…his post as Chair of FRANCA only, it appears. Looking at his Linked In profile, his role as Chair of FRANCA (that "Writing and Editing Industry" organisation, it says) has entered the past tense. Furthermore, I did a little checking of his blog, and it seems that the last post from Mr Arudou that featured the FRANCA logo was his "I’m off on holiday" one.
Next, looking at FRANCA’s page on Facebook, I see this message:
Update on FRANCA: Due to the upheaval created by the massive earthquake and nuclear crisis, FRANCA as an organization will be laying low for a while. Many members live in the areas affected; others have big changes in their personal lives. We are resting, but not gone. Please keep in touch, everyone, and anyone who is interested can contact FRANCA via Facebook. Thank you to everyone for your interest and support!
21 July at 07:49
Anyone have further details? Eido, there seems to have been some activity on their mailing list recently – care to share? BTW, here’s a critique of FRANCA’s web site. FRANCA Sendai’s web site seems to have disappeared.
Talking of laying low, I find it disappointing that although Mr Arudou has been online over the weekend, judging by a few comments getting approved during that period, he found no time to post about this demonstration from Monday:
[addressing the direct reference to me in the post]
Honestly, I haven’t looked at that mailing list in ages. I know this sounds lame, but I believe it was Yahoo (U.S.) based and I just couldn’t be bothered with making another account for another service at that time.
… make that maintaining and checking up on another account. I had to make the Yahoo! account to join the group, but I nuked the subscription and account after I determined (apparently incorrectly) that nothing was going on and nothing probably would occur in the future that would interest me.
Again the hypocrisy on resume details must be making Mike Guest go
“PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
1) ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, Faculty of Business Administration, Hokkaido Information University, Ebetsu, Hokkaido, Japan (1993 to present).
Research Field: Japan’s Internationalization, and Racial Discrimination in Japan (rest abridged)”
Not only avoiding mentioning in any way that his uni job is actually eikaiwa. But wording the entry to imply he is some sort of professor of international business relations. With the cover-his-ass “rest abridged” tacked on. Just wonder why the rest needs to be abridged, is there some sort of character count limit on the website, but only on that particular section?
He forgot to bring it up in the Career section too. If he hadn’t mentioned his membership in JALT, there’d be no clue at all to what his job actually is (was?) It almost begs a JALT member to challenge him, audio recorder in hand, at the next conference and ask “Uh, why do you not mention anywhere on your profile that you teach English? Are you ashamed of your job? If so, why are you even here?”
and this
“over 5000 essays on living in Japan”
He has a wealth of great info on his site, (and a ewalth of propaganda crap, but still) why the fuck exaggerate it? 5000?!?!
Blog entries saying “Check this out, I think it’s cool” followed up with “Your dissenting opinion is off topic, net stalking bully!” are not “essays”.
Just say “ran a well-recognized blog for x years”. It would be true and still fairly impressive.
5000 “essays”? Really?
An honest resume could still be quite impressive, and all the more so for being true. Debito, despite his flaws, has some achievements. But setting himself up as a business-related professor of 18 year experience with no business publications?
I wish debito well, but for his own sake, I hope nobody in a position to hire him pays attention to this profile, and that his paper-based resume in more honest.
Amusing, wonder if he ever filed tax returns for FRANCA. Oh well, he can inflate his resume all he wants, all one has to do is google him and the gig is up.
He may as well give up. Check out the latest article on Donald Keene in the JT.
The last paragraph is nice. When was the last (or first, for that matter) time Debito received actual correspondence from real people whose lives were directly improved by his actions, as opposed to fellatory blog comments?
Well, as we’ve seen from his other comments, (including my favourite – “my research has been on Japan’s internationalization, not merely how Japanese people should best learn English”), he obviously is ashamed of his job. Very frustrating, considering that there are people with doctorates in linguistics and TESOL who would kill for a tenured position, and who actually have an interest and a research record in the field.
I don’t usually approve of people having a go at Debito for being an “eikaiwa” teacher (largely because that’s a totally meaningless label), but if he has such a low opinion of his job why doesn’t he just fuck off and let a real professional in the field do it?
