Far East Cynic

There’s  a lot write about, however I just don’t have the brain cells to write about it right now. This has been a very long week.

I sure wish I was back in the city that I love. Instead I am putting in long hours here.

There are a few things to think about though. For one I am not getting the worst of the pain here. The poor guys who are working directly for the project leader are putting even longer hours than I am …..and they have been here longer. For some reason they don’t smile a lot.

Makes me think about all the fun I was having last week with this guy:

He got to live in Hong Kong, why can’t I?

Back to grindstone tomorrow!

In three panels:

That’s the title of a book I bought in HK. Its a history of calamaties of the British Army in the Victorian Age.

It also could be the title of a short story about my current existence here in Korea.  The project needs to be done, but the guy who set this whole thing up can only be described as the Joe Sestak of the United States Marine Corps………………

It could be a lot better. However we would have to remove the banner above the building that says “Arbeit macht Frei”.

Phrased another way: Korea blows!

Actually Korea itself is ok……if I had time to see it. The leaves have turned here though and the mountainsides are beautiful. Its just too bad I only see them in the morning and when I go to lunch. Evenings its always late…and dark.

So……I’m not dead. It just seems that way. I did put my pix in the computer so tomorrow I will tell you the story of the engaged couple I met in Hong Kong.  The entertainment value was quite high.

However like the past few days, I’ve spent so much time hunched over a computer, I just don’t have the energy to type anymore.

So I am here………..

And wishing I was back there.

BTW, the MTR ride count was 15. So Deborah wins the contest and a 75 dollar donation to Valour IT will be on its way to them in her name. Guess I just did not get out and about as much as I should have…………………

I was out and about today. Went walking in TaiTam park which was interesting to say the least. I was really out by myself and it gave me a chance to do some thinking. No resolution of sorts but time well spent. It is also amazing to me to see a quiet park right in the middle of a busy area such as Quarry Bay. Maybe it is just me but I find that fascinating.

Gotta run to dinner but I thought I would pass along this little tidbit from this morning’s paper. Seems the police here no longer do physical fitness tests because on person who failed the test filed an EEO complaint because  the times for women on the run were slower than for the men. Amazingly enough the complaint was upheld. So the SCMP had a cartoon with two cops munching on donuts joking about not having to take the test.

Too bad that logic will never find its way to the US. Guess the feminist lobby is not as entrenched over here.

Gotta run…….. 

Real quick post. Out and about today walking down the peak and into Soho. My favorite little book store is gone! It has been turned into a chain Italian restaurant. So I’ll end up doing my book shopping tomorrow at Causeway Bay I think.

Anyway-for those of you keeping score at home, the MTR ride count is at 6.  I’m out the door in 5 minutes and plan to increase that number. As you may have guessed-I get around when I am here. If I could just find someone to hire me for a job here I would be in heaven……………

More tomorrow.  Camera goes with me tomorrow so expect pix.

“The traveller’s-eye view of men and women is not satisfying. A man might spend his life in trains and restaurants and know nothing of humanity at the end. To know, one must be an actor as well as a spectator.”-Aldous Huxley.

On this trip I am going to try to do both. On a trip I do not want to make.   For at least the next few days I will be my secret bunker near Spike’s place-and that I always like!

After that though it is a descent into the wells of mediocrity to work on my Korea project and contemplate again the morass I have gotten myself into and seek further my escape strategy.

So its time to gird up my loins with beer and prepare for the struggle ahead. In the meantime I will make a challenge to you. Guess how many times I will ride the MTR and I will donate 5 dollars a time in your name to Valour IT.-for the Navy team. Closest to the pin wins! Go for it and help make me spend money. Guesses have to be posted in the comments box by 6 pm JST Saturday.

Because I took almost a 100 pix and I have to pack for my trip.

And you know you want to see more of the girls cars.  ;-)

Don’t we all?

First, we pause for a moment of respect for all the baseball fans. These guys did not make the Japan Series this year.

