Disability Sport －障がい者のスポーツ－

I recently wrote an article for the Japan Times to mark the start of the Tokyo Paralympics. 

I recall trying disability sport for the first time.  A blind friend of mine took me to a sports centre with a climbing wall.  In the end I decided not to continue climbing.  Probably that was because I was not very good at it! 

But I interview my friend, who took part in a world climbing championship as a blind competitor.  And I also interview a blind marathon runner, to get their thoughts on disability sport. 

You can find the article here:

ウィルのジャパンタイムズ記事リンク（2021/8）

Thanks!

 

All Roads Lead to (my) Home －すべての道は（我が）ホームに通ず－

“We believe that connecting everyone in the world is one of the great challenges of our generation.”

Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg 

“There are three roads to ruin: women, gambling, and technicians.  The most pleasant is with women, the quickest is with gambling, but the surest is with technicians.”

Georges Pompidou, former French Prime Minister

I wonder how many devices I have in my home now which can connect to the internet?  There’s my computer, my phone, my smart speaker, and all of my wife’s gadgets.  Silicone Valley CEOs must be delighted with all these devices connecting people’s homes to a wider world.  Silicone Valley companies make a lot of money selling adverts every time you use these “roads.” 

Maybe these CEOs should pay more attention to the negative aspects of easy connectivity.  After all, a door is a connection to the world, but we wouldn’t want a door to our house that couldn’t be locked. 

A good example of the problems of connecting your home to the world emerged in England this week.  The media reported on the trial of a 46 year old woman for invading the privacy of her ex boyfriend.  The woman used an app to hack into her ex boyfriend’s Alexa enabled devices.  She was therefore able to access his smart speaker, social media accounts, and even his home lighting.  Accessing his smart speaker’s camera, she could see that he had a new girlfriend visiting his house.  In a fury, she tried to frighten this visitor by turning the lights on and off in the house.  She used her ex boyfriend’s account to send nasty messages to her.  And she posted a naked picture of the man on his Facebook page, pretending that he had posted it himself.  “Am I getting fat?” her post asked. 

Be careful on the roads.

 

Vocabulary:

a road to ruin – a path to destruction or disaster

a technician – an expert in the practical application or use of technical equipment, scientific equipment, etc.

a gadget – a small electronic or mechanical device, especially one seen as new or ingenious

in a fury – in a state of severe anger

 

You Must Be Mad to Listen to a Psychiatrist －精神科医を信頼するなら、君は変に違いない－

I have been reading a book about Richard Feynman, a Nobel Prize winning physicist who worked on the Manhattan project to build an atomic bomb for the US during the Second World War. 

There are a lot of funny stories in the book (“Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman?”)  At one point he was supposed to join the army.  But he had to pass a medical check up first.  The check up included being interviewed by a psychiatrist.  It is supposed to be a quick and simple test, but somehow it starts to go wrong.  I have shortened and edited the story below. 

Edited extract from the book, “Surely you’re joking, Mr. Feynman?”: 

I sit down at the desk, and the psychiatrist starts looking through my papers. "Hello, Dick!" he says in a cheerful voice. "Where do you work?" 

I'm thinking, "Who does he think he is, calling me by my first name?" and I say coldly, "New York." 

"Who do you work for, Dick?" says the psychiatrist, smiling again. 

"General Electric." 

"Do you like your work, Dick?" he says, with that same big smile on his face.

“So so,” I say. 

Three nice questions, and then the fourth one is completely different. "Do you think people talk about you?" he asks, in a low, serious tone. 

I light up and say, "Sure! When I go home, my mother often tells me how she was telling her friends about me." He isn't listening to the explanation. Instead, he's writing something down on my paper. 

Then again, in a low, serious tone, he says, "Do you think people stare at you?” I'm all ready to say no, when he says, “For instance, do you think any of the boys waiting on the benches are staring at you now?" 

While I had been waiting to talk to the psychiatrist, I had noticed there were about twelve guys on the benches waiting for the three psychiatrists, and they've got nothing else to look at, so I say, "Yeah, maybe two of them are looking at us." 

He's busy writing more things on my paper. Then he says, "Do you ever hear voices in your head?" 

"Very rarely." 

I'm about to describe the two occasions on which it happened when he says, "Do you talk to yourself?" 

"Yeah, sometimes when I'm shaving, or thinking.  Once in a while." 

He's writing down more stuff. "I see you have a deceased wife.­Do you talk to her?" 

This question really annoyed me, but I contained myself and said, "Sometimes, when I go up on a mountain and I'm thinking about her." More writing. 

Finally, at the end of all these questions, he becomes friendly again. He lights up and says, "I see you have a Ph.D., Dick. Where did you study?" 

