister side from the casual observations of an outsider. And like most other things Japan, organized crime in the form of yakuza carries with it cultural quirks that are at times indecipherable for those of us who live outside the Galápagos. Tokyo Vice by Jake Adelstein is a book that sets out to document and interpret a small slice of this enigma, written from a Jewish-American journalist covering crime stories for the Yomiuri Shinbun. The end result is a thought-provoking page-turner.

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Read the rest of Tokyo Vice (747 words)

© DarkMirage for Ramblings of DarkMirage, 2010. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: books, crime, jake adelstein, japan, tokyo vice, yakuza

There’s a pretty good essay on Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong‘s call for young Singaporeans to “dare to dream” over at The Online Citizen. The gist of it is that this statement is highly ironic when interpreted against the realities on the ground, much of them the results of government policy. Predictably, the comment section is filled with comments that miss the bigger picture of the issue and see this as another scheduled anti-government ranting session, with the few thoughtful comments voted down.

The government is no doubt a part of the problem, but it is the mentality of Singaporeans at large that has created a hostile environment for socially deviant dreams to take hold, and the same can be said for many Asian societies.

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Read the rest of Dreams are not for Asia (1,463 words)

© DarkMirage for Ramblings of DarkMirage, 2009. | Permalink | 60 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: consumerism, dreams, education, meritocracy, singapore, society

Those of you who played the 4th Ace Attorney (逆転裁判) game would be aware of the new jury system being implemented in Japan, first proposed in cabinet review committee in 2001 and subsequently passed into law in 2004.

After five years of policy fine-tuning and mock trials, Japan held its first post-war jury trial on Monday. The system consists of a hybrid of six layman jury members (裁判員) and three professional judges (裁判官) and is reserved for serious crimes such as murder. A majority opinion has to be supported by at least one of the three judges in order to stand.

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Read the rest of Jury Trial in Japan (546 words)

© DarkMirage for Ramblings of DarkMirage, 2009. | Permalink | 10 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: gyakuten saiban, japan, jury

Sometimes diving around in the polluted ocean of Digg nets you a rare surviving coral or two. The frequency of this rare occurrence is inversely proportional to Digg’s user base. And so the dance between culture and counter-culture continues on for eternity.

But anyway, someone recently posted a picture from a photo album of female Israeli military conscripts by Israeli photographer Rachel Papo. Little things on the net like this really help to expand one’s global outlook. This reminds me of an interesting experience I once had in Osaka.

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Read the rest of Israeli Conscription (581 words)

© DarkMirage for Ramblings of DarkMirage, 2009. | Permalink | 25 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: conscription, digg, israel, osaka, politics

JoJo’s Bizzare Adventure, an anime series based on a manga by the same name, is currently under fire from the Middle East for having a villain in the show read the Holy Koran while plotting the death of the protagonist.

Rather stupid if you ask me.

[ Source: JapanProbe | Itai-News ]

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Read the rest of Oversensitive Religion (520 words)

© DarkMirage for Ramblings of DarkMirage, 2008. | Permalink | 135 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: islam, jojo's bizzare adventure, religion

I have some things that I want to talk about and I have no other platform to say it. Therefore I shall be spending this blog post on a topic that holds next to zero relevance to what you are probably here for. If you are here just for the cynical Gundam humour or the pretty cosplay pictures, then feel free to ignore this entry because you will not find anything missed. But if you found that my previous rants offer you something new and worthy, then please read on.

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Read the rest of Hope for a better world (1,716 words)

© DarkMirage for Ramblings of DarkMirage, 2008. | Permalink | 71 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: barack obama, internet, politics

Image shamelessly stolen from Stippy.com

This is a particularly unpleasant development in my opinion, not because I am a strong advocate of individual privacy (I am not), but because it really brings out the uglier, nationalistic, racist and ignorant side of Japan.

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Read the rest of Japan Fingerprinting Commences (1,018 words)

© DarkMirage for Ramblings of DarkMirage, 2007. | Permalink | 52 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: immigration, itai news, japan, racism, Rant

Red Alert 2 nostalgia

I am sure you have all heard of Hayden Panettiere‘s (Claire Bennett in Heroes) recent involvement in an attempt to disrupt a dolphin hunt in Taiji, Wakayama. After failing to save the cute cuddly tuna-killers, Hayden and her friends drove their way to Osaka International Airport and fled the country before the ink on their arrest warrants dries.

Apparently, “risking” their lives (because we all know that Japanese fishing trawlers are heavily armed) is deemed a worthy sacrifice, but getting arrested for their expressed beliefs is a big no-no. What dedicated convictions! Mahatma Ghandi would’ve been so proud.

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Read the rest of Why save dolphins? (1,024 words)

© DarkMirage for Ramblings of DarkMirage, 2007. | Permalink | 71 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: dolphin, hayden panettiere, Rant