Monday, September 26, 2005
Progress and the Comics to Prove It
England, from India's perspective, may be looking a little insecure, based on this article in the Times of India, reporting on a Gordon Brown speech that exhorted Britain to create more home-grown college graduates because "China and India are producing 4 million graduates a year." The rest of his speech marked a turn in policy, defending Thatcherite reforms and presenting a Blair-like vision of the Labour party. Had you heard that elsewhere about Brown, Blair's until-now reliably leftist heir-apparent? I hadn't.
And from Japan, here is Koizumi's first big speech following his triumphant election landslide. He's pledging to "boldly scale down government, and not just in the postal savings service that he ran on. It's good to know there are people out there who take these free-market reform ideas seriously, rather than just running on them and forgetting once in office.
Enough politics. Here's an innocent manga story whose drawings of urban Tokyo make me feel I'm back living there. Not that urban Tokyo is very pretty. All the more reason to applaud this drawn-from-life artistry.
And from Japan, here is Koizumi's first big speech following his triumphant election landslide. He's pledging to "boldly scale down government, and not just in the postal savings service that he ran on. It's good to know there are people out there who take these free-market reform ideas seriously, rather than just running on them and forgetting once in office.
Enough politics. Here's an innocent manga story whose drawings of urban Tokyo make me feel I'm back living there. Not that urban Tokyo is very pretty. All the more reason to applaud this drawn-from-life artistry.