I agree that “eikaiwa teacher” is not an epithet. I reserve “mere eikaiwa teacher” for:
A. Those who treat it as a means to an end…that “end” often being a “bottom”, that “bottom” being either the bottom of a bottle or one wrapped in a miniskirt, often both and often during work hours.
B. Those like debito who (in full pot and kettle mode) have used “mere eikaiwa teacher” as an ad hominem attack against someone they disagree with, while teaching eikaiwa himself.
C As an ad hominem attack myself (yes, I am trying to cut down, it’s lazy and bad debate form) for the Fresh Off The Boat type who couldn’t even fill out an application for JLPT4 but make themselves out as “Japan experts” because they’ve lived in a gaijin house in Tokyo for 6 months, spewing the kind of borderline-racist opinions that earn praise at debito.org.
There are many dedicated professionals, though I tend to think of them as “ESL professionals” rather than “eikaiwa teachers”.
But to rewrite a quote from Denis Miller: “It’s those few rotten thousands who ruin the image of the other dozen.”
That’s a very touching, very good article.
Talking of very good articles, here’s one on Peace Boat and the earthquake. I found lines like this expressed vaguely familiar complaints…
I really have to ask what research has he performed? Almost everything I see he has published is anecdotes and superficial reporting of third-party sources. There is, I suppose, the PhD thesis, but the one section that he did publish seemed to be not much more than a book review.
And we have a winner! That’s, basically, the story. David calls another professor who claims that he was teaching more than English – well here’s the words right out of the horses
assmouth.And BONUS – I completely missed his little comment about “misleading” by claiming he’s part of the faculty without noting that all he does is teach english!
http://www.debito.org/hashimorihumbug.html
Ken, who has a phd?
(Finally got to see the video. Doesn’t work on an iPad and my office proxy isn’t keen on videos either.)
I had a hard time working out what they were chanting in some parts. Wouldn’t the local patois been a *tad* more effective? They did have a few banners written in Japanese but they weren’t being held up nearly as well as the English banners were.
I applaud their attempt but it seemed a bit lonely. Any idea who the group was and why there wasn’t a bit more of getting the word out about this demonstration? Or did I just miss it?
I think Debito is planning or executing an exit strategy as we speak. Judging from the lack of recent postings, should we conclude he is backing out? His efforts will be missed, but recently he has been a bit cranky. A Debito type will leave, but surely return once he realizes he might not be as relavant in his new country. Or will he? I know once I leave Japan, I wont return, because I dont like it here, and never will. I hasnt become my safety zone, its a zone I will leave and never want to return to once I get comfie somewhere else. The problem for me is finding that somewhere else. Is Debito experiencing the same? Who knows. Wil he be an activist somewhere else? Probably not. I think he is just burned out here and realize he is not relavant (as most of us arent) and given up on it.
The JT articles about Dispora, the death of a friend and saying he can’t make any friends sounds like someone who realizes the has chased away most, if not all of his allies. I suspect he will either
As for the protest…why in English?
Sad thing is that as much as he dumps on successful people like Keene, Dave’s going to go on to become a bitter, unloved old man, full of impotent hate, while all the people he bashes will be surrounded by friends and loved ones.
Well, I suppose it was targetted at VP Biden rather than the Japanese government.
http://crnjapan.net/The_Japan_Childrens_Rights_Network/itn-dmtajb.html
It was from the CRN Japan:
http://crnjapan.net/The_Japan_Childrens_Rights_Network/itn-dmtajb.html
That’s why I was surprised Mr Arudou didn’t forward the message.
Of course, Mr Arudou does not, but he is working on one at the moment. He did publish what I presume was an extract from it:
http://www.debito.org/?p=8876
back to the main topic
“FRANCA as an organization will be laying low for a while”
Wasn’t it already laying low? Were there any FRANCA group activities in 2010?
It’s going on quintuple secret probation!
Perhaps he will finish it this summer and discover the wide world of new job opportunities that await him!
I think it’s gone from laying low to laying six feet under.
