My
uncle sent me a piece about an American priest, Father Kapaun, from the Korean
War over night. Endlessly
interesting to consider that cold conflict from yet another angle. This is a certain kind of documentary,
crafted to attest to the young man’s bravery and his faith. There is a tale of them being swarmed by
Chinese soldiers, and the Padre carrying a wounded man who later survived, some forty miles in a forced march. It isn’t hard to consider the core human story of men
like him from Iowa and men like my father in law who hailed from Wudi,
Shandong, shipped off to a foreign country to fight each other. What did they know other than that the enemy were murderous
invaders, enslaved by vile powers, busy trying to shoot them.
My father in law, who passed a few years back always talked
about long periods of stalemate in that war. Both sides apparently agreed upon demarcation lines and held
fire during a prolonged truce. He
explained they would meet down at the river where they and their American enemies, like
Father Kapaun would wave, smile, and laugh as normal strangers might do, in
peacetime. Both sides, filled with bewildered young men, all of whom got thirsty. So much from that startling,
enigmatic conflict remains unresolved. https://www.youtube.com/embed/AZuPrQBSDCsp
Prime Minister Abe has suggested he wants to shore up resolve to change the role
of women in the Japanese economy.
This is decades overdue but certainly better late than never. There seems though a rather molecular
reaction in the body-Japan that reacts against people who cut against the
grain. Takafumi Horie the brash CEO of Livedoor was taken down by the old guard
who didn’t like his style. Now a
female academic, who appears to have been guilty of no more than sloppy
documentation, is being held up as an unethical charlatan by the university
that had previously backed her.
Haruko Obokata aged thirty-one was the lead author of a
breakthrough article concerning regenerative medicine, published in the British
journal “Nature.” The Riken Center
for Developmental Biology where she had lead the team has rejected all her
appeals and is preparing the way for disciplinary action against her. Meanwhile other revered Riken
scientists have been pulled into the scandal searching for their own laboratory
notes, to justify their research. In
order to stem the damning reconsideration of Riken member research, they have
circled the wagons and sought to make an example of this young lady, whom
they’d previously profiled as cute and girly. That the documentation issues are broadly wrought suggests
that the underlying education system, built as it is, like China’s on massive
memorization requirements for literacy, lends itself to the borrowing of
what is useful rather than rigorous, documentation. Perhaps she’ll be invited to a foreign university that
believes in a second chance.
I had a notion to write about Desmond Dekker a few months
back but it got lost. And this
morning, a familiar melody came on that always brings a smile prompting me to make sure I took advantage of this renewed opportunity. I’ve written on this page about the Lord
Salmons, “Great in 1968.”
Certainly the more popular if not the seminal song must have been
Desmond Dekker’s “Intensified ’68.”
They really don’t make choral calls like they used to with all this
“rambambaloobam bombombaluey, rambambaloobambam . . . Intensified.” And don't bother doing it unless you
roll the “r’s” on the first syllable.
It is so disarmingly positive and colorful, even though the next line is
rather worn and grounding: “music like dirt, for your money’s worth.”
A notably handsome man, he was Jamaica’s first performer
with a number one hit record in England with “Israelites” that also reached the
top-10 in the US charts, the same year “Intensified” was released, 1968. 敢为人先[1] like Mr. Dekker or Ms. Obokata
don’t usually get a second chance.
Desmond however did,
when “Israelites” was reintroduced to the charts in 1975 and again did well. A few years later with the British ska
craze, there was renewed interest in his work and he was able to record,
again.
He clearly paved the way for countless other Jamaican
luminaries to follow. And
certainly it was his activity that brought the attention of Paul Simon, Eric
Clapton and Paul McCartney who’d all record reggae-like numbers themselves before
long after his arrival on the scene.
“Obladee Oblada’s” main character even bears the man’s name. I’d hoped to find some more info
in the Guardian’s obituary from 2004, but unfortunately this is one time when
Wiki has more details.
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