I love how he must feel the need to defend the fact that the women’s bike is not HIS. Insecure, much?! — or should that be written, ‘In Secure’? I’m sure many here would have given AD a good prod over that. At any rate, I don’t know what exactly an affiliate scholar may actually entail but it sounds like AD has fallen into something and come out smelling like a rose (Now, if he would just quit shoveling…!) even if it means he’s just a temporary short term contract third string player.
Jesus H. Christ. You people are just utterly hideous, you really are. You trawl the net constantly to find any scrap of information you possibly can about Debito, don’t you? It’s truly pathetic.
Why is this ‘newsworthy’? What business of this is yours? How would you like it if a gaggle of freaks ganged up on you and posted any and all personal details they could find about you on their blog?
You should be ashamed of yourselves, but its clear to me you’re beyond that. You’ve no shame or self-awareness at all.
There’s a funny side to this, though. A decent job like that in a fantastic place like Hawaii is far more than you’ll ever achieve. And you know this. Why don’t you try and get a freaking life?
I’ll note that the participant statistics for the East-West Center uses the word ‘affiliate’ (Student Affiliates) in association with those taking seminars/courses there — students at the Masters or Doctoral degree level, mostly. But, it has a much nicer ring to it if one uses the word, ‘scholar’, which, I suppose, is not an incorrect use of the word. Perhaps, his studies will open up his eyes a little to what is happening in Japan.
The mission of the East-West Center is: “The East-West Center promotes better relations and understanding among the people and nations of the United States, Asia, and the Pacific through cooperative study, research, and dialogue.”
Ahh. That makes sense. Based on his comment approval timing this year, I though he might be back in Japan. But Hawaii fits even better. . Anyone know what an affiliate scholar is? Is it just the friend (or husband maybe) of an employed scholar?
And now we know how got a visa. I’d be interested to hear him compare the US and Jspan spouse visa application process.
But… but… in his latest for the Japan Times he writes:
“I’ll give not one, but 10 reasons why I like Japan — enough to have learned the language, married, had children, bought property, taken citizenship and lived here nearly a quarter-century.”
“learned the language” – um, ok…
“married” – and divorced, and advises people to NEVER, EVER, EVER marry a Japanese. Except, apparently, if the Japanese in question is Arudou Debito…
“had children” – see above
“bought property” – Ex-wife has it now
“taken citizenship” – for all the wrong reasons
“lived here nearly a quarter-century” – what is this “here” of which he speaks?
“my editor, constantly put off his beer defending me in bars”
Perhaps if Debito learned to write his editor would not need to drink so much…
“Our media spends more time reporting nice, safe things” – KITV? KHNL? KGMB? I am certain he doesn’t watch KHON, that’s the Fox affiliate…
Honolulu! The bastard won the lottery. Unlike the rest of America Hawaii has a form of socialized healthcare( I know his employer will provide him with healthcare) and the weather, those trade winds are fantastic.
Someone is living the American dream.
Affiliate scholar programme is a short term study opportunity for which you provide your own funding. Either sponsored from an outside body or self-funding.
To be an affiliate scholar you pay 40 dollars a month and have to find a supervisor. There are 480 affiliate scholars a year. Places are based on competition and availability.
I find this interesting, but dislike the tone of the comments.
Living in Hawaii studying at a university sounds awesome, it’s funny since two comments in the JT link (one by James Grey) said explicitly he’s now in Calgary. I wonder why there needs to be drama around where he lives. Again, my only explanation is that he’s planning on announcing it at the end of March (or in his March article), where he’ll do a grand last piece tying together the last 6 or 7 articles he’s written. (A positive article right before the end also fits into this for me.)
Anyways, I’d love to live in Hawaii and am jealous. As an aside, I’ve been checking out Singapore for job opportunities for a little while now as well.
My, your reply was quick. Especially for someone who is above such things as constantly monitoring a site for news…
[I know I say don' feed da trollz, but it doesn't count. I'm not engaging him, it's just he teed up the joke so nice!]
Anyway, hope debito is happy. Hope he has found a position where he will be able to work with other people for a change and perhaps learn something more than he has been able to while working alone.
But every time I think debito may have turned over a new leaf, he just kept kept heading down the same road and stepped harder on the gas.
He really needs to come out and be honest about the fact that he’s not living in Japan, though. He doesn’t have to say *where* he is (that’s no one’s business), but his writing isn’t even ambiguous about him living in Japan, and that’s clearly a lie.
Anyway, I wish him well. He used to seem so miserable with his life, and in the last year or so it’s come through very clearly that he is happier than he’s been in years, and that’s a good thing.