There was a couple of chapter meetings in 2010; that was it, I think.
I think the only public protest FRANCA was ever involved in was the “Mr. James” brouhaha. That was 2009.
I’m sure they choose their battles wisely.
I seem to remember that their membership fees were quite high – I wonder what they spent their money on.
It really does seem that he has been winding down his “activism” (or should that be “organising”?) since the start of this year, with his “book”-writing break and now summer holiday, his posting has been a lot more irregular than previously. I guess he’s going soon; I hope a move works out for him.
I’m sure David wisely spent the money checking to make sure that non-asian Japanese citizens were given equal access to the SE Asian girly bars.
So basically, just enough meetings to use as an excuse to collect annual dues? I mean, I don’t think debito is motivated by monetary greed and I assume used the money for legit stuff like registering the organization, website hosting, printing handouts? renting meeting space? and maybe paying for his personal travel to meetings… I don’t know what else the what? maybe half million yen over a few years? could be used for. A reserve fund to pay for legal aid to help FRANCA activities? Well, now that’s out the window.
In the end it’s just a life lesson and a warning to future debito.orgers that giving money to a debito-run club is money down the drain?
Or were there at least decent “free” refreshments and drinks at the meetings?
Again, I just wish there were more honesty. “We no longer have enough members to even think about doing anything effective, so we’re shutting down, for good.” would be a respectable reason. Understandable.
They can leave out the even more honest reason, “We can’t recruit new members because we have no record of accomplishments to inspire potential recruits, nor a good explanation of what the 10,000 yen annual fee is used for.” We already know that.
Shit, professional organizations I belong to charge less, put on conferences, give away scholarships and cash prizes to researchers, and are run by an executive board who give excruciatingly boring accounts of annual spending that you get to sit through if you’re invited to the annual meeting to get one of those awards… but I digress.
BTW, I’ll hopefully have more time to look at the new post on Debito.org, but in passing I’ll say that The Examiner is a bonkers tinfoil hat site:
Oh it’ll be a target-rich environment indeed.
This gem
“It’s so easy to be a critic, but much harder to admit you’re wrong. Have the cojones to do that”
Will surely not be applicable to debito himself, who by his own words, clearly has no cajones.
No criticism for his beloved DPJ or Kan in there either. Shocker. He would have to admit his love for the DPJ was perhaps, wrong? That the flyjin panic he helped promote was perhaps, wrong? Christ.
I think he’s trying to kill us through repeated self-inflicted head-desk injury.
He jumped the shark and now he’s PROUD of it and taunting the level-headed?
That’s it, gloves come off now.
I’m gonna get mean.
I imagine that after the first year, and seeing nothing but a few bitch sessions where they decided that only people who agreed with them should have a vote (which was particularly ironic given David’s stance that as tax payers non-citizens should have a vote), dues paying membership likely dropped to the point where David couldn’t afford to take more than 1 FRANCA trip a year. My guess is the reason for the inactivity is no money to do anything with…
Wow, that is a particularly horrible post by Debito. If I have time, I’ll post a long reply on his website.
Don’t waste your time.
I think he should at least try. And include a copy of his post here on the “off chance” that it disappears into the ether.
Agreed beneaththewheel. But I think he and the rest of them are past listening on this subject
@Jerry, I think you are probably very close to the truth with this suggestion
We’ll never know, but you could be right Jerry. I find him blaming FRANCA inaction on Tohoku, rather than the obvious, just a bit in bad taste.
Who knows, maybe the only paying member left was the chairman of FRANCA Sendai, and he/she either went home, or woke up to realize paying 10,000 a year to be chair of him/herself or maybe 3 people in a club that did nothing was a waste of a LOT of beer money. Easier to pay no membership fee and hold a bitch session with friends in a bar.
Either that or he/she decided to serve the cause by using the 10,000 in buying a few “Gaijin welcome -www.debito.org” shop window stickers.
Wait a minute, did I say above that I didn’t think debito was in this for the money? Or did I mean to imply he just isn’t any good at it? Hard to tell. Hard to tell…
Nah, if he were that evil he’d be using the Tohoku disaster to try and raise funds for some kind of FRANCA help-an-NJ effort.
