The Graduate

Tuesday, April 22nd, 2014

Columbus, OH- Tickets are available for the 2014 Ohio Dominican University graduation ceremony held on Saturday, May 10th, 2014 in Columbus, OH.

Daniel J. Stone

Master in Business Administration

http://daniel-j-stone.blogspot.com

(C) 2009-14

The unbelievable demands and complaints made by parents in Japan

LINK By Preston Phro

Lifestyle Apr. 16, 2014 - 07:02AM JST ( 24 )

TOKYO —

“Monster parents” aren’t anything new in Japan – the complaints by and about overbearing, demanding mothers and fathers have been on the increase for nearly a decade. But thanks to a report by the Fuji TV program “Nonstop,” the issue has catapulted squarely back into the public conscious.

The show posted some of the crazier complaints allegedly made by these loudmouthed parents to schools and their kids’ teachers, sparking angry and bewildered comments online. We’ve collected some of the best (worst?) below.

To begin with, what, exactly, are these parents getting so upset about? If we’re being totally honest, no education system is perfect–with the possible exception of North Korea, perhaps–so maybe they have some legitimate grievances. We shouldn’t immediately dismiss someone without at least getting an idea of what they’re saying, right?

Well, here’s a list of some of the complaints reported by Nonstop.

“Don’t make my child take part in school cleaning. Hire a janitor! [In Japan, students ordinarily clean the school every day after class]“

“Why weren’t the cherry trees blooming at the school entrance ceremony?”

“Separating my boy from his friends at pre-school creates trouble. I want them to be together all the time.”

“My daughter got a sunburn on field day.”

“My daughter wants to be an idol, so don’t put her in a seat by the window!”

“School lunches lack flavor.”

“Don’t make my child say ‘Itadakimasu!’ before eating! [“Itadakimasu” literally means “I humbly receive,” and it used before eating by most Japanese people. It could be compared to saying grace, but there aren’t the same religious undertones to it.]“

“My son got hurt, so I demand the school pays for his medical bills. And for our dinner!”

“I can’t believe my boy got bitten by a bug! Don’t let insects come near him again!”

“Give my child an instrument that stands out!”

“My child can’t use chopsticks properly!”

Some of these are, for want of a better word, unbelievable. How could anyone complain about the cherry trees not blossoming during the entrance ceremony? And what, exactly, did they expect the teachers to do about it? Glue petals to them? Trick the trees into thinking spring had arrived?

Of course, not every parent in Japan is a monster parent. And plenty of people are annoyed by their behavior. Not that explaining the problem helps – another TV show documented some of the monster parent types in 2010, including a “gyaku gire” (reverse anger) mother. In the show, a group of mothers came to watch their children’s classes, but instead of paying attention to the teacher, they stood in the back and chatted among themselves. When the teacher finally asked them to be quiet, one of the mothers, feeling singled out, became irate and berated the teacher for creating a class so boring she felt compelled to chat instead of listen.

So, how did Internet commenters react to the “Nonstop” report?

“If you going to be like that, don’t send your kids to school!”

“Just looking at monster parents pisses me off!”

“The children of these parents are bound to be worthless”.

“Does anyone know how to make cherry trees blossom?”

“Teachers should snap at these kinds of unreasonable parents.”

“These monsters are scary. I wonder if there is any end to their reproduction…”

“Aren’t they bothering their own kids as well?”

“When my daughter was in elementary school, the parents would go and clean the bathrooms…”

“This can only lead to fewer teachers…”

“These parents need some mandatory education!”

“This is where useless people who can’t survive in society come from. Seriously.”

“Where’s a monster hunter when you need one?”

“‘Itadakimasu!’”

Sadly, a lot of these complaints probably don’t sound uncommon to people outside of Japan. We understand that parenting is hard – and probably a little scary – so it’s not surprising that some people go a bit overboard and demand a lot from the schools they’re sending their kids to, but no one can control when the sakura trees blossom. It’s no wonder teachers feel so exhausted in Japan.

Well, at least we know where all those monster new employees are coming from.

The Divine Wind Vault http://divinewindvault.blogspot.com (C)2006-14

Japan's Biggest Organized Crime Syndicate Now Has Its Own Web Site and Theme Song

By Jake Adelstein and Nathalie-Kyoko Stucky

April 1, 2014 | 4:25 pm

Japan’s largest organized crime group, the Yamaguchi-gumi, recently launched its own website. But if you're hoping to see guys with crazy tattoos, dramatic gun battles, bloody sword fights, and fingers being chopped off — and who isn't? — it may disappoint.