"MIT and Princeton.  And where did you study?” 

“Yale and London. And what did you study, Dick?" 

"Physics. And what did you study?" 

"Medicine." 

"And this is medicine?" 

"Well, yes. What do you think it is? You go and sit down over there and wait a few minutes!" 

So I sit on the bench again. While I'm waiting, I look at the paper which has the summary of all the tests I've taken so far, and it looks pretty serious! The psychiatrist wrote: Thinks people talk about him. Thinks people stare at him. Auditory hallucinations. Talks to self. Talks to deceased wife. Very peculiar stare. (I knew what that was. That was when I said, "And this is medicine?") 

* 

I shall remember this story if anyone ever tells me that I’m mad.

 

Vocabulary:

a psychiatrist – a kind of doctor specialising in mental illness

to light up – of a person, to suddenly become interested and animated

deceased - dead

to contain yourself – to hold back a negative feeling, such as anger

a Ph.D. – A high level university degree, which makes you a Doctor of Philosophy

auditory – of or related to sound

a hallucination – an experience of feeling, seeing or hearing something which is not really happening

peculiar – strange; odd

 

Does It Pay To Be Nice? －やさしくするのは得か？‐

Imagine a race.  Perhaps it is the 100 meter sprint at the Olympics.  Eight runners will take part in the final.  Four of the runners are nice guys, always eager to help others when they can.  The other four runners are nasty, and always try to steal any advantage for themselves that they can. 

So which kind of guy will win the race, and which kind of guy will finish last?  In the English language, there is a proverb, “Nice guys finish last.”  In the example of the 100 meter sprint, this makes a lot of sense.  The nice guys who spend time trying to help others will have less energy to pursue their selfish goal of training to win a gold medal. 

So this can lead to a gloomy or cynical view of the world.  If you believe that nice guys finish last, then why should you try to be nice? 

But a book I have been reading suggests that there are lots of cases when nice guys finish first.  In “The Selfish Gene,” by biologist Richard Dawkins, one chapter discusses whether we should expect animals to cooperate with each other or not, based on Darwin’s theory of evolution. 

Dawkins gives the example of a bird which must clean its body to avoid being infected by a parasite.  If it is infected by a parasite then it will become less healthy and will struggle to survive and pass on its genes.  The bird can clean all of its own body using its beak, except the back of its own head.  It needs another bird to clean the back of its head.  If some birds have a gene to be “nice”, then they will clean the back of other birds’ heads for them.  If a bird has a gene to be “nasty”, then it will cheat by letting other birds clean its head, but it will not waste energy by doing the same thing in return.  So which bird will be more successful?  If there are only nice and nasty birds, then the nasty birds will benefit.  Their heads get cleaned but they can save energy by not reciprocating.  So the genes of nasty birds will do better, and soon all birds will be nasty, and they will all tend to have parasites in the back of their heads. 

But what if there is another kind of bird, which is generally nice, but punishes nasty birds by refusing to clean their heads?  This bird will be more successful than the totally nice birds, since it will not waste time helping nasty birds.  And it will do better than nasty birds, who will find themselves being punished by this new type of bird.  So soon the group of birds will be dominated by those birds which are basically nice, but who hate cheats. 

I like the idea, and find it hopeful.  In many situations in which the competition is not a single, “winner takes all” race, but a long-term relationship in which you might choose whether to be nice or nasty in repeated interactions, nice behaviour will tend to be a more successful option – as long as you punish the cheats!

 

Vocabulary:

to pursue a goal – to try to achieve a goal

to be cynical – to be distrustful of pure motives; to tend to think that all motives are self-interested

to be infected – for one’s body to be affected or invaded by a virus or other damaging organism

a parasite – a kind of life form that lives in or on another body, and survives by stealing energy from the host body

a beak – the hard part of a bird’s mouth

to reciprocate – to do the same in return

 

‐

What Do You Want for a Needle in the Arm? －腕に針を刺す代わりに、何が欲しい？－

I am scheduled to get my first coronavirus vaccine next week. 

I warned one of my students, who had booked a lesson for the day after, that there was a small chance that I would feel unwell and have to cancel the lesson. 

My student sounded concerned.  “Teacher, I wouldn’t take the vaccine yet.  I am going to wait until more people have had it before deciding whether or not to take it.” 

Listening to the news this morning, I heard that Pfizer is projected to make a profit of 26 billion Dollars this year from selling their vaccine.  The report said that they have already delivered hundreds of millions of doses.  If hundreds of millions of people have taken it before me, that’s a big enough number to give me confidence! 

