Pondering the Future of the Middle East amid Japanese Media's Short-sightedness
The near civil war conditions of Tripoli cannot be further away from the little train station in Tokyo on a sunny Saturday afternoon. Just myself and the elderly station master staring at that calm cloudless blue sky. The slow train to the ocean slowly pulls into the station, silhouetted by the golden rays of sunlight, and music announces the arrival of that beautiful metallic shine from the bustling yet orderly metropolis to the north...
But that poetic sight was nowhere in my mind. Bullets flew, blood splashed, and the fearful yet determined shouts of protesters seemed to echo through the empty platform, bypassing everyone who alighted yet giving me an almost unnatural adrenaline rush that perhaps shifted the usual stares of my fellow passengers from cold and emotionless to puzzled and questioning. Like the cliche goes: the silence in the train was absolutely deafening...
My ears felt painful; I was tempted to turn down the silence, but what would I be except an outsider in this eternal indifference? Somewhere on the other side of the globe, people raising up and reshaping history. For once, the people, individuals not mainly related and motivated by power, authority, or ideology is systematically dismantling a system, not fearing death, not mention hose mundane inconveniences like hunger, pain, loss of loved ones or economic security.
The winds of history are suddenly changing their directions. Established authorities of decades are gone, and an economically significant region of the world goes up in flames. Threats of Islamists control the global oil supply, the fear of domino effect that goes from one pillar of American political control of the Arab World in authoritarian Egypt, going through Tunisia, Libya, Bahrain, and finally all the way to the other pillar in even more authoritarian Saudi Arabia...major changes in Middle East awaits...
Yet, looking up at the TV screen of the moving train, pandas donated by the Chinese seemed to be in the headlines much more. People in Ueno Zoo rejoiced, but the mass media did not forget about connecting the pandas with Sino-Japanese politics. After all the nationalism stemming from the island dispute that worsened the Chinese image in Japan even more, the "clever" Chinese government is up for another collective verbal assault by the Japanese media.
The narrow-minded and lack of understanding for priorities displayed by the Japanese media never really cease to amaze me. It is as if no one here really cares that, if the religiously charged model of the 1979 Iranian Revolution is repeated across the Arab states hit by "Jasmine Revolutions," how much of an effect that would have on the economic security and geopolitical stability, not to mention ideological balance, of the entire world.
Perhaps it is just as a friend said today at an English meeting: "Ignorance is Bliss." While criticizing the Japanese for their lack of understanding for what is important outside their own country, I am the one who is stupid; stupid for trying to feel the bitterness and pain of every human on this planet, and even stupider to priding myself for being a "glocal citizen" carrying the responsibility of knowing both the global and the local.
The train slowly pulls into my neighborhoods. The emotionless men and women enter and exit the train as they do everyday, same way, same time. I disappear into the crowd, just another unknown face without any noticeable peculiarities. Even as some jump the tracks and some escape the reality, the Japanese people move on with their daily lives, free from the worries of the turbulent outside world...sometimes, despite all my ambitions, I wonder if this is ultimately the right attitude in life...
But that poetic sight was nowhere in my mind. Bullets flew, blood splashed, and the fearful yet determined shouts of protesters seemed to echo through the empty platform, bypassing everyone who alighted yet giving me an almost unnatural adrenaline rush that perhaps shifted the usual stares of my fellow passengers from cold and emotionless to puzzled and questioning. Like the cliche goes: the silence in the train was absolutely deafening...
My ears felt painful; I was tempted to turn down the silence, but what would I be except an outsider in this eternal indifference? Somewhere on the other side of the globe, people raising up and reshaping history. For once, the people, individuals not mainly related and motivated by power, authority, or ideology is systematically dismantling a system, not fearing death, not mention hose mundane inconveniences like hunger, pain, loss of loved ones or economic security.
The winds of history are suddenly changing their directions. Established authorities of decades are gone, and an economically significant region of the world goes up in flames. Threats of Islamists control the global oil supply, the fear of domino effect that goes from one pillar of American political control of the Arab World in authoritarian Egypt, going through Tunisia, Libya, Bahrain, and finally all the way to the other pillar in even more authoritarian Saudi Arabia...major changes in Middle East awaits...
Yet, looking up at the TV screen of the moving train, pandas donated by the Chinese seemed to be in the headlines much more. People in Ueno Zoo rejoiced, but the mass media did not forget about connecting the pandas with Sino-Japanese politics. After all the nationalism stemming from the island dispute that worsened the Chinese image in Japan even more, the "clever" Chinese government is up for another collective verbal assault by the Japanese media.
The narrow-minded and lack of understanding for priorities displayed by the Japanese media never really cease to amaze me. It is as if no one here really cares that, if the religiously charged model of the 1979 Iranian Revolution is repeated across the Arab states hit by "Jasmine Revolutions," how much of an effect that would have on the economic security and geopolitical stability, not to mention ideological balance, of the entire world.
Perhaps it is just as a friend said today at an English meeting: "Ignorance is Bliss." While criticizing the Japanese for their lack of understanding for what is important outside their own country, I am the one who is stupid; stupid for trying to feel the bitterness and pain of every human on this planet, and even stupider to priding myself for being a "glocal citizen" carrying the responsibility of knowing both the global and the local.
The train slowly pulls into my neighborhoods. The emotionless men and women enter and exit the train as they do everyday, same way, same time. I disappear into the crowd, just another unknown face without any noticeable peculiarities. Even as some jump the tracks and some escape the reality, the Japanese people move on with their daily lives, free from the worries of the turbulent outside world...sometimes, despite all my ambitions, I wonder if this is ultimately the right attitude in life...
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