ふむなる英語リーディング！で、TIMEによりますと・・・ https://fumunaru-english.seesaa.net/ 洗練された英語表現で定評のあるTIME（タイム）を読みます。 ja https://fumunaru-english.seesaa.net/article/373513003.html 高齢の親の世話、法はあるべきか？ ※編集後記にお知らせがあります。Caring for Aging Parents: Should There Be a Law?（ TIME ）China’s government thinks so, and as the population of elderly innearly every society starts to swell, such eldercare laws arebecoming more common. But are they effecti.. 生活 K.Andoh 2013-09-02T00:00:00+09:00
※編集後記にお知らせがあります。


Caring for Aging Parents: Should There Be a Law?

（ TIME ）


China’s government thinks so, and as the population of elderly in

nearly every society starts to swell, such eldercare laws are

becoming more common. But are they effective?


What kind of care and devotion is expected of adult children toward

their aging parents? Not surprisingly, siblings can hold fiercely

different positions about what they “should” do. Some make huge

sacrifices of time and money to comfort and care for mom; others

rarely show their faces even when parents pine for them. But if

families can’t resolve these difficult issues, can governments do

any better?


In China, a new law that went into effect this month requires

children to provide for the emotional and physical needs of their

parents, which includes visiting them often or facing fines and

potential jail time. One woman who was found negligent in visiting

her 77-year-old mother has already been charged under the Law on

Protection of the Rights and Interests of the Elderly and was ordered

to visit her mother at least once every two months, and on at least

two national holidays a year.


Enforcing the law will certainly be challenging, and critics have

raised the very real possibility that in an effort to alleviate some

of the impending burden that 200 million people over the age of 60

represent for the Chinese government, the law may end up causing more

familial strife and resentment toward elderly parents. While no

government can legislate loyalty or love, more legislatures are

finding it necessary to mandate responsibilities, especially those

of the financial kind.


●続きを読む？ ]]> https://fumunaru-english.seesaa.net/article/332366570.html 中央銀行の大実験　無制限の現金は問題を解決するのか、引き起こすのか ※編集後記にお知らせがあります。The Great Central-Banking Experiment: Will Unlimited Cash Solve Problems or Cause Them?（ TIME ）The Bank of Japan folded as easily as a hot slice of New York pizza. After a few weeks of pounding by newly installed Prime Minis.. 国際 K.Andoh 2013-03-01T00:00:00+09:00 ※編集後記にお知らせがあります。

The Great Central-Banking Experiment: Will Unlimited Cash Solve
Problems or Cause Them?
（ TIME ）

The Bank of Japan folded as easily as a hot slice of New York pizza.
After a few weeks of pounding by newly installed Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe, the BOJ’s (officially independent) managers capitulated
on Jan. 22 to his demands that the central bank hike its inflation
target to 2% (from 1%) and undertake the necessary monetary easing to
meet that target. That means the BOJ will keep printing cash until
Japanese deflation is reversed. “One can say that it marks a
‘regime change’ in managing macroeconomic policy,” a victorious
Abe declared.

A regime change it is, and it isn’t just taking place in Japan. With
the BOJ’s surrender, all three of the world’s major central banks
have committed themselves to open-ended, cash-pumping programs to
stimulate economies and protect financial stability. The Federal
Reserve has pledged to keep easing until the U.S. job market
improves. And in September, the European Central Bank promised to
purchase unlimited amounts of certain government bonds for any
troubled country that signs up to a reform program -- a move ECB
President Mario Draghi took to help quell the euro zone’s debt
crisis. These moves, of course, are on top of the already generous
policies the three banks have implemented since the 2008 Lehman
Brothers collapse.

Whether these experiments in supereasy money are wise or not, well,
that’s another matter. The classical economist in me immediately
hears sirens go off. Money is like any other commodity -- the more of
it there is, the less it is worth. At some point, the deluge of cash
could create a tsunami of inflation. Prices of assets could get
distorted, blowing up more bubbles that can pop and crash economies.

