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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