Self Responsibility - five Japanese hostages in Iraq
Do they have responsibility for us???
Recently there were five Japanese kidnapped in Iraq, and the group who did it demanded Japanese government to withdraw Self Defence Force or they would excuse the hostages.
Since they were kidnapped and released, many things have happened in Japan.
More people started to wonder if SDF should withdraw, if the hostages are okay, and so on. Then, one unique thing is that people in Japan, including the government started to
say that the hostages have their own resposibility. Thus, to me, the government didn't seem like they are eager to help them that much. The reason people and government
started to say is because the government issued an evacuation advisory for the ones in Iraq, but those five Japanese went to such a dangerous place on their own will, and
it cost a lot for the government to help them. Also, the money is originally from tax payers, thus people were mad. This is why the people and the government were not so happy.
By seeing how Japanese media is acting, it is obvious they tend to criticize the hostages. A questionnaire you can see on TV is shown that the people think the hostages have
reposibility, plus this is probably led by how the media reports.
Anyway, I am very happy that those five were released, besides I admit that I once thought they were going to be killed. As for 'Self Responsibility', however,
I have some doubt.
First of all, if there are not people like them, how can we get information of such places that does not come from the government? Governments do not want to
tell its poeple things that put them in a bad situation. Because they were in Iraq, we can really know what is going on and what our government does there.
I read the article below and thought that Iraqis are, of course, the same human being, and not different from Japanese. We might think Iraq as a country somewhere
very far, but people like us who cannot tell the difference between Iraqis and Iranians, bias or perspective toward them that media creates could be very dangerous.
In addition, it is natural that the government helps its people. Who do they think pay money for that? Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yasuo Fukuda is also the one who argued
Self-Responsibility, and also admit that he did not pay tax in the past as many of diet members did not. Thus, I believe he does not have such a right to claim Self Responsibility.
It is not him but people who pay tax, and those hostages are the people!
I support for those who go to dangerous place and report what governments do not tell us. This is just an aside but my grand parents' a hundred years old will be destroyed by
a new high way in a few years time. Needless to say the highway-related public corporations' constructing plan for high ways is financially disaster and meaningless, and
diet members wasteful expenditure, should be criticized before criticizing helping precious lives. And that's much better way to spend our tax... doesn't it?
