I want to state my opinion about the phenomenon named Brain Drain. “Brain drain” can be defined as follows; the departure of educated or professional people from one country, economic sector, or field for another usually for better pay or living conditions. In short, this term implies criticism against large-scale emigration of skilled workers from poor countries to rich countries.

The term was coined in Britain in the 1960’s, when a lot of scientists moved to the US dreaming of the better pay and opportunities.

For instance, AFB news reported that in 2009 11 Americans got the Nobel Prize, and 5 out of 11 were naturalised US citizen. More controversial examples are sub-Saharan African states. It is estimated that during 1960s to 1980s, 30% of skilled labour moved to Europe. In Zimbabwe, 60 people graduates from the medical school annually but 90% of them leave the country. (Peter Stalker 1994)

On the one hand, brain drain can be regarded as exploitation of human resources by rich states; on the other hand this is a great opportunity for development and mutual-understanding. Well, I support the latter. I have three points.

Firstly, some criticise the phenomenon claiming that rich countries are buying skilled workers with money. That’s not necessarily the case. In fact, the labour markets in developing countries are excess. In Côte d’Ivoire in 1985, for example, 40% of university graduates were jobless. So I think supplies meet demands here.

Secondly, sending skilled labours abroad can bring about positive results. South Korea, who now has world highest level of industrial, medical, and intellectual technology, lost 10% of professional workers in the 1970s. So sending skilled workers abroad really is an opportunity to enhance their own growth.
Thirdly, it’s not really a “brain drain”, rather it’s a “brain exchange”. I mean international flow of skilled labour is not one-way. Multi-national cooperation’s and International organisations are placing their factories and offices in developing countries, which brings a lot of skilled workers from developed countries!. I think this is a good for both individuals (they can broaden their career path) and society (for mutual-understanding’s sake).
In conclusion, there’s nothing wrong with brain drain. Rather it can offer opportunities. So why don’ t we let the brain drain?

by Yuki Sugiyama

I saw this rainbow wall somewhere along Kawaramachi..
At first, I felt really glad to see this wall, but then I realized that most people are probably unaware of what a rainbow symbolizes — the LGBT community (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) pride and diversity.　

Most, though not all, societies today seem to maintain its highly patriarchal and heteronormative nature. Such societies have managed to dominate and survive throughout history, causing tremendous impacts on today’s social climate.

In patriarchal societies, people are made to believe that men are more capable than women regarding the many aspects of their lives. This eminent ideology allows the cyclical abuse and discrimination against women, expressed in a vast array of prejudice – may it be in the workplace, or in terms of education, healthcare, and finance, or even at home – such manifestations are evident.

Aside from living in patriarchal societies, most of us today also grew up in immensely heteronormative societies. Heteronormativity refers to the assumption that heterosexuality is universal; hence heterosexual practices must be the standard. Heteronormative societies expect everybody to follow such norms; otherwise one would be deviating from what is socially accepted. Such societies create a hierarchy among its citizens, wherein heterosexuals are above non-heterosexuals – the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered individuals. Same-sex relationships are seen either as a taboo or as an act of immorality. It was only in 1973 when the American Psychiatric Association officially removed homosexuality from its list of mental disorders; this was a big leap for the LGBT movement, however until today myriads of people still continue to have negative views regarding homosexuality. This is primarily due to the heteronormative society’s unawareness, misinformation, and skewed understanding of gender diversity and equality. These societies treat the LGBT community differently, hence causing a great disadvantage among LGBT individuals. These disadvantages are manifested in the forms of social stigma, inequality in terms of work opportunities, and even outright verbal, emotional, psychological, and physical abuse.

Patriarchy and heteronormativity, as individual social conditions, are equally problematic. But if you put both conditions together in one society, the problems born from this scenario can magnify and multiply by tenfold.

Patriarchal and heteronormative societies rank its citizens. It prioritizes heterosexual men above all. At the bottom of this social pyramid are non-heterosexual women – lesbian and bisexual women. For several reasons, I believe that non-heterosexual women are discriminated in multiple levels. First, they are discriminated for the simple reason that they are women. Women may find it difficult to live in societies wherein patriarchy and gender inequality are the norms. Women’s voices are often muted, their chances of learning are often halted, and their rights are often trampled over. Second, lesbian and bisexual women are discriminated for being outside the heterosexual norm. They are seen as people who are so different from the “straight“ people. Despite the dominance of such views among most of today’s societies, these socially constructed labels are meaningless. Some lesbian and bisexual women encounter problems with their employers once the issue of their sexuality is discussed, other problems include – difficulties in finding housing, and being victimized by social stigma and violence. Third, lesbian and bisexual women are discriminated based on other aspects such as class, race, ethnicity, religion, and culture. Since we live in the age of capitalism, lower-class lesbian and bisexual women are further buried deeper in the imagined social pyramid. In certain beliefs and cultures, homosexuality is also seen in a negative light, hence stirring even more disadvantages for lesbian and bisexual women.

For many centuries, such societies have continued to heave and force its highly sexist ideologies among its citizens. Perhaps this is one of the many plausible reasons on why some lesbian and bisexual women choose to stay inside the closet – to be protected from the harsh beatings of patriarchal and heteronormative societies.

by Fritz Rodriguez

I want to write an article about British multiculturalism. As we saw in the lecture, there’s a debate over whether or not it has failed. Since this is a blog article, not an academic essay, I’d like to share my personal perspective on the issue according to my own experiences in the UK.