But then again, perhaps my thinking is stuck in an outdated ideology.
Paul Krugman seems to think so. According to a recent column in the
New York Times, I’m one of the Very Serious People, as he calls us,
trapped in a misguided certitude that has held back smart
policymaking in a new economic world. Krugman specifically was
writing about Japan, an economy he knows well, and he was cheering on
Abe’s heavy-spending approach to the country’s problems. The reason
why Japan has been an economic mess for 20 years, Krugman asserts, is
that the government and the BOJ have never gone far enough in pumping
the economy back to health. Abe’s aggressive policies, Krugman
asserts, will finally turn Japan around -- and, in the process,
rewrite the rules of economic policymaking:

Mr. Abe is breaking with a bad orthodoxy. And if he succeeds,
something remarkable may be about to happen: Japan, which pioneered
the economics of stagnation, may also end up showing the rest of us
the way out.


●続きを読む？ ]]> https://fumunaru-english.seesaa.net/article/332001251.html 問題は古く答えは少なく　安倍首相とオバマ大統領が緊張するアジアの安全保障を議論する Old Questions and Few Answers As Japan’s Abe and Obama Discuss Asia Security Tensions（ TIME ）On Shinzo Abe’s first trip to the United States as Japan’s prime minister, the key issues included the rise of China, North Korea’s quest for nucle.. 国際 K.Andoh 2013-02-26T15:11:47+09:00 Old Questions and Few Answers As Japan’s Abe and Obama Discuss Asia
Security Tensions
（ TIME ）

On Shinzo Abe’s first trip to the United States as Japan’s prime
minister, the key issues included the rise of China, North Korea’s
quest for nuclear weapons and whether Japan would revise its
constitution to allow a standing military. The year was 2007, the
U.S. president was George W. Bush and the global economy had yet to
begin its spectacular implosion. Since then Japan has had five prime
ministers, but as Abe, who resumed his country’s top office in
December, visited Washington again Friday, the agenda was remarkably
similar to what he discussed with President Obama’s predecessor six
years ago.

The escalating Sino-Japanese tensions have prompted some concerns
that the Diaoyu dispute could, 100 years after World War I, set off a
similar devastating armed conflict. Certainly some parallels exist
with the great conflagration that tore apart Europe. China, like
Germany before, is a rising economic and military power that craves
greater respect and global influence. It is engaged in disputes with
several of its neighbors over islands that it says are rightly its
territory. Japan’s defense treaty with the U.S. only increases the
risk that a small incident at sea could, like the assassination of a
little-known archiduke in 1914, lead to a broader war.

An all-out conflict would harm both sides, with both China and Japan
-- the world’s second and third largest economies -- suffering
significant economic loses, says Linda Jakobson, East Asia program
director at the Lowy Institute, an Australian think tank. “I fear a
naval or air incident that leads to loss of life, which in today’s
world could not be kept secret, would ignite national sentiments to a
much higher degree than we’ve seen so far,” she says. “That would
really box in the leaders of each side and drastically curtail
maneuvering room.” And while China’s military clout is growing
rapidly -- it’s posted double-digit budget increases for much of the
past two decades and recently launched its first aircraft carrier --
it hasn’t been tested in combat since a short, bloody border war
with Vietnam in 1979. An unsuccessful military campaign could have
serious repercussions for the Communist Party’s hold on power, its
overriding priority.

Meanwhile in the waters northeast of Taiwan the dispute over the
islets continued this week, as a Japanese fishing boat captain said
his ship was pursued by three Chinese maritime surveillance vessels
on Feb. 18, according to reports from Japan’s Asahi Shimbun
newspaper and Tomas Etzler, a Czech television correspondent who was
on the Japanese vessel. On Friday, Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary
Yoshihide Suga complained that China’s State Maritime Administration
had installed buoys near the islets, the New York Times reported. War
may still be a distant prospect, but so too is a solution.

●続きを読む？ ]]> https://fumunaru-english.seesaa.net/article/323963517.html 世界で最も恐ろしい環境に関する事実 The Scariest Environmental Fact in the World（ TIME ）See this sobering graph from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA):As the data show, China is now burning almost as much coal as the rest of the world -- combined. And despite i.. 国際 K.Andoh 2013-02-22T00:00:00+09:00 The Scariest Environmental Fact in the World
（ TIME ）

See this sobering graph from the U.S. Energy Information
Administration (EIA):

As the data show, China is now burning almost as much coal as the
rest of the world -- combined. And despite impressive support from
Beijing for renewable energy and a dawning understanding about the
dangers of air pollution, coal use in China is poised to continue
rising, if slower than it has in recent years. That’s deadly for the
Chinese people -- see the truly horrific air pollution in Beijing
this past month -- and it’s dangerous for the rest of the world.
Coal already accounts for 20% of global greenhouse-gas emissions,
making it one of the biggest causes of man-made climate change.
Combine that with the direct damage that air pollution from coal
combustion does to human health, and there’s a reason why some have
called coal the enemy of the human race.

