[PN] Traditions vs. Human Rights (29 June 2004)

[waoe at mail.goo.ne.jp]

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* Periodical articles

Middle East policy banks on destruction
By CESAR CHELALA, The Japan Times, 27 June 2004
[on Christian fundamentalism, the Bush administration and Israel - Ed.]
http://www.japantimes.com/cgi-bin/geted.pl5?eo20040627a2.htm

Crisis threatens generation of Palestinians
Youths face life of poverty, alienation
World Bank's Summary on the Palestinian Economy and the Settlements
Daily Star, Lebanon, 28 June 2004
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=3&article_id=5669
	
Is Japan back for good?
Warren Fernandez, Straits Times, Singapore, 28 June 2004
http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/asia/story/0,4386,258723,00.html

Tradition Afflicts a Modern Princess
Need to Produce Son Takes Toll on Japan's Royal Family
Anthony Faiola, Washington Post, 24 June 2004
"The issue with Masako and Aiko is really about discrimination against
women and women's rights, an issue that Japan finally needs to confront
as a modern society"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A761-2004Jun23.html

Imperial succession 
Fumiko Halloran
National Bureau of Research, Japan Forum, 28 Jun 2004
[Gives a neat history of the Japanese emperors. Officials have deceived
reporters including from the New York Times to write that the imperial 
institution is nearly a thousand years older than it actually is. Like the word "venerable," Asians have tended to believe that legitimacy
accumulates with time. That was one reason for the hostility of the
Taliban toward the Great Buddhas of Bamiyan that predated Islam: 
Muslim Afghans still revered the Buddhas, showing that culture runs
deeper than religion. If this is of interest, see:
"The Taliban's Twin Towers"
New York University: Online Journal of Education, Media and Health
http://www.nyu.edu/classes/keefer/joe/mccarty2.html
Be that as it may, the Imperial succession article skirts around the
issue of why the Imperial line has been so fragile: inbreeding.
Human evolution generally depends on genetic diversity - Ed.]
http://lists.nbr.org/japanforum/showMessage.asp?ID=13869

Collegially, Steve McCarty
Professor, Osaka Jogakuin College, Japan
Online library: http://www.kagawa-jc.ac.jp/~steve_mc/epublist.html
E-mail (including items for Papyrus News) just by 
replying to this message or to: waoe at mail.goo.ne.jp