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Haiku for the Greening of Mitsubish (r)
Subject: Re: Haiku for the Greening of Mitsubishi
Dear Mr. Tanaka:
I refer you to Mr. Wolfberg's message and his sources for information
referring specifically to Mitsubishi, and his explanation of one of the
great strengths of the English language -- the ease with which speakers
can adopt and adapt forms from other languages for their own purposes.
This is not a form of racism, but an acknowledgement of the beauty of a
form which, unfortunately, those of us who do not speak Japanese cannot
fully know. An English-language saying you may have heard during your
time in the US follows:
Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery.
There are many Japanese arts and ideas which inspire this kind of
flattery, and not all were developed in complete insularity. Japan too,
has given and taken in the development of its culture.
I am, when possible, a student of Aikido -- that highest form of martial
art where O'Sensei taught us (his students, not only Japanese, or like
myself, the student of the student of his grandson) to try to deflect
each assault and to immobilize the attacker without doing any permanent harm.
While I have difficulty under standing the symbols that form the word
Aikido, the effort in trying has broadened my understanding, as it did
for the Japanese men who first read the Chinese versions.
Returning closer to the point about Burma, I refer you again to Mr.
Wolfberg's sources.
I just wish to remind you that each culture must adapt. And that
regardless of its place in the honored Japanese culture that was, in
today's context it is a kind of a crime to throw away wooden
chopsticks after a single use.
This is my opinion, of course, but a more harsh opinion is to follow.
It is a crime against humanity to use vanishing tropical hardwoods to
make throw-away plywood forms for concrete structures.
This, as I understand it, Mitsubishi is guilty of in more countries than
Burma.
I sign this Mr. Fox,
as it is your custom to use formal names in public, and I do not wish to
offend you.
Please do not take the customs of the Americans whose universities you
seem to find helpful as an affront. In my parents' time people addressed
each other formally with a title and a family name until they got to know
one another better.
When I left America more than 10 years ago, I was concerned that most
Americans were what I called "ignorant rednecks" -- I presume you can
understand the term now -- parochial, racist, uneducated no matter how
much they have read which generally wasn't much, and to their family and
friends and the occasional stranger often unexpectedly kind or just as
possibly violent.
Having visited Africa and Europe but unfortunately not South America, and
having lived in Southwest and Southeast Asia for over 10 years, I find
that most inhabitants of the world share the qualities of the people I
found ignorant rednecks. I am relieved that Americans are not alone in
their ignorance but naturally unsettled at the prospect of all these
inbred sorts trying to get along.
H
Here's to hoping we can.
To Burmanet-l subscribers: sorry for the digression