Into the World:
The Random Thoughts in My Mind

The central bus stop at the little town of Marsalforn was inundated with a sense of impatience. The dozens of people gathering in the little square could not stop staring at the road leading to the bus stop, as if a more intense stare could get the bus to show up faster. On the mobile app of Malta Public Transport, the bus was shown as a mere 4 minutes away, but with one bus coming every 30 minutes or so, everyone was getting visibly jittery as to whether the small bus could fit everyone in the bumpy journey to the central bus terminal in Victoria, the capital of Gozo Island, only some 6km away. 

Few can argue with the natural beauty surrounding the Popeye Village. The theme park is situated in its own little cove, surrounded by jagged cliffs reflecting the warm afternoon sun into the pristinely clear seawater below. Its remote location, distance from major population centers on the island, the lack of regular public transport connection, and the inconvenient fact of having to pay an entrance fee to enter the theme park, all contribute to the pleasant lack of boorish sun-bathing tourists that have inundated similarly beautiful locations all over Malta.

The little community library in the Maltese town of Mosta was, well, little. But in a small room with perhaps five shelves, a service counter, and a table, every corner was filled with books, many of them quite worn out. The main focus, as is the case for libraries elsewhere , is books that children can read. Picture books, novels, and non-fiction imparting writing skills and knowledge on young adults make up, at a quick glance, more than half of the collection. As adults turn to the internet for their readings, it is clearly the kids without their own digital devices that still carry around paperbacks and hardcovers.

The non-Japanese portrayal of the Japanese salaryman is often an illustration of the unenviable foot soldier of Japanese economic success. Overworked and exhausted, they drag themselves into similar-looking office buildings in their equally similar corporate uniform of black suits with neckties. Admired for their individual sacrifice and hard work as a sign of devotion to help their companies and country grow and prosper, the non-Japanese observants would nonetheless loathe to emulate the way these salarymen worked and lived.

It was only when the taxi sped out of Malta International Airport that I realized the meaning of the word "development." I had just spent a weekend in Tunis, only a short one-hour flight in North Africa. Fascinating as the capital of Tunisia was, with its combination of colonial French and medieval architecture interspaced with the hustle and bustle of everyday life, the city was clearly rough on the edge. Streets were overrun with trash, watery sewage, and feral cats and dogs. The pavements, buildings, and markets were crumbling from the lack of repair and random touts following tourists for a quick "gift."

As someone used to the world-leading obesity rates in America, it is interesting to read about the equivalent in the EU. Malta, with only a quarter of the population classified as obese, is considered one of the most obese in the bloc. It speaks to just how healthy the average European is compared to the average American. But the figures also point, perhaps only marginally, just how the Maltese lifestyle, in a rather unfortunate way, may be much more similar to the American one as compared to other places on the continent. 

My wife made a great observation in our day walking around Malta's historical sites: while the country is a hotspot of globalization , with worker residents coming from around the world, the same level of globalization is not reflected in the country's international tourist traffic. Whereas the country's buses, shops, and indeed, the workforce of tourist hotspots like hotels and restaurants, are filled with people of different colors, the crowds of tourists that come from outside the Maltese islands are overwhelmingly white, sprinkled with some Asians.

The local takeout burger place was manned by three youngish workers when I last visited. One yellow, one brown, and one black. Clearly from three different countries (none of which is Malta) and they communicate in perfect English amongst themselves and to their equally multicultural clientele and delivery personnel taking orders for various meal-order apps. This little spot is a perfect microcosm of modern-day Maltese society: a society that is, quite literally, full of people from around the world, working and living together to make the island economy tick along.

Walking the narrow streets of Malta, I cannot help but notice a distinct lack of the usual big names in retail. In place of the Walmarts and the FamilyMarts of the world are small no-name mom-and-pop shops specializing in one type of product or the other. From Paul's selling only stationery to the hole-in-the-wall household goods stores peddling towels and plastic baskets, the little towns of this island country remain dominated by small enterprises, the kind that have long been killed off in other countries by major retail chains selling everything from A to Z.

  移民問題は日本においてますます重要なテーマとなっている。日本は過去数十年間、高齢化や人口減少といった人口構造の変化に直面してきた。これらの問題に対処するためには、移民政策を考慮する必要がある。なぜなれば、移民は労働力と消費者不足を解消するために不可欠である。高齢化が進む中、日本は移民の流入により、産業界は必要な労働力と消費者を確保することができる。これにより、経済成長が促進され、日本の国際競争力が向上する。

It has been some days after the sudden ouster and return of Sam Altman as the leader of the world's current tech darling OpenAI. But even as the episode gets written into recent history, there are plenty of mysteries surrounding exactly what happened. Who are the folks who wanted Altman out so decisively, even though they, as the public, know that Altman is the face of the company and an influential voice on AI even beyond immediate company operations? And what exactly did they want to achieve through the ouster? Greater commercialization may be a culprit, but for casual observers, this is mere speculation.