But there’s no record of FRANCA activity he needs to legitimize such a plan, as we learned from Ken’s link to the Peace Boat effort. Besdies, the tinfoil hat research has probably got him thinking that setting foot in Tohoku means a death sentence. Maybe that’s why he doesn’t want their money anymore.. it’s radioactive!!
If you wish, I can repost it as an article in its own right.
Just be careful. I have refrained from much comment on Fukushima precisely because of the lack of info and the changing conditions. (others don’t see the need to hold back) Everyone knows it’s bad, it’s just a question of how bad, how widespread and how much PANIC! is (un)necessary.
When debito says Fukushima is fucked up, he’s right. But who doesn’t say that? The only people denying meltdown once the picture became clear were the very government minsters such as PM Naoto “A meltdown hasn’t occurred” Kan who debito heaped praise upon in his JT article. (Still can’t manage to criticize Kan by name at present, debito praised Kan for his actions, which have now been largely revealed as incompetence and interference in the situation, and shifts blame for that to nameless government bureaucrats, but anyway)
When he takes a SINGLE commenter who calls for putting the brakes on alarmism, and apparently demands an apology from all his critics, that’s one problem. The tone is another problem. And the irresponsible commenters and his silly zero-tolerance policy on man-made radiation (so throw away your cell phone as a start, debito) in his strange JT article are some of the main points that need touching on.
Oh, and his call for a boycott of tourism into any part of Japan with the implication that ALL of Japan is a toxic fallout zone, and when the people get hurt by his proposed tourism boycott, too bad. The message to the J government needs to be made regardless of cost to the common man. How United Nations of him. Debito cares.
Debito.org ignoring the radiation readings that soon dropped to background levels, seizing on silly reports from bloggers with discount Geiger counters plunked into rain gutters beeping slightly faster as “proof” the government IS LYING TO US
and just the ignorance as to how radiation works (yes debito, going indoors DOES help prevent exposure to radioactive fallout, the thickness of the thermal insulation in the walls is not relevant 
) are other things to touch on.
Then going away from Fukushima to his pot-kettle claims about people admitting their errors.
Still, debito trying to put the blame for “nothing to see here, move along” attitudes regarding food safety on his personal enemies? No, keep that blame on the government/media where it belongs. I know it’s hard to keep track when you hate everyone and blame everyone. Maybe keep a notebook? I hear color-coding works for some people.
But just keep in mind that anyone who says any government is conspiring will almost always be partially right. But it’s those partially right half-truths that are more dangerous than blatant lies.
Turns some people into flyjin.
I’ve mostly refrained from commenting on the nuke-specific stuff, too, but for a different reason: I’m an ex-Navy nuclear propulsion engineer.
Specifically, I was a MM2(SS) before I left the program, and spent an unreasonable amount of time in ADM Rickover’s Pipeline For Bright But Unmotivated Boys, learning how to avoid breaking the plant.
I’ve stayed quiet because Rickover’s goons classified everything, right down to the basic physics of heat transfer / fluid flow.
I can speak in generalities, though … and although I qualified on a PWR rather than BWR, most of the same principles apply.
I’m going to stay away from the effects that uncontrolled emission of fission byproducts might have on humans. Rickover drank a glass of moderator at a congressional hearing to demonstrate how safe spent coolant (i.e., water) was, but he didn’t sprinkle bits of fuel rod into it. I will go as far as to say that the public should be concerned about the deliberate information management by TEPCO, but should not panic.
If Dave wants to blame someone, he should target the reactor operators — not the politicians. Those are the guys that screwed this up.
See, back stateside, the civilian nuclear power industry is pretty much 100% manned by ex-Navy nukes. These are guys that can perform ORSEs in their sleep (and often are required to, as the procedure for any given event is figuratively beaten into them during prototype). Got a (insert critical event here)? No problem, just secure that valve over there and tell the ETROs to stop playing with themselves in (that place over there) and deal with (this stuff). Reflex.