@beneaththewheel: Thanks as always for your honest comment! Yes, it did seem odd that even James Grey wrote to the JT about that! Was there some behind the scenes activity and Mr Grey’s comment printed on Mr Arudou’s OK? I wonder if he’ll allow comment on this topic on his blog?
1. While I know that Japan Times allows for anonymity, I did not know that Japan Times allowed pseudonyms in the “Have Your Say (James Grey)“. Anonymity ≠ Pseudonymity.
2. Very surprised to see Kessler comment. And you know what? I 100% agree with him.
3. My eurasian daughter’s opinion on the word “half” vs “double”. “Half is cool and desirable. Double sounds like a mutant freak. People that think ‘half’ is bad today should learn more Japanese.” I agree.
4. That motocycle kid could totally play the part of “John Conner” in a Terminator 2 reboot. He looks way James Dean cool & rebellious in the military green. If his father doesn’t kill him first by letting him ride a motocycle in urban traffic. If he makes it to his 13th birthday, he’s going to have a lot of j-girls fawning over him.
Given that JT accepts feedback by e-mail and has no real way of verifying ID, there’s no way for them to know if a name is real or not. I guess they just have to leave it to the honor system.
Of course, that means pretty much any of us can be pretty much whoever we want — all we need, at most, is a matching email address (not that people don’t have email addresses that are nothing like their names).
Heck, if we wanted to, we could all email in conflicting opinions as “James Grey”. That’s a James Grey, of course — not necessarily the James Grey / Gray / Di Griz.
Guess the JT will lower their standards to allow for pseudonyms if those are the only people willing to support debito anymore. They feel they need someone to present a contrasting opinion, even if it’s a fake identity.
And it’s funny because we know JG doesn’t even really support debito! He is one of the segment of his faux “fans” who encourage him on as drives toward the cliff, because they want to see him crash.
Hint to debito: Those 100% uncritical supporters of yours are not really your friends.
…
Wow, that was a delusional theory, eh?
I assumed the JT has standards ! Silly me.
I suspect the Japan Times didn’t want to add the blurb about Hawaii at the end-of-the-page and were waiting for Debito to out himself on his own terms & timing, but their hand was forced: If they had published those comments as-is without their added footnote, it would have seemed as if JT was aiding and abetting Debito’s deception-by-omission to its readers — letting its readers think that Debito was living in Calgary when the publishers actually knew where he lived.
So many of both his fans (“James Grey”) and foes attempted to smack JT — by outing Debito as no longer being in Japan (albeit incorrectly in Calgary) — in response to a Japan-bashing article written by a member of the Japan “COMMUNITY“, that JT had no choice but to assuage its readers and let them know that they are not incompetent and are aware that their COMMUNITY columnist no longer lives or works in Japan.
Changing topics, the irony of having a bicycle get stolen overseas after complaining so much about Japanese police randomly stopping people to check for stolen bicycles makes me smirk. So, yes, that added tidbit is very relevant to the topic of Japan rights and this blog.
I agree about “half”. Apologies for upsetting anyone here (and rehashing what is surely an old conversation), but it seems to me that actively complaining about the term is white whine parenting, overlaying a barely hidden obsession with race. (Did any of those people ever wince when someone described themselves or their children as half-French, or half-Italian?). Some people talk as if they were the first ever generation to move country, settle down and have kids. It’s been happening for…er…millenia.
This in particular is bollocks:
The common perception of “half” is incomplete, not whole, and negative.
This is innumerate idiocy. A half plus a half makes ONE. Or is he (as one tends to suspect on this issue) not quite counting the Japanese half as a full half? Maybe 0.49 only? What if someone is half Japanese, a quarter German and a quarter Indian? Is that description racist? Should the child be called a Triple? A Quadruple? What is this mad and magical mathematics he has invented?
I suspect the following would strike a chord with those of us here with kids. My older child is quite pale and I talk to him in English; other parents in the park sometimes don’t realise he’s half Japanese – until they hear me say his name. “Ara…Haafu desu ka?” “Sou desu.”
And *without fail* the next thing they say:
“A, sugoi desu ne.”
After reading Mr Hinkelman’s letter, I worry now that my usual response – to say thank you and perhaps enter into a conversation about raising bilingual children – is wrong. Should I instead be punching them for the racism?
Also: if JT didn’t publish any of the comments mentioning Calgary (or censor or edit them), then its readers would still think that JT was aiding and abetting Debito’s deception-by-omission.
They were in a lose-lose situation. They had to say where Debito was and what he was doing.
So score two points for the readers of JT: they forced JT to admit the truth about Debito.
And it’s funny because we know JG doesn’t even really support debito! He is one of the segment of his faux “fans” who encourage him on as drives toward the cliff, because they want to see him crash.
