Laos`s Environmentally Sustainable Development

Whenever a country is economically developing, it always neglects environmental consequences. This is, of course, how Japan has developed as well.However, as the environmental issue is raised, some developing countries are hesitant to exploit their natural resources.

As the one of the least economically developed countries in South East Asia, Laos still shows rapid economic growth in a very sustainable way. Laos has about huge 20 hydroelectric dams; the abundant electricity supply will be a back born of the economy in South East Asia.

Laos harnesses 300,000 Kilowatts of electricity per year even though the domestic demand reaches only around 70,000 KWs. Therefore, the extra resource will be exported, solving the lack of electricity in those importing countries.

Laos is very different from many developing countries. Hydroelectric dams help Laos develop itself very sustainably and appropriately, which other countries have to follow.

Aids and Autonomy

From the lecture of Mr.Ikegami about "Global Citizens", Mr.Ikegami gave one example which was a Japanese NGO worker in Cambodia.

The worker held a meeting at a village in Cambodia and asked one question. "What is the most necessary in this village?" he said, so the people in the village discussed and worked out that a school would be the most necessary.

However, the Japanese worker did not build a school, which greatly disappointed people in the village. Because the people could not wait for the useless Japanese worker, they built and maintained a school by themselves.

The disadvantage of aids is that people tend to heavily rely on them; people cannot be independent from them forever. Thus, what the Japanese worker purposely did actually encouraged the people to be independent from the aids.

I found this person very intelligent, and if you again think of sustainable human development, this strategy worked well in a very innovative way.

Strong Connection between the EU and Azerbajian

Several days ago, I watched a TV program about Azerbaijan. Many of you may not have heard of the country, but it is a country located between Asia and Europe.

The country draws many attentions from developed countries as it has abundant natural resources. Not many people in general knew that Azerbaijan will act an alternative country for Ukraine.

Since the supply of natural gas is limited from Ukraine, the EU seeks alternative resource. Azerbaijan, already having a pipeline to Turkey, will extend its pipeline into European countries such as Italy.

As a result, the political gap between Russia and the EU will be much greater; however, the EU itself does not have to rely on natural gas from Ukraine and Russia, which will stabilize its energy supply in the EU.

Let's Bring an Issue to International Court of Justice

Japan and Korea have a sovereign issue over Takeshima/Dokdo. Last night, I watched a promotional video of Dokdo island provided by the Foreign Ministry of Korea. The video basically strengthens Korean claims and invalidates Japanese claims.

I would not say Takeshima/Dokdo is a Japanese island because arguments from both countries are logical and thus convincing. However, Korea should not take over its island without any negotiations with Japan.

So, why don't we bring this issue to the International Court of Justice at which none of bias is allowed? Although Japan sent requests to Korea to make a judgement at the court, Korea denied all the requests for some reasons.

Let's finish this issue at the International Court of Justice and move on to our bright future. We do not want to see endless arguments anymore.

Perceptions to an Enemy in the World War?

People around me are often surprised when I say Japan does not hate the US because of the World War Ⅱ.

Yes, there are some elderlies who detest the US, but most of them do not. If people ask me "but the US bombed Japan with atomic bombs in the World War Ⅱ ", I would say "It was an awful event, but there was no other way to stop the war".(I think most of my Japanese friends would answer like this as well)

However, many Korean people hate Japan so much mostly because Japan colonized the country in the 20th century.

So what is the difference between Japan not hating the US and Korea hating Japan? Yes, the colonization of Korea was much more awful and much longer period of time than two atomic bombs thrwon in Japan. However, I personally think the biggest reason is that Korea has been an independent country for thousands of years; it has its strong identity as being "Korean". Therefore, I would say it was almost loss of their own identities when Japan colonized the country.

(I often realize this difference when I see Korean football and baseball national teams. Players feel greater responsibility for being representatives of Korea rather than for being players, which I think shows its patriotic minds.)

Absolute Power but Representation of a Country

There is a huge movement in Hong Kong for democratic elections.

The protest for a democracy reminds me of a theory I read in my free time.
In my free time, I try to read "A Book of Politics" which I introduced in a previous post and one of the theories said "A government should have an absolute authority over a nation but has to represent all the aspects of all people in a nation".

I find this theory very interesting because I thought absolute power and representation of all citizens seemed extremely opposite (they actually are in reality), but it exists as an ideal political leadership.

Of course, it is nearly impossible to reflect everyone's opinions to form a national government; however, at least a government, especially one having absolute control over citizens, should aim to reflect what its citizens think.