Of course, there’s a reason why coal is so popular in China and in
much of the rest of the world: it’s very, very cheap. And that’s
why, despite the danger coal poses to health and the environment,
neither China nor many other rapidly growing developing nations are
likely to turn away from it. (If you really want to get scared, see
this report from the International Energy Agency -- hat tip to Ed
Crooks of the Financial Times -- which notes that by 2017, India
could be importing as much coal as China.) That’s likely to remain
the case in poor nations until clean energy can compete with coal on
price -- and that day hasn’t come yet.

The EIA’s chart also shows how limited President Obama’s ability to
deal with climate change really is. The reality is that the vast
majority of the carbon emissions to come will be emitted by
developing nations like China -- and much of that will be due to
coal. As we’ve reported, the U.S. has reduced coal use and cut
carbon emissions in recent years, even in the absence of
comprehensive climate legislation, thanks to tougher air-pollution
regulations and cheap natural gas from fracking. Yet even as coal has
waned in the U.S., it’s still being burned by the gigaton in other
countries. We won’t beat climate change until we’ve beaten coal,
but I’m not sure there’s much the U.S. can do to persuade China or
India to quit cheap energy -- no matter the cost.

●続きを読む？ ]]> https://fumunaru-english.seesaa.net/article/323938042.html 宇宙岩石の嵐　心配はいらない・・・今のところは The Storm of Space Rocks: Nothing to Worry About -- For Now（ TIME ）Alright people, let’s move on. Nothing to see here. You know that asteroid of death that whizzed by Earth today at an altitude that’s actually below some of our satellites? .. 国際 K.Andoh 2013-02-19T17:04:59+09:00 The Storm of Space Rocks: Nothing to Worry About -- For Now
（ TIME ）

Alright people, let’s move on. Nothing to see here. You know that
asteroid of death that whizzed by Earth today at an altitude that’s
actually below some of our satellites? You know that meteor that
exploded in the skies over Russia today, injuring nearly 1,000
people? And you know all that speculation that they’re somehow
connected -- that the Earth has stumbled into some kind of storm-
front of space rocks, any one of which will annihilate us eventually?
Forget it. The two incidents have absolutely nothing to do with each
other, and neither one should cause us all that much worry. Yet.

It’s fair to say that if you live in the city of Chelyabinsk just to
the east of Russia’s Ural mountains, you don’t want to be told
that the blast that shook the region on an otherwise brilliantly
clear day is nothing to worry about. At 9:20 AM local time, what is
thought to have been a 10-ton rock moving 33,000 mph (54,000 k/h)
exploded at an altitude of 18 to 32 miles (30 to 50 km), producing a
several kiloton blast that damaged at least 270 buildings, sent
hundreds of people streaming to hospitals for lacerations from flying
glass and other debris and caused 20,000 emergency response workers
to be mobilized. So that ain’t nothing. And after all the talk about
the planet’s just-passed close shave with a much larger, 70-ton, 150
ft. (45 m) asteroid, it’s no wonder people are skittish.

But as Time reports in this week’s edition (available to subscribers
here), this is nothing new. Earth has always lived in a cosmic
shooting gallery, one that sends about 100 tons of debris plunging
into our atmosphere every day. Most of it is no bigger than a pea and
burns up long before it hits the ground, but we get at least one
basketball-sized object every day too and at least one rock as big as
a small car every few months. Much larger pieces come along less
frequently -- but inevitably.

But even if the Chelyabinsk blast was a routine thing -- as far as
exploding space rocks go, at least -- that doesn’t mean that
asteroid ordnance poses no danger. If 2012 DA14 had plunged through
the atmosphere, it would have produced a 2.4 megaton blast,
equivalent to 180 Hiroshima bombs. Russia already knew a thing or
two about that kind of devastation: in 1908, a 330 ft. (100 m)
asteroid exploded over the Tunguska region in the central part of the
country, producing a 30 megaton blast -- about 1,000 Hiroshimas --
and leveling trees across 830 sq. mi. (2,150 sq. km).

