On Mon, 24 Nov 2003 23:49:25 +0900, Eric Takabayashi
<etakajp@yahoo.co.jp> wrote:

>Raj Feridun wrote:

>> Most guns in Japan are cheap Chinese crap brought in by the yakuza.
>> They're just as likely to blow up and kill the person firing them.
>> There are shootings down here too although they are almost ALWAYS
>> gangsters shooting each other.

>I have the government data which states otherwise. Yes, it may be mainly gangsters
>shooting at each other, but other people are in the way, and it happens in
>people's neighborhoods or place of business.

You remind me of an interesting story. An American man I was
introduced to about 7 years ago and played softball with briefly on a
foreigner's softball team was arrested earlier this year for armed
robbery of a convenience store here in this city. Apparently he just
lost his mind or something. I don't know WHAT happened to the guy. But
he had a real American-made firearm that he marched into a Mini-Stop
with and fired two rounds into a wall while yelling at the clerk to
empty the cash register. He was wearing a mask but apparently he
didn't really think of the possibility that the clerk or any other
potential witnesses might spot his license plate on the way out and
that's exactly what happened. He was stopped a few hours later.
Several more guns were found in his apartment and as far as I know
he's now splitting rocks in a prison somewhere. 

>> Japan's gun "problem" cannot even be put in the same universe with
>> that of the US. I take it you're not a member of the NRA like me,
>> Eric? ;-)

>We are talking about Japan's imperfection, not dismissing the problem by comparing
>it to a place with a greater problem.

I'm one of those who believe that the guns aren't the problem. It's
the psychopaths operating them.

>> Thank you for the compliment(s)..

>> >And not kind.

>> Wow, a bonus. To whom??

>Japanese.

Which ones? Maybe its just the Japanese thing of never showing your
true feelings for fear of insulting someone else but I never got a
hint of this up till now. I'm having trouble thinking of what I might
have done or not done to be slapped with that too.

Is it the homeless I never assisted whom I have yet to encounter here?

>> But I see your point. I'm not personally experienced with being a
>> racist yet racists bother the SHIT out of me.

>Who would this be? Do you know any Japanese racists?

Yes, I have.

>If you are referring to the people at the beginning of this thread, longtime group
>regulars, you should be aware that there appear to be some personal issues at
>work, which is why I will not go beyond asking what's happened.

And this is clearly a private club no matter what the FAQ reads. 

>> >"My" experience is not the universal experience (though it corresponds rather
>> >well on a smaller scale), and also why your experience where you claim not to
>> >see homeless at all is rather irrelevant. But what is happening to others
>> >elsewhere does better represent the universal experience, which is why I care
>> >about people who have nothing to do with me.
>>
>> Is your whole thing homeless and nothing else?? What about the poor
>> who still have homes? What about orphaned children? How about the
>> aged, the terminally ill, Lepers? There are lots of things to be kind
>> about and you see to be majorly focused on just one.
>
>Homeless exposed to the elements in increasing cold with *obviously* not enough to
>eat and not enough clothes for the winter are the most immediate need. As I have
>written, at least one man has been hospitalized because people who could easily
>have done so at any time, did not act until it was too late. I am so sorry that I
>had not heard of the men at the castle until just last week.
>
>You are correct. This is my current focus, and my only current focus. But you
>bringing up other worthy issues which need to be addressed and giving up, is
>simply a common and convenient excuse for many people to do NOTHING at all.

Yes, but my nothing at all is the same as your nothing at all for the
issues you're not doiing anything for. Does your work with the
homeless absolve you of your responsibility to help others in need? Is
it a religious thing?

>It is you admitting to your own ignorance, not just me calling you ignorant or in
>denial, with no attempt at insult. Ignorant means "don't know", not stupid.

Yes, but the negative connotation of this particular choice in
adjectives is obvious. There are kinder words to say the same thing.
How about "don't know"? I'm sorry if I've read it all wrong.
 
>> Is that it?? Because I want to get to the bottom of this already.

>Simply keep on admitting you don't know how much of the rest (perhaps 98%) of
>Japan is, and we could be done. I know that my experience in my small corner of
>Japan with only the few thousand Japanese I have ever met, nevertheless
>corresponds in some degree (sometimes very well as in problems in the Middle East)
>to much of the rest of Japan and Japanese.

I've encountered homeless in Tokyo and Osaka on almost every visit
I've made to those places. Thank you for saying "don't know" and not
"are ignorant of". :-D