The year was full of ‘What?’: disastrous consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic and resignation of Abe Shinzo from premiership and the succeeding administration’s repeating of the policy, ‘profit-first rather than people’s life’. Meanwhile, in the United States President Trump was defeated in the election. As is seen in a series of judiciary decisions against nuclear power generation, we have a hope.
2020 HAS HAD MANY EXTRAORDINARY EVENTS
In the beginning of the year I read a small article in the newspaper on a fuss about a certain virus which took place beyond the border of country. I could not even anticipate then the incident would develop to a today’s size. I made wrong judgment that the trouble could be controlled in the same way as Ebola and HIV, maybe because I did not study much about infection.
Holding the Olympic Games?
I learned that Covid-19 is horrible, which is fairly different from other conventional contagious diseases, when I knew that patients without symptoms and with mild symptoms infect others. And then, I was overwhelmed by the deteriorated societal realities that have stemmed from the rounds of neo-liberal policies imposed, which are completely vulnerable to the pandemic. In the US under the Trump administration and in Japan under the Abe-Suga regimes, in particular, transmission of the disease spreads, as if fuel were thrown on a fire, in parallel with the policies taken. People here will suffer in the coming year, too, and will not welcome the Olympics.
The Covid-19 will end someday, but another virus may attack us. Unless peoples in the world implement fundamental policies as well as make a sincere review on destruction of ecological balance, climate change and a decline in anti-body titer in human bodies, it is transparently obvious natural disasters will hit the mankind one after another. I will watch how the humankind will overcome adversities with wisdom accumulated.
Political evils
The Abe government has collapsed. Though the rollover was due to the exposed scandals and political evils, it was astonishingly effortless. The successor is Prime Minister Suga, who has blatantly clung to a policy to spread infection across the country with tax money, the so-called Go-To-Campaign; he did not make a right explanation but sent a sly look at people. He is peculiar, as he steadily acts in a malicious way, though a top leader will justify his credo when he commits harmful acts. His popularity has plunged rapidly due to his unpopular steps, while opposition constitutional parties do not raise a support rate. We have to think why and prepare well for the general elections to come in 2021.
People’s struggles lead to a hope
I applaud US voters who defeated Trump in the election. A Biden government will face many difficulties, while leftist movements affiliated to Sanders gain impetus both inside and outside the Democratic Party. Clashes with the Trump-rightist forces will be intensified, but they are mundane events, which represents democracy. The US society looks far more hopeful than that of Japan, which is tainted by stagnant drain and asphyxiated with imposition of an idea of self-responsibility.
Civic movements bring us a hope here, too. In January the Hiroshima High Court ruled ‘suspension of operation at the Ikata Nuclear Power Plant’, a few months later the Sendai High Court supported the First Round Litigation of Refugees of the Fukushima Plant Disaster and another relevant file on retrieving original jobs, and in December, the Osaka District Court ruled cancellation of the permission to construct a nuclear station at Ooi, Fukui Prefecture. These rulings will hinder political offense of the Suga government which urges re-operation at the suspended power stations and build new plants.