You know, reading that letter, I really do wonder…
Poe’s law, named after its author Nathan Poe, is an Internet adage reflecting the fact that without a clear indication of the author’s intent, it is difficult or impossible to tell the difference between sincere extremism and an exaggerated parody of extremism.
The indications are that he moved to Hawaii at the very end of 2011. I’m guessing that the JT hasn’t wanted to reveal his status before as being a bum in Canada doesn’t really add to his credibility. While now his status as a research student is compatIblr with his role as an expert commentator on Japanese/foreigner relations and rights.
Just read his latest column, and wow, was he out of touch with North American culture. It read like he thought you couldn’t get mechanical pencils or multi-coloured click pens in America, and what’s with dropping the reference to Samurai Jack and Powerpuff Girls, both of which haven’t aired new material in a decade?
Sorry, I know that’s off-topic for this thread, but I just had to say *something* about it.
Although we can’t be sure this is you either — if it is, and you didn’t, and someone else did, that would explain why it reads almost like parody. It is.
This Just Be Cause list involves an interesting absence of “people” except that they’re good at putting out chairs and drawing. (Although it’s interesting that he’s using “we” and “our” a lot more now he’s been out of the country.)
Japanese as a language is highly contextualized (say the wrong word and mandarins just sit on their hands)
This sounds cool. Is it on YouTube?
My theory is that the Occident just can’t do cute or silly without sarcasm seeping in (even Disney resorts to wise-cracking). Shooting for it include France’s Barbapapa (which comes off as “easy to draw,” not cute), Finland’s weird Moomins (with that evil-looking Little My character) and Britain’s even weirder Teletubbies (arguing its cuteness will give you a hernia; watch while stoned).
In what way are the Moomins sarcastic or silly? How is Babar easier to draw than Ampanman or Doraemon? And the teletubbies aren’t cute?
His defence of his previous writings is a little nauseating. It’s not that he hasn’t been nice, it’s that he’s been spinning paranoid bullshit wrapped up in bitterness. Criticism is great if it’s clearly based in reality.
Tough luck. That’s the sucky thing about being a ‘nym. In exchange for the semi-privacy, you have to accept the compromise that nobody will believe anything about: who you are or are not, your education, who you work for, how much money you make, where you live, what your sex is, how old you are, etc.
Just as we can’t verify who you are, we can’t verify who you are not.
I believe your statement about as much as I believe Laxman’s tax returns or anything other personal claim I coming from a nym. Why should I? They’re nyms. You can’t verify anything they say about themselves.
The reason the column sounds out-of-date is because it is. If you read the disclaimer, it’s a reprint (with some slight variations) of an older article (more than two years) in another publication.
When it came to saying something positive, he literally couldn’t think of anything fresh to write. And even when he recycled, he had to sprinkle some negativity in.
If I was his editor, I’d be furious that I was paying him for sloppy seconds. (and non-exclusivity: I try to read on debito.org so I don’t generate as much money for Japan Times’ online impression based advertising)
Think what you want about DA, but to make a whole website dedicated to hating a person is just sick. You people should really nauseate yourselves, but I suspect you’re so caught up in the most intense form of navel gazing imaginable you actually think there is some meaning in your compulsive return to this shrine.
HAHA! I and everyone except tepido.org knew all along that debito was not living in Japan, and is now living in Hawaii, and I have known this since forever, even when he was living in Canada, even when he was living in Japan, and have never once mentioned that I had first-hand knowledge that he wasn’t in Japan because it was vitally important that nobody knew he was not in Japan, and especially important that tepido writers not know where debito lives, more so than making sure the mafia doesn’t know the location of someone in the Federal Witness Protection Program..
because now the tepidoes who knew debito wasn’t in Japan.. will know that debito still isn’t in Japan.
But he’s in Hawaii, not Canada! At least not now! Take THAT!
Look, hoof, your glee at pointing out the obvious and adding in some lies just makes our point. debito not being in Japan hurts his cred.
Yeah, I saw that, but even for 2009, it’s hopelessly out of date. Mechanical pencils and multi-colour clickpens and rainbow pens were around when I was a kid in the 1980s. PPG and SJ are both from the late 90s. He sounds like someone’s lame dad trying to look cool to his son’s friends.
I feel as sorry for Rick Grundwinckle almost as much as I feel sorry for debito. Both of them seem to have had a smile and an eikaiwa job and a pocket full of dreams when they first moved to Japan, and for whatever reason things didn’t pan out for them. Now they’ve become bitter old men alternatively arguing or playing smug on the Internet. What a life to lead.
I’ve asked my friends to shoot me if I ever start posting the same kind of crap on Facebook as they do
Wonder if he’s going to throw a hissy fit the first time someone calls him a haole and he gets his ass kicked. Say what you will about Japan I’ve never had anyone try to kick my ass for being a gaijin.
