Murder and Killing  

 Just before the IraqWar (2003), clergy men from Islam, Judaism, Catholic, Protestant, were invited in the TV show, “Larry King Live (L.K.L) 1985 – 2010 on CNN” and talked about the War. And a rabbi of Judaism answered to the question: “Why do we murder Muslims? Is it allowed?” like the following: “Murder and Kill are different. This is Kill, but not Murder”. Do you understand what he meant? He implies that the word “Murder” is used to kill human while the word “Kill” is used to kill creatures other than human, namely it depends on an object, so Murder wouldn’t be used to kill livestock. And no one objected to his words, showing their feeling “That’s right” on their faces, as if they shared the idea that you’re all livestock for us and we’re all livestock for you. Surprisingly enough, to kill someone who doesn’t believe the same religion is allowed in some religions because “someone” is not human for them. However is it true that God allows us to Kill? As a reference, any acts of Killing is not accepted in Buddhism. So what do you think about the talk above?

So what would happen if some people misled believers, saying that “They’re insects.” In history, some cases of it are recorded. At the times that Europeans “discovered” new continents, they brought back indigenous “people” from the continents and discussed if they were human or not. And astonishingly enough, Vatican answered that they’re not human; in other words the headquarter of Christianity allowed murdering indigenous “people”, oops slaughtering indigenous human-like animals. That is why dreadful massacres occurred by Spanish “people” in South America, which inherited to the slavery, colonization, imperialism of “white people”. However Spanish people and “white people” are not guilty in their religions at all because their act was justified by Vatican in the name of God. Ironically God helped develop Europe and today God is forgotten, and God was used to mislead believers to “kill” other people. I’m wondering if God truly has absolute power to human beings as those religions teach. Ironically these clergy men have absolute power to believers who can be easily misled, brainwashed and controlled by their words. Oh, please don’t get me wrong, I’m not attacking on the religions above, but just talking about the danger of the idea: Murder and Kill. 

In the Vietnam War, uncountable Vietnamese girls were raped by Korean soldiers to satisfy their sexual desire, which resulted in more than 350,000, at maximum, of mixed children called “Lai DaiHan” born. After raping them, Korean soldiers lynched, slaughtered, and massacred Vietnamese girls to erase proofs of their violent acts. In some cases recorded, they took out babies from womb by kicking on the belly of pregnant women and killed the babies brutally, and there were so many other cruel and brutal acts by Korean soldiers recorded in history, although those historical facts are not recorded in textbooks of South Korea. So why could Korean men be so violent? In Korean peninsula traditionally it’s been a very strong discriminative society and the upper class called “Yangban” looked down on and exploited the lower class called “Baekjeong” because Baekjeong are not human at all for Yangban, and likewise women were severely maltreated like a class of women called “Kisaeng”, who engaged in entertainment and prostitute. And today most of Koreans call themselves as descendants of Yangban, who look down on other people as animals or insects. This traditional way of thinking is the cause of mass killing and brutal sexual abuses in Vietnam. Once you think other people as not human, you become inhuman and are not human any more. I believe that we should not justify the act of killing in the name of God. For human can easily be inhuman.  

I think of God

So why could the West once conquer the world? I could say that the splendid European civilization started in the Age of Discovery (though this naming itself shows their arrogance). Thanks to the 800 of conquest by Islam in Iberian Peninsula, Europe could acquire knowledge and skills to build big ships and navigate in the ocean. The land of Islam in Europe was the door to civilization then. And the Industrial Revolution occurred in the land of Europe in 19^th century, so why it happened?

There are necessary elements to make it happen such as cast iron and steam engine. But cast iron existed in China more than 2000 year ago and there was a kid’s toy with steam engine invented in Ancient Egypt. If you look at the maturity of civilization, the revolution could’ve occurred in China before Christ or in Ancient Egypt. However the Industrial Revolution occurred in Europe after 2 millenniums, why? Europeans are superior to other races?! No way. There would be reasons, but I’d say that Europe is merely the land where human knowledge and technologies gathered for it. 

I would define that Europe was a factory to polish raw ore of human knowledge and technology in history. Science was brushed up by the hands of Europeans since the Middle Age and made the Industrial Revolution possible. In my thoughts, “comparison” and “objective view” are the core components for science but it’s at odd in Christianity; you can’t be free from dogma and comparison is useless before Absolute God. So I’ve been wondering why Science flourished in Europe for a long time. And when a professor told me that Christianity made Europeans develop science, I was so surprised. The professor told me that when Europeans tried to prove absoluteness of God, they happened to find the path to science. My idea went the other way around. The desire to Absolute God led them to the Revolution. In Egypt and China, there was no such dogmatic Absolute God.

