Unsustainable.org

Interesting site on trade and economics. "Unsustainable.org." The
blurb on it's author, Eamonn Fingleton, is below. Good stuff on
Japan/American economics.

Eamonn Fingleton is a Tokyo-based author and economic commentator
whose latest book is Unsustainable: How Economic Dogma Is Destroying
American Prosperity (Nation Books, 2003).

Boycott the Olympics

Am I missing something? Has anyone out there started a credible
movement to boycott the Olympics? I recall another time when the US
boycotted the Olympics because the USSR had invaded Afganistan in a
doomed act of blind agression. The US and Japan are engaged in a
similar act, not just in Afganistan this time, but in Iraq, too.

I personally vowed to leave my TV off for the entire time, and to
avoid any product that advertises that is supports the Olympics. Not
that I have really changed my lifestyle much. I almost never watch TV
anyway, and I haven't gone near a soft drink now for a long time. My
feeling is that I don't need to be sitting at home rooting for the
Americans or the Japanese while they are in Iraq getting shot for
elected officials in the US and Japan. I can't watch athletes
participating in games while Iraqi people die for cheaper American
and Japanese oil. (Even though oil just keeps getting more
expensive.) I am concerned that the most powerful and formerly most
respected country in the world is being led by the nose by a pack of
criminals against humanity. It's like America has gone to Greece to
fight a war with all that war lingo that crops up in sports, and is
winning it there. Unlike all the rest of W's miserable failures.

My film debut: a teacher with advise

Last week I worked with a group of students who refuse traditional
schooling to make a film that they wrote. I attended one of the
planning meetings some weeks before. It was really a disaster. Hours
spent with the outcome being that they would return to their original
premise and film that. I lost it with them in filming too for a
similar waste of people's time, mostly mine.

I was supposed to be at the Smile Forever house at 4pm and be ready
for filming. Later the adult leader of the group called and said that
I should get there around 4:30. They were running behind schedule. I
arrived there at the appointed time and waited outside for 1 full
hour. It was a hot August day, hot enough to send a few people home
from the filming after one boy vomited from to much exposure to the
heat. By the time we got inside it was 5:45 and I had an appointment
with my family at 7. It would take 35 minutes from the house to my
home. By the time we got ready to film, it was after 6. My part was
admittedly very short, and I did not memorize my lines. They were in
Japanese; I got them the night before, and I was not told to memorize
them. So when one of the young people told me to memorize them before
we started to shoot, I was ballistic. I almost walked out, but
thought that was too much, but I did say that even if I could
memorize them in time to be home by 7, I was not emotionally inclined
to cooperate. That was the end of that story.

If I am ever asked to return, I will suggest that anyone with
creative intentions should be encouraged to pursue them with the
group. That person should be in charge of the project, and in
addition to the successful completion of the project, these
objectives should also be considered:
1. development of leadership skills,
2. development of communication skills,
3. development of organizational and logistical skills.

These projects should be planned, executed, published and evaluated
by the group in a way that benefits everyone in the group, everyone
associated with it, and the community at large, since it is thanks in
large part to support by the community that these projects can happen
at all.