Is the Japanese Media Ignoring Afghanistan?

If they in fact are ignoring Afghanistan, I think they’re a model nation for what our country could expect if we were to pull out of this stupid war. I think the world should collectively ignore Afghanistan, China, Iran, and any other attention-seeking countries. I think Iraq has been sufficiently beaten to insignificance.

If a child is throwing a tantrum, ignore them. If they hit you or bite you or something, you slap their hand or give them a spanking or whatever and put them on time out.

If they hit you with their toy boat, you take the boat and their action figures from them for a while. If they behave, you can give the action figures back. Sometimes you might just give them back anyway so you don’t have to hear them whine about it for days on end.

You DON’T tie them to the chair and just punch them and the kids sitting on either side of them in the face for 10 years…that’s just excessive and cruel-spirited.

I have enjoyed seeing Yoichi Watanabe on TV shows recently. He has been a breath of fresh air to the usual variety shows here. I remember this one TV show, where Yoichi Watanabe visited an elementasry school in Japan where he talked to children about his experience in Iraq. He said that in the world there are so many insane things going on but that it was important for us to have an awareness of it so that we learn from these mistakes and make the world a better place in the future. That is why I keep taking photographs he said. His message was global peace, and that Japanese in the future should all be traveling around the world much more than now and communicating with other people. I thought his speech to the children was very nobel and positive. Wish, I could hear more stuff like that on TV here. Having this in mind, it saddens me that the corporate Japanese media chose to ignore Tsuneoka’s story. Ignoring this is a form of censorship. But it could also have something to do with the fact that Japanese are not too bothered about what is going on there. One of the first things the Hatoyama government did was to cut all ties to the war by stop aiding American war ships. If they give out aid to the current Afghan government, I don’t think this is too controversial as many other states do that too including Iran.

Mr Watanabe’s comments emphasize the negative influence of press clubs in Japan. They restrict the free flow of information and create a culture of submissiveness and self-restrain. It makes it more difficult to debate issues.