The recent bankruptcy of the co-working space operator WeWork in the US spelled the end to a rather embarrassing saga in the world of tech. Under its flamboyant founder, the firm was once deemed a tech darling ready to disrupt the fossilized world of real estate management. For a while, it seems to have succeeded, offering up rental spaces to other tech startups hoping to bask in the glow of how tech can be utilized to solve legacy industries. Getting other tech firms to believe that it is an integral member of the tech world propelled WeWork to new heights in valuation.

The world is bracing for an AI revolution. Starting from the shock of ChatGPT's dexterity when it first emerged this month last year, both tech experts and the general public are now envisioning a world in which chatbots like it and its myriad competitors go from mere helpers to human work, to become central to daily operations of the global economy. With skills that range from crafting documents and conducting online research to brainstorming new ideas and putting together computer codes, it no longer seems unfathomable that chatbots replace millions of human workers around the world.

Japan is full of foreigners. With COVID letting up, plenty are making their way to the country as tourists eager to see its sometimes exotic culture. Some are even attempting to establish themselves as workers in its economy and members of a growing migrant community. Yet, despite there being so many foreigners, it is very easy for the average Japanese to avoid contact with foreigners. Besides curt interactions with staff members at convenience stores and restaurants, the vast majority of the Japanese population need not meet foreigners to live out their daily lives.

Shopping for groceries in a Japanese supermarket can be surprisingly time-consuming. No, this is not because of operational issues. Japanese supermarkets are generally structured for convenience, with wide passages through aisles of goods labeled and grouped in categories for easy finding. Rarely do shoppers need to interact with the staff to locate commonly purchased products. The large number of aisles and checkout lanes also ensure that customers can grab what they need to buy and immediately get ready to exit.

The recent Barbie movie has in many ways caused a (positive) uproar among the world's feminists. The movie portrays the world of the titular character in which women hold all the powerful roles, while men (the many "Kens") are relegated to positions of mere "boyfriends" whose identity is defined solely by their relationship with the Barbies. The protagonist Barbie's belief in the superiority of the system, coupled with observations about, unlike in the Barbie world, many females remain lowly in the real world, serves as a powerful reminder that female empowerment still has a long way to go but is a worthy dream to pursue.

  今週リトアニアで開催されている北大西洋条約機構（NATO）の首脳会議では当然、お隣、ウクライナでの戦争が主な課題である。ウクライナが領土の奪回で軍事支援が必要である中、NATO各国はどのようにさらなる支援を打ち出すか、そしてウクライナがNATO加盟までの道のりについて議論を重ねている。だが、NATO各国がウクライナ情勢に没頭する中、岸田総理は去年に続き、二年連続でNATOの首脳会議に参加している。日本からもウクライナに引続き支援することを表明すると同時に、NATOがアジアに目を向けることを言及している。

  伝統、それは文化の物理的な形として代々受け継がれられた。人々は伝統を守ることによって、そのコミュニティーの一員であることを実感し、社会的なアイデンティティと地位を確保した。そして、コミュニティーのさらなる発展、継続のため、より多くのメンバーを集めることにインセンティブを感じ、日々努力をしている。やがて伝統は定期的に人を集める行事として形を変え、文化に貢献するだけではなく、貿易や観光資源として地元の経済に大きく価値を提供することになっている。

With the increasingly widespread use of the internet, it is becoming increasingly common for it to be used as a source of education. While prestigious high schools and universities continue to value the importance of face-to-face camaraderie among students and teachers, as well as real-world social experiences of offline activities on their campuses and communities nearby, plenty of educational services providers have emerged to offer online-only classrooms. By giving people more freedom to choose when, how much, and with whom to study, these online courses seek to transcend the physical and financial limitations of brick-and-mortar school campuses.

Where does a white-collar worker get most of their work done? The answer these days might be obvious at first sight: somewhere with good internet connections, a reliable power outlet to charge electronic devices, as well as a comfy chair and desk that does not make hours of deskwork not stressful on the back and the hips. Logically, the more routine around this setup, the better. After all, what can be a better desk than one that has proven itself, day after day, that does not cause back pain. What is better than wireless internet that has a track record of not disconnecting spontaneously over weeks and months?