●続きを読む？ ]]> https://fumunaru-english.seesaa.net/article/322265537.html 発見　人類はネズミのひ孫だった Found: Humanity’s Great-Grand-Rat（ TIME ）Most of us think we know exactly what we mean when we use the word “mammal” -- and most of us are wrong. Typically, we think only of the sub-group of mammals like us, the so-called placental mammals... 科学 K.Andoh 2013-02-15T00:00:00+09:00 Found: Humanity’s Great-Grand-Rat
（ TIME ）

Most of us think we know exactly what we mean when we use the word
“mammal” -- and most of us are wrong. Typically, we think only of
the sub-group of mammals like us, the so-called placental mammals.
There are two other kinds, however: the egg-laying monotremes, which
include the duck-billed platypus; and the marsupials, which count
kangaroos, opossums and wombats among their ranks. But unless you
live in Australia and a few other spots, the vast majority of mammals
you run into, even at the zoo, are placentals, a group that
encompasses everything from rats to rhinos, gerbils to giraffes,
chipmunks to chimps, and, of course humans as well.

It wasn’t always thus, however. Mammals have been around for
hundreds of millions of years, but placentals for only tens of
millions. Now a new paper just published in Science purports to
pinpoint their, or rather, our, origins with impressive specificity.
The great-great grandfather of us all, argue the authors, was a
small, scurrying, insect-nibbling creature that arose a mere 200,000
to 400,000 years after the cataclysmic extinction event 65 million
years ago that wiped out the dinosaurs (or, more precisely, the non-
avian dinosaurs, since birds are now considered the one branch of the
dinosaur family that survived).

This may seem like just a number to you and me but for
paleontologists and evolutionary biologists, it’s something of a
bombshell. The prevailing wisdom since the 1990’s, based on
assumptions about how quickly mutations arise in DNA, was that the
placentals emerged and began to diversify a whopping 35 million
earlier, spurred by the breakup of the giant continent Pangea into
the smaller landmasses that exist today. They didn’t really flourish
until the dinosaurs went away -- but then, who could, with huge,
voracious lizards towering overhead?

All that impressive brainwork led us back to a rather humbling place:
You, your loved ones and your friends, not to mention Abe Lincoln,
Winston Churchill, Napoleon, Babe Ruth, Marilyn Monroe -- all of us,
in other words -- are the multi-multi-generational grandkids of a rat-
like, half-pound, furry-tailed bug-eater. Like it or not. The work,
Novacek promises, will go on. “This thing will continue to grow like
an organism. We have this important new result, but we also have a
playground for future research.” The science may advance, but our
egos may never recover.

●続きを読む？ ]]> https://fumunaru-english.seesaa.net/article/322144294.html ニャンコが200マイル歩いて帰宅　猫の内なる方位磁石を科学する How a Kitty Walked 200 Miles Home: The Science of Your Cat’s Inner Compass（ TIME ）When a battered, skinny tortoiseshell cat wandered into a yard in Florida earlier this year, she could have been any other stray, but she was nothing of the k.. 米国 K.Andoh 2013-02-13T16:23:46+09:00 How a Kitty Walked 200 Miles Home: The Science of Your Cat’s Inner
Compass
（ TIME ）

When a battered, skinny tortoiseshell cat wandered into a yard in
Florida earlier this year, she could have been any other stray, but
she was nothing of the kind. She carried an implanted microchip --
one put there by a loving owner -- and it revealed an intriguing
story: the cat belonged to a local family, had been lost on a trip
two months earlier, and had traveled 200 miles (322 km) in that time
to arrive back in her hometown. Her journey inspired a spate of
articles looking for an explanation for how this one cat, and a few
others who’ve made similar trips, managed such impressive feats of
navigation. The response from many eminent animal researchers was the
same: “No idea.”

Part of what navigating animals do is not entirely surprising.
Planetarium studies reveal that some animals steer by the stars, an
approach that’s comfortingly familiar to Homo sapiens but practiced
by organisms as distant as the nocturnal dung beetle, which, as one
recent study revealed, can roll its precious gob of poo in a straight
line only as long as the Milky Way is in view. One of the most
accomplished animal navigation researchers of the twentieth century,
naturalist Ronald Lockley, found that captured seabirds released far
from their homes could make a beeline back so long as either the sun
or the stars were visible; an overcast sky threw them off so much
that many never made it back.

But plenty of other navigating animals are using something most
humans regularly forget exists: the Earth’s magnetic field. In
illustrations, the field is usually depicted as a series of loops
that emerge from the south pole and reenter the planet at the north
pole, and extend out to the edges of our atmosphere, sort of like a
cosmic whisk. Our compass needles are designed to align with the
field, and in the last few decades it’s become clear that numerous
animals can find their way by feeling some of its various field.

To study this, he and colleagues collected baby sea turtles a few
hours before they would have left the nest on their own and put them
in pools surrounded by magnetic coils. The coils were designed to
reproduce the Earth’s magnetic field at specific points along the
turtles’ migration. Reliably, the young turtles oriented themselves
and swam in the direction relative to the magnetic field that, had
they been in the open ocean, would have kept them on course. Lohmann
has tested this with 8 different locations along their route, and in
each case the turtles head in just the direction required to get them
to their destination. The turtles may not know where they are in any
big-picture way -- as Lohmann says, they may not see themselves as
blinking spots on a map -- but they have inherited a sense that
should they feel a particular pull from the magnetic field, well,
better take a right.

●続きを読む？ ]]> https://fumunaru-english.seesaa.net/article/318927771.html 日本女子柔道の指導者の辞任「私は選手を虐待した」 Japanese women's judo coach resigns over claims he abused athletes（ The Guardian ）The coach of the Japanese women's judo team has resigned amid accusations that he physically abused athletes in the buildup to the London Olympics.Ryuji Sonod.. 日本 K.Andoh 2013-02-08T00:00:00+09:00 Japanese women's judo coach resigns over claims he abused athletes
（ The Guardian ）

The coach of the Japanese women's judo team has resigned amid
accusations that he physically abused athletes in the buildup to the
London Olympics.

Ryuji Sonoda is accused of harassing and assaulting female judoka
while they were preparing for the summer games. The revelations have
rocked the Japanese martial art, coming the same week as a former
Olympic two-time gold medallist, Masato Uchishiba, was sentenced to
five years in prison for raping a female member of a university judo
club in 2011. Uchishiba, 34, won gold medals in the 66kg in Athens
and Beijing.

The abuse prompted 15 athletes to send a letter to the Japanese
Olympic Committee at the end of last year complaining about Sonoda's
conduct. They said they had been slapped and shoved by him and other
coaches, beaten with thick bamboo swords and forced to compete while
injured.

On Thursday, Sonoda admitted that the allegations were "more or less
true", adding: "I deeply regret that I have caused trouble with my
behaviour, words and actions. It will be difficult for me to continue
coaching the team."

The use of violence against Japanese athletes has been in the
spotlight since the death of a teenage sumo apprentice in 2007. The
17-year-old collapsed after being beaten by three fellow wrestlers,
one armed with a baseball bat. Their coach was sentenced to six years
in prison for ordering the assault.

The problem was highlighted again last December with the suicide of a
high school student in Osaka who had been repeatedly beaten by his
basketball coach.

●続きを読む？ ]]> https://fumunaru-english.seesaa.net/article/318920607.html 日本のポップ・スターが頭を剃って謝罪・・・恋人との一夜のために Japanese pop star shaves head in apology -- for night with boyfriend（ The Guardian ）As pop star misdemeanours go, Minami Minegishi's was tame in the extreme -- breaking her group's strict dating ban to spend a night with her boyfriend.Yet h.. 日本 K.Andoh 2013-02-05T15:04:01+09:00 Japanese pop star shaves head in apology -- for night with boyfriend
（ The Guardian ）

As pop star misdemeanours go, Minami Minegishi's was tame in the
extreme -- breaking her group's strict dating ban to spend a night
with her boyfriend.

Yet hours after a magazine published photographs of her leaving his
home last month, Minegishi, a member of the wildly popular girl band
AKB48, went on to YouTube to issue a tearful apology.

"As a senior member of the group, it is my responsibility to be a
role model for younger members," she said, before ending the four-
minute mea culpa with a deep, lingering bow.

The most striking thing about her apology, however, was her
appearance. She had shaved her head, a traditional act of contrition
in Japan, but perhaps a step too far for a 20-year-old woman whose
"crime" was to have found herself a boyfriend -- 19-year-old Alan
Shirahama, a dancer in a boyband.

Her dramatic gesture underlined the strict rules to which Japan's
young pop stars must adhere to project an image of unimpeachable
morals.

