Everything else that's interesting: April 2008 Archives
Remember how a few months ago I indicated some Huey Lewis and the News concerts were coming up, and it remained to be seen which ones I'd decide to go to? Well, dromomaniac that I am, I decided to go see the ones in Japan.
HLN were over there this month, touring with Chicago. They did six dates, including three in the Tokyo/Yokohama area this past weekend, which I just got back from seeing.
Hence the light blogging here, because I was actually doing something resembling blogging over on the HLN fan board, filling other fans in on what it was like to be over there and see the shows. Although it's written largely with that audience in mind, it still reads like my normal travelogues. Have a look (There's about four days' worth of significant posts, so keep scrolling among the comments to see it all).
By the way, I don't mean the Disney "Small World" song -- HLN have an entire album called Small World, which includes this title track. A track, it might interest the jazz fans among you to know, that Stan Getz played on. And if neither HLN nor Stan Getz are your cup of tea, how about the Foo Fighters? Huey recently joined them onstage at their show in Osaka...
The Olympic torch is now passing controversially through cities around the world, leading up to this summer's games to be held in Beijing. As China continues its crackdown on dissidents, appalled voices in other countries are calling for their nations to boycott the games with increasing volume.
It's a reasonable position: China sees its hosting of the games as an enormous boon, so why positively reward a country that's acting in negative ways?
But I find myself disagreeing with the calls for a boycott. For one thing, it would unfairly punish the athletes more than anyone else. It doesn't seem particularly constructive to use them as political pawns, particularly when it's things such as games that help unite peoples when there is so much else trying to divide them. Availing yourself of opportunities to better understand people you don't agree with doesn't mean you're sanctioning their position. On the contrary, by better understanding the context from which it emerges you can instead end up in a better position to persuade against it.
And in this particular instance I think it is of critical importance that people in the west come to better understand China. Though it's been opening up tremendously within recent years, what's known about it is still based on anecdote and supposition. The more people who can meet it up close and personal to get a more accurate measure, the better. In fact it's particularly important in terms of figuring out how our own interests suggest we should choose to deal with it going forward. Because when it comes down to it, I think on further inspection we may be surprised to discover what we *thought* we wanted from China may not quite turn out to be what we actually should.
