Couple dressed in Heian Era Robes

Episode 30: Japan – The World of the Heian

Foundations of Eastern Civilization

Dr Craig Benjamin (2013)

Film Review

During the Heian period (978-1038 AD), regents from the powerful Fujiwar ran the royal court in Heian, while the king served as a figurehead and power shifted to the countryside. In essence political power was privatized, with Shogun nobles ruling the provinces assisted by Samurai warriors. As royal military conscription ceased, Shogun hired their own private armies.

Legally, however, all land still belonged belonged to the emperor, who could allocate it to Shogun nobles, farmers and Buddhist temples.

Four levels of officials claimed taxes from allocated lands:

1. Patrons (Shogun)
2. Imperial officials (who could bequeath their positions to their heirs).
3. Managers employed by Shogan
4. Farmers

During the Heian period, Japanese lived luxurious lives, wearing elegant clothing consisting of up to 12 layers. They spent their leisure time writing poetry, mixing perfumes and perfecting their calligraphy. Precisely landscaped Japanese gardens were incorporated into spiritual practice, which are also reflected in Heian art.

Women (who weren’t taught Chinese) wrote fiction in the local vernacular using Chinese characters, while men wrote in Chinese. Japanese script, initially adapted from Chinese characters, first began to appear during the Heian period. The most famous Heian novel was the Tale of Genji by the noblewoman and lady-in-waiting Murasaki Shikibu.

Tendai Buddhism, which taught that everyone can achieve enlightenment via meditation, and the more mystical Shengen Buddhism evolved during this period. Both split into smaller competing sects, with many recruiting their own private militias and standing armies. Some sects terrorized Shogun and farmers in their efforts to seize more land.

Ongoing conflict between the two most powerful Shogun families (Taira and Minamota) erupted into full blown civil war between 1028-1087 AD. The Minamota ultimately prevailed, ending the flourishing Heian culture.

The Minamota eventually seized control of the imperial court, which they moved to a new capitol Kamakura.

Film can be viewed free with a library card on Kanopy.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/video/5808669

Elon Musk has taken ownership of Twitter Inc. Photo by REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

In a running poll on messaging app Blind about whether Twitter employees will be employed in the company in three months, less that 10 per cent voted “yes.” Of the 266 participants, 38 per cent said “No” and over 55 per cent chose the “popcorn” option. Blind allows anonymous messaging by employees to air their grievances where people can sign up with their corporate emails.

Musk fired Twitter chief executive Parag Agrawal, chief financial officer Ned Segal and legal affairs and policy chief Vijaya Gadde, according to people familiar with the matter. He had accused them of misleading him and Twitter investors over the number of fake accounts on the platform.

Agrawal and Segal were in Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters when the deal closed and were escorted out, the sources added.Musk, who also runs rocket company SpaceX, plans to become Twitter’s CEO after completing the acquisition and also plans to scrap permanent bans on users, Bloomberg reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.

Episode 29: Japan – Japan: Nara and the Great Eastern Temple

Foundations of Eastern Civilization

Dr Craig Benjamin (2013)

Film Review

During the Nara Era, which began when the capitol moved to Heijo (currently Nara), Japanese rulers assumed the title emperor (Tenno) and the first unified Tang-style state appeared on the Japanese archipelago.

Laid out in a grid like pattern like Changa’an,* Nara had a population of roughly 100,000 (out of six million total population on the archipelago. The Nara Era was a 90-year period of extensive Japanese contact with the outside world, followed by 1,000 years of virtual isolation. It was also characterized by periodic famines, a smallpox epidemic between 735-37 AD and frequent battles over succession.

Constructed around 759 AD, the Shosoin (royal treasure house) was connected to the royal palace and still stands today. It housed Silk Road treasures from as far away as India, Persia and Greece.

Although Buddhism continued to be Japan’s official state religion, Shintoism (a blend of ancestor and nature spirit worship which emerged 400 years earlier) was still wildly practiced. The Todaiji or Great Eastern temple was also adjacent to the palace and housed the largest bronze statue in the world (to that date).* Although the temple’s wooden structure had to be rebuilt when destroyed by fire, the giant bronze Buddha remains undamaged. During the Nara period, candidates sought government permission to enter the priesthood, and new laws regulated the behaviors of priests, nuns and monks

Government sponsorship also supported beautiful Buddhist-themed art, much of it produced by resident Chinese and Korean artists. This includes 1000 ancient texts of Japanese history and Buddhist poetry.

