Hi Blog. Just a quick note before bedtime:<\/p>\n
DEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER OCTOBER 31, 2006
\nACADEMIC APARTHEID SPECIAL<\/p>\n
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
\n1) IVAN HALL ET AL SPEAKING AT JALT KITAKYUSHU
\n2) BERN MULVEY ON MORE MINISTERIAL MOVES AGAINST ACADEMIC TENURE
\n3) U HODEN LAWSUIT RE SCHOOL BULLYING DUE TO CHINESE ETHNICITY
\n4) “AMERICANS FOR EQUAL TREATMENT” UNION FORMING
\n5) RES.PUBLICA JOB ADVERT FOR FULL-TIME JAPAN-BASED ACTIVIST
\n\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/<\/p>\n
By Arudou Debito (debito@debito.org), Freely forwardable<\/p>\n
1) IVAN HALL ET AL SPEAKING AT JALT KITAKYUSHU<\/p>\n
The Japan Association for Language Teaching (JALT http:\/\/www.jalt.org) will be holding its annual meeting in Kitakyushu this weekend (http:\/\/conferences.jalt.org\/2006) . I’ll be there too at the PALE Group (https:\/\/www.debito.org\/PALE) labor-issues booth most of the time selling books and hobnobbing, so if you’re in the area, stop by.<\/p>\n
But a major coup for us this weekend is getting Ivan Hall to speak for us. One of the granddaddies of the movement against unequal treatment for foreign academics in Japan, Dr Hall is the author of book CARTELS OF THE MIND, a seminal work on how Japan keeps intellectual closed shops in five different job arenas, one of them higher education. He was the person who first got me into activism more than a decade ago (regarding “Academic Apartheid”, where foreigners get insecure contract work while Japanese get tenure), and you can see my archive on the issue at https:\/\/www.debito.org\/activistspage.html#ninkisei I talked to Dr Hall for two hours this morning by phone, and his speech sounds excellent. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to hear one of the true troopers for human rights in Japan.<\/p>\n
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\nPRESENTATION DETAILS
\nPresentation #662: Ivan Hall: Communities, or Cartels of the Mind?
\nPresenters: Ivan Hall, Jonathan Britten
\nContent & Format: Universal; Administration, Management and Employment Areas (PALE); Forum
\nScheduled: Friday, November 3rd, 16:45 – 18:20 (4:45 PM – 6:20 PM); Room: MAIN HALL
\n——————————————<\/p>\n
I might add that PALE will be sponsoring two other events:<\/p>\n
——————————————
\nPRESENTATION DETAILS
\nPresentation #523: PALE Roundtable Discussion
\nPresenters: Jonathan Britten, Rube Redfield, Evan Heimlich, Patrck O’Brien
\nContent & Format: College and University Education (CUE); Administration, Management and Employment Areas (PALE); Forum
\nScheduled: Friday, November 3rd, 13:15 – 14:50 (1:15 PM – 2:50 PM); Room: 21A<\/p>\n
——————————————
\nPRESENTATION DETAILS
\nPresentation #661: PALE AGM
\nPresenter: Jonathan Britten
\nContent & Format: Universal; Administration, Management and Employment Areas (PALE); Meeting
\nScheduled: Friday, November 3rd, 15:00 – 16:00 (3:00 PM – 4:00 PM); Room: 21A
\n——————————————<\/p>\n
And I will also be speaking, although not in a room (I couldn’t get one, alas):<\/p>\n
——————————————
\nPRESENTATION DETAILS
\nPresentation #107: “JAPANESE ONLY”: Racial Discrimination in Japan.
\nPresenter: Arudou Debito
\nContent & Format: Universal; Administration, Management and Employment Areas (PALE); Discussion
\nScheduled: Saturday, November 4th, Poster set-up Room: FOYER
\n——————————————<\/p>\n
Again, if you can make it to JALT this weekend, walk on by.<\/p>\n
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2) BERN MULVEY ON MORE MINISTERIAL MOVES AGAINST ACADEMIC TENURE<\/p>\n
Dr. Mulvey, a longtime friend and Dean of Faculty at Miyazaki International University, has stumbled upon some Ministry of Education plans to further undermine lifetime employment (“permanent academic tenure”) in Japanese academia.<\/p>\n
By playing with titles, and only allowing the very top (“kyouju’, or Full Professor) to have any non-contracted tenured status, the Ministry is continuing its efforts to make full-time employment in Japanese academia insecure.<\/p>\n
============= EXCERPT BEGINS ====================
\nThere are indeed only THREE official ranks currently–Kyouju, Jokyouju, and Joshu (assistants), with Koushi being a somewhat nebulous term for everyone else.<\/p>\n
[Kyouju = Full Professor, Jokyouju = Associate Professor,
\nKoushi = Assistant Professor, Joshu = something below that]<\/p>\n
This will now change to FOUR official ranks: Kyouju, Junkyouju, Jokyou and Joshu. … None of the [ministerial]documents, however, make it really clear why it was necessary to add this new category of assistant–not to mention change “Jokyouju to “Junkyouju.” However, the Sennin Koushi discussion, not to mention the repeated mentions that Jokyou need not be “tenured”, suggest that one possible motivation IS to give universities an out\/excuse for dumping current Sennin Koushi and\/or hiring even Japanese as contract Kyoujo.
