If there is no post this week, it is because we are trying to connect with the rest of the world, and we are fighting for attention in a media sphere that is saturated with distracting information blinded by The Spectacle. You will notice that the title of this blog has changed. This blog is now dedicated to promoting the charitable publication "3/11: the Fallout". If you are looking for the publisher, Excalibur Books, go here:
Excalibur Books - the new website
If you want to like or follow our Facebook page (and we hope you do!), go here:
3/11: The Fallout on Facebook
Here's a blurb for the book:
Why does this book exist?
Or to be more precise, why is
it necessary for this book to exist?
Today, as we look around
Japan, we see a country that has still not recovered from the 3/11 triple
disaster. Instead of the rival political
parties uniting to help their traumatized people recover, the hard right
engaged in a vicious slanging match with the ruling party, and kicked them out
at the recent general election.
Two and a half years of
bureaucratic wrangling have resulted in large areas of northern Japan still
barren and empty because reconstruction efforts have been stalled. Thousands of
families are still living in temporary shelters in Iwate, Fukushima, and
Miyagi, waiting for benefits that are slow to arrive, and sometimes never
arrive at all. The agricultural and residential land contaminated by radiation
will remain off limits for decades.
The nationalists that control
Japan’s government are taking steps to maintain their own power as the nation’s
economy enters a permanent decline. The Japanese media want to avoid discussion
and confrontation, and carry on with their main business of selling mindless
pop culture fluff. A large part of help for the Tohoku communities is coming
from outside the region, because the area’s infrastructure is so chronically
understaffed.
All proceeds – and we do mean
all proceeds from the sale of this book – will go to international charities
committed to the rebuilding and Renaissance of northern Japan. This book is
looking for moral support for Tohoku – practical suggestions, not “Pray for
Japan” platitudes. This book is looking for foreign investors willing to lend a
hand to Tohoku residents – because the Japanese politicians are too busy
fighting among themselves to care about their own people.
This book is not an easy
read. It’s the stinging gadfly, the thorn in the nation’s flesh, the fly in the
ointment, the spanner in the works. It shouldn’t have to exist. But it does.
And you’re going to keep
hearing about it.
If you'd like to buy a copy of the book and make a contribution, you can find it here.
3/11: The Fallout on Amazon.
This is Winston Saint.
