Into the World:
The Random Thoughts in My Mind

It seems like the MeToo movement has finally hit the pop music industry. The grassroots criticism of how male managers and guardians of young pop stars like Britney Spears that have been brewing for years and decades have now re-emerged as society reexamines the power dynamic of the entertainment industry, with older men in power abusing their power to overwhelmingly benefit, both financially and sexually, from the hard work of female workers. As the world comes to acknowledge and be appalled by the behavior of Harvey Weinstein and his associates over the course of decades, there is a growing call for other men to come forward with their misdeeds.

When people talk about automation in the world of work, they assume that it is the unskilled blue-collar laborers that will be the victims of it. As factories and warehouses depend more and more on machines to operate, thousands upon thousands of people who depend on their hands and feet for a living will be out of work, with nowhere to go since other menial jobs they are qualified to do are also disappearing. In this scenario, the wealth gap between the uneducated, vulnerable to automation, and the educated, evermore in demand due to their ability to thinking critically and innovate, will only become wider and wider.

「お二人は3月にゴールインしました！」goes the TV program that discusses the relationship trajectory of a newlywed couple. Literally stating that "the two people reached the 'goal in' in March," this phrase uses "goal in," a Japanese-made English term that is commonly used to refer to two people that have been dating for a long time getting to the stage of marriage. The term is so commonly used that Japanese speakers rarely think about the underlying implication of the term itself, and how marriage, as an institution, is perceived within modern Japanese culture.

It is sad to see how low the reputation of Aung San Suu Kyi, the de facto leader of Myanmar until a few days ago, sank on international social media. While Burmese citizens appealed for international solidarity in criticism toward the military coup that toppled the Suu Kyi government on the likes of Facebook and Twitter, the response of foreigners has been lackluster, to say the least. The few outspoken foreigners have instead used the sphere to criticize Suu Kyi's apathy toward the suffering of the Rohingya under her watch.

Ten years ago, in the aftermath of the Great Tohoku Earthquake, the Japanese economy faced a brief slump that was attributed as much to the behavior of the Japanese general public as damages by the Quake itself. Due to the devastating nature of the Quake, many Japanese people took upon themselves for "self-restraint" (自粛) on entertainment-related spending, canceling parties, outings, and other leisure activities as a display of respect toward the thousands who perished in the Quake.

The success of the world in tackling COVID often depends on access to personal data. When authorities find a person who tests positive for the virus, it often becomes essential to be able to know who the person has come into contact in the past weeks and where s/he has been, so that contact tracing enables more testing that can prevent the emergence of clustered infections. Such successful contact tracing requires the tested individuals to reveal some very personal details about their lifestyles.

"No Masks, No Service." As the COVID-19 pandemic progresses, the wearing of surgical masks in public has increasingly a global norm, spreading beyond the confines of East Asia where it has been used for decades to mark colds and other potentially contagious illnesses. As scientists around the world shift from recommending not just essential health workers, but everyone to wear masks, their ubiquity, and level of general acceptance have increased, despite some continued resistance.