If you mean restore by naturalization, (meaning he must do everything that a alien immigrating to the U.S. does, including earning permanent residency), then yes, I agree. The U.S. Foreign Affairs Manual issued to consulates, on the section related to renouncing your U.S. citizenship, specifically lists this as a way for a renouncer to get U.S. citizenship back.
Much like a foreigner, though, this will take years to earn and there are no guarantees. Naturalization is a privilege, not a right.
If you mean restore by voiding/annulling/revoking/canceling his issued CLN (certificate of loss of nationality), something both he (through a scan on his site) and the federal register (through a web search) has verified as having been issued to him, no, this is not possible.
Arudou quite assertively and consciously renounced his American citizenship. The account of him doing so is somewhere on his website, being quite unpleasant to the consular official in the process (it’s one of those accounts he writes where he comes off very badly but doesn’t seem to realise). In these circumstances I understand it may be more difficult to pretend it was not intentional.
As for those complaining about this site: Mr Arudou has put his life on line and demanded that people look at it as an example of how to live here and of the supposed intense oppressivness and racism of the population here. He facilitates racialised paranoia through his writings and website, thriving off the culture shock of others. (He won’t allow even well-mannered criticism on his own forum – so much for free speech). And it’s not just about him. He stands for a type of westerner in Japan that rather pollutes the environment for the rest of us non-natives.
We don’t hate Debito the person. We dislike the philosophy that the organization of debito (aka “debito.org”) and the people it indoctrinates, such as Christopher Johnson (there are other disciples — he’s merely a recent example), breeds.
It’s a culture of English language entitlement and superiority and false minority victimization and blame shifting with a small dash of Japan-hating/bashing, disguising itself as human rights activism in order to avoid reproach and self-examination — sometimes piggybacking off of legitimate issues (yes, there are human rights problems in Japan, just like everywhere else in the world) to excuse its believers of personal responsibility.
Debito may not have invented this concept, but he willingly claimed the mantle for Japan and has tried numerous times to be the de-facto leader of the English speaking Japan minority.
Debito is merely the current figurehead. If someone else took his place and ran debito.org or changed its name, we’d be against debito.org in its new form.
He knew that tepido decided pull the information regarding his temporary whereabouts because in retrospect ken decided it was inappropriate because the information was judged to be of questionable “public” nature (few people know that importers/exporters publicly publishes the personal info of private large container shippers. it’s not clear that debito would have chosen that method if he knew the pii ramifications).
Hoofin also knew that tepido decided that even if they knew where he was (ex. Hawaii), tepido wouldn’t publish it again unless it became official knowledge (like published in a newspaper that he’s part of, like The Japan Times).
How do I know that Hoofin knows this *?
Because I told him. On Skype. Many months ago. We had this conversation after all the back-and-forth about stalking flying between the sites and after we had a public written indirect exchange.
Hoofin should have known/remembered that tepido agreed not to publish that info until it became public via a canon source because I told him.
* In his defense, he could have forgotten. It was a long conversation (98 minutes) with multiple parts (we were disconnected twice).
You’re missing an important detail – Arudou quite clearly, deliberately, unequivocally renounced his citizenship, with no element of duress from any state authority or person. It’s a different situation to Kahane, who had the choice forced on him.
Thanks for the explanation.
So, it’s even worse than I guessed.
hoofin knew tepido.org people knew, yet says they didn’t? And spinning tepido.org respecting debito’s privacy as ignorance and shouting “gotcha”?
Whoa!
Crikey. In Honolulu and married.
Lots of things our mate Debs hasn’t been telling us.
I love how he must feel the need to defend the fact that the women’s bike is not HIS. Insecure, much?! — or should that be written, ‘In Secure’? I’m sure many here would have given AD a good prod over that. At any rate, I don’t know what exactly an affiliate scholar may actually entail but it sounds like AD has fallen into something and come out smelling like a rose (Now, if he would just quit shoveling…!) even if it means he’s just a temporary short term contract third string player.
Jesus H. Christ. You people are just utterly hideous, you really are. You trawl the net constantly to find any scrap of information you possibly can about Debito, don’t you? It’s truly pathetic.
Why is this ‘newsworthy’? What business of this is yours? How would you like it if a gaggle of freaks ganged up on you and posted any and all personal details they could find about you on their blog?
You should be ashamed of yourselves, but its clear to me you’re beyond that. You’ve no shame or self-awareness at all.
There’s a funny side to this, though. A decent job like that in a fantastic place like Hawaii is far more than you’ll ever achieve. And you know this. Why don’t you try and get a freaking life?
