Dear People of the World (formerly Dear Americans)

McCain for Republican, Hillary and Obama still dead heat for Democrats.

I think this is going to be very interesting election.

I don't think Republican candidate would win because of the war in Iraq. In fact, Mr. McCain is too old, I think. He is over 70. Can he do 2 terms?

So the point is who is going to be Democrats candidate?

The first woman president or first Black president?

I am afraid to say Hillary is not fitted to a new president. Not because she is a woman because she seemed to be too much influenced by her husband, the former president of the U.S.

Yes, she is smart and independent and worked as a senator. But because she was a first lady, she does not seem to be a self-made politician. She also seem to be hysteria and too strict. Cannot find the open-minded motherhood.

Obama is a great candidate. I don't know if he is really qualified for the presidential candidate.

But if he is elected, this is going to be a great revolution for the U.S. It can change the image of the U.S. No one calls your country "white-dominated racist society" which I did. It can drastically improve deteriorated image of the U.S. caused by the war in Iraq.  

As far as I've seen the recent Hollywood films, Americans wish to have a Black candidate like the one in "Deep Impact" and FOX's real-time drama series "24."

But I just don't care, it is up to you to decide.

My country is not presidential system. The parliament members choose the leader of the nation. The head of the ruling party becomes the prime minister. I think it is good system. It is like Nancy Pelosi becomes the president of the U.S. You don't have to spend too much time, money and energey to choose the leader. In fact even if you choose a quality leader, unless the parliament members get along with him or her, politics don't work out.  

Maybe not only for Australians, but for Canadians, Americans, Britons and other Caucasion dominated countries except Norweigians and Icelandish.

I've just heard the news this You Tube site attracted enormous attention from Japanese and Australians.

Australian patrol ships were dispatched to watch Japan's whaling in the Antarctic sea.

The video featured how racist Australia's anti-whaling policy is. Kind of radical and provocative.

The scenes of Australians killing Dingos and kangaroos are included.

I don't know which part of it is true and not.

People here in Japan are so concerned that western nations' anti-whaling movement comes from the notion that whales are cute animals rather than endangerness of the whales. Not environmental, more of political and cultural.

Anti-whaling activisits should insist that their act is solely based on endangerness of the species. They seem very emotional, and forcing their own values on others. I hate Green Peace in that sense.

When I was in U.S., some criticized Japan's whaling but none of them say eating whalemeat is barbaric. I remember one American driving instructor said "I want to try if I can." I ate some whale meat when I was small. It was not so delicious but I don't care if others like to eat. You can eat anything you want except humans on the earth.

We eat beef, pork, lambs and so on. They are all cute. Since we conqure the earth, we've got the rights to eat them.

But in one point other than the endangerness issue, I think Japan should refrain from hunting whales in Antarctic Sea. That is sending fishery boats to far, far to the south harms environment because it wastes so much fuel gas. Japanese traditional whale hunting has been done on the coasting areas of the islands.

This Japanese article has the photo of dismantling of the whales hunted from the coastal sea area. The whale is not what is classified as "endangered species" by IWC. We have the right to hunt minke whales, which IWC classified as "endangered" within our territorital seas. Inuits in Alaska, hunt endangered whale species and it is permitted by US government and IWC. But I think that is OK to do. It is their native culture and what they do is within their territorial sea.  

I just recently happen to know Ms. Mika Tsutsumi and read the book written by her.

The title was "Houdo ga oshiete kurenai America, Jakusha-kakumei (Revolution of The Weak behind The News, Why America still has Hope)."

The author graduated from the university in New York. Her major was the same as mine, International Relations.

After she graduated, she worked for Nomura Securities near the WTC and witnessed 911 attack. She got shocked to see what happened there and how Americans reacted to this incident. Then she became journalist and wrote the book. The book won the hornorable Journalist Award in Japan.

The book described how severe living in America is if you are poor. The most common bankruptcy case is inability to pay medical expense. If you are born in poor family, you cannot go to college because the tuition is too expensive for you. Military recruiters take advantage of high school children of the poor families. The military has all the lists of children left behind. High schools are obligated to provide students' personal information to the military by law. They call you and tell you that if you join the army, the army provides you the college tuition, and free medical treatment.

But such things never happen even after you join the army. You have to pay advance fee to get scholarship for the college, it is too high amount to pay by your cheap military salary. The military hospitals cannot provide adequate services because there are too many waiting in line. Why recruiters lied to you? He was afraid to go to the front line in case he could not meet the target line for recruitment.    

People in general are mindless and ignorant about the current situation. That is why they are easily manipulated by Big Powers. They don't know how Bush cheated the elections.

America was not free country as many believed. But she claims there are still many who want to change this harsh situation and some of the things they tried succeeded.

Well, I hope this book would be published in English, in USA.

There are things you don't know as long as you live in your country.

I learned some new things about my country when I was in U.S. Let's know about both of us each other.

If you want to contact her, I recommend you to visit her blog site. It is in Japanese. But you can easily find her email address on that site.

I am writing a novel using the facts introduced in her book. The title is 4 American Hostages in Baghdad.

I was very surprised to see an woman with red-painted hands approaching Secretary of State, Ms. Rice and screaming "War Criminal." The woman and her people in the congressional hearing last week belong to the peace group named "CODE PINK women for peace."

As soon as she did that, she and other members were kicked out from the room. But they were never put into the jail. They were criticized by White House. They keep doing what they think should do.

Since 911, I always thought America has become Nazis. But that was not true. America is still open-minded. They prove that. America is a country, where you can speak up whatever you want to say and take actions.

The group worried about the war with Iran. According to the poll, more than half of Americans say OK to fight with Iran.

But, please don't. This is going to make things worse. Just think of alternatives, why don't you listen to the people like "CODE PINK"?