High Speed Rail moves a step closer

Well, the public consultation phase has arrived for the initial phase of the UK's proposed High Speed 2 line from Birmingham to London. And the outcry is massive! 

Plenty of groups are up in arms over it. The environmental cost, economic cost when the UK is in massive debt, disruption, and the basic level of NIMBYism. 

The environmental cost is obvious. A strip of steel will be laid across some of Britains beautiful countryside from London to Birmingham, all the way, eventually to Scotland. It will destroy a lot of land. It will be noisy. However, there are mitigating consequences. The railway will be better in the long run for the environment, than the equivalent number of cars, or plane flights. also, by using cuttings, and barriers, a lot of the sound problems can be mitigated. And unlike a motorway, the noise is intermittent. And using modern technology, a high speed train is not as loud as it could be. 

Look at Japan's E700 Shinkansen, currently running hell for leather from Tokyo to Osaka. It looks like a duck. That "beak" is designed to be aerodynamic, as well as reduce the shockwave as the train pushes through the air. This lessens its audio signature, and really reduces its "boom" as it enters and exits tunnels.

A concept taken to a more extreme level with the introduction of the newest E5, with a stupidly long nose. Again, designed not just to allow the train to push through the air more quickly, but also to reduce its noise footprint.

Economically, will it make sense. Er, yes. Reducing the time from the north to London, will allow companies better access to the London financial market, as well as allowing international companies to locate outside London (cheaper), but still be a player in the big money markets.

Right now, the country is in hock, but with the Government slashing spending to reduce the debt, it should be in a position to be able to shoulder the financing required to pay for it. Also, governments are the only option to be able to shoulder such debt for massive infrastructure development. Infrastructure development like this is always front loaded. Massive investment in the front, and the benefits to be felt later. Looking at Japan (I live here, OK!) again, the estimate is that while the line from Tokyo to Niigata has been phenomenally expensive, it has allowed Niigata to develop 10% a year faster than if there was no line. And along the line's corridor. '

A lot of people have said that the West Coast line should be upgraded. Problem is, the West Coast line is full! Expanding it will only delay the inevitable by a decade or so, and still result in the destruction of property. With HS 2, the line can be routed to avoid built up areas as much as possible. Such a development of the West Coast line would result in more disruption than HS 2 will be (not that HS 2 will be disruption-free!) 

The other thing with the West Coast line, it is a mixed service line, with high speed trains running alongside freight! That is not sustainable in the long term! 

At the end of the day, HS 2 will free up capacity on the West Coast line. It is far better for the environment than the alternatives of car or bus, or plane. It is quite efficient. A high speed train sucks up a lot of electricity, but through regenerative braking, it dumps a lot of energy BACK into the network for the next train!

Also, it will bring Britain up to date with the rest of the world. Pretty much every nation that is "advanced" has one. Japan, France, Germany, Italy, Spain. The Dutch, in such a small nation, they have a high speed train! The Koreans have one, Taiwan, heck, China has more lines than anyone else! Brazil is bringing in a line, as is Argentina. India is also looking at it. Even the US has more line than the UK! And the US is not a rail nation. A new line would allow the UK to prove it can deliver on big engineering projects!

I travel from Niigata to Tokyo, which is more than Manchester to London. I do the journey in less time than from London to Manchester, in the worlds biggest trainset.

That is cool.

London 2012 is anti Islamic!

Well, who would have thunk it! But the organiser's, apparently, racist! First, we had Massoud Sharjareh from the Islamic Human Rights Commission spout off that because Ramadan follows the Lunar calendar, and this time round, clashes with the London Olympics, the scheduling of the Olympics was deliberately placed there in an attack on Islam. (Blog post here.) Like I say in that post, to say that they would never schedule it on Christmas is a dumb comparison, given Christmas is 1 day, and in the depths of winter...

Still, before I wind myself up over that story, there is a new one that really proves the organiser's of the London games have it in for Islam.

According to the Iranian Olympic Association, the logo is racist. It spells out the word "Zion" which is an old term for Jerusalem, and now synonymous with hardline Judaism, and regularly used as an attack by Iran on Israel.

According to the letter from the Iranian OA, this proves that London is racist, and that the Olympics are complicit by association and their lack of action. Mohammed Aliabadi goes on to threaten the London Olympics with a boycott, and urges other Islamic nations to follow Irans lead. Do I need to point out how dumb this is!

Now, with regards logos, the London one really is not great. Past logo's have all had some kind of significance. The Manchester Commonwealth Games logo took 3 people standing on a podium linking arms to form an "M".