That’s why the civilian nuclear power industry in the states has such a stellar safety record. (Yes, yes … TMI … but look at the actual casualty and the fact that it wasn’t run by ex-Navy at the time). Accidents don’t happen because Rickover’s goons took great delight in preventing those who would make those mistakes from ever making it out to the fleet.
Contrast with the Japanese nuclear power industry. It’s not staffed with shit-scared ex-Navy reactor operators because … well, because the military pipeline doesn’t exist. So, instead, it’s staffed by a bunch of guys that might have majored in some branch of engineering at (Allah help us) a Japanese university.
They kinda sorta understand the physics behind the plant, probably have passed whatever the local equivalent of an ORSE is, but they lack the discipline to react without thinking in a crisis situation.
That’s why they secured the main feed pump without SCRAMming first. They lacked the reflexes that were produced by the (admittedly brutal but effective in context) training.
Failing to ensure that the control rods were fully inserted into the core to dampen the reaction was the error that caused all of the resulting unpleasantness.
Screw the politicians, screw the management — the reactor operators should have taken the proper action.
Have to agree with Steve. I am one of those people getting an advanced degree in engineering at a Japanese university. The lack of basic science knowledge in the undergrads, who go on to get a BS and then end up working for major electric companies, is shocking to me. Maybe a product of the study-for-what’s-on-the-test system. But so many I want to ask “Why the hell are you an engineering major? Are you even interested in it at all? Or is it just a path to a lifetime job at a big company where you hope to keep your head down and earn a paycheck until you’re 60?”
And yes, the lack of a military pipeline supplying tens of thousands of well-trained and disciplined quick-thinking engineers and technicians is seeming more and more of a problem every year I spend here. (Doesn’t make up for the small personal benefit that it is much easier for me to take charge of a situation here as the decisive gaijin.)
Responsibility does fall ultimately on the operators of the reactor. They should be able to take initiative, do the correct procedure and ignore (or not wait for) whatever stupid ideas or orders come down from on high, no matter if it’s the President of TEPCO or the damned Prime Minister. The former knows jack shit about the situation on site, and the latter just knows jack shit. Period. Though I still feel free to criticize Kan for even thinking he could advise nuclear engineers how to handle a meltdown.
Imagine if a surgeon operated this way. Waiting for approval while a patient bleeds out on the table, or taking advice about brain surgery from the hospital’s accountant. Or reporting that the patient’s blood pressure is “stable” at 0 over 0 as if that were something to be hopeful about. [In joke]
But all of this is way over debito’s and the debito.org crowd’s heads. They can criticize politicians or reflexively label all corporations as evil however they want, that’s freestyle bitching, but they only embarrass themsleves when they try to talk about the science. Why the hell they feel the need to comment, I dunno.
Nothing To Do With Human Rights In Japan.
Shit, just realized that one of the 3 or 4 ideas for novels he has threatened us with might be about flyjin and Fukushima. Now that I WOULD pay for. It’ll be comedy gold. Maybe he’ll base the evil gaijin scientist who denies that JAPAN IS DOOMED on Steve and me. But please debito, I don’t say “poon tang” or treat women as objects.. all my disrespectful language is exclusively reserved for hypocritical leftist idiots. (triple redundant there, sorry)
That will be all.
Unfortunately, the idea that the Japanese are incapable of running their own industries because they are not as educated as the US is exactly the sort of crap you get from some posters on debito.org. Plus ca change…
I’m afraid you’re confusing “educated” with “trained”.
Thanks for the offer Ken, but I definitely don’t think I have enough insight to warrant that.
I decided to not reply to Debito anyways. I got about a thousand words into a reply, but it reads like an introductory course to media literacy.
Also, I’m not an expert on Fukushima crisis so my chiming in is really just another ignorant person wanting to get his voice heard.
I think many people here would be interested in reading, beneaththewheel
Snap, beneaththewheel – although I only got to 800 words before taking a leaf out of debito’s book and giving up. I decided it was a waste of time as they are not likely to listen to rational arguments and inconvenient facts, then just dismiss whatever I write with some short effortless childish invectives. haters gotta hate