But some people need more incentive to take the vaccine.  Different countries and regions have been offering special prizes to encourage people to get jabbed.  This has been an especially popular method in America.  Here are some examples: 

The state of New Jersey offered a free beer for those who got vaccinated.  A needle in the arm for a beer belly? 

The US government partnered with online dating apps to allow vaccinated people to get premium access to dating sites.  A needle in the arm for a broken heart? 

And New York offered 20 Dollars worth of lottery scratch cards to those who got jabbed.  A needle in the arm for a gambling addiction? 

Some of these incentives don’t sound very healthy.  I hope before next week, Japan starts offering healthier incentives to get vaccinated.  A needle in the arm for sushi?  A needle in the arm for karaoke?

 

Vocabulary:

an incentive to do something – a thing that motivates or encourages someone to do something

to get jabbed – (casual) to receive an injection

a beer belly – to be fat from drinking too much beer

 

I Do Love to Be Beside the Seaside －海辺にいるのが好きだ－

“Daddy, Daddy!  It’s the sea!  It’s the sea!” 

During the short gap between two states of emergency in Tokyo, my family and I booked a two night stay in a hotel in Kamakura.  We were on the train out of Tokyo, and my four year old son was delighted to have seen the sea from the carriage window. 

My wife glanced out of the window.  “That’s not the sea.  That’s a river.,” she said. 

My son had never seen the sea before, and had gotten a little confused. 

“Rivers are much smaller than the sea,” I said.  “They are like long snakes, carrying water from the mountains down to a lower level.  The sea is like a huge bath tub.” 

“Like a bath tub even bigger than our house?” my son asked. 

Eventually we did make it to the seaside, and my son was suitably impressed.  He stood at the water’s edge, and ran screaming backwards as the waves crashed onto land.  He went searching for life, and proudly brought me samples of wakame seaweed, shells, and a starfish. 

It was even more exciting than our bath tub at home.

 

Vocabulary:

a carriage – on a train, one section like a room, which usually has a door at one or both ends, connecting it to other sections of the train (Example: I’ll meet you on the platform.  I will get off at the first door on the third carriage.)

to glance somewhere – to look somewhere quickly or briefly

 

English Cooking and Elephants －イギリス料理と象－

English people don’t cook elephants.  At least I have never seen it.  I have been reading a book of essays by George Orwell recently.  In the book, he writes about many different topics, including English cooking, and the time he shot an elephant. 

Orwell is most famous for writing the books “Animal Farm,” and “1984.”  He was born in 1902 and lived a fascinating life.  He was educated at Britain’s most elite school, Eton.  But he spent some time homeless as he struggled to sell his writing.  He worked for a while as an administrator in the British Empire in Burma, before coming to hate the Empire.  He volunteered and fought in the Spanish Civil War where he was shot in the throat by a fascist. 

Here are a few quotes about English cooking, and elephants, from the essays I have read so far. 

1

“It is commonly said, even by the English themselves, that English cooking is the worst in the world.  [But] there is a whole host of delicacies which it is quite impossible to obtain [elsewhere].” 

Orwell recommended many great British foods, such as kippers (smoked fish), Yorkshire pudding (a baked egg and flour pudding, served with gravy), and boiled potatoes served with mint and melted butter, among many other dishes. 

2

“As for the job I was doing [as a police officer in British controlled Burma], I hated it more bitterly than I can perhaps make clear.

…

Early one morning, the sub-inspector of the police station at the other end of town rang me up on the phone and said that an elephant was ravaging the bazaar.  Would I please come and do something about it? 

…

The Burmese population were without weapons and were quite helpless against [the elephant.]

…

As I started forward [with my rifle], practically the whole population of the [area] flocked out of the houses and followed me.  They had seen the rifle and were all shouting excitedly that I was going to shoot the elephant.”

 

Orwell felt that the elephant had calmed down, and he didn’t want to shoot it.  But a crowd of local people had gathered, expecting to see the white man shoot the elephant.  Orwell felt powerless to go against the crowd’s wishes, and so shot the elephant.  He says that the incident made him realise how foolish it was to think that Britain could really control its empire.  Although he was the only one with a gun, he had to follow the wishes of the crowd, to avoid being laughed at.

 

Vocabulary:

an administrator – a person who helps to manage an organisation, do the correct paperwork, etc.

the throat – the part of the body at the front of the neck, important for breathing, swallowing food, etc.

a whole host of – a huge number of, like a gathering army

a delicacy – a rare or special food

to obtain something – to get something

to hate something bitterly – to hate something with strong feeling

to ravage something – to do terrible damage to something with violent force

a bazaar – a large market, especially in the Middle East

to flock  - to gather together in large numbers, like a group of birds