一枚目 A newspaper has been lamenting the decay of the diary- keeping habit. with the natural result that several correspondents have written to say that they have kept diaries all their lives. No doubt all these diaries now contain the entry, "Wrote to the Daily-to deny the assertion that the diary-keeping habit is on the wane." Of such little things are diaries made.
I suppose this is the reason why diaries are so rarely kept nowadays-that nothing ever happens to anybody. A diary would be worth writing up if it could be written like this:- Monday.-"Another exciting day. Shot a couple of hooligans on my way to business and was forced to give my card to the police. On arriving at the office was surprised to find the building on fire. but was just in time to rescue the confidential treaty between England and Switzerland. Had this been discovered by the public, war would infallibly have resulted. Went out to lunch and saw a runaway elephant in the Strand. Thought little of it at the time. but mentioned it to my wife in the evening. She agreed that it was worth recording."
二枚目 Tuesday.-Letter from solicitor informing me that I have come into .£1,000,000 through the will of an Australian gold-digger named Tomkins. On referring to my diary I
find that I saved his life two years ago by plunging into the Serpentine. This is very gratifying. Was late at the office as I had to look in at the Palace on the way, in order to get knighted, but managed to get a good deal of work done before I was interrupted by a madman with a razor, who demanded £100. Shot him after a desperate struggle. Tea at ABC, where I met the Duke of-. Fell into the Thames on my way home, but swam ashore without difficulty.”
三枚目 Alas! we cannot do this. Our diaries are very prosaic, very dull indeed. They read like this:- Monday.-"Felt inclined to stay in bed this morning and send an excuse to the office, but was all right after a bath and breakfast. Worked till 1.30 and had lunch. Afterwards worked till five, and had my hair cut on the way home. After dinner read a novel. Rotten. Went to bed at eleven." Tuesday.- 'Had a letter from Jane. Did some good work in the morning, and at lunch met Henry. who asked me to play golf with him on Saturday. Told him l was playing with Peter, but said I would like a game with him on the Saturday after. However, it turned out he was playing with William then, so we couldn't fix anything up. Bought a pair of shoes on my way home. but think they will be too tight. The man. says, though, that they will stretch.' Wednesday.-"Played dominoes at lunch and won five- pence."
If this sort of diary is now falling into decay, the world is not losing much. But at least it is a harmless pleasure to some to enter up their day's doings each evening, and in years to come it may just possibly be of interest to the diarist to know that it was on Monday. 27th April, that he had his hair cut. Again, if in the future any question arose as to the exact date of Henry's decease, we should find in this diary proof that anyhow he was alive as late as Tuesday. 28th April. That might, though it probably won't, be of great importance. But there is another sort of diary which can never be of any importance at all. I make no apology for giving a third selection of extracts.
四枚目 Monday.-"Rose at nine and came down to find a letter from Mary. How little we know our true friends! Beneath the mask of outward affection there may lurk unknown to us the serpent's tooth of jealousy. Mary writes that she can make nothing for my stall at the bazaar as she has her own stall to provide for. Ate my breakfast mechanically, my thoughts being far away. What, after all, is life? Meditated deeply on the inner cosmos till lunch- time. Afterwards I lay down for an hour and composed my mind. I was angry this morning with Mary. Ah, how pretty! Shall I never be free from the bonds of my own nature? Is the better self within me never to rise to the sublime heights of selflessness of which it is capable? Rose at four and wrote to Mary, forgiving her. This has been a wonderful day for the spirit."
五枚目 Yes; I suspect that a good many diaries record adventures of the mind and soul for lack of stirring adventures to the body. If they cannot say, "Attacked by a lion in Bond Street to-day," they can at least say, "Attacked by doubt in St. Paul's Cathedral." Most people will prefer, in the absence of the lion, to say nothing, or nothing more important than "Attacked by the hairdresser with a hard brush"; but there are others who must get pen to paper
somehow. and who find that only in regard to their emotions have they anything unique to say. But, of course, there is ever within the breasts of all diarists the hope that their diaries may some day be revealed to the world. They may be discovered by some future generation, amazed at the simple doings of the twentieth century, or their publication may be demanded by the next generation, eager to know the inner life of the great man just dead. Best of all, they may be made public by the writers themselves in their autobiographies.
六枚目 Yes; the diarist must always have his eye on a possible autobiography. "I remember," he will write in that great work, having forgotten all about it, "I distinctly remember"- and here he will refer to his diary-"meeting X. at lunch one Sunday and saying to him..." What he said will not be of much importance, but it will show you what a wonderful memory the distinguished author retains in his old age.