When you think about it, European culture and tradition like art, music, studies, food, festival, are all related to religious matters and rituals. And the state religion must have been Christianity to be admitted as a country in Europe and the word, “Romanize” meant “Christianize” and the words “modernize” and “civilize” were once synonyms of “Christianize”. So you can say that Europe was constructed by Christianity and Christianity was the engine for development of Europe. However sadly Europeans seem to be away from Christianity today and in France it seems to be even said, “God was dead.” Actually when I was in Bordeaux, France, I witness that churches were used for an art gallery and music hall, and even some churches were abandoned. Ironically enough, God helped Europeans develop Europe and God has been forgotten after the development of Europe. I wonder if God laments for the development of Europe. There is something you should not forget in life.

I think that God used to be the soil for Europeans and wonder if once people are away from soil, civilization would start declining. People can’t live without soil. Europeans are proud of Roman and Greek civilizations, but today they’re just ruins for tourists, because Gods of the civilizations have died with people of the civilizations. On the contrary, Shinto shrines and Buddhism temples are still alive in Japan and well-preserved by people living with Gods and gods. I wonder if people died and God follows or God dies and people follow; it’s “The chicken and the egg”. It is sure that the desire, sincerity, and devotion to God was the engine to modern science and God was the heart of European civilization. I hope that the West will make another revolution to lead the world to the new stage with righteous pride and fairness of splendid Europe. God is true to you if you are true to God.

Walk Together

From time to time, I should insert some interesting stories based on my activity in my school other than gloomy stories for your mental health, though it is also very important to talk about politics, economics, hypocrisy, lies, wars etc. in order to understand “International Development” well. This is going to be the last term at Savelugu School For The Deaf as an ICT teacher in my life, so to end off my duty with smile, I decided to make a film with students on the theme of the Deaf.

I required original stories from students and 4 students brought their stories, but they’re not good enough to shoot in our environment. A student brought a story of king, but it’s not easy to prepare palace, car, clothes, and food for king, basically we have no budget, and another wrote a story ending with murder, but I don’t want to touch any murder even in a film. And the stories were not long enough and didn’t have theme, so I made up a story based on their stories. In addition, most students wanted to act so I made roles for everyone, which added more scenes. As a result, the story became long and good enough with the theme of issues between the Deaf and hearing people. I would say that it’s a love comedy based on real issues of the Deaf. Here’s the theme:

The film questions two issues between the deaf and hearing people through two couples of deaf girl and hearing boy. The deaf have less possibility to get a good job in society than hearing people, which results limited possibility of choice of marriage, especially with hearing people. And also communication between the deaf and hearing people is the biggest issue unless hearing people learn sign language. Understanding of the deaf from hearing people is the key to solve the issues. 

The plot of the film is the following. The story starts with a fight between deaf and hearing boys, which is stopped by a teacher of deaf school. And one of the hearing boys (Yaw) meets the teacher again by accident and is invited to the deaf school. When he is exploring in the school, he meets the deaf boys again and shows his apology to them, but the deaf boys reject it. Then a teacher suggests having a game to become friendly and one of the deaf boys accepts it, though other boys are reluctant, because he plans to cheat to win the game. But after the game, the school prefect finds their trick and advices them to become friends. And when Yaw sees dance training of deaf girls, he is very impressed and invites his hearing friend (Fatawu) for a dance show. In the event, a deaf girl gives a speech: “Please call us with our name”, insisting that the deaf have sign names so don’t call them just “DEAF”, which touches Fatawu’s heart. There is a deaf couple in the school and they love each other, but accidentally the deaf girl misunderstands that her boyfriend and her best friend is kissing in classroom. She was so shocked and when she walks alone, Fatawu finds her crying and apologizes for his miss behavior in the past and he confesses that he likes her. And Yaw starts learning sign language at the school with deaf girls who all like him, yet Yaw likes a deaf girl (Dalajatu) who is not interested in him then. There is a deaf boy who always walks alone on his way and seeks for his dream that he will make a bridge between the Deaf and hearing people, but his classmates don’t follow him, saying “Impossible”, except Dalajatu. And Yaw confesses his love to Dalajatu, she accepts it finally, thinking of better future. In the last scene, the first couple of deaf and hearing go together by motor cycle and when Yaw and Dalajatu are about to leave, she stops him and says “I’m sorry, but I can’t…”, and she runs to the dreamy deaf boy and they walk together.

Well, I don’t know if we can make it as planned above, but we will try to do our best. You will see;) 

Why do white people change rules in sports?

I’ve talked about Pride in the last 2 entries because it’s the key to open the door for future; in other words, without pride, Africa would stay the same in the next few centuries. I should like to advice any countries and people to hold (or acquire) fairness and pride in any activities of life if they think about their children. If you’re successful with dirty ways such as lie, deceit, betrayal and the power of Politics, your children will have to make up for your ugly jobs later. You may be able to hide it for years or centuries, but it’ll be revealed at the end of the day. Namely it is more profitable for us to fight with fairness and pride than to cheat people for egoism in any human activities as a result.

However I’ve seen many strange phenomena in sports. There are many cases that after Japanese athletes get gold medals in international competitions, “white people” change rules to prevent Japanese from standin on the center of platform of honor: Kenichi Ogiwara in Nordic combined, Daichi Suzuki in swimming (backstroke), HONDA in F1, etc. And the words of a minister in a European country seem to show it: “I don’t want to see a person with thin eyes standing on the top of honor platform”. I understand that he has the delusion called “White as Superior” in his mind, but is it fair to change rules to manipulate results of sports? I don’t see spirits of Chivalry in his words. 

