using English pseudo-haiku to criti (r)

[carol@xxxxxxx]

Subject: Re: using English pseudo-haiku to criticize Mitsubishi

Tanaka-san,

	As a member of Burmese Relief Center--Japan, I appreciated your critique of
our "Haiku d'Etat."  I must, however, correct a few misunderstandings: 

	1.  We, Japanese and foreigners alike, were not ridiculing Mitsubishi's
"Japaneseness" as you allege.  We were condemning the conglomerate's greed,
its destruction of the environment and its utter contempt for the democratic
aspirations of the Burmese people.  These are purely economic and political
matters; they have nothing whatsoever to do with culture.

	2.  I object to your calling the submissions "pseudo-haiku" because you
seem to imply that real haiku can only be written by Japanese in the
Japanese language (ignoring that some of our haiku were just that).  Yes, it
is true that haiku are done by American schoolchildren, and it is precisely
because they are such a well-known and accessible Japanese art form that we
asked people around the world to submit them.  (Surely you didn't expect us
to write, say, a Noh drama on the theme of Mitsubishi's rape of the
rainforest!)  And while many of our haiku fell far short of Basho's sublime
standards, all, to my knowledge, were sincere, and some were even quite
beautiful.  My favorite was from Paul Hitchfield, a longtime Japan resident
and tireless campaigner for human rights:

		Frigid barren moon
		As great Mitsubishi waxes
		Life in Burma wanes

Paul followed the 5-7-5 form and included a seasonal element, the winter
moon.  His choice of the moon has great meaning in a Burmese context: in the
traditional Burmese calendar, time is measured by the waxing and waning of
the moon; important Buddhist holidays occur on full moon days; and Burmese
speech is full of romantic references to the moon: a beautiful Burmese woman
may have eyebrows the shape of a "three-day moon," and in one well-known
Burmese song a man begs the full moon not to hide behind the clouds so that
it can reflect his smile to his lover.  Seen in this context, Paul's haiku
is terribly poignant and poetic.

	3.  Perhaps the haiku BY THEMSELVES would have been ineffective, but
remember that they were combined with a detailed press release and statement
about Mitsubishi's deplorable environmental and human rights record; street
theater portraying the relationship between the consumers, Mitsubishi and
SLORC; and a call for a boycott against the conglomerate.  The protest
appealed to the emotions as well as to the intellect; if it was "extremely
ineffective" it was not because we used haiku but rather because our message
in all its forms fell on deaf ears.

	Now that I have clarified what BRC--J was trying to accomplish through its
"Haiku d'Etat," I would like you to explain what you consider to be
"effective" and "fair" ways of dealing with Mitsubishi and companies like
it.  You should know that hardly any attention was paid by the Japanese
press to Mitsubishi president Minoru Makihara's visit to Rangoon to meet
with SLORC on Feb. 13.  Yet in Burma the visit was a propaganda coup for the
junta.  The front pages of both the New Light of Myanmar and Mirror
newspapers on Feb. 14 featured a big photo of Mr. Makihara shaking hands
with SLORC president Than Shwe.  The SLORC-controlled papers also printed
other photos of the Mitsubishi delegation and about six articles on the
visit.  The message SLORC was sending to the Burmese people was as clear as
it was disheartening: Japanese big business acknowledges our authority, so
you had better start doing so too.  Tell us, then, Tanaka-san, what we are
to do about such flagrant intereference by a private Japanese citizen in the
politics of Burma?  Do appeals to conscience or to international law have
any effect on Japanese power holders?  Or do they understand only ijime
(bullying)?

	I for one do not think it inconceivable that true democracy will flourish
in Burma long before it firmly takes root in Japan.