Found an interesting article on Mrs Budak's blog. It was written by a retired Japanese lecturer who is christian, and who happens to be the son of a former officer of the Imperial Army.
This is an excerpt from the article, where he starts to compare the actions of wartime Germany and the reactions of post-war Germany to the actions and reactions of Japan and post-war Japan. This is a comparision that many people have made with regards to why Japan should or should not be forgiven.
In his famous speech to the German Parliament on the 40th anniversary of Germany's defeat on May 8, 1945, the then Federal President, Mr Richard von Weizsacker, said: "Most of our German citizens today were either children or not yet born during the war.They cannot confess sins they did not commit personally. Nobody with an ordinary human sensibility could expect you to wear tattered sackcloth and sit in ashes just because you happen to be German."
For the whole article, please visit this entry on Mrs Budak's blog.
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Monday, October 24, 2005
Saturday, October 22, 2005
The Days Crawl By
Suddenly I'm hit by a bout of homesickness and I now miss everyone at home. Friends, family, things, places...
Things are fine here. I've established a small social circle which consists of mainly my flatmates and the one Chinese girl in my cohort. I'm more or less used to the pace of life here already, though I guess there wasn't much to get used to in the first place. Everything closes at 5.30pm around here, or 7pm if you're lucky. Then everyone just troops off to the nearest pub. That's about the lifestyle here, in summary. There really isn't nothing much else to do in Aberdeen. It's really very small. I do jog down to the beach every weekend, but that's about the most exciting thing I do nowadays. Which is good in some ways, I don't have anything better to do except concentrate on my studies. But it does get monotonous. And it's times like this that I begin to feel a little sad that I don't have my friends in close reach.
I never thought I'd see the day when I actually pray and hope to receive snail mail in the mornings then get sad that I didn't get any, but hey... I suppose there's a first for everything.
Things are fine here. I've established a small social circle which consists of mainly my flatmates and the one Chinese girl in my cohort. I'm more or less used to the pace of life here already, though I guess there wasn't much to get used to in the first place. Everything closes at 5.30pm around here, or 7pm if you're lucky. Then everyone just troops off to the nearest pub. That's about the lifestyle here, in summary. There really isn't nothing much else to do in Aberdeen. It's really very small. I do jog down to the beach every weekend, but that's about the most exciting thing I do nowadays. Which is good in some ways, I don't have anything better to do except concentrate on my studies. But it does get monotonous. And it's times like this that I begin to feel a little sad that I don't have my friends in close reach.
I never thought I'd see the day when I actually pray and hope to receive snail mail in the mornings then get sad that I didn't get any, but hey... I suppose there's a first for everything.
Mmmm... Food
Almost There
Originally uploaded by Veetwo Siew Mai.
Looks good? Click on the picture for more Elphinstone Stories...
I Have A Confession...
I went and bought a chinese drama serial online. It cost about SGD$50...
*shamed look*
Please don't scold me... I know I should be watching my purse strings... But I'm getting deseperate... (T_T) Please let me do this....
*shamed look*
Please don't scold me... I know I should be watching my purse strings... But I'm getting deseperate... (T_T) Please let me do this....
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
Inbetween Math and Science...
Is my free period on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Wahaha... Which is why I am actually able to come to the computer classroom and catch up on my internet-ing.
I am amazed at the amount of news that has accumulated since I came here. Today was the first day that I actually logged on to Channelnewsasia.com. Lo and behold, there is news on one of my favourite countries in the world, Japan! Yet once again, it seems to be about how the rest of the world cannot wait to criticise her. Koizumi has gone off on another pilgrimage to the Yasukuni Shrine and everyone else in East Asia is making a big hoo-ha about it. Even BY (the China girl I befriended in my class) is upset about it. Not to say that I don't understand China's viewpoint about the whole matter, but I do see Japan's POV as well. I shall not elaborate on that just now (as I'm running out of time and it shall be time for my next class soon) but I would like to add-on (rather than correct, though I am tempted to use the word) to one of the articles posted by CNA about the matter. The article says that the shrine honours Class A War Criminals. One single sentence-paragraph, making it sound as though the shrine holds ONLY the mentioned war criminals. This is very misleading, in my opinion. The shrine is home to many other war heroes of Japan who came centuries before the WWII generals and soldiers. It is an unfortunate thing that these generals, now classified as some of the worlds greatest evils, are housed together in a shrine that holds the remains of greater ancient heroes, who acutally deserve the honour and praise that come during the annual pilgrimages.
One should also remember, that the WWII generals, however evil we may perceive them to be, truly believed that they were performing great deeds of service in the name of their Emperor, their living god, according to their local beliefs.
I am not saying that I would condone any of their actions during the War, or that I agree with their beliefs. I am just saying, that perhaps, there should be a little more understanding in the world, and a little more give and take.
Or maybe, I'm just being too idealistic.