\n============== EXCERPT ENDS =====================
\nRest at https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=58<\/p>\n
For those who need more information on what’s wrong with contract employment in academia with no review or hope of tenure, see https:\/\/www.debito.org\/activistspage.html#ninkisei , or a quick roundup at https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=58 . Again, it dovetails with the Academic Apartheid issue people like Ivan and I have been raising all these years now.<\/p>\n
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3) U HODEN LAWSUIT RE SCHOOL BULLYING DUE TO CHINESE ETHNICITY<\/p>\n
In the current press’s frenzied return to the problems of bullying (ijime) within Japanese schools, sometimes one’s ethnicity (in this case, a Chinese-Japanese grade schooler) becomes the bullying bone to pick. Years of negligence by both teachers and parents at a grade school in Kawasaki ultimately led to a public acknowledgment of the problem, an apology from the Board of Education and the school, and a demand for restitution. However, the bullies’ parents refused to own up to anything, so Plaintiffs took them to court. U Hoden, Professor at Japan Women’s University and a naturalized Japanese is the father of the victim and the named Plaintiff in this case:<\/p>\n
============= EXCERPT BEGINS ====================
\nOne of the perpetrators was a male classmate of the Plaintiff’s daughter, who began taunting the victim in first and second grade with calls of “Chinky” (chuugokujin, or “Chinese”). In third grade, this boy was put in her class, and led a gang of three boy and three girl classmates to taunt her. They carried out this bullying in the open, in front of the teacher. From around May 2000, on a daily basis they began calling her “dimwit” (noroma) and “shithead” (unko), and held their noses whenever they came close to call her “stinky” (kusai). Moreover, the ringleader of this bullying gang (“A-kun”) began to inflict repeated violence, such as hitting her head, kicking her legs, and pulling on her hair. Even in class, when the victim stood up to answer a question, A-kun would heckle her, and terrorize her with public comments like “Everyone in this class hates an asshole like you!” (omae wa minna kara kirawarete iru).<\/p>\n
Thus from the tender age of eight, Plaintiff’s daughter was plagued with thoughts such as, “Does the Chinese blood I have flowing inside of me make me such a bad person? Am I a sullied person (kitanai ningen) because of it?” During the first year of bullying, the victim’s body stopped growing and developing. Her health deteriorated from the fear she felt, and she regressed mentally back to an infantile state and became isolated and withdrawn (kankaku shougai). A doctor diagnosed her with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and prescribed her with daily tranquilizers to help her sleep, which she still takes to this day.
