Wait, wait: ANOTHER JEC? YES, the last and the BEST.

Hello everyone, it's Karen!

Thus far, 7 AEC members have introduced 7 JEC members, but guess what, there are 8 AEC members, including me, which means...? Yes, another JEC member.

Before the Conference begins, let me introduce him.
Moto Ono.
Moto and I were in the same roundtable, Minority Issues, last year at 60th JASC. Boy, if you ask any 60th JASCer WHO transformed most drastically from the beginning to the end of the Conference, I bet the answer is Moto. I definitely will go with that answer.
(Picture: Takuma, Jinha, and MOTO in red)

Moto is currently a junior at Kyoto University in the Faculty of Integrated Human Studies.

At 61st JASC, he is leading the "Food Security and the Future Accessibility of edible Commodities" RT with Kayoko.

He was asked some questions, and the answers are finally here!

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* What was your original intention for attending the 60th JASC?
Frankly speaking, I thought it was good chance to visit the US cheaply and to meet up with new people.

* Now that the 60th is over, and some time has lapsed since, how much as a person do you think you have grown?
I do not know how much I've grown after JASC, but I think at least I learned the simple fact that what I was able to see was based on my experience and other person caught different impression even if we saw the same views and began to respect the difference.

* What kind of leader do you want to become for the 61st?
I would be very happy if I can help delegates to find their own ways to enjoy JASC.

* What do you want to accomplish in the 61st in the RT?
In our RT, the topic looks very concrete. Through analyzing issues or dilemmas on Food Security, I would like to share the different philosophy and view to the world and start to build the concept of the desirable world, though it sounds a little too idealistic.

* Briefly describe one particular memory you had at JASC that was memorable to you.
The discussion with a veteran, a peace activist, a historian, local residents and JASC members in Montana. We made one large circle and tried to draw something from this meeting while expressing different each standpoint honestly.
However, my JASC memory can be said as a collection of scenes such as the endless conversation lying on the floor of the Reed College, Portland, with one of the reliable RT members while trying to submit my term essay for the university via e-mail.

* If you could describe yourself as a type of food, what would it be and why?
..Egg
- egg-shaped face? in the making? having a shell!? Above all, I like omelette.

* If you only had one option, which would you choose: time or money? Why?
Time, because I cannot do anything without time even if I had plenty of money.

* What is your ideal day?
Waking up comfortably in the morning (without the alarm), riding my bicycle to Kamo river in Kyoto, reading a book and taking a nap by the riverside.

* The world is ending in 24 hours. How do you want to spend your last day on Earth?
To spend with dearest people or ask NASA to take me to another place in the space.

* If you had to lose one of your 5 senses, which would you lose and why?
Smell, since I sometimes wish the sense of my nose were lost because of hey fever.

* Please write a brief message to the Amedeles.
I am looking forward to spending great time with you in this summer!!
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hahahaha. Oh Moto.. his answers are quite witty.

I hope you enjoyed!

Karen

Crisis Averted? Hardly.

At the beginning of April, the Japanese Minister of Finance, Mr. Kaoru Yosano announced plans for a US$100 billion stimulus package to correct the failing domestic economy. Having adjusted their official projections to a three percent contraction for the fiscal year, the Japanese Finance Ministry is gearing up for what appears to be closer to five percent. With Japan’s worst recession since the Second World War beginning to eat away at growth, Aso’s LDP has shed its reluctance and committed four percent of the nation’s income to this stimulus package. Surprisingly enough, this figure is greater than that of either the United States of the United Kingdom.

The plan comes as a response to the numerous problems ailing the domestic economy. Japan was only recently released from the effects of the ‘lost decade’ of the 1990s during which deflation stifled growth to an alarming degree. The export economy is now floundering with horrific exchange rates as the yen continues on a trend of valuation against the dollar. With the yen accruing value on the international money market, Japanese goods become comparatively more expensive. To a nation of export-heavy industrial behemoths such as Japan, the yen’s lingering strength is nearly a death sentence. To put the issue in perspective, the beginning of 2008 saw the yen valued at approximately 120 per dollar. The figure a year later was closer to 85 yen to the dollar and it was projected to fall further. This damaged exports as well as the yen carry trade, a high-volume trade of the yen traditionally used to cheaply fund subprime lending or enterprises in developing countries like the BRICs, for example. Clearly, the Japanese problem is felt the world over, reaching from the most developed nations to the least developed resource economies.

However, as a result of the announcement, the yen hit its lowest level against the dollar in almost six months and the Asian markets performed at their highest over the same period. It would seem, therefore, that the crisis has gone into remission and that Japan’s export economy will begin to reemerge. The yen’s current value of 98 to the dollar is encouraging to Japan’s producers. So is this the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel? Will this stimulus package be enough to save an economy starved for growth for twenty years?

Maybe. Economics is such a tough game to predict that it’s impossible to say for sure just how quickly change will take hold or even if the current measures are part of a greater trend toward correction. Personally, I remain skeptical. The Bank of Japan has finally cut its key interest rate to just 0.1 percent, an impossibly low figure and even now it is being forced to buy up commercial paper to help firms drum up the funds to continue. The man who has pledged to make Japan the first country to emerge from this downturn, Mr. Taro Aso, could find himself out of a job before too long as his approval rating goes from depressing to dismal. And before the year is out, the DPJ could become the ruling party, leaving the long-term effects of a last-ditch LDP package up in the air. The government is spending a great deal of money it doesn’t have to finance this, but Japanese citizens can take solace in the idea that the national debt is already so high that a four percent increase is almost negligible.

Please feel free to contact me about this topic! Things may sound bleak, but I have upbeat things to say as well.

