Kyoto (VI)
I noticed it this morning as I was ready to leave for the train station.
Above the table in the dining room of the ryokan, there are several identical clocks set at different times.
The first one is labeled London, next to Taipei, Singapore and Hong-Kong all at the same time.
The central clock gives the local time and is marked with Kyoto in larger characters than the other clock. Another is marked with "Sydney". That's it. The last clock, which seems to give the local time as well has no label.
The USA is just not there, not mentioned at all despite the fact that some of the people here are coming from the states.
I leave soon so I cannot ask the owner if this is a way to express some anti-American sentiments that exist in Japan.
A silence protest, a la Japanese. The protest of the clock.
posted by Just Looking at 6:56 AM
6 Comments:
"...some anti-American sentiments that exist in Japan."
...exist everywhere in the world.
Not everywhere in Europe. Poland (and the rest of the ex-Eastern block) love the US. Africa is slowly drifting away from the ex-colonial powers (read "France") toward the US. I would not say that Australia hate the US.
It is a widespread but not general sentiment...
A public opinion poll across 23 countries finds that in 20, a majority (17) or a plurality (3) of citizens think it would be mainly positive for Europe to become more influential than the US in world affairs. Currently, Europe is seen as having a mainly positive influence in the world in 22 countries. Among specific major countries, the one most widely viewed as having a POSITIVE influence is FRANCE —viewed positively in 20 countries. The countries most widely viewed as having a NEGATIVE influence are the US (viewed negatively in 15 countries) and Russia (14 countries).
The poll of 23,518 people was conducted by the international polling firm GlobeScan together with the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) at the University of Maryland . The 23-nation fieldwork was coordinated by GlobeScan and completed during December 2004 in most countries.
Thanks for the information. It is interesting and I would be curious to see both the demographic details of the survey and if it was conducted for the first time or not (to track the evolution of opinion as a function of time).
This said these results and what I wrote about Eastern-Europe and Africa for example are not necessary incompatible. This is why it would be interesting to get the details of the survey...
Quite interesting :
http://pewresearch.org/trends/trends2005-global.pdf
Thanks for the document. It is a fascinating read.
It is interesting to see that a majority of people all over the world (except Pakistan!) loves American popular culture but never makes the link between its (regretable) excesses and the very essence of American society...
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