\n============== EXCERPT ENDS =====================
\nRest at https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=59<\/p>\n
his is an ongoing lawsuit, decision due sometime next year. Will keep you posted. Plaintiff can be reached at yuxinghong@msn.com<\/p>\n
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4) “AMERICANS FOR EQUAL TREATMENT” UNION FORMING<\/p>\n
Email from a friend:<\/p>\n
=========================================
\nDear Debito,<\/p>\n
AETU is going to create a union in Japan by November 11, 2006. It will be the first time that a union was created in Japan made up of Americans. Can you get the word out to all Americans you know in Japan and the U.S. to take part in this historic event? We need some people to volunteer to be officers. There will be no union fees. We will seek donations from the U.S. For further details, please ask them to contact AETU at americansforequaltreatment@yahoo.com<\/p>\n
Masao Sasaki (americansforequaltreatment@yahoo.com)
\nhttp:\/\/www.geocities.com\/americansforequaltreatment\/
\n=========================================<\/p>\n
COMMENT: I send this to you because I know Masao personally and know his heart is in the right place. I have heard random scoffs from cyberspace about why this group fighting for rights should be “restricted to Americans”. The reason is because of the special relationship between Japan and the US, and Americans in particular could use their clout (for whatever it matters to the USG, which usually takes little notice of their citizens abroad unless there is an overriding geopolitical interest) to push for reforms for foreigners in Japan. It worked with Ambassador Mondale ten years ago pushing the doors open for Ivan Hall and company
\n( https:\/\/www.debito.org\/JPRIfaxfrommondale.jpg and https:\/\/www.debito.org\/JPRImondaleletter.html )<\/p>\n
I say people should use whatever is peacefully at their advantage to push for the rights of all. Because whatever gains Masao makes in Japan will not be restricted to Americans. Check it out.<\/p>\n
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5) RES.PUBLICA JOB ADVERT FOR FULL-TIME JAPAN-BASED ACTIVIST<\/p>\n
Forwarding this message. People who might be interested in a paying job as an activist here in Japan (those jobs are quite rare, believe me; I certainly can’t make a living out of what I do) ought to check this out:<\/p>\n
==================================================
\nArudou-san,<\/p>\n
My name is Lee-Sean Huang, I am a former ALT on the JET Programme, and
\nI have been following your activism work for sometime now.<\/p>\n
I am currently working for TheResPublica.org, a non-profit NGO based
\nin New York City. We are currently working on a new online global
\nactivist community that will support multilingual, country-specific
\ncontent. One of our potential launch markets is Japan, and I was
\nwondering if you could help us out with our fact-finding and
\nrecruitment.<\/p>\n
The aim is to bring together millions of people around the world who
\nfavor a more progressive globalization by building a well-organized
\npublic constituency for key global issues like poverty, climate
\nchange, global governance and peace. We will use the latest techniques
\nin online organizing, text messaging and more traditional campaigning
\nto do this. We plan to launch the organization in the next three
\nmonths.<\/p>\n
Right now we are in the intensive recruiting phase of the project. We
\nare currently looking for several senior staff (we’ll be headquartered
\nin New York but we expect senior staff to be spread around the world),
\nas well as country coordinators in the UK, France, Germany, South
\nKorea, Japan, Brazil, India and China, and regional contact points for
\neach of the Middle East, Latin America, Southeast Asia and Africa.<\/p>\n
We are looking for the following:<\/p>\n
– A Chief Operating Officer who will be responsible for operations and
\nfinancial management
\n– An International Organizing Director who will
\ncoordinate a growing group of national contact points that will
\nlocalize and amplify our global campaigns
\n– An Advocacy Director who will be a senior campaigner and play a key
\nrole in communications
\n– An Online Director who will be steward of our technology strategy,
\nand will also likely have campaigning responsibilities
\n-Country\/Regional Directors who will be responsible for building and
\nmanaging one of the organization’s country\/regional teams.<\/p>\n
I can provide a more detailed description of the project and job
\ndescriptions, which should give a better sense of what we are
\nlooking for. Would you be able to think about the most talented people
\nyou know and whether you think they might be a good fit for this
\nproject? We are looking for top-class, entrepreneurial, energetic,
\ninternational and accomplished people who are interested in being part
\nof this from the ground up.<\/p>\n
Lee-Sean Huang
\nlee-sean@therespublica.org
\n260 Fifth Avenue, Level 9
\nNew York, NY 10001
\nhttp:\/\/www.therespublica.org\/
\n==================================================<\/p>\n
I know very little about the organization itself right now, but those interested, please have a look.<\/p>\n
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Enough for tonight. Thanks as always for reading!<\/p>\n
Arudou Debito
\nSapporo, Japan
\ndebito@debito.org
\nhttps:\/\/www.debito.org
\nDEBITO.ORG OCT 31 2006 NEWSLETTER ENDS\n<\/p>\n
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1) IVAN HALL ET AL SPEAKING AT JALT KITAKYUSHU
\n2) BERN MULVEY ON MORE MINISTERIAL MOVES AGAINST ACADEMIC TENURE
\n3) U HODEN LAWSUIT RE SCHOOL BULLYING DUE TO CHINESE ETHNICITY
\n4) “AMERICANS FOR EQUAL TREATMENT” UNION FORMING
\n5) RES.PUBLICA JOB ADVERT FOR FULL-TIME JAPAN-BASED ACTIVIST<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,5,16,15,3,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academia","category-human-rights","category-labor-issues","category-lawsuits","category-newsletters","category-problematic-foreign-treatment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=60"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=60"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=60"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=60"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}