Colin

Will money solve our education problems?

Most Americans agree that there is something wrong with our public education system. It's hard not to--we often hear any number of bleak statistics about the alarming state of public education in the US (low high school graduation rates, enormous gaps between racial and socioeconomic groups, low performance compared to other countries, etc etc etc).

What we don't agree on is what to do about it! Let's skip the issues of charter schools or vouchers entirely and, for the moment, focus on public schools. Most people agree that it's a good thing for the government to spend more money on education, but the allocation of government funds can be controversial.

So what about... merit pay for teachers? ♥ Michelle Rhee ♥ , the chancellor of Washington DC public schools, is a big proponent of merit pay for teachers. This would involve bonuses (often quite large ones) for teachers whose classes perform better on the standardized tests currently used to measure academic progress. Possibly also bonuses for teaching in more needy or dangerous districts, or for teaching subjects that are more in demand of teachers (math or science), or for teaching special-education classes, or for having higher qualifications.

While there are some obvious benefits for merit pay, the fundamental question is: does throwing money at education really solve its problems? Will paying teachers more change anything at all? Perhaps it will motivate existing teachers to work harder, or perhaps it will encourage some bright people who otherwise would have gone on to more lucrative careers to be teachers instead. But it completely fails to address some of the structural concerns with public education (budget gaps, differing levels of parental investment or emphasis on learning at home), and it sends us even farther along the path of standardized testing for all (to determine which teachers are doing well, you'd have to test often and rely on those numbers as accurate measures of achievement).

In other words--is this a problem we can solve by throwing money at it?

iPhone

My brother... oh silly brother. He is in S. Korea at the moment serving in the US Army.
Before getting informed of his first duty station, he thought he would remain in the US and... oh silly brother purchased the [then] new 3G iPhone.
Of course, after about a month of use, he realized he won't be using the phone because he's going to Korea.
There was no need to sell the phone to someone else because... duh, I wasn't going anywhere.
So the day before leaving to Korea, he shipped me the phone.
At first, I was more or less indifferent about getting the phone because I don't use phone that much, and this whole high-tech cell phone deal was never too appealing.
Yep, that was me before I got the phone.

When I first got the phone, I adjusted the general settings and wallpaper to my own liking, put some awesome music on the iPod, set up my e-mail accounts [Dickinson & JASC gmail!], and texted a bunch of people, "iPhone is overrated..." haha.

Can you guess what the next thing I did was?
You've seen it on TV, "You want to _____? There is APP for that."

Dorky enough, the first "APP" I downloaded was the USA Today News app.
Then the next was Kotoba!, the Japanese dictionary app.
Then gFlash+, a flashcard app.
Then iheartradio, Who wants to be a millionaire, TWC, iHandy Level, Tap Tap, Skype...
Please trust me when I say I do not play any sort of games on daily basis-- no time, not attracted. But one night, I downloaded SCRAMBLE Live, oh my.. I played from like 2 to 5am.
[Shame, shame, I know... I profusely apologized to my brain a few hours later]
But also good APPs exist, like the MAP.
I'm so easy to take the wrong turn, I still confuse myself with East & West x_x, so I know how to track myself on that little radar on the screen and then! turn around...

What is it about technology that we are so fascinated about?
Electronics are just a bunch of wires and switches in circuits in which voltages go through, and voila, but somehow the products take different forms and functions to entertain us all day and all night.
Entertainment technology is now such a vital part of our lives. Well, not really vital.
There were other ways to enjoy yourself 50 years ago, 100 years ago, 1000 years ago.

I suppose it's all about self-control: knowing when to stop.
But I tell ya, the new, hip tech products just seduce you with all sorts of their own little charms to keep you attached and dependent.
Seriously, some of us are so dependent on technology that people sometimes wonder what will happen if all of a sudden everything we love disappears.
What will happen???

For me, I would have become more of a nerdy book reading girl, or at least a class-assignment reading girl so that I wouldn't be awake at such odd hour like this one struggling to finish a paper!

Karen

[Japan-US-World] Current Events #1

It's 6 am and I've been typing away (not so furiously) to finish my takehome midterm due in 4 hrs. I accidentially overdosed on too much caffeine, so I have this urging feeling to go sprinting down the dorm hallways...


Anyone a bit worried about North Korea's plans of launching a long-range rocket in the next few days?

"North Korea says it will attack the Japanese military and "major targets," if Japan shoots down a rocket Pyongyang plans to launch in the coming days, North Korea's state-run news service, KCNA, reported Thursday" (CNN Report on April 1st)

Apparently, the satellite's first booster would land in the Sea of Japan, and the second stage would drop into the Pacific Ocean between Japan and Hawaii.

North Korea is claiming that they want to explore outer space, but several intelligence agencies have stated that they are actually testing a long-range missile under the guise of a satellite launch.

Some articles if you're interested:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/03/26/north.korea.missile/index.html
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2009/04/20094253322939933.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7978397.stm
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/03/world/asia/03korea.html?_r=1&ref=world

Pictures of the PAC-3 missile interceptors, which are now stationed in Akita:
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2009-04/01/content_7637924.htm


We all know that North Korea is a threat to the security of East Asia. It has sufficient technology and resources to create nuclear weapons. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have accused it of having one of the worst human rights records of any nation and have been referred to as "some of the world's most brutalized people." It's relations with the U.S. and Japan are...not so great. (Former president George W. Bush had named North Korea as a part of an "Axis of Evil," which also includes Iran and Iraq)

What's the bigger picture here? How would Pyongyang's international relations change after the launch? Will it be launched, or will they bend down to international pressures?

Who knows? We'll find out in the next few days...

Launch is scheduled to take place between April 4 and April 8.