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Post-293: Jordan Am a Hard Road to Travel

3/30/2015

"Jordan Am a Hard Road to Travel" is a traditional American song out of 1800s with many versions. One version is by Jimmie Driftwood, a prolific songwriter out of Arkansas, active from the 1930s-1990s. The lyrics are nowhere to be found online. I'll transcribe them and put them up here.

The song was recorded in 1959. It tells the story of a man who went to California during the Gold Rush.

Jordan Am a Hard Road to Travel
By Jimmy Driftwood / 1959 / "The Westward Movement" album

Oh!
There was an old man
from the county called Pike
And his name was Jolly ol' Higgins

The darned ol' fool
Who went an' bought an ol' mule
And was bound for the California diggins

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Post-292: On Lee Kuan Yew, Founder of Singapore

3/29/2015

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Singapore was expelled from Malaysia in 1965.

Singapore's government in '65 was led by a man born Harry Lee, educated at Cambridge. By then, he was using the name Kuan Yew. He'd led Singapore since 1959, when full self-government was granted by the British. Lee Kuan Yew did everything he could to prevent the expulsion from Malaysia, I've read. When it was finalized, he went on television, in front of the entire nation-to-be, and as he announced the expulsion, he wept. He wept!

Singapore was unable to feed itself or even provide itself with water, and so he understandably feared that Singapore would be reduced to a pathetic walled-off island ghetto, a kind of Southeast-Asian Gaza. No wonder he wept.

Lee Kuan Yew in the 1950s

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Post-291: "It Works Good" (Or, a 1974 Prediction about the Evolution of English)

3/27/2015

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I didn't exist yet in the summer of 1974 and I wouldn't for some time to come. No matter. Through the Internet, I can look back at the news published across the world even years before I was born and in places I've never been.

On Thursday July 11th, 1974, the Milwaukee Journal (circulation then 400,000) ran front-page stories about the Watergate scandal. That's too boring to me to re-read. Towards the back of that day's paper, a certain letter to the editor was also published. (Don't ask how I found this.) I'll republish it here, over forty years later, because I think it's rather clever. It makes certain predictions we can analyze, given the passage of almost forty-one years now.

The writer was a young man called Jack Chiang. From certain things he says, I would guess is from Hong Kong, and would further guess he is today 60s; possibly early 70s. I wonder what he's made of the past four decades.

Here is the letter:

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Post-290: First Impression of Japan

3/25/2015

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I'll write about my trip to Japan in small pieces.

Day One
Outside Hakata Station, Fukuoka, Kyushu Island.

Wheeling my suitcase along, trying to find my way in diminishing daylight, I am forced to stop a while and wait until the little red man gives way to the little green man and we are allowed to cross the street.

It is just then that the Quiet really hits me.

I look around. Buses, and taxis, and bicyclists, and pedestrians, some frantic ones and others less frantic; there is a force-of-nature-like surge of energy to all of it flowing together; overheard, billboards, neon in liberal doses. Behind me, one of the country's major train stations with its adjacent shopping center. A typical big city. A typical Asian city. But where is the noise?

Yes, it is much quieter than it ought to be. Where is the noise...?

This is my first impression of Japan, and I like it.

This Quiet fit neither my previous experiences of such places nor my expectations. Maybe I should have expected such, from what others have told me about Japan over the years. I didn't. How can a place with so many thousands of people (and running motors), in close quarters be...so quiet?

Hakata Station in Fukuoka, Japan, early March 2015, sunset.

Let me try to answer my own question.

Urban noise, I suppose, is nothing more than the jumbling together of lots of small, extraneous noises, like a car honking off yonder, someone shouting at a friend in the distance, music blaring from an unseen speaker, loud conversations from passersby, a motor-scooter revving behind you and zooming by on a sidewalk, and these days, cell phone conversations. A lot of small things like that. And, come to think of it, probably the majority of these noises come from individual choices. Do I need to honk that horn? Do I need to shout at my friend? Do I need to play my music loudly? And so on.

I figure that in Japan in public, part of the social contract is "Don't make noises for no reason". This does not apply to entertainment districts or shopping areas, where noise is okay and encouraged. Outside those kinds of designated areas, I think this rule applies and is followed by Japanese loyally. When the sum total of thousands of individuals' decisions "to not make unnecessary noise" are added together, we get quiet. It seems simple, but to actually see it is amazing. Many Americans also basically follow this principle, but many don't. It only takes a few...

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Post-289: Back from Japan

3/24/2015

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I have returned to Incheon, South Korea from Japan. Over two weeks with no regular Internet access, I lost the habit of occasionally writing here. It requires discipline to write here. After returning from Japan, I busied myself with moving to a new home. I spent a lot of time with my friend M.P., who has returned to the USA this past Monday.

I really need to write about Japan. There is too much to say. Let me say something simple. I liked Japan. I was all around the country, from Kyushu (about a week) up through Tokyo. My first impression was that Japan was, "per capita", the quietest place I've ever been.

A lot more can be said; maybe later.

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Post-293: Jordan Am a Hard Road to Travel

Post-292: On Lee Kuan Yew, Founder of Singapore

Post-291: "It Works Good" (Or, a 1974 Prediction about the Evolution of English)

Post-290: First Impression of Japan

Post-289: Back from Japan

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