Firstly, let me tell you about my experiences a bit here. I’ve lived in England twice actually.
The first time was a lovely homestay with a middle class British family for one month in Coventry city. (an industrial city in Midland, England). They were what we imagine as ‘typical conservative working-class English people.
The second time was a year study abroad as an exchange student in one of the most liberal Universities in the UK named SOAS. I was living in central London, with diverse range of people. So the things were completely different from the former experience. Also I travelled a lot around the UK and Europe.
In general, I absolutely loved my life there (except for the food No offence mate!) and I think I saw quite a lot about issues of race, ethnicity or multiculturalism.

I know it’s almost impossible to assert its failure or success, since things are not that simple. I mean, it’s so hard to define what’s ‘failure’ and ‘success’, some could even say Britain is not a multicultural society at all! There can’t be unified view on that.
So, I’m mentioning both (what I felt was) positive and negative aspects of ‘multicultural Britain’ below.

Positive points

• Tolerance towards foreigners.

I have never felt discriminated against in the UK, at all. Even in a small village in Scotland, people were really helpful! I didn’t have any difficulty living in the UK as a foreigner.
I also saw a lot of people from diverse ethnic backgrounds living and working, keeping their own lifestyles. For example, in many restaurants there’s always vegetarian food or special meat designed for Muslims. Also in my University, there was a praying room for Muslim students, people could go there and pray even during the class. Those kinds of things cannot be expected in my country, to my sadness.

• Diversity(limited area)

This diversity was beyond my expectation. People are really diverse and coming from all over the world. In my university, more than 40% of all the students were from outside the UK! Also, there are plenty of Asian British, African British, Caribbean British, Muslim British or anything. I thought being British no longer means being Christian ‘white’ British. This diversity makes the country more attractive and creative!

Negative point

• Segregated communities

I wrote that diversity is limited above because outside the ‘special places’ like university where everyone agrees with multiculturalism, the communities are very segregated. There’s a area for Chinese, Arabic, Indian, or Bangladesh. When you go outside of the university and look at the reality, there certainly are hates between the groups People seemed to live separate lives, apart from each other and the mainstream, which creates hatred. (Politically radical right wing party is gaining power and at the same time, radical Muslim groups are getting more powerful).

In conclusion, I still don’t know if British multiculturalism is a failure or I don’t know the solution for that. However I wouldn’t call it a success. At least I cannot imagine the same situation happening in Japan. This is how I feel now.

What do you think?

by Yuki Sugiyama

It is often said that Japanese people do not love their country much. People rarely see the flag in everyday life, sing national anthem, and care about its politics. It was only in the old days – before the war that Japanese people used to show their love towards Japan by demonstrating on the street or paying attention to its politics. It seems Japanese had lost its samurai spirit these days.

Japan is a homogeneous society. People speak only Japanese. Most of people in Japan are Japan-originated. However, this has been changing by the wave of globalization. Some people say it started changing after Japan lost World War 2 and let habits and customs of the United States in Japan.

Is globalization affecting the loss of Japanese samurai spirit? As one of Japanese youth, I do not think I am patriotic person. It is probably affecting me because I am interested in foreign culture more than Japanese one. Even though I have grown up in Japan, I could have much information about foreign countries by media. And in Japan, there is some kind of feelings that it is too much when someone is supporting its country so much. When the U.S. found Osama bin Laden died this year, people in the U.S. were celebrating it by shouting “U.S.A! U.S.A!” on the streets. In Japan, many people thought that it was a little bit crazy calling country’s name loudly on the streets.

Strong nationality sometimes can cause problems. But as being one country in the world, country loses its identity and it’ll eventually vanish. In this globalized world, we should hold on to our own identity harder than ever.

by Naoko Matsumoto

Fair trade is something that is very close to my heart. I have become aware of the importance of fair trade since studying Peace and Development for the past three years, and there was one event in particular that helped me realize how deeply connected fair trade is to development. Coffee growers came to my university in Sweden and shared stories about their life in Nicaragua and how dependent they are on the money that they make from fair trade. Without that money, their business would not survive. This was three years ago, and ever since that lecture, I have started buying more food labeled fair trade. And even though I know part of the reason why I decide to spend that extra money is because it makes me feel good about myself, I also feel that I am doing something good for somebody else. That money is not a big deal for me but could help change the life for the better for somebody else across the world. I do realize that it is unrealistic to ask people to only buy fair trade goods, but if everybody would choose one item of food (coffee or milk for instance) and spend a little more money on making it fair trade, I believe it would make a huge difference.

This is hard to admit, but I am also aware of the fact that some of my actions might be considered hypocritical. Animal rights have always been very important to me, and I have thought about becoming a vegetarian for many years. My only reason for not doing so yet is that I am terrible cook and would not now what food to make, which would probably result in nutrient shortage of some sort. Therefore, until I learn how to cook proper vegetarian meals, I buy meat that is organic since it gives me the somewhat satisfying feeling that the animals at least had a decent life until they ended up on my plate. The expression “capitalism with a smiley face” is applicable here, and the phrase “the worst slave owners were those who were kind to their slaves” also feels appropriate. Instead of buying “good” meat, I should quit eating meat all together and simply not be a part of the system.

In my opinion, Zizek is absolutely right when he is talking about “egoist consumption” and how guilt affects us when it comes to our purchases. However, I would feel hypocritical not buying fair trade goods since it is so closely linked to what I am studying. Peace and development studies are all about making the world a better place, and if I can do so by spending a little bit of extra money, then so be it. I believe that most people have the possibility to make minor changes in their daily life in order to make the world a little bit better. If I can do it as a poor student, so can you. For me, it is simply about prioritization. But how do YOU feel about spending more money on fair trade products? Is it worth it? How much are you willing to spend? And would you consider yourself an “egoist consumer”?

by Erika Selander Edström