More Loyal Reader Feedback:
Slow news day, huh? Why don't you mention the returnees from North Korea? That was a big story last night in Japan, with tearful family reunions taking places in Niigata, Fukui and Sado Island. There was a short story by O. Henry called "After Twenty Years." This was after 24. Millions had a view into the private reunions of these abductees with their loved ones on TV. I wonder if the response from the nation at large was bittersweet happiness -- or more likely, anger that such a cruel regime could have taken away all these years from the families.
- Karl, 10/18/02
Sigh. I guess I have to explain, for the benefit of my loyal readers (or, given the lack of response to my request for feedback, perhaps I should say loyal reader singular), what this is all about for me:
To repeat, I know my limitations: I am not a foreign correspondent, journalist, or professional commentator, and what I write about is what I know or opinions I feel confident of expressing. In this case, this is a worldwide story: there have been hundreds of news stories in dozens of outlets around the globe. What could I do but parrot what's printed in the local media?
(Admittedly, that seems to be the modus operandi of many professional foreign correspondents, to sit in their bureau offices and condense whatever they read in the local newspapers. With the advent of news media websites, they don't even have to be in the same country to do that. This probably explains Andrew Gumbel, the Independent's Los Angeles-based US correspondent, whose stuff I read reprinted in the Sunday Daily Yomiuri. He recently quoted a "left-wing columnist from the San Francisco Chronicle", who turned out to be a Web-only columnist named Harley Sorenson. Which means that the LA-based Gumbel has apparently given up reading the actual San Francisco paper, and is lazily using his search engine to troll for quotes instead. It seems to me that his bosses could economize by closing the LA bureau and giving Gumbel a desk back in London instead, though I suppose its true that they may have done this already, LA byline or no, and we readers have no way to know the difference.It strikes me that this might be a theme worth exploring further if I weren't too tired and/or lazy right now.)
In any case, I have no opinions or feelings on the Korea abduction issue other than the obvious: my original skepticism when I first heard the stories last year (North Korean secret agents sneaking into Japan and grabbing people off the streets? I mean, it sounded like Cold War paranoia crossed with that weird POW/MIA belief that still (apparently) is held by some Viet vet families and groups in the US); my utter astonishment at North Korea's admission of guilt; and yes, I was moved by the stories of the five people who returned home to Japan after a forced separation of more than two decades, but, hell, who wants to read what I think about it?
(Confidential to Frako: I'll do the Ghibli story Monday, I promise).
Links of the Day:
- Google News Service: The best news media site around, 4,000 news sources served up and organized courtesy of the Google search engine. My new default home page.
Some Japanese abductee stories:
Books I'm Reading:
