On 11/23/2003 11:01 PM, Raj Feridun wrote:

> Thank you also for the defense even though I think it was a bit
> tongue-in-cheek. My whole point from the very beginning of this was
> not that the problem did not exist but that it is racist to label the
> entire Japanese with that unkind, uncaring stamp of disapproval. This
> place I'm in too is Japan. I don't think its someone else's problem
> either. I've got a problem with anyone who is unkind and void of
> compassion for others, period.

I would advise you to get off the racism hobby-horse. It only serves to 
undermine your other points. Believe me, none of the people here who 
have written things that you disagree with are claiming that there is 
something in the genes of the Japanese that accounts for the aspects of 
their society we find less than appealing.

> Scott, sorry if you think I'm all about insults. That's not it at all.
> To answer your final question no, it never bothered me because IT is
> not something I am very familiar with. This place I'm in is very small
> and very closeknit and warm and if they ARE cursing this "dirty
> gaijin" behind my back I never hear about it. That's all I'm saying.

Okay. I'll take your word for it. Ed and Mike live in rural areas and so 
has Eric in the past. I have not lived anywhere in Japan other than the 
greater Tokyo area, and Ed, Mike, and Eric have not lived in Shikoku, so 
far as I know. So perhaps there is something fundamentally different 
about the community in which you live. Maybe you have found yourself a 
sort of Shangra La.

> That's all I was saying to begin with. Open yourself up to the
> possibility that yours may not be THE universal experience and by
> doing so understand where I'M coming from when I hear you guys spout
> off about the "Japanese", case closed. 

Okay, point taken. But the fact is that when Ed let loose with this 
outburst I knew exactly what he was talking about, even though he did 
not provide specifics. And I think most of us have had times when we 
felt like Ed felt when he wrote what he did. That is why there was no 
recrimination from any of the regulars in here. We knew that, at a 
certain level, what he was saying was perfectly true.

> I'm not saying your experiences
> are false. I'm saying those are just f'in a-holes you're dealing with
> and the fact that they're Japanese may not be THE problem. I've got
> evidence to the contrary in the form of very kind and caring Japanese
> people all around me. Japan is my home too and has been for the past
> 10 good years. 

Perhaps you live in a very small community, in which everyone literally 
knows everyone else. Perhaps you are extrapolating from your warm 
relations with your family and close friends to your entire town, and 
even further. Perhaps people really just are different in your corner of 
Shikoku. But I don't think it is merely some bizarre aberration that 
people in Tokyo, Fukuyama, and Gunma are not "kind" to strangers. I 
suspect the phenomenon may be more widespread than you are willing to 
recognize.

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Scott Reynolds                                      sar@gol.com