Today without Japanese technologies, the world won’t go well; Space shuttle can’t come back to Earth without a Japanese technology; Airbus A 380-800, which was developed by France and Germany, won’t fly without a Japanese technology. And many Japanese inventions help people all over the world such as mobile phone with camera, digital camera, Laser scalpel, Gastoroscopy, Medical ultrasonography, remote control, etc. and there are so many small enterprises that have 80% or 90% of world share in market, which means Japanese technology sustain parts of products in the world. Therefore prosperity of other countries brings prosperity of Japan. On the other hand, Western countries make cheap products and sell them in developing countries by the power of Politics. And whenever “white people” need another market, they make conflicts and wars in developing countries. In short, destruction of other countries brings prosperity of the West. It is a matter of structure of economy. And ironically the more they change rules to suppress Japan, the more Japan gets power and technologies, because Japan always respects rules and fight with fairness to improve ability and quality of products, even if the West uses the dirty ways. Namely Japan never forgets the spirit of Bushido; Samurai competed for beauty of how to live, bravery in battle field and wealth from fight. And cowardice, unfairness, and meanness were regarded as the worst vices. That’s why doping in sports is not a problem at all for Japan unlike for other countries.

The West knows that they can’t beat Japan in fair fields any more, but they want to keep markets and their “pride” that they believe, which is in reality their delusion, though. Does that mean that Japanese are superior to other people? No way! There’s no superior race whatsoever; Japanese are just the same as other people. There is no trick, no magic, but Japanese think and work for other people with devotion & sincerity and fairness & pride, which sustain the Japanese economy. I expect that the West will revise their “real pride” and get it back in future. I believe that they’re capable of making the world better and use it for prosperity of other people some day. For they once made up the splendid civilization. If the West throws dirty weapons, lie, brainwash, bribery, war, terrorism, etc. to sustain their economy, they’ll definitely get real power to conquer the world again!  

The Meaning of Russo-Japanese War (1904-05)

I could say that today a lot of people live in the Westernized world in terms of social system, educational system, economical system, communication system, etc., and even lifestyle such as food, clothes, sports, amusement, housing, in other words, we share values of Western people and society. Today wherever you go in any developing countries, you see everyone is using mobile phones, TV, DVD, cars, electricity, and so on, so you could say that the West has conquered the world. And it’s a big contribution of Westerners to mankind indeed, though you don’t need to say thank you to them. And thanks to English that is one of Indo-European languages and expanded by the power of British Imperialism, I can tell you about my thoughts, feelings, and ideas today. If you look at negative aspects of the Imperialism like Slavery, you might deny it straightaway, but if you focus on the other side of the coin, there are contributions by the British Empire. Although you should not justify bad acts of “white people” in history, you shouldn’t also judge things around us by only one side of coin. It’s s a page of history of mankind and may be necessarily evil sent by God for mankind.

Well, as the title says, there was the Russo-Japanese War between Russia and Japan from 1904 to 1905. This War is recorded and memorized in history as the first war that the non-white country won against white country with modern weapons. The news of this victory stunned the Western world at that time and encouraged and inspired people living in colonies all over the world like: “Yellow monkey defeated Whitey”, bringing the hope of light to the world. It was the turning point of human history. There had been so many revolts in colonized lands, Africa, Asia, and the South America in centuries, but they were all suppressed by the power of white people. Therefore people tended to think that they couldn’t kick out the imperialism from their motherlands and gave up before they tried. Yet Japan beat Russia that had the strongest Army at that time, so people started thinking, “We can win if we try!” Japan fought Russia in the name of justice, national security and pride and the spirits of Japan changed the mentalities of people under the Western oppression.

And even if imperialism and colonialism exploited people in uncivilized lands, it is very true that Western civilization was superior to any other civilization in human history, so white people deserved to think that they were most superior. I really thank their contribution and admire their pride as white. And in part of the splendid European history, there is a splendid virtue called “Chivalry”, whose core is fairness and which is rooted in the heart of white people. However Japan smashed the pride, “White as Superior” in the War against Russia, and today Japanese knowledge and technology are overwhelming the world in any fields. As a result, the “White as Superior” became a delusion or ideology and the whole world was released from the yoke of White as Superior.

Some scholars say that if Japan hadn’t defeated the West, the dominance of white people would continue in the next few centuries. In 1919 Japan, in fact, proposed the “Racial Equality Proposal” to the League of Nations, but Western countries rejected it. And after the World War II, Europeans were trying to re-colonize Asian countries and Japanese soldiers fought with local people for their independences and a lot of Japanese shed blood and lost lives. Without the win of the Russo-Japanese War, the world would’ve been still sleeping in the dream of “White as Superior”; without the defeat of Japan in the World War II, the world would’ve been still enslaved by white people. To sum up, pride and fairness like Chivalry will dictate your country to a better future.