Interviewer:In this process, you have always been something of an optimist. Is that fair to say? Ogata: Well, I think so. All things considered, the contribution my office makes will still have an impact. That is my basic optimism. 0f course, in facing any situation, there are some times when you feel very desperate. Interviewer: For you and your team, I guess, the individual cases must be very moving. Ogata: Yes,and they encourage us to go on. This is the most rewarding part of our job, but it is also the frustrating part. Interviewer: Where do you think the UNHCR office has been most successful? Ogata: I would like people to know how we have been working toward solving the problems of refugees and helping people around the world. We have to keep in mind how many people were refugees before. Their troubles over, many of them are now a very active and important part of their society. I'm talking about finding solutions for millions of people. That is the kind of message we should send to the world. Interviewer: Dr.0gata,thank you very much for being with us today.
What is happiness? Many well-known people have said various things about happiness. Robert Frost said, "Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length." Helen Keller said,"When one door of happiness closes, another opens;but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us." How about you? People have often tried to define happiness and discover the road to it, but with little success. To do so is difficult, as many people define happiness in different ways.
According to a recent World Values Survey carried out by a group of scientists around the world, people rate themselves less happy in the group-oriented cultures of Asia, including Japan. People from these cultures, however, report higher levels of contentment. On the other hand, the people who rate themselves the happiest are from the individualistic cultures of Western Europe, North America, and Oceania. In these cultures, personal success is highly valued: if you are unhappy, you must be a failure.
Such differences seem to be linked to what the different cultures believe happiness comes from. Eastern cultures believe that happiness will only come if you are content; it cannot be chased. Western cultures, however, make happiness an individual goal to be chased, and people are not content if they are not happy. These different ideas of the importance of contentment and happiness seem to lie behind many of the cultural differences in perceived happiness.
One of the statistics which innuences population growth most is the Total Fertility Rate, or TFR. This specifies the average number of children women give birth to. At the global level, the TFR has been falling. For the 1970-75 period, the global TFR was 4.49,but by 2000- 05,the rate fell to 2.65. According to UN predictions, by 2050 the rate will have been falling for over 80 years. Current statistics for global population show that as a rule, the TFR is lower in more developed regions. For the 2000-05 period, it was 1.56 children per woman, and in some Southern and Eastern European countries, below 1.3. A few countries such as Germany, France, and the US showed minor increases in TFRs. By 2050, the overall TFR for more developed regions will rise to 1.84; however, this is still relatively low. Fertility is generally higher in less developed countries. For the 2000-05 period, the TFR for these areas was 2.9,but by 2050, the predicted TFR for these areas will have fallen to 2.07. In other words, 45 years from then, the gap between TFRs in these two regions will have been narrowing for some time. Falling global TFRs will contribute to the slowing of global population growth.
The UN has made its world population report public. Called World Population Prospects: the 2004 Revision,it presents global population data and predictions up to the year 2050. The report estimates that between 2000 and 2005, world population increased by 76 million per year on average. Although the growth rate will have slowed
down to 34 million per year by 2050, total population will be around 9.1 billion. Population trends will differ between more developed and less developed regions of the world.Figure 1 shows how the population in certain regions will grow over five- year periods. As shown by the red line, percentages in more developed countries will dip below zero in the 2030-2035 period, then decline even further.The resulting total population will also be lower. Growth rates in less developed countries will also be decreasing.The percentage will remain above zero as late as the 2045-2050 period. As a result, the population in these countries will continue to grow, but at a slower rate. ln conclusion, population growth rates are slowing down,espedally in less developed regions. 0n the other hand,in 45 years, our planet's total population will have increased by another 2.6 bmion.
One ohten sees a notice beside the elevators in Japanese department stores, libraries, and other piblic places: " Persons in wheelchairs please use only when accompanied." But it's possible for me to steer my electric-powered chair into the elevator, press the button for the floor I want, and get off there on my own. Do I really need someone to accompany me?
Sad to say, in Japan today it is hard for people with disabilities to move about freely, and it's not easy for us to live on our own. So, there's no denying the fact that we need a great deal of help. But it's the environment that forces us into that position and makes us "disabled." Suppose there were elevators in every station; suppose trains were designed for easy boarding, with no gap or height difference between the edge of the platform and the floor of the car. Then,in using the public transport system, I would have no disability. The present environment also makes others feel sorry for us because of all the things we "can't do" due to physical barriers.