In 794 the emperor Kanmu moved the capitol from Nara to Nagaoku (modern day Kyoto) to escape interference from powerful Buddhist priests and nobles. It would remain the seat of Japanese government until the 19th century.

*See Tang: Capitol of Two Million

Film can be viewed free with a library card on Kanopy.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/5808608/5808667

Mining Awareness

Now that it’s privately owned, rather than publicly owned, we will probably never know who really owns Twitter (and your data). The ownership will continue to change, as before, but since it’s not trading publicly then there won’t be routine reports. SpaceX is private, too, and really anyone could own it-fund it, including foreign governments. Unless there is transparency, SpaceX should get no government contracts. And, government officials should not be using Twitter instead of posting on government web sites, anyway. Yet, they do.

“Musk Takes Twitter Helm, Enacts Sweeping Change as Deal Closes” Musk plans on replacing ousted CEO Parag Agrawal for now
: The billionaire also intends to scrap lifelong bans on users, by Katie Roof, Ed Hammond, and Kurt Wagner (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-10-28/musk-is-said-to-take-twitter-ceo-role-reverse-life-bans)

At least Parag Agrawal got his comeuppance. Now formerTwitter CEO Agrawal, when he was CTO:

“Our role is not to be bound by the First Amendment, but our role is to serve a healthy public conversation and our moves are reflective of things that we believe lead to a healthier public conversation…. Where our role is particularly emphasized is who can be heard. The scarce commodity today is attention. There’s a lot of content out there…” MIT Tech Review: “EmTech Stage: Twitter’s CTO on misinformation We interviewed Twitter’s CTO about how they balance moderating false info while avoiding becoming an “arbiter of truth” November 18, 2020 (https://archive.md/JQ2cu, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parag_Agrawal)

Oct 6 (Reuters): 

Elon Musk has pledged to provide $46.5 billion in equity and debt financing for his acquisition of Twitter (), which covers the $44 billion price tag and closing costs. While Musk will provide much of the funding after selling down his stake in electric vehicle maker Tesla Inc () and by leaning on equity financing from large investors, major banks have committed to provide $13 billion.”

List given by Reuters:

Joint loan arrangers $13 billion debt financing package

• Bank of America
• Barclays
• BNP Paribas
• Mizuho,
  Morgan Stanley
• MUFG
• Societe Generale
• $6.5 billion term loan facility
• $500 million revolving loan facility
• 53 billion secured bridge loans
• $3 billion unsecured bridge loans

Equity Investors

• A.M. Management & Consulting
• AH Capital Management
• Aliya Capital Partners
• BAMCO
• Binance
• Brookfield
• DFJ Growth IV Partners
• Fidelity Management & Research Company
• Honeycomb Asset Management
• Key Wealth Advisors
• Lawrence J. Ellison Revocable Trust
• Litani Ventures
• Qatar Holding
• Sequoia Capital Fund
• Strauss Capital LLC
• Tresser Blvd 402 LLC (Cartenna)
• VyCapital
• Witkoff Capital
• Saudi Arabian investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal

[…]

Via https://miningawareness.wordpress.com/2022/10/28/twitter-now-privately-owned-by-elon-musk-big-banks-a-long-list-of-investment-companies-including-the-govt-of-qatar-plus-a-saudi-prince/

eugyppius

Remember that scary rash-cum-fever from Africa that was going to be The Next Pandemic before it turned out to infect almost exclusively gay men having unprotected sex with other gay men? Well, you’ll be happy to know that there are still a few media outlets out there trying to make somebody care about it:

Monkeypox is causing devastating outcomes for people with severely weakened immune systems, even as new cases continue to decline in the United States, according to a federal report released Wednesday. At least 10 people hospitalized with monkeypox have died.

More than 28,000 cases of monkeypox have been reported since the U.S. outbreak began in May. While the vast majority recover within weeks, some patients with untreated HIV experienced especially dire consequences, such as losing function of their brain or spinal cord, eyes and lungs despite being given antiviral medication.

The report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is based on the agency’s consultations with clinicians treating 57 U.S. patients hospitalized with monkeypox complications from the outbreak’s peak in mid-August through Oct. 10. It presents the most comprehensive picture of the severe consequences of infection and who is most at risk for serious complications.

You know what other viruses cause “devastating outcomes for people with severely weakened immune systems”? Basically all of them. If you’re sick and dying even the common cold can be dangerous, and here monkeypox is the least of anyone’s worries. Ten deaths (of which seven are still “under investigation” with no officially determined cause) from 28,000 cases works out to a case fatality rate of .036%.