I’ll note that the participant statistics for the East-West Center uses the word ‘affiliate’ (Student Affiliates) in association with those taking seminars/courses there — students at the Masters or Doctoral degree level, mostly. But, it has a much nicer ring to it if one uses the word, ‘scholar’, which, I suppose, is not an incorrect use of the word. Perhaps, his studies will open up his eyes a little to what is happening in Japan.
The mission of the East-West Center is: “The East-West Center promotes better relations and understanding among the people and nations of the United States, Asia, and the Pacific through cooperative study, research, and dialogue.”
Ahh. That makes sense. Based on his comment approval timing this year, I though he might be back in Japan. But Hawaii fits even better. . Anyone know what an affiliate scholar is? Is it just the friend (or husband maybe) of an employed scholar?
And now we know how got a visa. I’d be interested to hear him compare the US and Jspan spouse visa application process.
But… but… in his latest for the Japan Times he writes:
“I’ll give not one, but 10 reasons why I like Japan — enough to have learned the language, married, had children, bought property, taken citizenship and lived here nearly a quarter-century.”
“learned the language” – um, ok…
“married” – and divorced, and advises people to NEVER, EVER, EVER marry a Japanese. Except, apparently, if the Japanese in question is Arudou Debito…
“had children” – see above
“bought property” – Ex-wife has it now
“taken citizenship” – for all the wrong reasons
“lived here nearly a quarter-century” – what is this “here” of which he speaks?
“my editor, constantly put off his beer defending me in bars”
Perhaps if Debito learned to write his editor would not need to drink so much…
“Our media spends more time reporting nice, safe things” – KITV? KHNL? KGMB? I am certain he doesn’t watch KHON, that’s the Fox affiliate…
Honolulu! The bastard won the lottery. Unlike the rest of America Hawaii has a form of socialized healthcare( I know his employer will provide him with healthcare) and the weather, those trade winds are fantastic.
Someone is living the American dream.
http://www.eastwestcenter.org/education/student-programs/opportunities-for-study/affiliate-scholar-program
Affiliate scholar programme is a short term study opportunity for which you provide your own funding. Either sponsored from an outside body or self-funding.
Isn’t that bike theft an anti-foreigner crime?
To be an affiliate scholar you pay 40 dollars a month and have to find a supervisor. There are 480 affiliate scholars a year. Places are based on competition and availability.
http://www.eastwestcenter.org/fileadmin/resources/education/affiliate_scholar/AS_Overview_Application_Instructions_May09.doc
He’s a non-graduating research student. Those fees are incredibly low, though; thesis supervision is labour intensive. Is this simply a library pass?
I find this interesting, but dislike the tone of the comments.
Living in Hawaii studying at a university sounds awesome, it’s funny since two comments in the JT link (one by James Grey) said explicitly he’s now in Calgary. I wonder why there needs to be drama around where he lives. Again, my only explanation is that he’s planning on announcing it at the end of March (or in his March article), where he’ll do a grand last piece tying together the last 6 or 7 articles he’s written. (A positive article right before the end also fits into this for me.)
Anyways, I’d love to live in Hawaii and am jealous. As an aside, I’ve been checking out Singapore for job opportunities for a little while now as well.
@Unimpressed:
My, your reply was quick. Especially for someone who is above such things as constantly monitoring a site for news…
[I know I say don' feed da trollz, but it doesn't count. I'm not engaging him, it's just he teed up the joke so nice!]
Anyway, hope debito is happy. Hope he has found a position where he will be able to work with other people for a change and perhaps learn something more than he has been able to while working alone.
But every time I think debito may have turned over a new leaf, he just kept kept heading down the same road and stepped harder on the gas.
Maybe not this time…
Wow, Hawaii! I’m envious, haha.
He really needs to come out and be honest about the fact that he’s not living in Japan, though. He doesn’t have to say *where* he is (that’s no one’s business), but his writing isn’t even ambiguous about him living in Japan, and that’s clearly a lie.
Anyway, I wish him well. He used to seem so miserable with his life, and in the last year or so it’s come through very clearly that he is happier than he’s been in years, and that’s a good thing.
@beneaththewheel: Thanks as always for your honest comment! Yes, it did seem odd that even James Grey wrote to the JT about that! Was there some behind the scenes activity and Mr Grey’s comment printed on Mr Arudou’s OK? I wonder if he’ll allow comment on this topic on his blog?
@Unimpressed:
“Why is this ‘newsworthy’?”
Um, perhaps because it was published in a newspaper?
If you feel that Debito is not news-worthy, you should be complaining to the Japan Times, not us.
Oh, snap!
Four quick comments:
1. While I know that Japan Times allows for anonymity, I did not know that Japan Times allowed pseudonyms in the “Have Your Say (James Grey)“. Anonymity ≠ Pseudonymity.
