'Rabbit and Grow Fat'

This impressive creature lives at an establishment called 'Rabbit and Grow Fat'.

Essentially it's a rabbit café – a relatively recent extension upon Japan's more famous cat café concept, only with bunnies. In this case you pay 1000 yen for an hour of interaction with some twenty rabbits, each with his or her own personality, and a complimentary hot or cold drink. An additional 100 yen gets you a plate of vegetable matter to feed them.

A Tribute to Tortured Souls

On a day we have chosen to celebrate the love that joins and defines us as human beings, I would only ask a moment of your time for reflection.

Only a moment – for to sink us to the depths of despair would be neither apt for the occasion, nor constructive for the betterment of love in the world. But a moment nonetheless: in order that we remember that love, inherently, is a joy that should bring us all together, not pit us against one another; should bring no person the terror of heartbreak, or pain of hope lost; and must be protected, at all costs, from the corruptions of a social order where too many are prepared to gain from the suffering of others.

This is a world where however one looks at it, all that is good about love faces tremendous challenges. And as we take joy today in our victories in surmounting them – in our thriving relationships, our fond memories and exciting plans, and the warmth of time spent with those who mean everything to us – let us never forget, that we have yet to make this a world where this joy reaches everyone. Let us never forget that anguish and cruelty, for anyone, is not the way of love; but that we, as societies, as people, must take responsibility for every heart broken, and every person left behind.

So please: remember them.

Remember those whose loving relationships have failed; whether because of betrayal, or succumbing to selfish interests, or any other cause.

Remember those who follow the path of love, only to be taken advantage of then abandoned like depleted commodities, and left with their dreams shattered in pieces by the wayside.

Remember those whose love is not fulfilled, because of the expectations of gender: the despair of men not considered "masculine", women not considered "feminine", those who do not identify as male or female at all, or those whose bodies, beliefs, behaviours, wealth or paths in life are mocked as inadequate by social norms. Remember those left so hopeless, then told by those around them that it is their own fault. Remember that in denying those hearts a place, a home, those societies wreak terrible wrongs upon the universe.

Remember those ostracized, discriminated against or subjected to violence and terror, because their love is criminalized by their societiess. Remember, in places where anyone dares forbid it, those who love people of the same sex; or people from different lands; or two, three or more people who all love them back. Remember those who in spreading love to where the madness of humankind would purge it, do the most to redeem us all.

Remember those torn from those they wish to be with: by tyrannical relatives; by self-interested political factions; by compassionless immigration laws; by violent conflicts; by segregationist dogmas or religious police; by any, in fact, who find in themselves the reprehensible callousness to separate those who love.

Remember those whose experience of love is shredded asunder by sexual violence; above all by rape, that thing with no basis in nature or sanity, which should never have been permitted to enter our world. Remember those who, violated once, are violated again when blamed, shamed and degraded for it by those around them.

Remember those so stricken with the rending, slicing agony of wronged love, and then with the incineration of the soul that is society's normalization of these nightmares, or indifference to their misery. Remember those for whom the thought of living one moment more in this world becomes an unthinkable burden – who find themselves looking, instead, to the freedom of death. Remember that they do so not out of self-regard, nor irrationality, nor mental disorder. Remember them as those from whom our kind's violations of love exacted the ultimate price.

Remember that the stars are on the side of all who love. Thus there are no star-crossed lovers – the very concept is a shameful scapegoat. There are only society-crossed lovers. Of all the ways we break people's hearts – from laws to norms, from violence to alienation, from betrayals to manipulations, from dogmas to hysterias – none of these crimes are committed by love. We, the human race, are authors of all these things; we introduced them to Earth; and nature, the universe, contain no excuses to spare us responsibility for putting them right.

So please: remember. Remember today the thousands who on this day, are unfulfilled as love-capable creatures; and remember that this is so not because reality is just like that – but because of choices, by humans among us, to do them harm.

Remember them today: the tortured souls, in all lands of Earth. And when we have remembered, then let us stand up and do our parts, from wherever each of us is placed, to emancipate their love from the chains and blades our kind has woven to torture them. To establish this as a world where to harm, exploit or subject any love is wrong. To make this a world where love, triumphant, leaves no-one behind.

Skeletons All The Way Down: why the EU matters

Of late, the Cameron regime in the UK has been playing what looks a dangerous game, but on closer inspection is positively bloodcurdling.

In his speech on 23 January, the prime minister declared his intent, should the Conservative Party be re-elected, to re-negotiate the terms of Britain's membership of the EU – and to put that very membership on the line in an 'in or out' referendum. This comes amidst a certain modern tradition, of condemning the EU for eating too far into British sovereigty – particularly on workers' rights, social policy, the environment and crime – with two cabinet ministers, including Chancellor Osborne, the architect of Britain's austerity programme, having spoken with staggering casualness about marching Britian for the exit unless the EU 'changes'.

The threat, now politically manifest, seems simple. Reduce the power of the EU; return that power either to all member states, or if not, then to Britain exclusively; otherwise, Britain may leave.

