Monday, October 29, 2012


How Do You Define Fashion?
Kunika Toya

 Before I start to explore what is certain fashion or style in certain area, I would like to introduce definitions of what is fashion. Since people do not have all the same views, there are many ideas what fashions is.

“Fashion is something we deal with everyday.”[i]
 There are people who like to choose and think about what to wear and dress up; however, there are of course people who think opposite way: do not like to think or care about what they wear. Every morning people choose what to wear, and we ask questions to ourselves. Which tops goes with the pants? Which accessories should I put on? Which shoes and bags match with the clothing today? Even though people who do not care about what they are wearing, they think and ask questions about what to wear. Is it sunny or rainy? How cold or warm is it? And we all say about their liking of styles. Fashion is related to everyone even though they do not care about it. Everyone has different taste and liking, and even people who do not care about it would criticize if they met people whose style is not their taste.

“Fashion is what is in at the moment. It is temporary and has a limited time span.” [ii]
 Fashion is a trend and changes a lot. People get fashion ideas from movies, books, music or televisions.[iii] We look at magazines and get ideas of fashion from celebrities, and we look at music video and get ideas as well. For example, because of K-POP boom in Japan, a lot of Japanese magazines tend to pick up Korean style of make-ups; also, people including me tend to want to wear or follow that their favorite artists are wearing or their hairstyles. If you watch drama from decades ago, we probably see the style of clothing that people in drama is not fashionable at all, and you might see it as old-fashioned, but when you watch drama broadcasted in recent years, you do not really see the clothing as old-fashioned. Not only movie stars or musicians influenced what we wear, but also politicians and the Royal Family influence what we wear. [iv]The death of Princess Dianna affected to the world of fashion because her clothes were always on magazines. Also, in 17th century The French King Louis XIV spread his style of clothing such as velvets and extravagant laces to the people.[v] But is fashion only a trend?

“Clothes create a wordless means of communication that we all understand.”[vi]
 Fashion is like a language that expresses one’s feeling, culture or religious view. We dress up when we are happy and feel like dressing up. Sometimes people just do not care about clothing because they are upset and not felling like dressing up. Islamic people cover all the body except eyes[vii], and Korean people wear their traditional clothes on special events such as weddings.[viii]

“Fashion is self-satisfaction”[ix]
 What is your priority when you buy clothes or decide your next hairstyles? Is it that what your friends recommends you? We buy clothes because we like them, and we may think about what others say and recommends but the one who decide at last are ourselves, each of us. [x]People pick up their clothes by their own decision even though for people who do not think about it, they consider about what they going to do and how the weather is going to be and pick up their clothes. Also, do not care about what they wear means they are satisfied with how they look no matter how they look and what the trend is. In terms of this idea: “Fashion is self-satisfaction,”[xi] fashion should be based on what you like and what you think and feel in your heart.[xii]

 So what does the word fashion mean to you in personal? In my next blog entry, I am seeing fashion from deferent aspect, as a business.

[iv] Ibid
[v] Ibid

[x]Ibid

[xi]Ibid

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Foreign aid can support local area in 3rd world nations?


Foreign aid can support local area in 3rd world nations?

Yangee



   Foreign aid is flowed into the under-developed nations, which have purposes as developing infrastructure, solving dearth and so forth. In our common sense, this aid would help those countries not only internal problems but also external ones. However the world is not that kind to support others without any interests. Those are not merely given by humanity or philanthropic mind. It surely comes form some vicious goals that the nations having power to control the world, totally desire to have as making economical colony and widening their global influences. As a circumstance, the 3rd world nations must be confronted huge barriers that make them not to go beyond of poverty, about the economic growth. Suppose that waiting for powerful nations until being kind to give aid without any interests is silly behavior that never comes true. Thus, to go beyond of those disturbances, what those nations do? The most reliable way is to construct a local market.
    Those nations should stop relying on foreign aid came from capitalized countries and building local markets to maintain domestic governance. Local peasants have their own way to maintain their lives. However foreign pressure and capitalistic economy have forced them to change the crops to other products consumer demands (Scott, 1976). The very first time of changing the crops would give significant profits to farmers. Unlike their expectation, unkind fluctuation of prices or changed favors of consumer make them into bankruptcy or dearth. They can do self-sufficiency. They grow some crops for their food and breed fishes in their reservoir.  Even if they do not want to take market economy’s idea and keep their traditional economy, they need money for education or hospital fee. Therefore to overcome this problem, local market should give a way. It gives two positive effects to local economy. The first one is that it does not give any pressure to peasants to sell their food for eating and let them sell even small amount products, as they want to sell. Thus the peasants can have profits even if those are small. As following this circumstance, they can maintain the education or hospital fee. Besides it makes local profits not to go outside of village. In economic market, all output of local area go into capitalists’ pockets and nothing left for local inhabitants. However local market can prevent it. One of rules of governing local market is boycotting outsider’s goods. They do not give any profit for outsiders and make cycle of capital to support their own. Therefore governing this market, local area can be independent from government and the government also can be free from foreign debt by supported from local areas (優, 2007).
   Unfortunately, the world still enforces poor countries to receive foreign aid, but it is obviously not the way to solve the famine. It would be short-term solution, yet it is not permanent way (Ziegler, 2011). The real solution for local poverty is the way that how to maintain their lives as human being continuously. Thus the best fit of that idea is local market. The world still demands poor nations to receive it. Nonetheless output significantly shows that it is not working. However to achieve local maintenance and freedom from debts, local market should be adopted.