Continue Reading »

And ongoing discussion of other lies and misrepresentations.

I’ve watched the coverage of the issues of Blackwater with interest, even though currently, it probably qualifies as old news.  It is interesting because from every thing I have seen Blackwater is probably a professionally run company and contrary to some of the reporting, it is conscious of its reputation and has worked hard to safeguard it for the most part. Given the fact that its founder is an former Navy SEAL turned greedy Republican businessman, I expect nothing less. You can’t make money if people don’t think you can deliver the product.

Which is why, in my view, the coverage of the  company and the incident where 17 Iraqis got killed is really far off the mark. I’m not going to be like some zealots and put on my knee pads and perform unnatural sex acts extolling the patriotism and sense of duty of the company’s employees. I’m also not going to simply lump them into the “M” word, mercenaries-with all of the negative connotations that word inspires.

Because Blackwater is not the issue……..and never was.

Continue Reading »

To be working on this project I’m doing this coming month in Korea:

Staying late working on drafts of things that will be rejected:

And dealing with this guy:

I can hardly wait to board the plane!

Thursday afternoon, I left work early. I was a man on a mission.

Now earlier in the week I had asked the S.O. if she wanted to go with me-her old apartment used to be near the location they have this Auto Show at-she grumbled something whiny about why did I want to spend the money. I said, “Fine, suit yourself. I’m going whether you like it or not!”

Or words to that effect. The “F” word might have been in there somewhere-she’s really been driving me nuts lately. I needed some “me” time anyway.

The Tokyo Auto Show, by the way, is neither in Tokyo nor is it just an auto show. Its in Kehin Makahari which is in Chiba and it has all kinds of things to show.

Now in fairness, I do have to tell you that I am not that big a car buff. I like a good car as much as the next man. However, that’s not the real reason I go to Auto shows.

There’s actually something that goes with the cars that I want to see:

Keeps my motor running!

Continue Reading »

No not me, the authors of the Weblog awards that’s who. Who the hell came up with this list of best Asian blogs?

ARE YOU GUYS OUT OF YOUR FUCKING MINDS?

 No Spike, No Hemlock, No E@L?

No Indiana? No Izzy? What about VPS?

No Seelai? Nude King? Or Japan Probe?

No Big White Guy?

What about Nomad? Or GI Korea? or Even Riding Sun?

Besides the obvious slight to yours truly which will not go un-noticed, these guys at the Weblog awards would not know a real Asian blog if they saw one.

Dear Weblog Awards editors-BITE ME!

Refueling American ships is not the only thing the JSDF is going to stop doing. They are going to stop flying US cargo. I say good, its about time the USAF was made to own up to the truth.

Namely that it has enough airlift here in Asia-but it is horribly mismanaged.  This quote for the a USAF officer is pretty amazing when you think of it.

Graham said losing Operation Freedom Lift will mean an increase in payloads on Air Force planes, primarily those at Yokota and Kadena Air Base, Okinawa.

“This just relieved us of some of the load of what we had to take down there,” he added. “Now, there’s another load we’re going to have to pick up. Does it stop the mission? No. But every partner we have helping is an important piece.”

Why? Most cargo under 150 pounds can be moved at a cheaper cost using DHL or Yamato Takubin. To get heavier items to Iwakuni they can be overnight trucked from distribution points in Japan and cut out the Yokota middleman.

The USAF does not offer enough airlift of either pax or cargo between Guam and / or Korea so too many pax go commercial. Which is just as well because the commercial tickets actually prove to be cheaper in some cases than what the USAF charges.

Which is really what makes this little exchange the lie that it is. The simple fact is that if the USAF would be more flexible and not charge an arm and a leg to other components it could move all the cargo requirements in Japan and have capacity to spare.