Minegishi is among the original members of the band, which since it
formed in 2005 has built up a huge following among teenage girls and
salarymen who flock to concerts and publicity events for the chance
to shake hands with their idols.

Together, the AKB48 stable has more than 230 members in their teens
and early 20s, with four main bands and several offshoots. Their act
is more saccharine than sexual, but the band has courted controversy
off-stage in the past year.

●続きを読む？ ]]> https://fumunaru-english.seesaa.net/article/316864027.html イッキ！イッキ！イッキ！なぜビンジ飲みをする女性が増えているのか Chug! Chug! Chug! Why More Women Are Binge Drinking（ TIME ）It’s not just fraternity brothers who are guzzling one beer too many. Women and high school girls are equally likely to drink too much.According to the latest survey from the U.S. C.. 米国 K.Andoh 2013-02-01T00:00:00+09:00 Chug! Chug! Chug! Why More Women Are Binge Drinking
（ TIME ）

It’s not just fraternity brothers who are guzzling one beer too
many. Women and high school girls are equally likely to drink too much.

According to the latest survey from the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC), nearly 14 million U.S. women binge
drink about three times a month, downing about six beverages per
binge. The survey defined binge drinking as consuming five or more
drinks in one sitting for men and four or more for women.

It’s not unusual for young women ages 18 to 34, as well as high
schoolers, to overindulge; 1 in 8 women and 1 in 5 high school girls
report drinking to excess. But binge drinking accounts for about
23,000 deaths among women and girls in the U.S. each year.

Long bouts of drinking typical of binges can lead to unpleasant, not
to mention potentially dangerous, consequences for both men and
women. In her award-winning photography project “Keg Stand Queens,”
photographer Amanda Berg documented her friends’ drinking habits
during parties at the Rochester Institute of Technology. The
collection includes images of underage girls in sexually compromising
positions, passed out on lawns and leaning over toilet seats.

“All of these were clearly oriented to women. The data showed these
products were most popular among females of every age group and were
most popular among young drinkers. Those of us involved in alcohol
prevention called alcopops ‘beer with training wheels,’” says Dr.
David Jernigan. “Women traditionally drank less than men -- and
still do -- but there has been a very intentional effort to increase
it, and this has started exposing young women to products and
marketing at high rates. The numbers are not surprising to us and are
of great concern.”

●続きを読む？ ]]> https://fumunaru-english.seesaa.net/article/316843126.html 戦闘任務につく女性たち　粉砕される「真鍮の天井」 Women In Combat: Shattering the “Brass Ceiling”（ TIME ）The Pentagon will declare Thursday that it is lifting a ban on women serving in combat -- a decision essentially rendered a fait accompli by more than decade of war in Afghanistan and I.. 米国 K.Andoh 2013-01-29T15:20:56+09:00 Women In Combat: Shattering the “Brass Ceiling”
（ TIME ）

The Pentagon will declare Thursday that it is lifting a ban on women
serving in combat -- a decision essentially rendered a fait accompli
by more than decade of war in Afghanistan and Iraq, where many women
served ably under fire. Outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is
expected to make the announcement, based on a recommendation from
Army General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The historic change will open up hundreds of thousands of jobs in
infantry, armor and other previously all-male units from which women
have been formally barred under a 1994 Pentagon rule. Ultimately,
they could even be allowed to serve in special-operations units,
including the Army’s Delta Force and the Navy’s SEALs.

Women who missed the opportunity to serve in combat cheered the
change. “All jobs should be based on qualifications, not gender,”
says Darlene Iskra, the first woman ever to command a Navy ship, and
a Battleland contributor.

But the decision goes deeper than the post-9/11 wars. With an all-
volunteer military, the Pentagon needs women in its ranks. Beyond
that, the fluid nature of the 21st Century battlefield has rendered
long-ago battle maps, with a clear demarcation between front lines
and rear echelons, as dated as muskets and bayonets. Basically, it
has become untenable for the U.S. military to pretend its female
troops are not engaged in combat.