Glasgow have come up with a series of rings, each one standing for something. the outer ring stands for the fact that it will be the 20th games, the next ring stands for the 17 events, and the final ring for the 11 days. And a great big "G."

Athens was a great logo. Using a historic style of art in Greece, and a laurel wreath. A symbol of the old Olympics, of triumph, and symbolic of Greece's place as the birth of the Olympics so long ago.

London? Well, that has been heavily criticized for just being a naff jumble of jagged numbers spelling out 2012. I am not a fan. London could have done so much more.

Still, when it is overlaid with the Union Jack, it looks OK...

But to say it spells out "Zion" is quite a stretch. To do so needs you to make a few jumps of logic. If you follow standard English patterns, and read right to left, it is a 20, and underneath, a 12. Making 2012. If you read vertically right to left (which you dont really do in English, given how few books are printed this way!) then  it still reads 2102. 

To get to "Zion" what we need to do is to read it vertically from left to right (left to right being the standard format for reading in English) and need to twist the final character (a "2") 90 degrees anti-clockwise, like this...

Or, if we where to follow standard English layout, we need to switch the "0" and "1" around as well, kind of like this...

Which as can you see, really takes a naff mess of a logo, and butchers it! 

By using the logic displayed here, then we can say that the Iranian flag is obviously sexual. The sword in the centre of the logo is clearly phallic, and the outer shapes clearly represent female genitalia! Though, of course, it does not. The 5 shapes representing the 5 pillars of Islam, the 4 crescents representing a highly stylised form of the word "Allah" in Arabic. I had a whole blog thing on the Iranian flag here.

Lets face it, if you squint hard enough, you can say everything has a hidden meaning. For example, in China, they refer to the Union Jack as the "Rice Flag" due to its similarity to the Chinese character for rice. Was this deliberate? No. It just happened.

And to further point out the absurdity of this allegation. The logo was unveiled after market testing, analysis, being studied by a number of focus groups, in 2007! Apart from the absurdity of the allegation, the timing of this is just silly. The logo was unveiled in 2007. This allegation has been sent to the IOC 4 YEARS after the logo was revealed. They have had time to look at it and voice concern. But 1 year before the Olympics, 4 years AFTER the logo came out!? 

Also, do they not realise that this logo would have been studied by focus groups, some of whom would have been Islamic? Surely they would have spotted this, too, and voiced their concern!

Ah well, it is all insane. I do believe that this is just some rabble rousing by Iran, against the "Little Satan." All I can say is, please, boycott London. You will be the only ones who do. Talk about MASSIVE quantities of eggs on faces!

What does the Foreign Office do?

After listening to BBC Radio 5 over the last couple of days, I have found myself getting more and more angry about the British Government and its failure to help British nationals. The story of Claire and her husband is something I can relate to! She is in touch with her husband, barely, as he tries to leave Libya. Only problem is, he is really struggling to leave, and would like some help from the British Embassy. And they have not been in touch. At all. Ever. Even though they know he is there.

I have had a similar experience. Kashiwazaki suffered a very large earthquake (6.8) just over 3 years ago.

I was very lucky, that my apartment suffered no damage. Also, my girlfriend at the time was with me, so her experience and training kicked in, and she had me packing a bag and out the door! If left to myself, rather than leave for fear of aftershocks, I would have been puttering round my apartment trying to clean! Which apparently you dont do.

Also, my students where wonderful. All of them where very concerned about my welfare, and brought boxes of bottled water, packs of food, and other essentials whenever they came back to Geos for class! 

Overall, my apartment suffered only very minor damage. My girlfriend, understanding that coming from England means I have no idea what to do, looked after me, my students where wonderful and brought all sorts of stuff, and gave me useful advice. I was fine.

However, it would have been nice for the Embassy in Tokyo to just contact me to make sure I am OK! After all, I am a British national! The Embassy is there, in part, to assist British nationals in Japan! Did I hear anything? Not a thing. Zero. Nada. OK, it is up to the Japanese government to make sure everyone is OK in the aftermath of an earthquake. 

BUT it is listed as one of the Embassy's functions that they will try to make contact to make sure any British national is OK, and pass on information to family back in the UK.

Did I get any kind of contact? No. Did they know I was in Kashiwazaki? Yes. I am registered at the Embassy on this LOCATE database which is precisely for this reason.(You can see the information here) In the end, I had to struggle through a screwed up phone network to contact my family myself, running up a MASSIVE phone bill, when it would have been a lot easier for the Embassy to contact me, and pas the information back to London, who could then make an easy call to my family.

I am proud to be British. I like being British. 

I just have no faith in my own Government.