I am amazed at the amount of news that has accumulated since I came here. Today was the first day that I actually logged on to Channelnewsasia.com. Lo and behold, there is news on one of my favourite countries in the world, Japan! Yet once again, it seems to be about how the rest of the world cannot wait to criticise her. Koizumi has gone off on another pilgrimage to the Yasukuni Shrine and everyone else in East Asia is making a big hoo-ha about it. Even BY (the China girl I befriended in my class) is upset about it. Not to say that I don't understand China's viewpoint about the whole matter, but I do see Japan's POV as well. I shall not elaborate on that just now (as I'm running out of time and it shall be time for my next class soon) but I would like to add-on (rather than correct, though I am tempted to use the word) to one of the articles posted by CNA about the matter. The article says that the shrine honours Class A War Criminals. One single sentence-paragraph, making it sound as though the shrine holds ONLY the mentioned war criminals. This is very misleading, in my opinion. The shrine is home to many other war heroes of Japan who came centuries before the WWII generals and soldiers. It is an unfortunate thing that these generals, now classified as some of the worlds greatest evils, are housed together in a shrine that holds the remains of greater ancient heroes, who acutally deserve the honour and praise that come during the annual pilgrimages.
One should also remember, that the WWII generals, however evil we may perceive them to be, truly believed that they were performing great deeds of service in the name of their Emperor, their living god, according to their local beliefs.
I am not saying that I would condone any of their actions during the War, or that I agree with their beliefs. I am just saying, that perhaps, there should be a little more understanding in the world, and a little more give and take.
Or maybe, I'm just being too idealistic.
Saturday, October 15, 2005
Homesick
I want to go home.
People here are stupid.
The only nice people I've met so far are my flatmates and not one of them is a local, Scottish or from the UK (Dublin is Southern Ireland and Southern Ireland is NOT part of the UK so Jo is not from the UK).
The one normal person I've made friends with in the department is a girl from China, also a mature undergraduate.
The one mature undergraduate who was a local from the Aberdeenshire who is 5yrs older than me whom I thought had more sense than the 17yr old brats here has apparently joined the harem of brats and I no longer hold any respect for him.
The only other nice people I've met in the department are my professors.
I want to go home.
People here are stupid.
The only nice people I've met so far are my flatmates and not one of them is a local, Scottish or from the UK (Dublin is Southern Ireland and Southern Ireland is NOT part of the UK so Jo is not from the UK).
The one normal person I've made friends with in the department is a girl from China, also a mature undergraduate.
The one mature undergraduate who was a local from the Aberdeenshire who is 5yrs older than me whom I thought had more sense than the 17yr old brats here has apparently joined the harem of brats and I no longer hold any respect for him.
The only other nice people I've met in the department are my professors.
I want to go home.
Friday, October 07, 2005
Now About That Weird Guy...
Harbour/Port
Originally uploaded by Veetwo Siew Mai.
More Aberdeen photos from before I actually started classes. I finally figured out why I've been using up my upload quota so fast... My camera's been set to take photos of M1 size... Maybe I should consider changing the setting to M2.
This here's the port near the Shiprow area. Really quite an impressive sight by itself. The smells are pretty impressive too...
Ooooh... Yes... Must update you guys in detail about the weird guy who lives downstairs. There are no words to describe the ABSOLUTE FREAKYNESS of this person. My flatmates and I are all convinced that he is some kind of psycho-killer in the making. He claims to be 21 years old but he looks like he's 35 and dresses like he's 50. I mean, who wears laced dress shoes on a regular, daily basis??? It is almost impossible to keep up a conversation with him (believe me, we've all tried) and the way he just STARES at you just makes your skin crawl. The most recent display of his extreme creepiness was when Jo (one of my flatmates) and I were walking home from the movies (I finally got to watch Howl's Moving Castle!!!) and we were just minutes away from our front door when we heard someone walking behind us. Jo looked around and when she saw it was him she quickly turned back and started walking faster. But this human abnomality, instead of calling out to us first, comes running up to us and starts walking alongside us and just keeps staring at us without saying a single word, until we said hi first. HE IS PSYCHOTIC I TELL YOU!!! A normal fellow would have called out to us first, just to reassure us that it's safe to turn around and stop to talk. But this guy...... ERrrgh!! *shiver* He's scary....
Somebody save us!! Please!!!
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
Short Post
Yes. Inbetween classes now so this will be a fairly short post.
Have more or less settled into the pace of life here. Classes are a great puzzle to me. I seem to understand everything that goes on during the lectures but come tutorials, I get absolutely lost. The plus side is that the lecturers all seem very friendly.
There is a weird guy in my flat!!! Will update more later. Going off for class!!
Have more or less settled into the pace of life here. Classes are a great puzzle to me. I seem to understand everything that goes on during the lectures but come tutorials, I get absolutely lost. The plus side is that the lecturers all seem very friendly.
There is a weird guy in my flat!!! Will update more later. Going off for class!!
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