●続きを読む？ ]]> https://fumunaru-english.seesaa.net/article/314909884.html アルジェリア人質事件　謎めいた武装勢力指導者の意図は何か Algeria’s Hostage Crisis: What Was Behind a Shadowy Militant Leader’s Plot?（ TIME ）A day after Algerian forces launched a military raid to end a deadly hostage crisis at a natural gas plant, confusion reigned on Jan. 18 over the fate of the.. 国際 K.Andoh 2013-01-25T00:00:00+09:00 Algeria’s Hostage Crisis: What Was Behind a Shadowy Militant
Leader’s Plot?
（ TIME ）

A day after Algerian forces launched a military raid to end a deadly
hostage crisis at a natural gas plant, confusion reigned on Jan. 18
over the fate of the captives and their Islamist captors. Western
leaders, some of whose citizens were among the hostages, expressed
frustration at having heard little from Algerian officials about the
continuing standoff, and some governments signaled alarm over the
Jan. 17 operation that Algerian authorities admit resulted in the
death of an undisclosed number of hostages. Security officials in
Europe indicate that their services too have not obtained or been
offered much intelligence on the unfolding crisis.

“The lack of information and secrecy doesn’t surprise me at all
when you’re dealing with Algerian authorities used to doing as they
please, according to their own interests and without consulting
anyone,” says a senior French antiterrorism official who spoke on
condition of anonymity. “When it comes to Islamist situations,
they’re particularly rigid in shooting first and asking questions
later. We’ve always considered hostage scenarios a nightmare,
because they trap you between maniac extremist kidnappers and trigger-
happy Algerian security officials. The margin for people coming out
alive in such situations is reduced considerably.”

“As someone who has been hunted by authorities for decades, no one
knows better than Belmokhtar that there’d be no way Algerian
authorities would ever negotiate or let Islamists leave such a
situation alive,” the French official continues. Tying what was
effectively a suicide mission to events in Mali may have been an
attempt to advance Belmokhtar’s own cause in the region’s complex
jihadist milieu. Though Belmokhtar reveres Osama bin Laden and the
al-Qaeda organization with which he fought in Afghanistan, the
Algerian-born radical split with jihadi militias associated with
Africa’s loose regional network al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb
(AQIM) and formed his own battalion late last year. Though he has
directed it in a wide part of the Sahel encompassing northern Mali in
harmony with other extremist networks, experts say Belmokhtar has
increasingly competed with leaders of other militias for influence
and prestige.

●続きを読む？ ]]> https://fumunaru-english.seesaa.net/article/314751595.html 日本の大島渚監督が80歳で死去する Japanese Film Director Oshima Dies at 80（ TIME ）Nagisa Oshima, a Japanese director internationally acclaimed for his films “Empire of Passion” and “In the Realm of the Senses,” has died of pneumonia. He was 80.A former student radical from .. エンターテインメント K.Andoh 2013-01-22T13:24:45+09:00 Japanese Film Director Oshima Dies at 80
（ TIME ）

Nagisa Oshima, a Japanese director internationally acclaimed for his
films “Empire of Passion” and “In the Realm of the Senses,” has
died of pneumonia. He was 80.

A former student radical from Japan’s ancient capital of Kyoto,
Oshima debuted in 1959 with “A Town of Love and Hope,” quickly
earning a reputation of a “new wave” director with social and
political themes during the 1960, often depicting youths raging
against the society. He tackled controversial social issues
throughout his career, ranging from capital punishment and racism to
homosexuality.

But he is probably best remembered for his 1976 film “In the Realm
of the Senses,” a story based on a psychotic murder case set in pre-
World War II Japan, which stirred public indecency debate in Japan
and elsewhere because of explicit sex scenes. Two years later, Oshima
won best director award at the Cannes International Film Festival
with “Empire of Passion.”

Oshima also was a popular guest on television quiz and talk shows,
often triggering fiery debate. Soichiro Tahara, a journalist and talk
show host who often argued with Oshima, tweeted his message of
condolence.

“I was scared of him but he was also like a very supportive brother.
He taught me many things, scolded me and yelled at me. But his words
were always affectionate,” Tahara wrote. “Mr. Oshima did not care
about taboo or compliance, not even a bit. He said what he wanted to
say, what he had to say. It’s hard to find a person like him
anymore. “

●続きを読む？ ]]> https://fumunaru-english.seesaa.net/article/313820781.html インドはどのようにポリオと戦い、勝ったのか How India Fought Polio -- and Won（ TIME ）A few days ago, Ramesh Ferris took his first ride on a motorbike. Born in India and raised in Canada, Ferris made the journey into rural India to meet Ruksa Khatun, the 3-year-old girl who is the las.. 国際 K.Andoh 2013-01-18T00:00:00+09:00 How India Fought Polio -- and Won
（ TIME ）

A few days ago, Ramesh Ferris took his first ride on a motorbike.
Born in India and raised in Canada, Ferris made the journey into
rural India to meet Ruksa Khatun, the 3-year-old girl who is the last
child in India known to have contracted polio. This weekend, as the
nation quietly marked two years without a single infection by the
wild poliovirus, that child’s parents wondered how they were going
to manage the surgery her doctors say she needs on a foot crippled
by the disease.