QI Controversy

It may not have received much air-time in the UK, but QI has landed me in the unenviable position of trying to defend the BBC. QI recently aired an episode which listed Tsutomu Yamaguchi as the "Unluckiest man in the world." Yamaguchi's "claim to fame" being that he survived both the atomic bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

This has, not surprisingly, upset a lot of Japanese, even to the point where the mayor of Nagasaki has sent a documentary to the BBC to air about Yamaguchi. With many Japanese feeling victimized since they where the only victims of a nuclear attack.

I have to defend the BBC here.

Whilst I wish they had not covered this, I feel that the Japanese are also not whiter than white in this. They have shown no understanding for the British sense of humour which is quite dark at the best of times, and have not understood the whole clip. The premise is that he is EITHER the unluckiest, or luckiest. And the even more amazing thing is that the trains where still working! Given the state of British railways, that is quite impressive! 

It is not at all disrespectful (from a British point of view) to Yamaguchi, but almost respectful. He survived, then went on to have a long and active life! Good for him! In the middle of all this devastation! Celebrate that fact that whilst thousands died needlessly, and painfully, he survived. 

Twice.

Tough as old boots he is.

And that is a good thing.

And for any Japanese who reads this. 

You want to talk about pain and suffering? What about the thousands victims of the Japanese military who had to spend months and years in pain, and where deemed to be less than human for that unforgivable crime of not being Japanese, and surrendering? Or the "medical" experiments carried out in the name of "research?"

"Let he who is without sin cast the first stone."

War is bad. On both sides. Japan cannot play the victim card all the time. When it comes to war, we are ALL victims.

Japan Wins!

Well, felt like taking a break as I watched FIFA corruption at its best with the awarding of the World Cups in 2018 and 2022 to Russia and Qatar. For FIFA members to use Englands media doing its job as a reason to punish England shows how petty they can be. I have no major objection to Russia getting the World Cup, just how it went about. England had by far the better bid, and if FIFA had stated it wanted to take the World Cup to new frontiers, then England would not have bothered spending huge amounts on their bid.

However, Qatar was the decision that was purely based on money. Qatar have stated that by giving them the World Cup, FIFA would break new ground and give the Cup to a region that truly loved football.

Problem is, do they?

I fancy not. Qatar recently hosted the 2011 Asian Cup. This is often seen as the poor cousin to the European Championships, and rightly so. Considering that the vast majority of the top 20 teams are European, the European Cup comes a very close second to the World Cup in terms of quality teams.

However, this was the biggest competition that Qatar has ever hosted, with the best of their continent playing in an event that people will not see again in their home country again in their lifetimes. And yet, only about 2000 people turned up to see Japan take on Saudi Arabia. Granted, it does not rank high on the list of "must-see's" but 2000?!

(Ok, this is Japan against Jordan. But the lack of fans was a persistent problem!)

Indeed the only game to sell out was the final. Games featuring the hometown team did not sell out. With 35000 turning out for Qatars opening game.  (The main stadium is 37000)

So, whilst the organisation was amazing, Blatters chair at the final truly opulent, the tournament was a crushing disappointment from a public perspective. It makes Qatars job that much harder. And the AFC's job even harder is they try to muscle in at the top table. A table largely dominated by UEFA, and joined by CONMEBOL. The AFC wants in on it, and believes it should given the rise of Asia. Given the mixed reviews of the Asian Championships, the AFC will have to wait much longer.

Anyway.

The tournament itself featured the best of Asia. Japan, Australia, South Korea, Iran, World Cup competitors North Korea, as well as other nations such as India and Kuwait.

My focus here will be on Japan.

So, here we go.

Japan went to the Asian Cup with a squad featuring a large number of young, new players. Many players from the squad that did so well at the World Cup did not make the trip, either after retiring, or through injury. With Japans influential centre-back pairing of the mercurial Tulio and "He of the flowing hair" Nakazawa both out to injury.

Also, to make matters worse, the Japanese had appointed a new coach, but he was unable to take his position until just before the second of 2 friendlies scheduled to precede the Asian Championship. The new coach was the Italian, Zacceroni. He lists AC Milan as one of his former clubs. He was unable to take the second friendly since he had only just arrived. Instead, he was up in the stands. His first game was the first game in the Asian Cup. Against Jordan.

Japan, ranked 17 took on Jordan, ranked 107, in the first game at the Qatar Sports Club Stadium. This game was Zacceroni's first game in charge with a scrabbled together squad. However, its core is still intact, allowing some continuity. However, the Japanese looked a little hesitant, and ended up limping out of  the game with Jordan battling them to a 1 - 1 draw.

