I try to listen to the NHK morning news show during commutes when I can. Sometimes it’s interesting, sometimes it just gives you high blood pressure. This morning’s show had Hirano, Jiro on talking about the Olympics going to Rio in Brazil. He mentioned something about connections but didn’t go into the gory details you get with David Zirin on Democracy Now. It would be funny to hear them talking about Viagra as part of the IOC budget on public radio broadcasts, or about the records being burned after the Nagano Olympics…
But he did mention that Brazil is has the fifth largest population in the world. Hirano also mentioned something that I was trying to imagine getting airtime in the U.S. He explained an some kind of income distribution (Shotoku Haibun see second to last Japanese paragraph on how 10% of population gets 50% of the national income, 34% are impoverished..) quotient, 1 being more equal 100 being most inequal and said how Brazil’s was bad at 56 point something. I was hoping to catch what Japan’s and The United States was. I didn’t. Could US morning news shows air a matter-of-fact explanation that the worse the income distribution (inequality) is the more unstable a society is and how there might be some resistance in the slums that climb up the mountainsides? I never even heard of this Income Distribution (Shotoku Haibun) number before. That was worthwhile enough to turn off the funny Alexander Cockburn AK Press CD I’ve been working through…
It’s too much to hope that they might follow up with what’s going on with South Africa’s World Cup Soccer now. And maybe go back and see what’s happening in the small towns that hosted Japan/Korea’s World Cup a few years ago. These are all questions that get thoughts rolling just with the asking…
ZNetwork is funded solely through the generosity of its readers.
Donate