Why is this not merely a problem, but bloodcurdling?

Not merely because it does not represent political sense, economic sense or plain common sense for the UK, its people, and its relationships with its European neighbours.

Not merely because it has alarmed the opposition, the Americans, and even veterans in Mr. Cameron's own party.

Not even merely because the Conservative Party's appalling human rights record puts Britain in foremost need of the EU's judicial intervention, to check the Cameron regime's excesses against its people.

One might wonder what the fuss is about. The EU has fallen into miserable times: the apparatus of cruelty that is British austerity reflects a wider trend that takes its toll on populations across the European continent. Old divisions resurface, between and within these countries; new ones emerge; the sharing of pains between them becomes a disguise for the stronger imposing their interests or ideologies to the detriment of the weaker; genuine human solidarity across their borders is often found illusory; and then in what may be the foremost indicator that not all is well, it receives the Nobel Peace Prize. There are questions indeed, about both the sustainability of the EU and what any country gets from being part of it.

They are the wrong questions. The right questions look more like this.

That is to say, those are not so much problems with the EU, as problems with Europe, and some of the people in it. When I use adjectives like 'bloodcurdling' and 'harrowing' in here, these are not exaggerations. To anyone in their seventies or over, conditions in Europe now should carry echoes of a chilling familiarity.

Refuting West-Centric Narratives of Human Rights: A Three-Pronged Critique

Happy new year everyone. Here's a present.

Refuting West-Centric Narratives of Human Rights: A Three-Pronged Critique
Ai Chaobang, Tokyo, 4 December 2012

CONTENTS

Overview

1) Narratives of ESSENCE: the Universal Origins of Human Rights

a) The "Right" Human Rights – Who Decides?

b) Contributions to Human Rights

c) Contributions Against Human Rights

d) Strengths and Weaknesses

2) Narratives of FORM: the Universal Establishment of Human Rights

a) The Western Declaration of Human Rights?

b) The Universal-Except-The-West Declaration of Human Rights?

c) Resonance and Dissonance

3) Narratives of RELEVANCE: the Universal Enemies of Human Rights

a) Charybdis: The Whirlpool of Universal Human Wrongs

b) Scylla: The Multi-headed Monster of Inhuman Diversity

c) Through the Straits and Around the World: A Tool for Global Problems

Conclusion: In It Together

Overview

Human rights are many things simultaneously. What looks at first a simple concept is loaded with highly contextualized theoretical, political, and normative agendas, beliefs, aspirations, dreams and passions. In the wider story of humanity, human rights have their own story which as any story, can be told from multiple perspectives.

Some have dominated unduly. In this paper I seek to comprehensively refute a set of influential narrative forces in the human rights story: those which draw its centre of gravity towards the "West".¹ I will argue that such Western-centric narratives, or indeed any territorializing narratives regardless of who is at their centre, are neither an accurate nor a helpful telling of the human rights story. Rather, I will present that human rights are, and should be, universal, and in so doing will overarch and consider some of the major ongoing debates in human rights discourse.

That discourse is enormous, and the territorializing narratives in question occur throughout. We shall confront them on three levels:

1) Narratives of essence: of humanity's development of the human rights idea;

2) Narratives of form: of twentieth-century attempts to implement human rights in practice, and the modern international human rights framework of laws and norms; and

3) Narratives of relevance: of the place of human rights today in relation to diverse human cultures, histories and problems.

At each level I aim to critically assert the universality of human rights, as well as the inaccuracies or dangers posed by elevating the story's Western characters above others.

Throughout, we must bear in mind the essential problem. Thomas Paine lamented in 1776 that 'Freedom hath been hunted round the globe. Asia and Africa have long expelled her. Europe regards her as a stranger and England hath given her warning to depart.'² He might as well have said that this morning. Every society, today and in the past, has abused human beings in ways that any meaningful concept of human rights must embody. Every society, regardless of location or culture, has had its politically, socially, economically, and/or spiritually pernicious orders, that in innumerable ways have forsaken people within them or aggressed those outside. Every society has had its descents into madness, and most display an abysmal record in facing up to those disasters with humility. Therefore, when this paper considers the human rights contributions of any given society, this should not at all be taken as an absolution of that society for whatever grievous treatment of human beings it once authored or still does now.

This is nowhere a pure academic question, but an emotively-charged core of political agendas and clashing superiority complexes. The academic community and its human rights commentators, as humans too, are not insulated from this, but are themselves affected by human rights politics and value preferences, and affect these in turn by their choices of how to regard them. We should note that disciplinary academia as we know it, now globalized across the world, is itself a constructed and politicized unit, itself of Western extraction, and itself a culturally loaded tool of legitimating – or refusing legitimation to – ideas and knowledge, according to rules not necessarily objective in direction.³ It is vital that in assessing global issues, we be actively conscious of the norms and assumptions influencing us, and look past their clout in academic politics so as not to unfairly exclude contributions.