But wait! Monkeypox might still turn out to be bad, somehow, maybe! The outbreak might “accelerate and affect increasingly wider communities,” if it could only be persuaded to circulate among heterosexuals! Or maybe “the virus could get established in an animal host”! Just don’t ask how that could happen! (And who knew the Post would stoop to such unsavoury homophobia?)

It’s funny to laugh at these guys, but sobering to consider how ramped up the pandemic panic machine must be, that even this obvious non-starter got the mileage that it did. This bodes poorly for the future.

[…]

Via https://www.eugyppius.com/p/journalists-continue-their-valiant

Colin Todhunter

OffGuardian

Engineered Food & Poverty Crises Secure Continued US Dominance

In March 2022, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned of a “hurricane of hunger and a meltdown of the global food system” in the wake of the crisis in Ukraine.

Guterres said food, fuel and fertiliser prices were skyrocketing with supply chains being disrupted and added this is hitting the poorest the hardest and planting the seeds for political instability and unrest around the globe.

According to the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems, there is currently sufficient food and no risk of global food supply shortages.

We see an abundance of food but skyrocketing prices. The issue is not food shortage but speculation on food commodities and the manipulation of an inherently flawed global food system that serves the interests of corporate agribusiness traders and suppliers of inputs at the expense of people’s needs and genuine food security.

The war in Ukraine is a geopolitical trade and energy conflict. It is largely about the US engaging in a proxy war against Russia and Europe by attempting to separate Europe from Russia and imposing sanctions on Russia to harm Europe and make it further dependent on the US.

Economist Professor Michael Hudson recently stated that ultimately the war is against Europe and Germany. The purpose of the sanctions is to prevent Europe and other allies from increasing their trade and investment with Russia and China.

Neoliberal policies since the 1980s have hollowed out the US economy. With its productive base severely weakened, the only way for the US to maintain hegemony is to undermine China and Russia and weaken Europe.

Hudson says that, beginning a year ago, Biden and the US neocons attempted to block Nord Stream 2 and all (energy) trade with Russia so that the US could monopolise it itself.

Despite the ‘green agenda’ currently being pushed, the US still relies on fossil fuel-based energy to project its power abroad. Even as Russia and China move away from the dollar, the control and pricing of oil and gas (and resulting debt) in dollars remains key to US attempts to retain hegemony.

The US knew beforehand how sanctions on Russia would play out. They would serve to divide the world into two blocks and fuel a new cold war with the US and Europe on one side with China and Russia being the two main countries on the other.

US policymakers knew Europe would be devastated by higher energy and food prices and food importing countries in the Global South would suffer due to rising costs.

It is not the first time the US has engineered a major crisis to maintain global hegemony and a spike in key commodity prices that effectively trap countries into dependency and debt.

In 2009, Andrew Gavin Marshall described how in 1973 – not long after coming off the gold standard – Henry Kissinger was integral to manipulating events in the Middle East (the Arab-Israeli war and the ‘energy crisis’). This served to continue global hegemony for the US, which had virtually bankrupted itself due to its war in Vietnam and had been threatened by the economic rise of Germany and Japan.

Kissinger helped secure huge OPEC oil price rises and thus sufficient profits for Anglo-American oil companies that had over-leveraged themselves in North Sea oil. He also cemented the petrodollar system with the Saudis and subsequently placed African nations, which had embarked on a path of (oil-based) industrialisation, on a treadmill of dependency and debt due to the spike in oil prices.

It is widely believed that the high-priced oil policy was aimed at hurting Europe, Japan and the developing world.

Today, the US is again waging a war on vast swathes of humanity, whose impoverishment is intended to ensure they remain dependent on the US and the financial institutions it uses to create dependency and indebtedness – the World Bank and IMF.

Hundreds of millions will experience (are experiencing) poverty and hunger due to US policy. These people (the ones that the US and Pfizer et al supposedly cared so much about and wanted to get a jab into each of their arms) are regarded with contempt and collateral damage in the great geopolitical game.

Contrary to what many believe, the US has not miscalculated the outcome of the sanctions placed on Russia. Michael Hudson notes energy prices are increasing, benefiting US oil companies and US balance of payments as an energy exporter. Moreover, by sanctioning Russia, the aim is to curtail Russian exports (of wheat and gas used for fertiliser production) and for agricultural commodity prices to therefore increase. This too will also benefit the US as an agricultural exporter.

This is how the US seeks to maintain dominance over other countries.

Current policies are designed to create a food and debt crisis for poorer nations especially. The US can use this debt crisis to force countries to continue privatising and selling off their public assets in order to service the debts to pay for the higher oil and food imports.