2. Very surprised to see Kessler comment. And you know what? I 100% agree with him.
3. My eurasian daughter’s opinion on the word “half” vs “double”. “Half is cool and desirable. Double sounds like a mutant freak. People that think ‘half’ is bad today should learn more Japanese.” I agree.
4. That motocycle kid could totally play the part of “John Conner” in a Terminator 2 reboot. He looks way James Dean cool & rebellious in the military green. If his father doesn’t kill him first by letting him ride a motocycle in urban traffic. If he makes it to his 13th birthday, he’s going to have a lot of j-girls fawning over him.
The building where his bike was stolen is where you can register for a social security number or pick up a state ID.
http://www.eastwestcenter.org/education/student-programs/new-student-orientation/state-id-and-ssn
“International student may not obtain a social security number, unless the student has a job offer and valid employment authorization.”
http://hawaii.gov/ag/hcjdc
@Eido INOUE:
Given that JT accepts feedback by e-mail and has no real way of verifying ID, there’s no way for them to know if a name is real or not. I guess they just have to leave it to the honor system.
Of course, that means pretty much any of us can be pretty much whoever we want — all we need, at most, is a matching email address (not that people don’t have email addresses that are nothing like their names).
Heck, if we wanted to, we could all email in conflicting opinions as “James Grey”. That’s a James Grey, of course — not necessarily the James Grey / Gray / Di Griz.
@Eido INOUE:
Guess the JT will lower their standards to allow for pseudonyms if those are the only people willing to support debito anymore. They feel they need someone to present a contrasting opinion, even if it’s a fake identity.
And it’s funny because we know JG doesn’t even really support debito! He is one of the segment of his faux “fans” who encourage him on as drives toward the cliff, because they want to see him crash.
Hint to debito: Those 100% uncritical supporters of yours are not really your friends.
…
Wow, that was a delusional theory, eh?
I assumed the JT has standards ! Silly me.
@lostinube
Debito already has an SSN. Perhaps he was going in for an ID. If so, according to that link:
“You will be fingerprinted and photographed”
Those xenophobic, racist bastards!!!!! Fingerprinting foreigners like they are criminals!
I suspect the Japan Times didn’t want to add the blurb about Hawaii at the end-of-the-page and were waiting for Debito to out himself on his own terms & timing, but their hand was forced: If they had published those comments as-is without their added footnote, it would have seemed as if JT was aiding and abetting Debito’s deception-by-omission to its readers — letting its readers think that Debito was living in Calgary when the publishers actually knew where he lived.
So many of both his fans (“James Grey”) and foes attempted to smack JT — by outing Debito as no longer being in Japan (albeit incorrectly in Calgary) — in response to a Japan-bashing article written by a member of the Japan “COMMUNITY“, that JT had no choice but to assuage its readers and let them know that they are not incompetent and are aware that their COMMUNITY columnist no longer lives or works in Japan.
Changing topics, the irony of having a bicycle get stolen overseas after complaining so much about Japanese police randomly stopping people to check for stolen bicycles makes me smirk. So, yes, that added tidbit is very relevant to the topic of Japan rights and this blog.
@iago:
You forgot “Jane Grey“.
@Eido INOUE:
I agree about “half”. Apologies for upsetting anyone here (and rehashing what is surely an old conversation), but it seems to me that actively complaining about the term is white whine parenting, overlaying a barely hidden obsession with race. (Did any of those people ever wince when someone described themselves or their children as half-French, or half-Italian?). Some people talk as if they were the first ever generation to move country, settle down and have kids. It’s been happening for…er…millenia.
This in particular is bollocks:
The common perception of “half” is incomplete, not whole, and negative.
This is innumerate idiocy. A half plus a half makes ONE. Or is he (as one tends to suspect on this issue) not quite counting the Japanese half as a full half? Maybe 0.49 only? What if someone is half Japanese, a quarter German and a quarter Indian? Is that description racist? Should the child be called a Triple? A Quadruple? What is this mad and magical mathematics he has invented?
I suspect the following would strike a chord with those of us here with kids. My older child is quite pale and I talk to him in English; other parents in the park sometimes don’t realise he’s half Japanese – until they hear me say his name. “Ara…Haafu desu ka?” “Sou desu.”
And *without fail* the next thing they say:
“A, sugoi desu ne.”
After reading Mr Hinkelman’s letter, I worry now that my usual response – to say thank you and perhaps enter into a conversation about raising bilingual children – is wrong. Should I instead be punching them for the racism?
@Eido INOUE:
@Eido INOUE:
Also: if JT didn’t publish any of the comments mentioning Calgary (or censor or edit them), then its readers would still think that JT was aiding and abetting Debito’s deception-by-omission.
They were in a lose-lose situation. They had to say where Debito was and what he was doing.
