If I had a daughter

I hope she'll learn Chinese, just so she can understand - without translation - these awesome words from Sandy Lam's "伤痕":

女人独有的天真
和温柔的天分
要留给真爱你的人
不管未来多苦多难
有他陪你完成

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I agree…

There’re a few Japan blogs I like to read, and this is one of them.

I like the simple and clear writing style, great photos, cool insights, and most of all I like that its mainly set in Osaka or Kansai (which totally kick ass compared to Tokyo*) – a nice change from all the Tokyo blogs out there.

There was a post providing some short updates on the earthquake, one of which relating to the relations between the two main Japanese political parties. In there was a brilliant quote, which I’m quite inclined to agree with:

“The average mental age in the diet is still five or so, in other words, and there's no sign that this disaster will improve anything on that front.”

It pretty much sums up the state of Japanese politics at the moment, and I REALLY hope for Japan’s sake that the people in charge – and by that I don’t just mean the government, but also those who wield the power and make the decisions in companies – get their act together.

It’ll be a great tragedy should the future see Japan slip further into decline due to poor leadership – forces of nature cannot be prevented, but this can.

when in England, don’t hold back!

"I realised that I had set so many of my novels and stories abroad, because custom had prevented me from seeing how exotic my own country is. Britain really is an immense lunatic asylum. That is one of the things that distinguishes us among the nations...We are rigid and formal in some ways, but we believe in the right to eccentricity, as long as the eccentricities are large enough...Woe betide you if you hold your knife incorrectly, but good luck to you if you wear a loincloth and live up a tree."

-- Louis de Bernières, author of ‘Captain Corelli’s Mandolin’

down with commercial materialism

“Marketing, after all, is what you do to sell people things they don’t need. If people needed, say, a T-shirt with a logo on it, no one would have to market the idea to them. Marketing, advertising… What started off being, ‘Hey, we make this! Do you want it?’ turned into, ‘If you buy this, you might get laid more,’ and then mutated into, ‘If you don’t buy this, you’ll be uncool, no one will like you, everyone will laugh at you and you may as well kill yourself now. I’m telling you this because I am your friend and you have to trust me.’ Marketing is what gives value to things that do not have any actual intrinsic value. We put eyes on a bit of plastic, but it is marketing that actually bring the piece of plastic to life. It is marketing that means we can sell a 10p bit of cloth for £12.99.”

-- PopCo by Scarlett Thomas