Ok, the proud tradition of changing prime minister as long as anything doesn't really go completely according to plan seem to continue with the DPJ Prime Minister Hatoyama handing in his resignation yesterday. I won't go into the details of that sordid mess but I'm sure my political advisor and hordes of other newsmedia and bloggers will milk this for all it's worth, and I am quite sure that the Penguin has saved up considerable wit for a comment here on this occasion as well.But what strikes me is the complete indifference of the Japanese people and media, sure it's the main news story in all the regular news shows and people sigh about it. But yesterday on all the regular channels, none of the regular programming was interruped or replaced by special news coverage of this, which in most other countries would be a very significant event. I guess it's just become part of the political routine by now and I'm sure that everyone fully expects that the next clown that the DPJ mafia (that's a bunch of scary looking old men) push to the front will fold within six months, probably for something trivial like a cornflakes shortage in some major convenience stores only to be replaced by a new clown, even clownier than the one before him.
Considering the current state of the Japanese economy this really isn't a joking matter, but it's hard to be surprised anymore and I think this picture drawn by old buddy Martin (hey, check out his business here, it's all in Swedish but I'm sure he'll draw you as Fonzie the bear if you pay him enough and yeah, his main business isn't cartoons if you wonder) perfectly illustrates my feelings on the subject!
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4 comments:
I know, I was a bit bemused by nobody caring too... My husband didn't even know until I told him and then his reaction was just: "F#*k it, now we probably won't get all that money for having a kid that the bastard promised!"
I think they need to elect a woman, or a small child, or perhaps anpanman may do a better job than all these old geezers have been doing.
Great! Now i´m probably going to get sued for some kind of infringement. Luckily I am a very poor bastard.
Corinne - Well, they'd better keep paying up, we timed out baby just for this! But I would vote for Anpanman if they'd allow me!
Martin - Well, this should be well within the borders of "fair use" as a parody so I don't think you need to worry that they'll take your first born son as fee for this.
Most Japanese, after years of scandals and regular resignations courtesy of the LDP, seem to have switched off completely.
One problem with the continual changes in PM is that Japan is not taken anywhere near as seriously on the world stage. Since everyone 'knows' that the current PM will soon be the ex PM, why bother building up a relationship, and will he be around to deliver on commitments?
He really needed to have "core" (ie we will definitely do these) and "non core" (ie we may not do these after all, but you only find out after the election) promises like our clowns have come up with.
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