The second game in the group stage saw Japan take on 110 ranked Syria. This time, a better performance saw the Japanese gain confidence and leave the game after a 2 - 1 victory. After some nice work, and a goalmouth scramble, Hasebe pounced on a loose ball to slam it home from the edge of the box. The Syrians equalized from the penalty spot after Japans keeper Kawashima saw red, only for Japans talismanic midfielder, Honda to do likewise to put Japan back on top. The penalty also saw Syria reduced to 10 men.

The third and final game saw Japan take on Saudi Arabia. The second-highest ranked team in the group (78) was taking on the highest. This was something of a revenge match for the Japanese with Saudi Arabia having done for the Japanese in past tournaments. However, in this game, it was to be Japans easiest game in the whole tournament.

In front of just 2000, and with Nishikawa in goal for the suspended Kawashima, the Japanese took the lead swiftly, within 8 minutes, when Okazaki lifted the ball over the keepers head. It proved to be a surprisingly easy goal, when the Saudi defense just gave up once the ball had broken their line. The lead was doubled just 4 minutes later when Kagawa lofted a perfect cross straight on to Okazaki's head as he ghosted in at the back post.

Maeda then proceeded to add 2 for himself either side of half time, and Okazaki got a deserved hat-trick 10 minutes before the end after digging the ball out from his feet, and smashing it home. The Japanese really where rampant, and looked like scoring a lot more! This victory saw Japan top the group, and having to face the hosts Qatar in the Quarter Final stage.

Finally, playing in front of something more akin to a crowd, the Japanese faced the hosts Qatar (105), for the right to go through to the semi-finals. However, Qatar was determined to go deeper, and where assisted along the way by some dodgy reffing decisions. Most of which went the way of Qatar.

Qatar took the lead after Koria ran from an offside position to take the ball and go 1 on 1 for Qatars first. However, Japan pegged them back when Okazaki lobbed the keeper, and Kagawa was on hand to nod the ball home. Qatar took the lead once more when Japan fell a man down with Moshida picking up a second yellow and Cesar was in the mox during the resulting free-kick to bundle the ball home.

However, being a man down seemed only to galvanize the Japanese who began to tighten their grip on the game, and began to pound the Qatari defence, which tried to stand firm. Very soon, the pressure paid off, with Japan bringing the game back to parity, and after that, there was only going to be one winner. In the 90th minute, Inoha managed to smash the ball home.

The semi final saw two major rivals come face to face. Japan where to take on South Korea for the rights to take on Australia in the final. These two teams have had some pretty major results between the two over the years.

The Koreans took the lead from the penalty spot when Konno leant into Park, bringing him down in the penalty area, and Yong stuck the ball home. Japan brought the game back to parity when, after a wonderful sequence, when Honda found Nagatomo who made one of his trademark runs from defence, and he sent the ball into the box, where Maeda nodded it home.

The game swayed back and forth, with both sides battling for the win in an entertaining game. It was probably fate that such a game would end in a draw, and 5 minutes into extra time, Japan took the lead with a controversial penalty when Jae-Won floored Okazaki. However, it appeared that initial contact was outside the box. Honda stepped up, only for his shot to be saved. However, Hosogai reacted the fasted and slammed home the rebound.

The Koreans refused to quit, and fought back hard to gain an equalizer, which came with extra-time dying. Jae-Won stepping up after an almighty ping-pong in the Japanese box, and smashing home to send the game to penalties.

Here, Kawashima proved to be the hero of the hour. Stopping the first of the Korean attempts, and the second being sent wide. Japan suffered no such nerves, with their first three takers all slotting home. This left Kawashima to take the accolades by saving the Koreans 3rd attempt, to send the Japanese fans into rapturous celebrations.

The Final itself saw the top two teams in Asia face off. Australia and Japan. The game itself was a more entertaining affair than the World Cup final, but noted for spurned chances. Australia where limited by a stubborn backs-to-the-wall defense by the Japanese. But on occasion, they did break through. Only for Kawashima to stand tall, and keep the door closed. Indeed, Cahill had the best chance in the game when he went in 1 on 1 in the second half after breaking through a resilient Japanese defence, only for Kawashima to get his legs in the way.

Not that it went all Australia's way. Okazaki, who so far had seen a lot of success with his head in front of goal, saw a diving header screw wide, and Honda sent a wonderful chance the same way too.

In the end, the Australians could not break through a tough Japanese line, and the Japanese wasted what few chances they had. The game ran into extra time. The first period saw the same play as the first, with both sides bringing on fresh legs to keep the game going. However, the break through came 5 minutes into the second half of extra time, when Nagatomo went on one of his now-famed runs down the wing. He lofted the ball into the penalty box, where the extra time substitute Tadanari Lee stood, surprisingly unmarked, to smash the ball home. 