Christmas Eve in 1914 was a very cold night. There was hardly any gunfire at the front. On this silent and dark night, British soldiers saw lights glimmering on the German side. And they heard a sound like a song. "That's a Christmas tree! That's a Christmas carol!" They realized the Germans were celebrating Christmas. This Christmas carol was familiar to the British soldiers. They began to sing in their own language , with one voice. There was big applause from both sides after the singing. They began to enjoy a peaceful Christmas. Then, a German soldier appeared in no-man's-land and approached the British side. He waved a white flag and shouted in broken English , "You no shoot, we no shoot!Send man out! We talk!"
When talking to children, I ohten say, "Some of you wear glasses, right? Because your vision isn't perfect, right? I use a wheelchair because my legs aren't perfect." They laugh and say,"It's the same thing." When I ask if they feel sorry for people who wear glasses, nobody does, yet when I ask,"Do you feel sorry for people in wheelchairs?" just about everybody answers,"Yes."
"But you just told me it's the same as wewaring glasses," I say." Why feel sorry for the person in the wheerchair?" They answer, "A person with bad eyesight can see just fine with glasses, but a person in a wheelchair still can't do a lot of things, so you really have to feel sorry for them." What this means is that the conditions that make people with disabilities "pitiful" can be changed.
Japanese readers may have had the experience of seeing a disabled person having difficulties at a station but not knowing what to say or how to offer help. It's sheer unfamiliarity that makes people hesitate like that and end up walking on by. Afterward, they're often disgusted with themselves, wondering why they didn't speak up. But I don't think they should blame themselves. Even now, you don't come across many disabled people in the streets or on the trains in Japan, and it's not easy to know how to approach people with whom you've had so little contact.
With so few opportunities for contact, it may be close to impossible for most Japanese to get used to being around disabled people. And so I think that children's experiences hold the key. Children don't yet have mental barriers in place. When kids being to feel at ease with disabled people, then we begin to see truly "barrier-free" minds and hearts.
A friend of mine worked for many years as a headhunter in Tokyo. In this work, she had to interview hundreds of potential Japanese candidates in order to determine their suitability for employment at her clients' firms. I asked if she had developed an efficient way to find out whether someone would be able to adapt easily to the environment of a foreign firm. Her answer surprised me.
"I only have to ask one question to find out if he or she is the right kind of person to work in a foreign firm," she said. "I ask, 'Where do you want to be in your career five years from now?'"
"This seems like an ordinary question to Americans,but for many Japanese it's quite difficult to answer, because most people here rely on their companies to plan their careers."
"I typically hear answers like 'I will do whatever my company needs me to do,' or 'I'll work hard at whatever job my company assigns to me.' People who give answers like that get crossed off my list immediately, because foreign firms don't take responsibility for employees' career planning in that way."
"They don't want people who are willing to do just anything--- they want people who have a skill, talent, or professional area they are passionate about and want to pursue."
"Also, having thought carefully about one's future and how one would like to grow and develop shows qualities and responsibility for oneself, rather than dependency on a paternalistic company."
Sixty percent of the world's population lives in the 58 countries constituting the Asia and Pacific region. To address the issues of population growth, the Fifth Asian and Pacific Population Conference was held in Bangkok,Thailand in 2002. The issue of poverty was another key theme of the conference.People existing on less than US $l per day number about 1.2 billion worldwide, and in 2002, 768 mimon of them lived in the Asia and Pacific region. Most were in South Asia, lacking both health care and education. The percentage of people living below the poverty line in this region was reduced to 24 from 34 in the 1990s. Unfortunately, in countries with high poverty levels,population issues are seldom considered when creating policies to reduce poverty. This is especially true in Pakistan, Nepal,Laos,and the Philippines. lt is expeded that by 2050, progress will have been made in understanding the connedion between poverty and population. The conference emphasized that meeting these two challenges requires economic growth,social development, and family planning services which are easily accessible and affordable.
In 1994, the International Conference on Population and Development was held. Representatives from 179 countries agreed that women's status must be raised, As part of a 20-year plan, several targets were set, and ten years later, an official report on Asia and the Pacific was released. Equal education for women was the first target. China made progress in this area; by 2000, more Chinese girls than boys were enrolled in elementary schools. The next target was greater economic opportunities for women. By the late 1990s more women were employed outside agriculture than ever before: 16 percent of women in India, 39 percent in China,and 46 percent in Sri Lanka. Increased participation in politics was another important target. Even in more developed countries, the percentage of women in national parliaments is low. In Japan, only seven percent of the seats are held by women,while 25 and 31 percent are held by women in Australia and New Zealand,respectively. The Vietnamese government has successfully raised female representation from 18 in the 1990s to 26 percent. Since 1994, the region's governments have worked to achieve better lives for all their citizens including women and the poor. If they continue on this path, the situation will have been improved even more by 2014 when the 20-year report is released.