[sumo] (no subject)

[Rick Plinz]

> On Sat, 2007-08-18 at 10:19 +0300, Moti wrote:
> 
>> I totally agree. all I'm saying, is I have come across so many 
>> "scientific researches" in my life to know that 99% of them,
>> regardless of my views on the specific subjects are "bent" into
>> housing and proving a point the author has set out to make. I don't
>> remember ever reading a "researched article" where said author admits
>> he has changed his view as the result of said research. Again, I'm all
>> for research and stuff but at the end of the day it's one writer's
>> opinion. 
> 
>     It's funny, the "Scientific Community" is second only to the "Religious
> Community" in the unwavering stance on change.  Makes the Kyokai look
> like progressive radicals.  (See?  I even made this topical, too.)

> Joe "Kuramarujo" Klemmer

So the best the two of you can do is "intellectual bashing" to support your arguments?  Good luck with that.

Lynn Matsuoka blathers. .
> Yes,  there are a lot of people who lived in Japan (as you have) and are
> never aware.  Good book for you, if you  could get thru it, The Enigma of
> Japanese Power ,  by  Karel von Wolferen. The enigma of the Japanese
> culture- it is almost beyond our western thinking, like ..where space ends.

Actually read this book Ms. Matsuoka - ALMOST TWENTY YEARS AGO, when it was first written.  And as a reflection of the frustration the author experienced in his 25 years living in Japan prior to 1990.  No one of any intellect can continue to maintain that post 1990 Japan isn't undergoing rapid change politically, socially, culturally, and economically.  It's a wonder what continually broken economics can do to shake things up in a country.  In just the last few weeks it's become clear that the Japanese legal system reforms will include jury trials and the Japanese Diet is starting to more resemble a real two-party system.  

No one ever said Japan doesn't work differently.  So does Germany, so does China, so does New Zealand. . .I have worked and lived in all of them.  And my business career has been successful in all of them, despite the differences.   And in Japan, I've done it without having to engage in silly Japanese customs like getting hammered in hostess bars and bad singing karaoke while drunk. All to the expressed relief of my Japanese business colleagues who to a man resented the whole process.  Many people are crippled in Japan business by trying to 'be Japanese" instead of just being themselves and getting the job done.

Sumo Kyokai is wrong for their underhanded and childish attempts to undermine Asashoryu.  The reasons are clear to objective observers - they don't want a foreigner to end up in the record books as one of the dominant factors of this sport and they have been seizing any excuse to force him out before his time.  Contrasted with the welcome that Japanese baseball players have received in the US, and the average Japanese can see clearly the difference.

And claiming Konishiki's record after the time he should have been promoted to Yokozuna justifies his non-promotion ignores the fact that, historically speaking, athletes of strong character rise to the occasion when called on to perform.  It would be my contention that being passed over for purely racial reasons was responsible for "breaking his spirit".  Konishiki finally realized in March 1992 that these racist blockheads would NEVER promote him to Yokozuna no matter what he did. . . with the result being his fairly steep decline and ultimate retirement.  I attended many of the basho during the 1992-1994 time period and saw firsthand Konishiki's change in mood and attitude during this period.


R. Plinz