The US is creating a new world order and needs to ensure much of the Global South remains in its orbit of influence rather than ending up in the Russian and especially Chinese camp and its belt road initiative for economic prosperity.

Post-COVID, this is what the war in Ukraine, sanctions on Russia and the engineered food and energy crisis are really about.

Back in 2014, Michael Hudson stated that the US has been able to dominate most of the Global South through agriculture and control of the food supply. The World Bank’s geopolitical lending strategy has transformed countries into food deficit areas by convincing them to grow cash crops – plantation export crops – not to feed themselves with their own food crops.

The oil sector and agribusiness have been joined at the hip as part of US geopolitical strategy.

[…]

Along with oil, the control of global agriculture has been a linchpin of US geopolitical strategy for many decades. The Green Revolution was exported courtesy of oil-rich interests and poorer nations adopted agri-capital’s chemical- and oil-dependent model of agriculture that required loans for inputs and related infrastructure development.

It entailed trapping nations into a globalised food system that relies on export commodity mono-cropping to earn foreign exchange linked to sovereign dollar-denominated debt repayment and World Bank/IMF ‘structural adjustment’ directives. What we have seen has been the transformation of many countries from food self-sufficiency into food deficit areas.

[…]

The current crisis is also being fuelled by speculation. Navdanya cites an investigation by Lighthouse Reports and The Wire to show how speculation by investment firms, banks and hedge funds on agricultural commodities are profiting off rising food prices. Commodity future prices are no longer linked to actual supply and demand in the market but are based purely on speculation.

[…]

Via https://off-guardian.org/2022/08/23/how-food-shortages-economic-collapse-protects-the-status-quo/

By Dennis Kucinich, World BEYOND War, October 26, 2022

CLEVELAND (Oct. 26) Weds – – Dennis J. Kucinich, former Congressman and former Democratic Presidential candidate today called upon Congressional Democrats to “rethink their opposition to diplomacy” as a means to end the war between Russia and Ukraine.

During his eight terms in congress, Kucinich led Democratic members’ efforts against the US-sponsored wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and worked to end the war in the Balkans and to divert war against Iran.

“War is ultimately a failure of political leadership.  Diplomacy is difficult.  It requires intelligence, skill and patience.  The only way wars end is at the negotiating table,” Kucinich said.

Kucinich spoke in response to the recent retraction by the Congressional Progressive Caucus of the letter, signed by 30 Members of Congress, which called upon the Administration to aggressively seek diplomacy to end the most recent conflict which began with Russia’s invasion on February 24 of this year and which has resulted in over 15,000 deaths of Ukrainian civilians, and the deaths of tens of thousands of soldiers from both Ukraine and Russia.

“The Caucus’ letter, far from being sympathetic to Russia, sought to end the suffering of the Ukrainian people, while preserving their independence.  The letter revealed an understanding of the risks of wider war, even a nuclear war, unless diplomacy is pursued,” Kucinich said.

Kucinich reminded Members of Congress that President Jimmy Carter used US diplomacy to achieve the Camp David Accords on September 17, 1978, with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.  US diplomacy brought about the Dayton Accords of November 21, 1995, which ended war in the Balkans.   US Senator George Mitchell of Maine negotiated with multiple parties to bring about the Good Friday Agreement on April 10, 1998, which ended 30 years of deadly conflict in Northern Ireland, known as “The Troubles.”

“Remember the words from John F. Kennedy’s January 20, 1961, Inaugural Address: ‘Let us never negotiate out of fear.  Let us never fear to negotiate.’ It was that type of thinking which produced negotiations between the US and the Soviet Union which averted a nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis, October 16, 1962 – October 29, 1962.

Kucinich said that the obvious strong-arming and silencing of Caucus members who want a negotiated settlement in Ukraine casts the Democratic Party as a “Party of War,” he said. “It’s time for the Party to rethink Democratic opposition to diplomacy.”

“Democrats must not make support for the war, and its expansion, a test of party loyalty. We owe it to the people of Ukraine, Russia, the United States and the world to help negotiate a settlement to end this war which has already had severe global consequences, created energy and food scarcity and propelled sharp price increases,” he said.

US aid to Ukraine in 2022 currently stands in excess of $60 billion.

[…]

Via https://worldbeyondwar.org/kucinich-says-call-for-diplomacy-to-end-ukraine-russia-war-must-be-heard-silencing-of-congressional-progressive-caucus-casts-dems-as-the-war-party/