So score two points for the readers of JT: they forced JT to admit the truth about Debito.
@Level3:
You know, reading that letter, I really do wonder…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe's_law
Weather beats the hell out of Hokkaido or Calgary, good for him.
The indications are that he moved to Hawaii at the very end of 2011. I’m guessing that the JT hasn’t wanted to reveal his status before as being a bum in Canada doesn’t really add to his credibility. While now his status as a research student is compatIblr with his role as an expert commentator on Japanese/foreigner relations and rights.
Just read his latest column, and wow, was he out of touch with North American culture. It read like he thought you couldn’t get mechanical pencils or multi-coloured click pens in America, and what’s with dropping the reference to Samurai Jack and Powerpuff Girls, both of which haven’t aired new material in a decade?
Sorry, I know that’s off-topic for this thread, but I just had to say *something* about it.
I did not send a letter to the Japan Times, some one is pretending to be me.
@James/Jane Grey/Gray:
Although we can’t be sure this is you either — if it is, and you didn’t, and someone else did, that would explain why it reads almost like parody. It is.
I guess.
Ken knows its me.
This Just Be Cause list involves an interesting absence of “people” except that they’re good at putting out chairs and drawing. (Although it’s interesting that he’s using “we” and “our” a lot more now he’s been out of the country.)
Japanese as a language is highly contextualized (say the wrong word and mandarins just sit on their hands)
This sounds cool. Is it on YouTube?
My theory is that the Occident just can’t do cute or silly without sarcasm seeping in (even Disney resorts to wise-cracking). Shooting for it include France’s Barbapapa (which comes off as “easy to draw,” not cute), Finland’s weird Moomins (with that evil-looking Little My character) and Britain’s even weirder Teletubbies (arguing its cuteness will give you a hernia; watch while stoned).
In what way are the Moomins sarcastic or silly? How is Babar easier to draw than Ampanman or Doraemon? And the teletubbies aren’t cute?
His defence of his previous writings is a little nauseating. It’s not that he hasn’t been nice, it’s that he’s been spinning paranoid bullshit wrapped up in bitterness. Criticism is great if it’s clearly based in reality.
Oh dear. Now he’ll have to change his name to Debito
Arukaloekilwakila’a'lokawaki’a'a’aaeiou.
@James/Jane Grey/Gray:
Tough luck. That’s the sucky thing about being a ‘nym. In exchange for the semi-privacy, you have to accept the compromise that nobody will believe anything about: who you are or are not, your education, who you work for, how much money you make, where you live, what your sex is, how old you are, etc.
Just as we can’t verify who you are, we can’t verify who you are not.
I believe your statement about as much as I believe Laxman’s tax returns or anything other personal claim I coming from a nym. Why should I? They’re nyms. You can’t verify anything they say about themselves.
“On the internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.”
@VK: Besides, Peppa Pig out-cutes all of those. SNNNNNOOOOOONNNNNKKKK
@Shaun:
The reason the column sounds out-of-date is because it is. If you read the disclaimer, it’s a reprint (with some slight variations) of an older article (more than two years) in another publication.
When it came to saying something positive, he literally couldn’t think of anything fresh to write. And even when he recycled, he had to sprinkle some negativity in.
If I was his editor, I’d be furious that I was paying him for sloppy seconds. (and non-exclusivity: I try to read on debito.org so I don’t generate as much money for Japan Times’ online impression based advertising)
everyone is assuming that debito does not have US citizenship. in fact it is easy to restore it.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/shayana-kadidal/senator-liebermans-latest_b_566461.html
Think what you want about DA, but to make a whole website dedicated to hating a person is just sick. You people should really nauseate yourselves, but I suspect you’re so caught up in the most intense form of navel gazing imaginable you actually think there is some meaning in your compulsive return to this shrine.
Wow! hoofin just keeps getting funnier.
Let’s paraphrase:
HAHA! I and everyone except tepido.org knew all along that debito was not living in Japan, and is now living in Hawaii, and I have known this since forever, even when he was living in Canada, even when he was living in Japan, and have never once mentioned that I had first-hand knowledge that he wasn’t in Japan because it was vitally important that nobody knew he was not in Japan, and especially important that tepido writers not know where debito lives, more so than making sure the mafia doesn’t know the location of someone in the Federal Witness Protection Program..
because now the tepidoes who knew debito wasn’t in Japan.. will know that debito still isn’t in Japan.
But he’s in Hawaii, not Canada! At least not now! Take THAT!
Look, hoof, your glee at pointing out the obvious and adding in some lies just makes our point. debito not being in Japan hurts his cred.
