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Why is this colorful little wheel suddenly everywhere in Japan?
- livinginfear 4y agoWhen people hear the word 'propaganda' often what springs to mind are relics of the cold war: gritty soviet posters; or GI Joe. This is what the propaganda of the 21st century looks like, however.
- felipelalli 4y agoPaywall.
- braingenious 4y agohttps://archive.ph/Hj4q8 https://archive.ph/Hj4q8
- senectus1 4y agoIt’s the logo of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. And Japan is all in.
- planetsprite 4y agoThose goals being: No poverty, zero hunger, good health and well-being, quality education, gender equality, clean water and sanitation, affordable and clean energy, decent work and economic growth, industry, innovation and infrastructure, Reduced Inequality, Sustainable Cities and Communities, Responsible Consumption and Production, Climate Action, Life Below Water, Life On Land, Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions, Partnerships for the Goals. All agreeable prospects, but all too vague and hard to define. They're more a wish-list than goals. For example, what defines poverty? Wages vs the median, or quality of life factors? What makes work "decent"? What does inequality mean in this context, economic, judicial, racial? Vague aspirational goals sound nice but are rarely met without considering the real decisions that have to be made to meet them. These things are things everyone wants, but what are we willing to sacrifice to meet them?
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- fezfight 4y agoAim for best possible outcomes in each category, and be satisfied failing but pushing the overton window up.
- franciscop 4y agoJapan consistently ranks the last of the developed countries on gender equality[1], and they kill hundreds of dolphins a year in a frowned-upon manner[2], so are there any specific measures Japan is taking or is it all posturing? [1] https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14668828 https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14668828 [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiji_dolphin_drive_hunt https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiji_dolphin_drive_hunt
- soperj 4y agoThey're also one of 3 nations still hunting whales. Iceland and Norway are the others.
- pvaldes 4y agoUK also.
- soperj 4y agois this a wales/whales joke? Everything I can see has the UK abandoning whaling in the 60s.
- pvaldes 4y agoMy mistake. Is Denmark, not UK. https://edition.cnn.com/2022/07/11/europe/faroe-islands-whale-hunt-dolphin-limit-intl-scli-scn/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2022/07/11/europe/faroe-islands-whal...
- 4y ago
- zzzeek 4y agofor evidence that this is mostly bullshit, look no further than bizarre things like this: > Whales, the argument goes, consume a ruinous quantity of fish, and controlling their population is critical for preserving the oceans’ diversity. An online video from an industry association recommends eating the mammals “to protect the balance of the marine ecosystem and contribute to marine S.D.G.s!” It is fascinating that whales have found a way to be both an endangered species, and an overpopulated ocean scourge (as an apex predator, no less) at the same time!
- freetime2 4y agoWhile I agree that is a fairly comical quote, I also think it’s an oversimplification to say that whales are “an endangered species”. There are many different species of whale, some of which are endangered and some are not. The humpback whale, for example, is no longer listed as endangered as of 2022.
- pvaldes 4y agoLess than 500 North Pacific right whales remain in the planet, only 30 of them visit Alaska, and the rest live mostly around the Japanese sea. Spreading the idea that endangered animals eat "too much" is evil. Rotten to the core.
- freetime2 4y agoI don’t think that’s relevant to the discussion here, because Japan does not hunt Right whales. Japan’s fishing ministry only allows hunting of Minke, Bryde’s, and Sei whales [1] - and in limited numbers which would not endanger the overall population of those species. [1] https://us.whales.org/our-4-goals/stop-whaling/whaling-in-japan/ https://us.whales.org/our-4-goals/stop-whaling/whaling-in-ja...
- zzzeek 4y ago> The humpback whale, for example, is no longer listed as endangered as of 2022. I see, so , humpback whale population has just crossed the line of no longer being an endangered species, *this year*. So did they overnight become an environmental pest that is decimating the fish population? I am going to guess you would say no. So I don't think your comment is relevant to the actual point being made. If OTOH you are just applying some factual editing so that my amazing comment can be printed in a newspaper, let's clean up that language sure!
- JKCalhoun 4y agoThe last time I felt the U.S. as a country had a goal that was outward looking, forward looking was when we were adopting the Metric System back in the early 70's when I was in elementary school. Good times.