The airlift crews do a great job generally. They are underutilized though and the thing really falls apart in its administrative piece because of stupid USAF rules. The worst part is that the JASDF folks were just as inflexible as their USAF counterparts. Ask anyone who used their services going down to Iwo Jima. They could have learned it from only on place. Another Mission Canceled (and charged!).

That’s the inconvenient truth they don’t want you to know. Gotta have money for those F-22′s!

That means “lets go home”, in Japanese.

Which is exactly what JMSDF oilers are doing now-because Japan is still at logger heads over renewing the special anti-terrorism law. Accordingly, until the issue can be resolved the ships have been ordered home.

Although the leaders are to meet again at the end of the week, Mr Fukuda all but conceded defeat. “I asked for his party’s cooperation regarding the new anti-terrorism bill and explained the situation, but today we did not reach any agreement,” he said.

Two things have not helped the government’s position to date. First, the revelation that Defense Ministry and officers in the JSDF under reported fuel numbers in 2003 have given the opposition party a big opening to make the point that the government is trying to exceed its authority. As I blogged before there has been a big deal made of the fact that fuel from JMSDF ships went into USS Kitty Hawk on her way to the Gulf to participate in the opening phase of OIF.

Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda is scrambling to address concerns about civilian control over the military after recent revelations that the Maritime Self-Defense Force mishandled data in February 2003 during its controversial refueling mission in the Indian Ocean.

The Tokiwa (right), a Maritime Self-Defense Force supply ship, provides oil to a Pakistani destroyer in the Arabian Sea on Monday. KYODO PHOTO

The fiasco led key Cabinet members at the time to make false public statements about the amount of oil supplied in the mission. It is a politically sensitive issue in light of recent allegations that Japan’s fuel may have been illegally used for U.S.-led operations in Iraq. The law authorizing the refueling mission expires at midnight Thursday.

Experts warn that it will be difficult for the prime minister to shed light on the problem because the head of the MSDF’s highly influential Plans and Programs Division played a key role in the scandal.

Military analyst Kazuhisa Ogawa suggested it is easy to imagine that the high-flying division chief downplayed the magnitude of the mistake and decided to keep silent without consulting anybody.

“The division is super elite. . . . Its chief could think the post is the center of the whole (Self-Defense Forces) operations,” Ogawa said.

The other thing that is not making the job any easier is an ongoing scandal involving former Vice Defense Minister Takemasa Moriya who is accused of taking all kinds of goodies from contractors that the Defense Ministry was doing business with-a practice explicitly banned under Japanese law. The opposition DPJ has been having a field day with this in the special question sessions during Diet meetings.

Former Vice Defense Minister Takemasa Moriya testified in the Diet on Monday that politicians, including an ex-Defense Agency chief, were wined and dined by a former executive of defense equipment trader Yamada Corp.

Former vice Defense Minister Takemasa Moriya appears as a sworn witness before a special House of Representatives committee on Monday. Moriya also admitted under oath that he had played golf more than 200 times with the executive, Motonobu Miyazaki, 69, over the past 12 years. Miyazaki left Yamada and founded the defense-aerospace contractor Nihon Mirise Corp., reportedly taking sales staff of the trader in tow in a bid to win military procurement contracts.

But Moriya, appearing before a special House of Representatives committee on anti-terrorism affairs, denied that he performed any favors for Miyazaki because of their cozy ties.

Moriya said the politicians partook in the entertainment outings on more than one occasion in the last year or two.

The order bringing the ships home will probably impact the liaison officers at the NAVCENT headquarters in Bahrain as well. The real question will be whether this will be the issue that finally forces Fukuda-san to call an early election. That’s something DPJ wants and Fukuda wants to avoid.

In the meantime the US Ambassador to Japan was on TV yesterday holding a press conference where he stated that this refueling issue affects more than Japan. Its a multi-national commitment.

All well and good Mr Ambassador, but that matters not a whit to the Japanese. At least if watching the S.O.’s glee at seeing DPJ move ahead is any judge of overall Japanese political sentiment.

Stay tuned………………