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Life Onboard |
LAST UPDATE
June 11, 2008
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| site design imagesparkle.com |
| May 20, 2008 |
A Global Introduction – Chihiro Ito |
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| Mr Ito’s passion for peace and justice kept the audience inspired and interested |
Chihiro Ito held a series of educational lectures on global issues onboard the Peace Boat as it made its way to the first port of Viet Nam.
Each session was filled with people, both young and old, curious about the world and the complexities we live within. |
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| Passengers lined up to buy Mr Ito’s books which were on sale after each lecture |
In the discussion on ‘Global View of Article 9’, Mr Ito used the example of Costa Rica’s peace constitution to highlight the shortcomings of Article 9.
The Article 9 of Japan and Article 12 of Costa Rica states that military force must not be used for settling international disputes. While Japan has disguised its military under the guise of a self-defense force, Costa Rica has no such capacity. Instead, in 1949
military spending was shifted to education by the government in order to seal its commitment to a peace constitution and give force to the idea to have more teachers than soldiers.
Mr Ito spoke of his surprise as he visited schools in Costa Rica and found that students were being taught how to use the constitution as a tool of empowerment. He compared this to Japanese society in which many people didn’t even know what Article 9 was. He described the courage and success of Costa Ricans to make lawsuits against their government to challenge the enforcement of its Peace constitution.
By finding inspiration from what the Costa Ricans have achieved, Mr Ito urged listeners to take active steps to eliminate the contradictions within Article 9 and make it true to what it stands for. A world without military aggression. |
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| Aikido self-defence classes added extra flavour to his time onboard Peace Boat |
‘Global Movement Towards Independence’ was another factual discussion about how the world is moving away from its reliance on the U.S. to form independent and powerful sub groups.
Mr Ito began the talk by discussing why left wing parties have emerged in Latin America. He explained the introduction of neo-liberalism in the 90s by the mostly pro-American governments and the consequential economic effects of privatisation of state services.
Using the story of President Fujimori, a Japanese Peruvian, Mr Ito highlighted the transition of the psyche of the people of Peru. Angered by the widening gap between rich and poor, they chose a man from an immigrant family, at the bottom of the traditional social structure to lead their country into an egalitarian society and away from pro-U.S. policy.
Mr Ito then continued to expand the sphere to a global scale and spoke about the formation of the European Union, the African Union and the possibility of a subgroup to protect the countries within Asia. Though he acknowledged the volatile and bloody regional history of Asia would take a long time to reconcile, the global trend was certainly a move away from relying on the monopoly of the U.S.. |
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