- selimthegrim 4y agohttps://twitter.com/HereToRebuild/status/1562584857653301250 https://twitter.com/HereToRebuild/status/1562584857653301250
- greggeter 4y ago
- Morgawr 4y agoAs someone who lives in Tokyo, I admit I've never seen this before. Not sure about "suddenly everywhere" but if it is I've never come across it. I haven't gone out much since covid but still...
- hsn915 4y agoSame here. I've been living in Tokyo for the past several years and I've never seen this thing.
- aikinai 4y agoIf you live in Tokyo, there’s no way you haven’t seen it. You just haven’t noticed.
- ciabattabread 4y agoAlways be suspicious of New York Times trend pieces.
- o10449366 4y agoIt's a running joke in New York that if the NYT writes a piece on a particular trend or sub-culture it may as well be the subject's obituary.
- nine_k 4y agoA real trend-setter writes about a subculture before it exists, and it springs into existence!
- kevinmchugh 4y agoThis is how Saturday Night Fever came to be
- freetime2 4y agoAlso living in Japan and have never seen it.
- deepsun 4y ago> Whales, the argument goes, consume a ruinous quantity of fish, and controlling their population is critical for preserving the oceans’ diversity. An online video from an industry association recommends eating the mammals “to protect the balance of the marine ecosystem and contribute to marine S.D.G.s!”
- pestatije 4y agoSame for humans i'd say
- Maursault 4y agoAmong whales, only the Killer whale and the Pilot whale feed on fish, and they do not consume a ruinous quantity of fish. Only commercial fishing consumes a ruinous, species-extinction level quantity of fish. It is a shame we can't do anything about this sort of ignorance and bias that is engrained in some cultures, nor hardly anything to stop commercial fishing from depleting fish stocks season after season. We are killing the ocean. Once the fish are all gone, they never ever come back from being fished to extinction.
- philipashlock 4y agoHere's some background on the simple open source project used for data reporting on the SDGs co-developed by the US, UK, and some other countries - https://open-sdg.org/blog/2021-01-09-open-sdg-origins/ https://open-sdg.org/blog/2021-01-09-open-sdg-origins/
- Kenji 4y ago
- ekianjo 4y agoNever seen it before. So much for reliable NYT reporting. Pure trash disguised as news. Yet "japan is all in" they say.
- thwoeruoi2343 4y ago
- unfriend 4y ago
- CapricornNoble 4y agoOkinawa is derided as being "a time warp 10 years behind mainland Japan". The first Don Quixote was opened shortly after I got here (2011? 2012?), we just got 7-11 konbinis within the past 5 years, and we are still waiting for our 1st Costco to be built. I've never seen these wheels. Maybe in 2032? shrug
- iratewizard 4y agoHopefully it'll be dead before then. Sociopathic power whores create and ride these grand gestures everytime the old gestures start to slow down.
- verisimi 4y agoNo one is really talking about how all these goals are already incorporated into your local administrative region's development plan. Normally, if you search 'xxregion development plan' you get a document of what is planned - more bikes lanes, less cars, denser housing, etc. The documents are very similar everywhere. And this is because they are working off the same templates. I'm not sure about this but I understand there are monetary incentives given for the implementation of the goals. Which is to say, that without a vote being cast, these plans are being implemented locally across the world. If that's correct, is this not a UN takeover of government? Yes, worthy words around the goals etc, but aren't the people allowed a choice, with understanding, about what's coming their way?
- jrmg 4y agoIn democratic countries, if it’s being implemented by the local authorities, you can’t really say it’s ‘without a vote being cast’. Elected representatives of the people have bought into the ideas. They’re not only allowed a choice, they’re actively making one. In the other direction, the UN only exists because nation states voluntarily choose to be a part of it. It’s not some external force.
- verisimi 4y agoDid you vote for the UN to manage your what your local authority does? Are you not at all concerned that there is an organisation that is deciding what to promote, and that there is little you can do, once you 'elected representative' waves through whatever is proposed to them? And did you realise when you voted for your elected representative, that they were going to accept(/refuse) the UN sustainable development goals and implement them locally?
- petermcneeley 4y agoI recommend you play https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deus_Ex_(video_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deus_Ex_(video_game)
- immibis 4y ago
- m3kw9 4y ago“ Whales, the argument goes, consume a ruinous quantity of fish”. I think humans are doing that