@Eido INOUE:
Yeah, I saw that, but even for 2009, it’s hopelessly out of date. Mechanical pencils and multi-colour clickpens and rainbow pens were around when I was a kid in the 1980s. PPG and SJ are both from the late 90s. He sounds like someone’s lame dad trying to look cool to his son’s friends.
I feel as sorry for Rick Grundwinckle almost as much as I feel sorry for debito. Both of them seem to have had a smile and an eikaiwa job and a pocket full of dreams when they first moved to Japan, and for whatever reason things didn’t pan out for them. Now they’ve become bitter old men alternatively arguing or playing smug on the Internet. What a life to lead.
I’ve asked my friends to shoot me if I ever start posting the same kind of crap on Facebook as they do
Wonder if he’s going to throw a hissy fit the first time someone calls him a haole and he gets his ass kicked. Say what you will about Japan I’ve never had anyone try to kick my ass for being a gaijin.
@Matt@occidentalism.org:
Please define “easy to restore.”
If you mean restore by naturalization, (meaning he must do everything that a alien immigrating to the U.S. does, including earning permanent residency), then yes, I agree. The U.S. Foreign Affairs Manual issued to consulates, on the section related to renouncing your U.S. citizenship, specifically lists this as a way for a renouncer to get U.S. citizenship back.
Much like a foreigner, though, this will take years to earn and there are no guarantees. Naturalization is a privilege, not a right.
If you mean restore by voiding/annulling/revoking/canceling his issued CLN (certificate of loss of nationality), something both he (through a scan on his site) and the federal register (through a web search) has verified as having been issued to him, no, this is not possible.
@Matt@occidentalism.org: Matt,
Arudou quite assertively and consciously renounced his American citizenship. The account of him doing so is somewhere on his website, being quite unpleasant to the consular official in the process (it’s one of those accounts he writes where he comes off very badly but doesn’t seem to realise). In these circumstances I understand it may be more difficult to pretend it was not intentional.
As for those complaining about this site: Mr Arudou has put his life on line and demanded that people look at it as an example of how to live here and of the supposed intense oppressivness and racism of the population here. He facilitates racialised paranoia through his writings and website, thriving off the culture shock of others. (He won’t allow even well-mannered criticism on his own forum – so much for free speech). And it’s not just about him. He stands for a type of westerner in Japan that rather pollutes the environment for the rest of us non-natives.
@Ryan:
Hi Ryan. You must be new here.
We don’t hate Debito the person. We dislike the philosophy that the organization of debito (aka “debito.org”) and the people it indoctrinates, such as Christopher Johnson (there are other disciples — he’s merely a recent example), breeds.
It’s a culture of English language entitlement and superiority and false minority victimization and blame shifting with a small dash of Japan-hating/bashing, disguising itself as human rights activism in order to avoid reproach and self-examination — sometimes piggybacking off of legitimate issues (yes, there are human rights problems in Japan, just like everywhere else in the world) to excuse its believers of personal responsibility.
Debito may not have invented this concept, but he willingly claimed the mantle for Japan and has tried numerous times to be the de-facto leader of the English speaking Japan minority.
Debito is merely the current figurehead. If someone else took his place and ran debito.org or changed its name, we’d be against debito.org in its new form.
@Level3:
Hoofin is leaving out some information.
He knew that tepido decided pull the information regarding his temporary whereabouts because in retrospect ken decided it was inappropriate because the information was judged to be of questionable “public” nature (few people know that importers/exporters publicly publishes the personal info of private large container shippers. it’s not clear that debito would have chosen that method if he knew the pii ramifications).
Hoofin also knew that tepido decided that even if they knew where he was (ex. Hawaii), tepido wouldn’t publish it again unless it became official knowledge (like published in a newspaper that he’s part of, like The Japan Times).
How do I know that Hoofin knows this *?
Because I told him. On Skype. Many months ago. We had this conversation after all the back-and-forth about stalking flying between the sites and after we had a public written indirect exchange.
Hoofin should have known/remembered that tepido agreed not to publish that info until it became public via a canon source because I told him.
* In his defense, he could have forgotten. It was a long conversation (98 minutes) with multiple parts (we were disconnected twice).
Eido, with respect you are wrong. Courts have established it. Read carefully the case of Mr. Kahane, whom renounced his US citizenship.
http://www.vdare.com/articles/insight-debate
@Matt@occidentalism.org:
You’re missing an important detail – Arudou quite clearly, deliberately, unequivocally renounced his citizenship, with no element of duress from any state authority or person. It’s a different situation to Kahane, who had the choice forced on him.
@Eido INOUE:
Thanks for the explanation.
So, it’s even worse than I guessed.
hoofin knew tepido.org people knew, yet says they didn’t? And spinning tepido.org respecting debito’s privacy as ignorance and shouting “gotcha”?
Shameless.