Scott, J. (1976). The moral economy fo the peasant: Rebellion and subsistence in southeast asia. (pp. 1-246). London, England: Yale University Press.
Ziegler, J. (2011).La faim dans le monde expliquée à mon fils. (2 ed., p.1- 74). Seuil.
優, 田中. (2007). おカネで世界を変える30の方法. (pp. 1-141). 合同出版.
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Sunday, October 28, 2012

Great Strategy which Doctors without Borders has.


Great Strategy which Doctors without Borders has.

Mai Kusakabe

 

Do you know how Doctors without Borders gets money to do their activity, or help people like who are involved in conflicts and war, and are injured by disaster? Of course they gain money from contributor. However I wondered how they attract people to be willing to contribute money to them. I think that this organization is one of the most famous volunteer groups in the world. I’m sure that you know them, don’t you? How do they have a high popularity among people all over the world? In fact, they have “great strategy”.

 

They give us facts that most people do not know or aware. For example, they insist that there are so many people who suffer poverty and persecution still now. And most of them do not have marketability and resources for developed countries, so their terrible situation could not be taken up by media in Western countries. Doctors without Borders has helped them for a long time and they need our backup. Moreover they show us how their method is better and more effective than other volunteer organizations. They insist that most sick people who suffer poverty can be better if their malnutrition is improved. Malnutrition accounts for only 20% of the cause of their death, but the 20% accounts for 80% of the origin of sick. So Doctors without Borders sends them food that is high nutritive value in order to cure their malnutrition first. They send only canned food that can open by hand, because the poor do not have plates and cookware. Content of it is like peanut butter and can eat by finger. Many sick persons who were fed this recover from malnutrition. Thus they explain how they help people to us clearly. And we can understand their effective method easily and get to want to support their activity more than others. We can realize that their presentation is attractive and excellent.

 

Their great strategy is not only this. Actually they send direct mails to contributors. The contents of it are gratitude and request for contributing more money to them. If it is only these contents, it could not move people’s hearts. They write how their each contribution helps people concretely. For example, how many foods could provide and how many people could help by contribution. Furthermore, they write that if more money is contributed, they could help more people. (They give us concrete number in actual mail.) This content teach contributors fact that their money helped people clearly. It is very effective to touch them and inform that their goodwill could be useful to people who suffered sick, disaster or poverty, and make them better.

 

As I stated, Doctors without Borders makes effort to gather money for their activities. We must not misunderstand that they do not conduct these strategy only to gather money, but to help people by it. Their purpose is only to save more lives. For achieving this purpose, they have to attract more people to gain contribution, spread how their activity is more effective and efficient than other groups by using their great strategy.

 

 

 Reference

Alternative Blog “Speed Feed” Hiroshi Ogawa http://blogs.itmedia.co.jp/speedfeed/2010/02/post-d4e6.html

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The Culture Creators


         Nachika Fujimoto
The Culture Creators









Japan’s animation is now gaining attention from the world. Cosplay, wearing costume as an animation character, is not a hobby favored only in Japan but now a worldwide hobby. Who has developed the animation to such a worldwide scale? It was not the elite of the Japanese society nor the scholars; it was the young generation group called the “Otaku.” The people who play an active role in the country do not always create new culture; the “abnormal” people can create a new innovation. People who do not follow the path of others will create astounding movements.
                Otaku is a group of people who has strong interest into certain subject, which can be classified similar to scholars, however the difference is that their interest is in animation. “Disgusting” is a synonym used to represent the Otaku. Otaku has been looked down at from the society as introverts or even as psychopaths. The “Introverts” has kept its interest and affectionate towards animations no matter how the society had labeled them as. Ordinary people cannot create this culture; only the otaku can create it. The hobby of the “introverts” is now spreading to the world.
                The society tends to place their focus on the elites and exclude the extraordinary people. What Japan needs right now are “weird,” “abnormal,” and people who can think outside the box. An eccentric characteristic is needed to create an original culture yet Japan society tends to exclude these people. Stubborn society blocks the new ideas because it is against what they believe as “common sense”. In fact who makes the “common sense?” It is actually we, the citizens, that makes it and this idea of common sense is killing the expansion of culture.
A mutation is necessary for Japan. If Japan is an organism then the people are the DNA; we shape the society. Organism’s evolution is caused by a mutation. Unfortunately, Japan has evolved to resisting new ideas but it has to be changed so that Japan can grow. There has to be a mutation to accept new ideas.
                Otaku, the new culture creators, are still seen as a negative trend from the elites of the society however the world has accepted it and absorbed it as a part of its culture. Now it is our turn.


                                                                       Reference 
Girl from Russia Cosplaying as:Ayanami Rei（綾波レイ）From animation Neon Genesis EVANGELION（新世紀エヴァンゲリオン）
Image from: http://livedoor.blogimg.jp/kyousoku1/imgs/b/1/b1dfcd4b.gif
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