It`s a Free World

I watched a most troubling film last night, called “It`s a free world” by that master of social realism and sub-conscious activism, Ken Loach.

It was not what I`d call an enjoyable movie, it was hard to watch, hard to see the humanity slowly erode from most of the central characters; hard to watch the the disintegration of the England I remember, as portrayed; and not the way many would think when the story deals with the massive influx of immigrants to my home country. No I`m talking of the way the goodness of the ordinary person is warped by capitalism: the need not to merely feed and protect their family but the need to do so by taking advantage of those even more needy and even more desperate to gain not wealth alone, but riches. This ugly trickle down of indifference and further abuse created in part because each link of the chain feels aggrieved at the dishonesty of the link above, upon whom they depend, and each sees only their own hardening and cruelty as the way to avoid future trickery and make a profit however small.

No-one comes out of this movie very well, certainly not those at the top that profit from such misery and do not use their money to make anyone else but themselves happy; neither those near the bottom who banish feelings of victimhood by finding new victims of their own. Maybe not even those at the bottom, those that have nothing yet seem to expect the country they move to to give them everything and hate it for so often disappointing them.

Indeed in the film only one Iranian refugee, wrongly refused political asylum in the UK due to the knee-jerk hardening of opinion in reaction to the pressures of bigot wank mags like the Daily Mail and Daily Express deserves any questionless sympathy. (I don`t link those tatty rags by the way)

By that I mean every single person in the film deserves some sympathy, everyone has a shitty deal in life. And the fact that this is the way many live now ten years into the 21st Century in many developed countires makes me really angry and ashamed.

But what can I do?

More than I am for sure as charity groups like Groupo Esperanca (in the photos above) in Hamamatsu showed me earlier this year when I went to find a story about the hard lives of Brazilian immigrants in Japan and found instead that despite all the hardships they endured themselves some still found energy and goodness in their hearts (augmented by the Catholic church in a real eye-opening shift in my preconceptions) to feed homeless people in the city. Not only Brazilian homeless either, indeed most of the people who came to their soup kitchens were Japanese.

Of course even there, and in different churches to the one I visited, bad people were profiting from the misfortunes that hit the Nikkei Japanese (South Americans of Japanese ancestry) especially hard when the global economy tanked in 2008.

As an immigrant here in Japan, albeit a lucky one by default of the language I speak and the perceived kudos I carry as a white Anglo Saxon male, these subjects attract me and I am keen to explore the stories of others that perhaps don`t get such an easy ride here. Though even all of the above w.a.s.p.ishness doesn`t make life here a complete easy ride for me, indeed to some small degree I understand more of my old friends frustrations about living England now because most were not from the UK. And when I move back (one day perhaps) my wife and children will have to deal with a country that seems to have grown massively intolerant of outsiders without quite realizing the compassion fatigue the Middle Englanders label such hatred with is not the result of any compassion they personally gave to someone who arrived on British soil in need of help.

But what can I do?

I recommend the film though to get you thinking.

Damon

Feeling Blue

Last month, in an effort to kerb a rising suicide rates, and at a cost of some 15 million yen, or $165,000, JR (Japan Railways)  installed blue LED lights at all 29 stations on the Yamanote line. Other lines have also begun to install the lights at some of their stations. The Blue LED light is supposed to soothe and calm potential jumpers, though there is little scientific evidence for this. If you ask me the Japanese love using Blue LED lights because they invented them, a fact they are inordinately proud of, despite not actually rewarding the inventor suffciently and forcing him to relocate to the US where he can actually profit from his genius.

But it might work, and with this year`s suicide rate set to surpass the previous high of 34,427 deaths in 2003 doing something, however suspect the rational, is better than doing nothing at all. Over 2,000 people jumped under a train last year in Japan (accounting for around 6% of all suicides) so let`s hope they DO work and let`s hope the new government can give people a sense of hope and purpose in their lives so that choosing to end it by jumping under a train is a step less lightly taken than it sometimes appears to be these days.

Damon

Voter rights

Thanks to a timely phone call from my good friend Uchujin, I was able to go catch an important demo in Shibuya tonight. Important because it could change the face of Japanese demographics. Well sort of…

As part of the election manifesto this summer the newly elected Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) promised to “think seriously” about giving voter rights to the million or so foreigners in Japan that have permanent residents visa status. What this means basically is the Japanese people who have Korean and Chinese ancestors, many of who were forcibly relocated to Japan during its brutal empire building in the thirties, will, without quite getting true citizenship and becoming actual naturalized members of the Japanese population, get a say in how their tax yen are spent. It does not mean that that thousands of English teachers will suddenly get to call the shots on working conditions, pay and alcohol licensing hours. Sorry to burst that bubble!!!

Such a move is long over due for these “Japanese” who aren`t quite Japanese enough though why they don`t just give them citizenship I don`t know.

Well I do, it is because to the right wing the Korean and Chinese have never quite stopped being part of the conquered peoples of the Imperial past and to give them the same rights as “pure” Japanese is anathema to your average bigot. Which is why I could find some familiar faces in the crowd tonight from the battles of Yasukuni on August 15th.  The fear, they say, is that the allegiances of these “foreigners” is questionable, that they still love Communist China, Stalinist North Korea and overtly competative South Korea. All of which may in some small degree be true. But if you let people born and raised, and educated and living and contributing to Japan actually be Japanese citizens you might find them loving the country as much as ordinary Japanese do. Or not if they feel that way, after all that`s what democracy is about.

