BLAME IT ON THE OLD: IN JAPAN, AND IN THE U.S.?

"AS JAPAN STRAINS TO

CARE FOR ELDERLY,

SACRIFICES BEGIN"

-- Washington POST

ON THE GINZA, TOKYO, 1981

KIMONO-CLAD

ON THE GINZA 1981

CLOSE-UP

Forgive me for feeling a little jaundiced, but I have heard this before, the American version, when I sat or kneeled through the Washington, D.C., hearings on Social Security, which just had to be fixed. It was. This was back in the eighties.

(Photographers, or at least tall ones, had to sit or kneel on the floor to keep out of the line of sight of the hearings' participants.)

Since the Washington POST chose to illustrate its current story with an AP photograph of an elderly lady making her way down a street in Tokyo (see here), I thought I would head this posting with a photograph of someone who might have been that lady, three decades earlier (see above). Back in the eighties.

As I was reading the sad story in the POST, a variation on a Kris Kristofferson song, "Blame It on the [Rolling] Stones," played itself in my head. With a tip of the hat to Kristofferson, a fellow service brat -- you can listen to his version here, and hum the melody -- I give you BLAME IT ON THE OLD.

Blame it on the [Old]; blame it on the [Old]

You'll feel so much better, knowing you don't stand alone

Join the accusation; save the bleeding nation

Get it off your shoulders; blame it on the [Old]

And then get to work again.

NURSULTAN NAZARBAYEV b. July 6, 1940

NURSULTAN NAZARBAYEV 

b. July 6, 1940 

PRESIDENT NAZARBAYEV 

OF 

KAZAKHSTAN 

Nursultan Nazarbayev turned seventy-one yesterday, July 6.   A book of fairy tales (or, "illustrated fables") was published to mark the occasion.  Entitled "Leader of the Nation Nursultan," it "heralds" the president's "achievements on the international diplomatic scene," according to the AP. 

The former Comrade Nazarbayev (he has held top executive positions in Kazakhstan since the Soviet mid-80s), last year was elevated to become "ELBASY" ("leader of the nation"). 

The photograph above was taken in 1997, when Nazarbayev had been (merely) president already for a half dozen years.  In that year a new capital, Astana, was established for the oil-rich former Soviet republic, on -- right -- July 6. 

JOHN EDWARDS INDICTED (WHO ELSE?)

JOHN EDWARDS 

IS 

INDICTED 

JOHN EDWARDS PASSIONATELY 

MAKES A POINT 

ACCEPTING THE 

VICE-PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION 

AT THE 2004 DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION 

June 3, 2011:  "Johnny Reid Edwards" is indicted for, in the words of the AP writers, "soliciting and covering up the secret spending of more than $925,000 to hide his mistress and their baby during the peak of his 2008 campaign for the White House."  (The indictment itself can be seen here.)  

LENIN & MEDVEDEV, ANCESTORS & THE FUTURE; ALSO LIBYA & PUTIN

RED SQUARE 

AT DUSK 

LENIN'S MAUSOLEUM (right) 

ST. BASIL'S CATHEDRAL (left), 

AND A BABUSHKA 

SWEEPING RED SQUARE 

AT DUSK, MOSCOW, 1984 

Following up on yesterday's post about the exhibit in the State History Museum that quotes Lenin's sister on their maternal grandfather's ethnicity and religious conversion (see here), another photograph of Red Square back in the day.  A generation after the photograph was taken in 1984, and almost two decades after the Soviet Union fell, Lenin's mortal remains still remain in the mausoleum that once held Joseph Stalin as well. 

Meanwhile, in Deauville, France, today, the G8 met with Libya on its mind.  Russian President Dmitry Medvedev let it be known through his press secretary that the NATO members of the G8 had asked Russia to take on a mediating role in the Libyan crisis.  There was, Reuters tells us, no word on whether Medvedev would undertake such a mission.   There was moreover some suspicion cast on the news the Russian president's office was putting about:  "a G8 diplomatic source" was quoted as saying, "We must have not heard the same thing."  A tad catty for a diplomat?   Truth-telling?  Or a failure to get the memo? 

AP had another angle on the story:  Asking Russia to mediate was not a sign of Russia's indispensability, but a ploy to placate a supplicant still at the fringes of the action.  The American president's National Security team threw in a few flattering words:  "Russia has relations, not just in Libya but across most of North Africa. ... We can benefit from those types of consultations and contacts with them."  And President Obama himself was said to be "'leading that initiative to work with the Russians' on Libya." 

Well, Russia still does have a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.  And it did not use its veto power back when authorization was sought for this campaign against Libya, or against the present Libyan authorities, or to preserve human life in Libya.   This was President Medvedev's choice to make, and suddenly the other half of the Russian ruling Tandem, Prime Minister Putin, the once and possibly future president, seemed to beg to disagree (details here). 

NEW EXHIBIT IN THE STATE HISTORY MUSEUM IN MOSCOW CONFIRMS SOME JEWISH ANCESTRY FOR LENIN

REVEALING NEW EXHIBIT 

IN THE MOSCOW 

STATE HISTORY MUSEUM 

AN HISTORIC PHOTOGRAPH OF THE STATE HISTORY MUSEUM (left) and THE KREMLIN (right), WITH ST. BASIL'S VISIBLE BETWEEN THEM IN THE DISTANCE. 

THE YEAR IS AN HISTORIC ONE (1984); MUCH OF THE WIDE OPEN SPACE IN FRONT IS NOW  FILLED UP WITH THE OKHOTNY RYAD SHOPPING MALL. 

The AP has a review of a new exhibit of documents in the State History Museum which are said to "give surprising insights into top figures of the Soviet Union." 

The article highlights a letter written by Lenin's oldest sister "saying that their maternal grandfather was a Ukrainian Jew who converted to Christianity to escape the Pale of Settlement and gain access to higher education," and discusses the context and implications.  

The article has been reprinted in different periodicals; the Washington Post includes a slide show of the exhibit. 

Lenin is still officially on display in the mausoleum further along the wall of the Kremlin leading deeper into Red Square in the photograph above.   The mausoleum itself can be seen here. 

CONSERVATIVES WIN BIG IN CANADA; STEPHEN HARPER SAYS NO HARD RIGHT

CANADIAN CONSERVATIVES 

GET THEIR 

PARLIAMENTARY MAJORITY 

STEPHEN & LAUREEN HARPER 

The current and future Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper, claims not to have a stealth program to lurch radically rightward in a "traditionally liberal Canada," even now that his Conservative party has won 167 seats out of 308 in a majority-powerful Parliament. 

Nonetheless, according to the AP, one political science professor is already calling Harper "a transformative figure in Canadian history."