Keibo Oiwa, a Japanese cultural anthropologist and environmentalist, speaks to Democracy Now about the current nuclear crisis:
And I’m really realizing again that, you know, democracy is so hollow now. I mean, we don’t have power. This is not democracy. We are controlled—we have been controlled by the government and the Tokyo Electric Company, you know, a private company. This is a big lesson to be—for us to be humble, in front of a natural—big natural power, power of nature. And we have to really look for a lifestyle and a way of thinking again, to live again with harmony, in harmony with nature.
Read the rest here.
In addition, see how Ruth Benedict is being used in The Telegraph to argue “Why the Japanese behave better than Westerners,” and in the National Journal to argue “Why Japan probably isn’t telling us the worst about its nuclear disaster.”