To tell the truth, as a permanent resident myself, I don`t think we should get the vote. True I pay tax and I hate to see it wasted but the Hatoyama government is outwardly intent on making government spending more transparent and perhaps it will get less wasteful from now. I am not Japanese however and have no intention of becoming such so just feel that it is rather arrogant to suggest that I should have a say in the national and even local politics of somewhere I choose to be. When in Rome and all that.

Personally my concerns and quibbles with living here are small and the power we aliens would wield will get easily swamped in the votes cast by native Japanese on any subject. What frightens the right-wingers is that the Korean and Chinese, if organized and passionate about a subject could make a large, politically-relevant voting bloc that could affect national level policy.

But then again they SHOULD BE JAPANESE CITIZENS, not that will make all the problems go away but at least it will actually be Japanese people saying that ethnic minorities, like them, should be treated better and that the endemic racism that still exists at all levels of business and bureaucracy should be eradicated and legislation put in to punish those that act in ways that make multi-culturalism and cosmopolitanism impossible. Then Japan will be a proper developed country at last.

Damon

More images available at Demotix here.

The Days in Japan

Days Japan magazine along with Waseda University are holding a festival of photojournalism from today until December 5th. There will be a special slideshow of photojournalism images taken by foreign residents in Japan showing on the 26th.

I don`t know who exactly is showing pictures there, I know I`m not having somehow missed the deadline for the call for images but I do know that the supremely talent James Whitlow Delano will have a collection of images of Japan`s homeless on show. Homeless pictures are almost a cliche of photojournalism, and the ironic jucstapostion of Japan`s great invisible homelessness problem against the usual and equally stereotypical images of modern metropolises and conspicuous wealth is hard to do originally, but knowing James I`m sure his photos will be stark and surprising; and that makes this event, essential viewing. I only hope I can attend.

Anyway go along to the facebook page here and sign up if you can make it or go and see the exhibition anytime.

Damon

 

Twit

So I am busy and it is harder to post here the words and stories I want at least of the hoped for quality I want anyways. Plus I have met a few people over the last few weeks who have brought home to me the necessity of networking to improve my business and as I barely have time to do that face to face these days you will find, if you look away to the right, a Twitter feed.

Now either I`ve just made my life impossibly more complicated and full of post-modern non-news than it even was before or I`ve taken my first tentative steps into the world of modern web society, the web 2.0 give and take economy of information, ideas and support and will soon be busier (but in a good way) with my photography.

We`ll see.

Anyway my twitter address is: http://twitter.com/damoncoulter please visit, and say hello.

I will keep you posted if I have something to say. If I can`t say it in 140 character or less it`ll be here.

Damon

Snap Happy

I love photo competitions, they prepare you well for the world of paying photography as you have often only one shot at getting a prize and as such you do your research; find out the type of images they like; who and what the judges are and what they might be looking for; you look at past winners if there is a gallery and you edit, edit, edit your “best” pictures to your very best.

One of my favourite competitions is the Wanderlust Travel photography competition because I know the look the judges want and have been a finalist all four times I`ve entered. (Though not as yet a winner annoyingly). having said that however each year I find they are keen to challenge themselves with new types of image and new ideas as to what a winning image should be and I do believe it is getting better as more professional photographers enter and influence the expectations of the result. Harder too.

I have found it difficult to second guess some competitions though, the results from different judges each year make predicting what will win impossible. The World Press Photo competition is notorious for often unwelcome and incomprehensible surprises.

There are a lot of competitions out there if you know where to look though be warned, these days many people start competitions as a way to build up a collection of stock images on a theme that they will use for commercial purposes. Some will even charge you an entry fee for the privilege  too, amazing really when it was this sort of work that they USED TO pay photographers or stock agencies for. Though they make a big deal about the photographer keeping copyright if you  agree to a royalty free, unlimited, irrevocable license for whatever they (or often their friends/business partners) want you might as well be handing over copyright. I always read the terms and conditions, true is these financially troubled days no one is just going to give away stuff for free and if they want to use your pictures for promotion for the contest or a spin-off book it seems slightly churlish to refuse especially if you have won a prize. What I never agree to though is any competition-unrelated, unpaid commercial or editorial usage of my images however much it will “raise my profile”. I also hate third party clauses on usage, as they are difficult to track and I am not too happy about sending any images to rules that state even those pictures that are not finalists or winners can be used someway because that just seems greedy and rude to me. And I never ever ever give up copyright because it is MY image after all and if it is good enough for a competition, in my opinion, it is hopefully going to be good enough to sell somewhere, someday and give me some money to make my wife happy, and thus me happy as she lets me out to do more photography in the hopes of earning more money and on and on in the happy circle of the photographic ecosystem.

So good news today from one Simon Smith who has a good site listing all the photographic competitions that aren`t too  greedy and selfish. Check it out he lists contests by date and subject genre, also by free to enter or fee payable and of course date. There are a few such sites out there, see over to the left in useful resources, but this one seems really well set up, easy to navigate and even has forums and galleries where you can connect and share information with other competition people, including, apparently, sometimes the organizers and judges. So it looks good.

Now I`m off to find some more comps to enter so I can start getting that photo-food-chain working again. It has been an impoverished few months, busy yes but no money of late. Christmas coming up, wife wants happiness, then I will be…..then……then…….then……

The image above is the famous Billiken from Osaka by the way.

Later

Damon