海の向こうでウイルス騒動が新聞に小さく載った頃は、こんなことになるとは思いもよらず。不勉強だった我々は、エボラもエイズも抑え込んだから大丈夫と誤解した。
東京五輪どころか
無症状者・軽症者も感染力があるなど従来の新型感染症とは異次元の怖さがあることを知って、やっと一大事だとなった。そして、新自由主義が荒廃させた社会がいかにパンデミックに無防備であるか思い知らされた。
とりわけトランプや安倍―菅政権などの下では、政策いかんで火に油を注ぐように感染が拡大することも痛感した。来年も人々の苦境は続き、東京五輪どころではないだろう。
新型コロナは、いつかは収束するが、また新種が襲う。生態系の破壊、気候変動、人の抗体力の減退など、世界的な反省と根底的な対策を講じない限り、息つく間もない災厄に襲われることが分って来た。人類がこの点で学習効果を上げられるかどうか、我々も心したい。
黙々と悪事を働く
安倍政権は倒れた。スキャンダルと悪政の報いとは言え、あっけなかった。後継の菅首相たるや、陰険な眼差しで説明なしにＧｏＴｏキャンペーンという税金投入の感染拡大策を平然と継続。宰相たる者、悪事を働く時もそれなりの弁舌をふるい「信念」を誇示するものだが、黙々と悪事を働くキャラは珍しい。悪行によって支持率は急落しているが、立憲野党のそれは上向かない。一体なぜか、しっかり考え総選挙に備えたい。
民衆の闘いで光明
トランプを負かした米国市民には拍手を送りたい。バイデン政権は茨の道だろうが、民主党内外のサンダース支持の左派運動が成長している。激化するだろうトランプ流右派との左右対立は必然のことであり、民主主義の証である。腐った粥のような、閉塞感と「自己責任」に覆われるどこかの国よりはるかに明るい。
日本でも民衆の闘いは光明をもたらしている。１月広島高裁の「伊方原発運転差止め」判決、春の仙台高裁での原発事故避難者第一次訴訟と生業訴訟での勝利判決、１２月大阪地裁での「大飯原発設置許可取消し」判決と続いた。菅政権の原発再稼働・新増設という悪企みに立ちはだかるものだ。
道しるべ英訳↓
No. 1191 Recollections over 2020
The year was full of ‘What?’: disastrous consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic and resignation of Abe Shinzo from premiership and the succeeding administration’s repeating of the policy, ‘profit-first rather than people’s life’. Meanwhile, in the United States President Trump was defeated in the election. As is seen in a series of judiciary decisions against nuclear power generation, we have a hope.
2020 HAS HAD MANY EXTRAORDINARY EVENTS
In the beginning of the year I read a small article in the newspaper on a fuss about a certain virus which took place beyond the border of country. I could not even anticipate then the incident would develop to a today’s size. I made wrong judgment that the trouble could be controlled in the same way as Ebola and HIV, maybe because I did not study much about infection.
Holding the Olympic Games?
I learned that Covid-19 is horrible, which is fairly different from other conventional contagious diseases, when I knew that patients without symptoms and with mild symptoms infect others. And then, I was overwhelmed by the deteriorated societal realities that have stemmed from the rounds of neo-liberal policies imposed, which are completely vulnerable to the pandemic. In the US under the Trump administration and in Japan under the Abe-Suga regimes, in particular, transmission of the disease spreads, as if fuel were thrown on a fire, in parallel with the policies taken. People here will suffer in the coming year, too, and will not welcome the Olympics.
The Covid-19 will end someday, but another virus may attack us. Unless peoples in the world implement fundamental policies as well as make a sincere review on destruction of ecological balance, climate change and a decline in anti-body titer in human bodies, it is transparently obvious natural disasters will hit the mankind one after another. I will watch how the humankind will overcome adversities with wisdom accumulated.
Political evils
The Abe government has collapsed. Though the rollover was due to the exposed scandals and political evils, it was astonishingly effortless. The successor is Prime Minister Suga, who has blatantly clung to a policy to spread infection across the country with tax money, the so-called Go-To-Campaign; he did not make a right explanation but sent a sly look at people. He is peculiar, as he steadily acts in a malicious way, though a top leader will justify his credo when he commits harmful acts. His popularity has plunged rapidly due to his unpopular steps, while opposition constitutional parties do not raise a support rate. We have to think why and prepare well for the general elections to come in 2021.
People’s struggles lead to a hope
I applaud US voters who defeated Trump in the election. A Biden government will face many difficulties, while leftist movements affiliated to Sanders gain impetus both inside and outside the Democratic Party. Clashes with the Trump-rightist forces will be intensified, but they are mundane events, which represents democracy. The US society looks far more hopeful than that of Japan, which is tainted by stagnant drain and asphyxiated with imposition of an idea of self-responsibility.
Civic movements bring us a hope here, too. In January the Hiroshima High Court ruled ‘suspension of operation at the Ikata Nuclear Power Plant’, a few months later the Sendai High Court supported the First Round Litigation of Refugees of the Fukushima Plant Disaster and another relevant file on retrieving original jobs, and in December, the Osaka District Court ruled cancellation of the permission to construct a nuclear station at Ooi, Fukui Prefecture. These rulings will hinder political offense of the Suga government which urges re-operation at the suspended power stations and build new plants.
December 22, 2020