I take the trouble to state this because in the politicized paradigm of international relations today, any human rights discussion runs the risk of having all meaning drained off into a competitive morass of ulterior agendas, where participants divert attention from their abuses by stating "no, you". As is really the overarching message in this paper, to territorialize human rights is to play straight into this contest, and turn a concept which was meant to help us escape that paradigm into a rhetorical instrument that sinks us deeper in it – and buries our efforts in shame.

Thus the argument I seek to make here is as normative as empirical. Human rights not only are universal, but should and must be. Only then can they represent not our determination to persist with self-interested conflict and mutual contempt, but a universal will to overturn that order, to get past divisions which should never have been dug, and to re-found our globalized world on a basis of sincere responsibility and mutual care: to show, indeed, that humanity can do better.

Autumn Colours 3 - North Takao Ridge

After the South Takao Ridge, we now have its counterpart on the north side. The photographs in here come from two separate December hikes, catching the back end of 2012's autumn.

Again, you can find instructions and details here if you'd like to attempt this one yourself. This is among the best so far for splendid views, as north Takao is packed with deciduous woodland with fewer of the south's evergreen plantations, and frequent openings provide panoramas in both directions. To the north, Tokyo's sprawl subsides into spreading Oku-Tama mountainscapes, while the south offers the main ridge's colourful slopes and some impressive views of Mt. Fuji.

Be warned. This is a serious trek, and a jump up in challenge from the south or main ridge. Though you will not go higher than 731m, almost the entire route consists in steep climbs or descents, alternating unrelenting. The ridge is far less travelled than Takao itself, and there are few escape routes should you run into trouble once on it. Treat this walk with respect: go at a decent level of fitness, and bring a map and a compass as well as sufficient food and water. There are no toilets, so be sure to bear a toilet roll. And especially in winter, start walking as early as possible, to make sure you make it down before darkness sets in around 4:30-5pm; a flashlight is recommended just in case.

The paths are in good condition, not too rocky and often soft. Signposting is good, despite a few spots of confusion.

North Takao Ridge

Length: Approx. 14km. However, it will feel like a lot longer.

Hiking Time: Allow at least 7-8 hours.

Height: After the first hour-and-a-half's ascent to 556m (starting at 211m), the main section is an arduous 6km up and down a long series of peaks. Eventually the ridge merges into the Takao-Jinba ridge at Mt. Dōdokoro (堂所山), the walk's highest point at 731m. From there a sustained descent returns you to the road at 237m, with a final half-hour of flat pavement to Sagami Lake.

Access:

1) Go to Takao Station (高尾) on the Chuo or Keio Line, and go out of the North Exit.

2) From the bus terminal there, many buses go to the Hachioji Cemetery entrance (Hachioji reien-mae, 八王子霊園前) where the walk starts, including buses 1, 2 and 11. It only takes about 6 minutes to get there.

3) The walk ends at Sagami Lake and Sagamiko Station (相模湖駅), one stop past Takao Station on the Chuo Line.

Kawagoe

Not all of Japan was flattened in World War II. In Saitama Prefecture, Tokyo's neighbour to the north, the city of Kawagoe came through relatively unscathed, and to this day offers glimpses into the region's Edo-period heritage (1603-1868 CE).

Autumn Colours 2 - South Takao Ridge

Following Sengenrei, here is some information on another nice autumn hike. Mt. Takao is one of the most popular and crowded mountains in the Tokyo metropolis: making it an all the more welcoming surprise that the southern ridge is comparatively secluded, tranquil and dense with foliage.

This route is longer and more rigorous than Sengenrei, with much more in the way of steep climbs and descents along an undulating ridge. At reasonable fitness however it should not be too challenging.

For those concerned, it is possible to skip about a third of the route here covered. The description here begins with Mt. Takao and Mt. Shiroyama, as previously featured, then swerves away to the south ridge. But if time, energy or stamina are limited, a short bus ride goes from the start point straight to the south ridge's ascent, cutting an hour or two and some of the steepest sections from the walk.

The south ridge follows the border between Tokyo Metropolis and Kanagawa Prefecture, to the north and south respectively. Though much of it is enveloped in woods and plantations, these occasionally break to provide great views over either. On a clear day, Mt. Fuji watches from the horizon.

South Takao Ridge

Length: Approx. 14km (9km if only doing the ridge itself)

Hiking Time: 5-6 hours

Height: Takao is 599m high, with easy options available for ascending it. Some gentle ups and downs follow the ridge to Shiroyama at 670m. From there to the south ridge requires a steep descent into the valley and ascent to get back up from it. The peaks of the ridge itself are about 450-500m high, with varying ups and downs between them.

Access:

1) Go to Takaosanguchi Station (高尾山口駅) (Chuo Line to Takao Station, then Keiō Takao Line one stop). You can start the hike from there, or...

2) Take a 15-minute bus ride from the station to Ōdarumi (大垂水) bus stop, if you are cutting out the Takao-Shiroyama section and only doing the South Takao Ridge.