OLPC: supplimental

It turns out that the OLPC people are under even more attack by the Nigerians.

OLPC

I've been using web based e-mail service all the way back in highschool. I remember my awesome cool Animenation email address "cpnguyen@nervhq.com". But I have to say that Gmail is by far the best one I've every used. I really like it's spam filter. The other day I got some spam from Malaysia saying that I could claim some inheritance from a dying man who had the same family name. I cursed the OLPC project as I cleared out my spam.

The Joy of Tech has this scathing comic on the OLPC project which proves a pretty valid point. Although my girlfriend who did peace corps. in Madagascar can speak more on this subject, I really don't know if free laptops will do much for many poor countries. Even the Nigerians are complaining about the results.

One of the things I find interesting is the nerd mentality that is going on with the OLPC project. It's really the new revolution based on the pretense of how nerds understand the world and how "salvation" is found in technology. The sort of thing that works well in The Diamond Age but in real life isn't nearly as useful. Reducing the logic to a bare model we can see a simple set of assumptions.

10 There is an inequity of wealth in the world.
20 I would like to play a part in changing this.
30 LET having technology = success
40 IF we give technology to the poor THEN the poor become successful
50 LOOP UNTIL world citizens are all equal.

The idea is very seductive. Cheap technology for all, and then a globalized meritocracy will emerge where we are all connected through the internet with a chance to live up to the best of our ability. I think that to think the OLPC is missing some key aspects of why many countries are poor to begin with, and what kind of help do they need the most. Don't get me wrong, I think that in key situations, cheap laptops can be quite important. My family has been sending to Vietnam our old technology for years. I just think that flooding countries with cheap laptops isn't going to do much to help their economy as a whole if that is the goal in mind.

My brother said I looked like L yesterday...

Sometime earlier this week a student was suspended for making a death note (source: Anime News Network). First off, I would like to say that the kid was behaving poorly. Disregarding the fact that the student was copying death note poorly, students who read "hit lists" aloud have always been suspended or expelled in the past.

I grew up in Richmond, Franklin Military Academy is a military highschool in the eastside. I don't have anything particularly against military schools, some people need that structure and discipline in their lives, it's when people began to glamorize it is when I get mad. The eastside was the type of place parents on the westend warned their kids about. Personally, I find it more of a sad place than a scary place. It's hard to be scared when you know how hard people have it there.

What I find rather upsetting is that the principle tells parents to look at a death note fansite, "to get to know the reference better". The website almost says nothing about the show itself, and is really only an online version of the fictional book. Reading through it a bit, it's like a cross between 4chan and post secret. (excuse me for not linking 4chan, I think you can google it yourself.) A mix of vulgar jokes and venting of immature aggression. Not really an accurate representation of the show, or the show's message. I find it upsetting that the principle would need to focus on this aspect of the student, and not other parts.

We live in a pretty inhospitable world. When the human mind can not stand it, we naturally lash out, unfortunately in violent ways. Right now institutions have little recourse in how to understand the problem. Mostly it comes out in the form of isolated what is perceived as dangerous from the community. Then a ritual of victimization is done to galvanize the community to establish how different they are from the perpetrator. However, I would say that this constant isolation does nothing but segregate out people who are in pain, from those more protected from pain. The idea that these people who do violent acts are merely anomalies in a community becomes the most important thing. There is rarely any attempt to say that these are the unfortunate products of the way we live and treat each other. As long as we keep isolating out those who we deem too dangerous to be a part of society, we'll never be able to look at what it is that influences these dangerous things.

I'd rather be fighting the man

In a incredibly un-Japanese like fashion, people are protesting the new fingerprinting policy for all foreigners entering Japan. I'm quite excited about this. Although many of the protesters seem to be "gaijin" themselves, I do see a few Japanese protesters.

"It's an expression of Japanese xenophobia. Japan is using this system as a tool to control foreigners. For the past few years, the government has been associating foreigners with things like crime and terrorism," said Sonoko Kawakami, campaign coordinator for Amnesty International Japan

The main reason that I'm excited is that it seems that the recent exposure of the blatant corruption in the Diet has urged the Japanese to finally care about their government. In a way, Shinzo Abe was a good thing for Japan, he finally broke the flood gates of participatory democracy for the Japanese.

To be honest many "first world" countries are adopting similar policies. The issue of globalization will rest heavily on how countries choose to weigh state security and open borders.

Farming is Fun!

I've been watching the newest releases of the show "Moyashimon" (も やしもん) streaming from Japan. Basically, it is about two boys from the country who go to an agricultural college in Tokyo. Kei is the son of the sake brewery and Tadayasu is the son of a "tane koji" store (種 麹屋). Basically tane koji are the basis of fermentation. So obviously the two families of the boys have had a long standing close relationship. The interesting thing is that Tadayasu has the ability to see microbes. Being that this is Japan, the microbes are represented as merchandisable characters. (I really want to get my own plushy of Aspergillus Oryza from the Fuji TV station) Tadayasu uses his special powers to recognize different microbes in various useful situations and hijinks ensue.

The obvious aspect of this show is the propaganda promotion of the agriculture industry in Japan. One of the lines in episode 4 was basically, "There are 3.5 million farmers in Japan, of that, 2 million are above the age of 65. So ganbatte (try your best?), you are Japan's future." These are lines that cut deep into the general problem of the Japanese agriculture industry. Like Americans, farm life is quickly fading away. Less and less of the younger generation want to be farmers. It's thankless, and ugly work that pays next to nothing. Then again, I grew up in Richmond so I have no real say about life on the farm. I heard a rooster for the first time when I was 22. I do know that there are less and less people living out in the country. All of the villages out in the countryside in Japan are shrinking. So much so that they are merging with neighboring villages just to have enough in taxes and such. The problem is that most of the young people from the age of 16 move to the city to go to highschool and then college. They usually find successful lives in the city and never come back. Very few people choose to come back to their hometown to raise a family, and even less would come back to be a farmer. Japan has been working very hard at making farming an appealing career choice. Tadayasu's powers turn the boring part of agricultural research into a rather exciting magical power. I could see this show appealing to many of the existentially lost youth of Japan living dead end jobs in the city. This would remind them that they could come home and live the "simple life" of a farmer. Never mind the back breaking labor, constant anxiety over the weather, gossiping neighbors and corrupt mayors.