Ferris would understand the gravity of their situation better than
most. After he was paralyzed by polio as an infant, his birth mother
was unable to provide him with the care he needed and placed him in
an international orphanage. He was adopted by a family in Canada’s
Yukon territory, where he grew up, eventually becoming an advocate in
the global drive to end polio. India was once considered the center
of the crippling disease -- and was expected to be the last place it
would be eradicated. But last year, the World Health Organization
(WHO) confirmed that polio was no longer endemic in India. Next year,
if no new cases arise, the country will be declared polio-free,
perhaps the greatest public-health feat it has ever achieved, saving
hundreds of thousands of children from paralysis and death.

India’s accomplishment was a triumph of consistent and strong
political will as well as international coordination and has given a
huge lift to the global fight against polio, a disease that as
recently as 1988 claimed 350,000 people each year. In 2012, the
global caseload was just 222. When India came off the WHO list last
year, the number of countries where the virus is still endemic came
down to three: Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan. “Given India’s
complex circumstances in terms of where people live and its
topography, it’s astounding it came off the list before other
countries,” says Ferris.

It wasn’t until 1994, when the local government of the New Delhi
capital region conducted a hugely successful mass immunization
campaign targeting children, that the idea began to gain momentum
that India might actually be able to tackle this disease. Though
other Indian states like Kerala and Tamil Nadu had conducted similar
campaigns before, it wasn’t until the national government saw
tangible progress that officials were sufficiently convinced they
could make a difference. “That’s when India decided to go after
polio in a big way,” says Naveen Thacker. Routine immunization --
in which patients sought out the vaccine themselves -- had reduced
polio but couldn’t stop it from spreading. Reported immunization
coverage across India was officially as high as 90%, but the disease
was still being transmitted.

●続きを読む？ ]]> https://fumunaru-english.seesaa.net/article/313757177.html 中国の一人っ子政策　「小皇帝」の呪い China’s One-Child Policy: Curse of the ‘Little Emperors’（ TIME ）China is a colossal country and, as befits such a global powerhouse, it has made some colossal mistakes. Take its infamous one-child policy, implemented in 1979 and condemned f.. 国際 K.Andoh 2013-01-16T13:55:29+09:00 China’s One-Child Policy: Curse of the ‘Little Emperors’
（ TIME ）

China is a colossal country and, as befits such a global powerhouse,
it has made some colossal mistakes. Take its infamous one-child
policy, implemented in 1979 and condemned from that day forward. A
new study released in Science makes it clear just how misguided the
idea was.

Initially, the policy seemed to make a cold kind of sense: the
country’s population growth was out of control, leaping nearly 75%
from 1949 to 1976; its per capita income was about 300 yuan, or just
over $48, and families with multiple children had nowhere near enough
money to raise them well. Why not just clamp down on all the
prodigious baby making and solve both problems at once?

Thirty-four years later, the planners can claim a crude victory.
China’s economy has boomed, and its 1.34 billion population is
estimated to be about 15% smaller than it would have been otherwise.
But that means that 250 million Chinese babies who would have been
born never were. Until 2004, when the practice of sex-selective
abortion was banned, millions of girls were aborted to satisfy
China’s traditional preference for boys; and as a result of that
gender bias, there are 32 million more marriage-age men in the
country than there are women, according to the British Medical Journal.

Lost in all those troubling numbers is what’s become of the
singletons themselves. Just 27% of those born in China in 1975 were
only children; in 1983, it was 91%. When you’re your parents’ one
shot at a genetic legacy, you may get to attend all the best schools,
wear all the best clothes and eat all the best foods -- at least
relative to children in multiple-sibling households. But you also
wind up with an overweening sense of your own importance. For years
now, Chinese parents and teachers have lamented what’s known as the
xiao huangdi -- or little emperor -- phenomenon, a generation of
pampered and entitled children who believe they sit at the center of
the social universe because that’s exactly how they’ve been treated.

●続きを読む？ ]]>