Gadding On

Tomorrow Japan goes to the polls to elect a new parliament. If you're even a little interested in Japanese politics, I'd recommend any number of news sites (such as the BBC) if you'd like a summary of what its all about. As I've said before, I'm in the unusual position of hoping that the government of Junichiro Koisumi is re-elected. It's unusual because my politics is left of centre and the LDP is a conservative party. But Koisumi is the kind of political shaker who is getting Japan to reflect on its position in the world and the way things are done. I'm not usually in favour of privatisation, but there is a case for Japan's lumbering postal service to be shunted into the modern era. There is also a strong case for reforming the financial sector and the scandalous pork barrelling that occurs, with the open complicity of parliamentarians.

Yesterday I had my weekly Japanese class with Keiko san, and as usual I fumbled my way through an hour of broken Japanese. Keiko is fairly long-suffering in my estimation. I do try hard but the more I learn about Japanese grammar and usage, the more choice I have on how to say things, the more confused I get. I hanker for those simple days of sentences without relative clauses and in which one can use the polite -masu form of the verb. Now I have to contend with a dog's breakfast (inu no asa gohan) of verbal and adjectival conjugations, all competing for time in the ancient CPU that is my brain. All the while, I know that the next chapter of my textbook is harbouring yet another layer of difficult stuff. Yes, I am slowly getting better - I guess I'm somewhere around the level of a three year old now. And yes, it's fun to do and an intellectual challenge. I will stop complaining now.

Australia is about to be assailed by new draconian anti-terror laws which, amongst other things, allow a person to be detained, without charge, for up to 12 days upon the suspicion of the authorities. Now lets get this in perspective. It was the Howard Government that decided, against the wishes of a solid majority of Australians, to go to war with the US and Britain in Iraq. The central reason for this war was the alleged stockpile of WMD that Saddam had secreted from the UN weapons inspectors. There was very little real evidence for the existence of these weapons and considerable evidence that the intelligence agencies of the US and Britain were using dodgy sources to make their claims. The British Government was even claiming that these hallucinations could be readied for active use within 40 minutes. Critics at the time not only dismissed much of this 'evidence' as political spin, but also noted that the countries participating would increase, rather than decrease, their exposure to terrorism.

And so we have the Australian Government arguing, without the least shame, that because of the increased risk of terrorist assault, its citizens civil liberties must needs be proscribed. And who will enforce these new laws? Why, the very people who told us that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, that there would be no greater terrorist threat as a result of the war and who continue to act as if they weren't so absolutely, bloody wrong.

Democracy may be the least worst from of human governance (Churchill, I think), but sometimes it throws up such mediocrities, such fools. It's hard not to cry.