On Sun, 23 Nov 2003 00:44:33 +0900, Eric Takabayashi
<etakajp@yahoo.co.jp> wrote:

>Raj Feridun wrote:

>> I don't link it. I just wondered how people who people could marry
>> someone who they don't consider human.

>And who would that be?

The people posting in this thread who are married to Japanese and who
don't consider them to be human beings.

>Back to the topic at hand, Japanese, perhaps you in your ten years have noticed the
>status of women here, particularly married women and mothers. I don't know how the
>situation of women is in your rural part of Japan, but when I lived in a small town
>on a small island, I felt like I was in a 50s TV sitcom.

I don't feel that way at all down here.

>Why don't you ask Japanese husbands your question, particularly the older ones?

Well first I'd have to find a Japanese husband I know who doesn't
consider his wife to be an equal human being. I can't say as I know of
any. Maybe I just associate with nice people or something. Even my
in-laws who were married in the 50's are very comfortable with each
other and my mother-in-law is DEFINITELY running that house.

I don't give any slack to wife-abusers. 

>> No, I can't. I wouldn't be so foolish as to defend the Japanese
>> government or their attitudes towards the homeless which I believe you
>> when you say they stink. That I can handle. Saying 100% of Japanese
>> citizens are unwilling to help either I disagree with.

>Now when did I say this? Also please note even 100% of people being "willing to
>help" does not necessarily equal a single person ACTUALLY helping. Yeah, I know a
>few Japanese among the many others who denigrate poor and homeless who are "willing
>to help". They just don't. The best I have is a few hundred yen. No food or clothes
>for the poor from any Japanese but my wife. And I have asked people. Nicely.

Instead of shelters and soup kitchens I'd love to see the government
institute some sort of treatment centers that could rehabilitate these
folks to standing on their own two feet again. Those with mental
illnesses could also be treated. No person can be left to the elements
when their lives are endangered but on the other hand I don't think
hand outs accomplish much in the long run. No offense meant to your
efforts which I've already said I admire. 

>I can say such of Fukuyama, because honestly, it is and was me handing people
>downtown items such as candles, socks, toothbrushes, shampoo, shavers, and
>underwear, because they may have had none at the time before me. I also see people
>wearing my clothes.

Very good, but are they any closer to leaving the streets? 

>> I guess it's not as much of a problem down here as it is in the big
>> cities.

>What does having few homeless or none where you are, if that is in fact true, have
>to do with what Japanese you know think or do about the problem of the poor or
>homeless in Japan?

It has nothing to do with it. But it has everything to do with why
I've never once broached the subject with folks down here. I can't ask
them how they deal with a problem they have no experience of and as
for their opinions on the homeless I guess I just never thought to
ask. Should I have?

>> Either that or they're hiding them well or maybe they're in
>> shelters. Or maybe the people ARE helping each other. I'll tell you
>> what I WILL check out the local situation

>Be sure to ask people you know about what they actually think or do about the
>homeless with their own time, clothes, food and money, not what is done with tax
>dollars.

OK, that answers my question. I will do so and let you know.

>> and I will get an answer to your question too. Maybe it will be a learning
>> experience for both of us.

>Why would it be a learning experience for me? What does what might be going on in
>rural Shikoku, which I have never denied, have to do with the problem as it exists
>for tens of thousands of others in other parts of Japan, particularly big cities,
>where the vast majority of people DO treat homeless as part of the landscape or a
>nuisance?

Pardon me for that. I should have never even SUGGESTED you might learn
something from what I find out about what's going on down here. 

Your crusade is valiant. But remember the old saying "give a man a
fish and he eats for a day but teach him to fish...." 

You know the rest