Dear People of the World (formerly Dear Americans)

Well, that is not about new presidency in the U.S.

I bought a black muffler today instead of white one I lost a few days ago after I left a restaurant.

That was expensive cashmere muffler but white one was not good anyway because the threads are attached to my black coat.

That is why I bought a black muffler as replacement. The below is the photo I took at the shop.

The left is white one, the same kind I bought a few weeks ago and the other one on right is one I just bought today.

The price was discounted so I could buy one third cheaper than white one. The brand of the mufflers is Pierre Cardin.

Speaking of new presidency in the U.S. I would predict 3 directions the country is heading from now.

1. Being Great Britain: losing hegemonic power and becoming one of advanced countries in the world.

2. Being Central-South American: Increasing the gap between haves and have nots. More impoverished people with deepening financial crisis.

3. Being Armish: Relying more on local governance and churches. These social capitals had to replace federal or state governments which face enormous budget shortages. Churches traditionally have strong influence in the societies. People rely on more on such religious organizations that means the societies would be more conservatives than ever, meaning liberal movements such as gay marriage would be supressed. People respect solidarity within small communities rather than forcing their own values on other parts of the world.

Maybe America would go like the Old Right way, isolationist. The country would give up much of military might because of budget crisis as Mr. Obama claims that the U.S. would withdraw troops from Iraq as soon as he step in White House.

Wow, the world would be safer!

One more day until Mr. Bush retires.

It seemed he was not cursed by Tecumseh, native American tribe chief who declared to curse US presidents every 20 years as revenge.

Since then, every 20 years, a president was assassinated or got ill to death including Lincoln, Frankin Roosevelt, and Kennedy.

Ronald Reagan should have been assassinated but he survived although he was shot in his chest.

Mr. Bush Junior had to die during his presidency according to the rule of the curse. But it seemed it never happened.

Meaning the death of presidents were all coincidental or the curse ran out after the old millenium passed.

Or maybe he has done too much to be cursed.    

400 people were killed in Gaza in Palestine by the air raid from Israel.

Aren't they the people who experienced genocide like that? Why are they making this place like Ghetto or Auschwitz?

Very few Jews in Israel overlap their anscestry experience with Palestineans. That is why Iranian president ran denial campaign of holocaust because he thought those who experience such genocide would not have done similar things.

Well, holocaust and airstrikes on Gaza may be two different things.

The below films includes holocaust memorial museum in Berlin. The thumnail picture is photos of Jews exhibited in the museum. (Japanese version only). First scene is holocaust memorial monuments, stone wave, and memorial for gays, and inside museum under the stone wave.

Those scenes were followed by famous gate, parliament building, Checkpoint Charlie, Berlin Wall, Krakow scenes, hotel room in Krakow, and schoenbrunn Palace in Vienna.

The bottom one is scenes from Auschwitz. Both of them were filmed in last summer, July 2008. So sad!

On 21 of December, the speech by a professor from UC Riverside, Dr. Ellen Reese was held in Hosei University, Tokyo. The speaker was critical of US welfare reform done since 1996. The purpose of the speech was to acknowledge Japanese people the welfare reform such as 5 year time-out period was worst thing for Japan to follow.

The main points were as follows,

1. The U.S. is the most affluent nation in the world but 1 in 10 people are living below poverty line. 1 in 5 children were living in the household of below poverty line.
2. Poverty is concentrated among ethnic minorities and single mother households. 
3. Federal poverty guideline was set in 1960s. It is already outdated.
4. Welfare reform started in 1996 did not actually reduce the poverty but glossed over serious facts to reduce welfare recipients.
5. A common myth is that the welfare recipients live extravagant lives, wasting tax payers's expense. In reality, federal public assistance does not provide enough money to lift a family out of poverty or even pay for all of a family's basic necessities.
6. Private welfare contractors are cheating on welfare recipients by encouraging them to to ask friends, families and churches for help to keep most of the money they have to use for the recipients.
7. The states with more Black people implement more strict policies on welfare.  
8. Those who time-out of welfare are in harder situation than those who left welfare for other reasons.
9. Time-out people, especially women have to rely on their former abusers, often their fathers and damage their mental and physical conditions.
10. The states with more strict welfare policy have higher rate of child abuse, fostering and out-of-home care cases.

It is very sad to know such facts.

The U.S. has been a role model of Japan since the end of World War 2. Japan was occupied by the U.S. force and democratized by them.

Thanks to the U.S. distribution of the wealth in our country has become much more even than prewar time. The constitution given by the U.S. insures citizens' rights to have healthy and cultural lives, which the government has to support.

Now the situation has changed. The U.S. has become "Do not follow" model.

Since Iraq war, the U.S. has spent too much money on military. Why not they want to spend that amount of money for the poor people in their own territory. The economy is going bankrupt by financial crisis. It is time to change.

I hope that in next year Mr. Obama can change the things better, pulling their troops from outside their territory and concentrating poverty issue in his country. The U.S. is not superpower any more.

The below is You Tube clips that post part of the speech (2 parts, 13 minutes).

Part 2