Boarding a subway today, dragging my usual work bags, a woman stood to give me her seat –   the first time anyone has done that since I last carried Rui into a crowded train, wobbling and subway surfing in front of the train door. I thought,  has the gray in my beard  become that … More Leaves

    To Those Born Later I Truly, I live in dark times! The guileless word is folly. A smooth forehead Suggests insensitivity. The man who laughs Has simply not yet had The terrible news. What kind of times are they, when A talk about trees is almost a crime Because it implies silence about so … More Dark Times

Japan continues to treat human rights like hand-me-downs, passing what it wishes to discard to the beleaguered, hungry and abused abroad, making the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea into the Goodwill Industries and Salvation Army of East Asian Human Rights. The banner of a recent article in Mainichi Japan: U.N. calls for immediate repatriation of … More Hipocrisy or Charity? Human Rights Panel of the U.N. General Assembly on International Child Abduction Castigates North Korea; Silent on Japan