The Japanese then set about keep the Australians at bay who grew even more desperate to grab an equalizer, only for time to beat them. In the end, the best team did not win, but that does not mean the Japanese did not deserve to win. through the tournament, the Japanese had played well, fought hard when needed to, put together some well connected play like they are famous for, and defended tenaciously when needed, displaying great amounts of teamwork and resilience. 

Japan gets to take home a trophy they have won 4 times out of the 7 competitions that the Japanese have entered. This allows the Japanese to qualify automatically for the next Asian Cup in Australia in 2015.

Sorry!

Not been able to write for a while! There has been nothing really to get me griped enough to want to write, given my life has been awesomely busy recently!

There has been plenty to write about, but not exciting me enough to drag my brain from bed!

However, I will be writing an update to an old story and a few other things soon!

Promise!

Old story, but something that made me go "What the...!"

OK. This story broke a while ago, but only just came on my radar. I wanted to comment on it since the story just sounded so idiotic.

Now, the London Olympics are coming up. July 27th to August 12th. Right in the middle of the British summer vacation period, when plenty of workers are on vacation, and the schools are out. It is also the time when the Olympic organisers can hope for the best weather. We are talking about Britain, here. The nation famed for its rain! We need to avoid the rain as much as possible, and the window to do so is quite small!

However, the controversy came about because according to the Lunar calendar, Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting, runs from July 21 to August 20. The Olympic games are smack in the middle. Many Islamic priests and scholars, including Massoud Shadjareh from the Islamic Human Rights Commission have waded in to criticise the London Olympics for its scheduling.

The issue behind all this is that during Ramadan, Muslims are meant to fast from sunrise, to sundown. This means that during the Olympics, the Muslim athletes who will make about a quarter of the number, will be unable to eat at appropriate times for their events. 

Indeed, Massoud Shadjareh came out and said:

"They would not have organised this at Christmas. It is equally stupid to organise it at Ramadan.

"It shows a complete lack of awareness and sensitivity.

"This is going to disadvantage the athletes and alienate the Asian communities by saying they don't matter.

"It's not only going to affect the participants it's going to affect all the people who want to watch the Games.

"They won't want to travel during Ramadan and they won't want to watch sport. It's a spiritual time."

Now, do I really have to point out the crass ignorance in his comments? I am sorry, but in here, he shows how little he thinks of Britains multicultural mix, by demanding things to revolve round HIS religion. The IOC gave London a window of time. Wider than the dates used by the Olympics, but even so, they would have caused the Olympics to clash with Ramadan at some point.

First of all, by claiming that the Olympics would never be scheduled against Christmas. Well, he has that right. However, Christmas is a lot different to Ramadan. For one, Christmas is one day, Ramadan is a whole month. Christmas is a fixed date in the calendar, whilst Ramadan is a fixed date in the Lunar calendar. The Lunar calendar unfortunately is NOT fixed. It means that Ramadan changes every year. At some point, it is going to come into conflict with something. 

Next up, unless the Olympics are held in Australia (which they have been, so not going back any time soon!) , then hosting them to coincide with Christmas would place the Olympics well in the depths of winter. And winter in England really is not a fun time to be hosting an Olympics! Rain, wind, snow, freezing cold...

He complains about people not wanting to watch. Well, I am sorry, but they will. There are plenty of people who will go to see the Olympics anyway, and the Muslims will watch on TV. Also, Muslims do not make the largest TV market. 

Finally, the fasting. Well, it is part of the rules of Ramadan that those who are travelling can delay their fast. And by definition, a  Saudi Arabian athlete who is in London for the Olympics is a "traveller." 

I know it is going to be difficult for Muslims, but athletes train 4 years for this, the rules are there in Islam to allow Muslim athletes wiggle room out of this. And it is not just Islamic athletes that train. It is athletes of other faiths and none. London has a responsibility as host city to afford the athletes the best possible surrounds to compete. Part of which is avoiding Britains notoriously crappy weather. And unfortunately for the devoutly blinkered, this does give them a very limited window of time.

Overall, the problem is being raised by the ultra-prickly who are not looking at the wider picture. They do not  appear to have paid any attention to ALL influences in the decision making process, other than those which make this decision "anti-Islamic."

Sorry for going off on one over this, but it is just another example of things that get up my nose. Here in Japan, they would politely listen to Muslims complaints, and then politely carry on regardless. Only in Britain does something which is supposed to include ALL faiths, can we let 1 faith shout and place a cloud over it!

Luckily, there has been nothing since then, but still, some of the Islamic faith see something that looks like "an attack on Islam" and spout off way before thinking the thing through!