For starters, the site looks like it was created in the late 1990s. Still, the criminal syndicate is hoping it'll serve as a recruitment tool as the membership of yakuza organizations shrink and public support for them falls. And the branding reflects this; the site at first appears to be for an organization known as the Banish Drugs and Purify The Nation League — or Drug Expulsion of Land Purification Alliance, as Google translates it. The "purify the nation" thing is potentially unsettling, but it still doesn't sound like a criminal organization.

But it was founded by one. The then-leader of the Yamaguchi-gumi founded it in 1963 as a group “dedicated to the eradication of amphetamine abuse.” Sources familiar with the syndicate told VICE News that the site was launched under the Banish Drugs… monicker to, one, remind Yamaguchi-gumi members to behave themselves, and two, to convince people that the Yamaguchi-gumi is not “an anti-social force,” as they're called by police, and are instead a “humanitarian organization.”

However, veteran police detective told us that they suspect the site may be a signal that the Yamaguchi-gumi plans to expand their operations. Japan has 21 designated organized crime-groups — the yakuza — each with their own corporate logo, office, and business cards. The groups are patriarchal pseudo-family organizations structured like a pyramid, with the top boss known as the oyabun ["father figure"] and those under him known as kobun ["children"]. They each control different regions of the country.

The yakuza retains a significant foothold in Japanese popular culture, with two monthly fanzines and several weekly magazines that glorify their exploits. According to the National Police Agency, from 1992 to 2010, the number of yakuza members and associates remained steady at roughly 80,000. But extensive crackdowns by police and the tightening of laws have resulted in a major decline in numbers since then; this year, the yakuza reached a record low of about 60,000 members. The Yamaguchi-gumi, based in the western city of Kobe, is by far the largest syndicate with about 25,600 members. As recently as 2008, however, it boasted more than 40,000.

A Yamaguchi-gumi video, complete with theme song

Whatever the true purpose of the site, the Yamaguchi-gumi isn't screwing around with its anti-drug message. When amphetamine-based stimulants came onto the Japanese market in 1931, they were used for everything from fighting low blood pressure to motivating kamikaze pilots. At the end of WWII, huge military stocks were dumped onto the civilian market, making it popular to combat fatigue and hunger, leading to an explosion of consumption between 1945 and 1955. Meth addicts predictably committed a number of horrendous crimes, and the public demanded government control.

Kazuo Taoka, the Yamaguchi-gumi oyabun who founded Banish Drugs and Purify the Nation, had great disdain for drug use. And the current oyabun, Tsukasa Shinobu, shares those views. Drug addicts among the Japanese mafia are generally dismissed, and drug dealing is perceived as a more harmful crime than prostitution, gambling, blackmailing, or racketeering. The yakuza believe that drugs harm people, drug addicts are prone to violent actions, and drug use creates a weak country. Dealing drugs is also considered to be an activity that lacks initiative and intelligence and is unworthy of the “noble yakuza.”

At the top of the homepage is a video of the Yamaguchi-gumi upper echelon making their first 2014 visit to the local shrine, and playing in the background is the group's newly released theme song, Ninkyo Hitosuji [“Devoted To Chivalry"]. The first refrain goes something like:

“With nothing but my courage / and this body / I’ll trust myself to the life of a yakuza / and follow this path I’ve decided on / in Nagoya / The Yamaguchi-gumi emblem is our life / dedicated to chivalry / that’s the spirit of a man”

A moving message — but maybe not a tune that'll appeal to Millennials.

The various sections of the web site offer glimpses into the gang’s daily life and efforts to get along with the community. There are videos of Yamaguchi-gumi members pounding rice cakes at the end of the year, showing that they're good neighbors. There are also photos of the emergency relief provided by the syndicate after the Kobe earthquake in 1993 and after the Tohoku Earthquake in 2011.

The true purpose of the site is probably known only to the upper echelon of the syndicate — and, judging by the way the site looks, they may also have been the ones who built it. That said, we strongly suggest that you do not make any disparaging comments on the site. Trolling the yakuza is not a good idea.

The Divine Wind Vault

http://divinewindvault.blogspot.com

(C)2006-14