Merdeka

Today is Hari Merdeka (Independence Day) for Malaysia.

Hari Merdeka is a national day of Malaysia commemorating the independence of the Federation of Malaya from British colonial rule, celebrated on August 31.

Struggle for the independence of Malaysia (Malaya as its known in colonial times)
The effort for independence was spearheaded by Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj, the first Prime Minister of Malaysia, who led a delegation of ministers and political leaders of Malaya in negotiations with the British in London for Merdeka, or independence along with the first president of the Malayan Chinese Association (MCA) Tun Dato Sir Tan Cheng Lock and fifth President of Malaysian Indian Congress Tun V.T. Sambanthan.

"Independence is only the threshold to high endeavour"

Tunku Abdul Rahman (Father of Independence and first Prime Minister of Malaysia)
At the official proclamation of independence would only be made the next year, on August 31, 1957, at Stadium Merdeka (Independence Stadium), in Kuala Lumpur.

"They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security"

Benjamin Franklin

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Widgets

Some cool widgets lying around the depths on the internet include:
A Miku clock (Click on Miku and she will wake up and tell the time in Japanese):


The Uniqlo calendar which forecasts daily weather and a backdrop of timelapse videos:

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Kamikaze

神風. Kamikaze. Divine wind. The term is said have originated in the Mongol invasions of Japan.


The Threat
In 1266 and again in 1268, Kublai Khan, ruler of the Mongol empire (the largest land empire in Asia at the time) turned his eyes to the Japanese islands. The Great Khan dispatched emissaries to Japan, demanding Japan to become a vassal and send tribute under a threat of conflict. However, the emissaries returned empty-handed both times.

Kublai Khan founded the Yuan Dynasty in 1271. The Yuan Dynasty held sway over present-day Mongolia, North China and much of Western China. In 1272, Chungnyeol (충렬왕), King of the Goryeo Dynasty of Korea offered counsel to Kublai Khan:

Japan is yet to know world is hallowed. So dispatch emissaries and convey our military power to Japan. Battle ships and military rations are well prepared. If you appoint me, I encourage you to the extent of my power.

The Mongols Attack
1274. The Yuan fleet set out, with an estimated 15,000 Mongol & Chinese soldiers and 8,000 Korean warriors, in 300 large vessels and 500 smaller craft. They ravaged the islands of Tsushima and Iki, including piercing women's hands and hanging them on their boats.

They landed on November 19th in Hakata Bay, a short distance from Dazaifu, the ancient administrative capital of Kyūshū, which is just a small outpost. The following day brought the Battle of Bun'ei (文永の役), also known as the "Battle of Hakata Bay".

The Japanese were inexperienced in managing such a large force (all of North Kyūshū had been mobilized), and the Mongols made significant initial progress. It had been approximately 50 years since the last major combat event in Japan, leaving not a single Japanese general with adequate experience in moving large bodies of troops.

In addition, the style of warfare that then was customary within feudal Japan involved man-to-man duels of sorts, even on large battlefields. The Mongols possessed foreign weapons which included superior long-range armaments ("proto-grenades"), and easily had the upper hand in land combat. The Japanese force at Hakata Bay needed time to await the arrival of reinforcements, with which they would be able to overwhelm the Mongol invaders.

Meanwhile back in Kamakura, Tokimune (de facto ruler of Japan) was overcome with fear when the invasion finally came, and wanted to defeat cowardice, so he asked Bukko (his Zen master) for advice. Bukko replied he had to sit in meditation to find the source of his cowardice in himself. Tokimune went to Bukko and said: "Finally there is the greatest happening of my life."

Bukko asked, "How do you plan to face it?" Tokimune screamed "Katsu!" ("Victory!") as if he wanted to scare all the enemies in front of him. Bukko responded with satisfaction: "It is true that the son of a lion roars as a lion!" Since that time, Tokimune became instrumental in the spreading of Zen Buddhism and Bushido in Japan among the samurai.

A Divine Wind At Sea?
Around nightfall, a severe storm caused the Mongol ship captains to suggest that the land force re-embark on the sailing vessels in order to avoid the risk of being marooned on Japanese soil.By daybreak, only a few ships had not set out to sea. Those that had met their doom at nature's hand. Casualty reports that suggest 200 Mongol ships were lost. The joyous news spread throughout the Japanese forces, the suddenness of it all prompting the Japanese to attribute the wind to a divine hand. In popular Japanese myths at the time, the god Raijin was the god who turned the storms against the Mongols. It became known as the Kamikaze (神風).

Japanese small boats were much swifter and more maneuverable than Mongol ships, and the Japanese were able to board the remaining Mongol ships. Mongols without their long-range land weapons and armor, once in hand-to-hand combat, stood little chance against the disciplined samurai and their tachi.

The Empire Strikes Back
After the failed invasion, Kublai Khan was tired of being ignored and not being allowed to land, so five Yuan emissaries were dispatched in September 1275 and sent to Kyūshū, refusing to leave without a reply. Tokimune responded by having them sent to Kamakura and then beheading them. The graves of those 5 executed Yuan emissaries exist to this day in Kamakura at Tatsunokuchi. Expecting another invasion, on Feb 21, 1280, the Imperial Court ordered all temples and shrines to pray for victory over the Yuan.


In the spring of 1281, the Chinese fleet of the Yuan was delayed by difficulties in provisioning and manning the large number of ships they had. Their Korean fleet set sail, suffered heavy losses at Tsushima, and turned back. In the summer, the combined Korean/Chinese fleet took Iki-shima, and moved on to Kyūshū, landing at a number of separate positions.

In a number of individual skirmishes, known collectively as the Battle of Kōan (弘安の役), or the Second Battle of Hakata Bay, the Mongol forces were driven back to their ships. The Japanese army was again heavily outnumbered, but had fortified the coastal line, and was easily able to repulse the auxiliaries that were launched against it.

Kamikaze!
The now-famous kamikaze, a massive typhoon, assaulted the shores of Kyūshū for two days straight, and destroyed much of the Mongol fleet. The Mongols never returned. The Japanese were saved by the walls they had built and nature's fury.

A Legacy
From a military perspective, the failed invasions of Kublai Khan was the first time samurai clans fought for the sake of Japan itself instead of more narrowly defined clan interests. The invasions also exposed the Japanese to an alien fighting style which, devoid of the single combats that characterized traditional samurai combat, they saw as inferior. This difference is noted in the Hachiman Gudōkun:

According to our manner of fighting we must first call out by name someone from the enemy ranks, and then attack in single combat. But the Mongols took no notice at all of such conventions. They rushed forward all together in a mass, grappling with any individuals they could catch and killing them.

The destruction of the Mongol fleets guaranteed Japanese independence, yet created a power struggle in the Japanese military government that led to the military’s dominance over the emperor. It also perpetuated the Japanese belief that they could not be defeated, which remained an important aspect of Japanese foreign policy until the end of the Second World War.

The term kamikaze eventually became a term for suicidal attacks by military aviators from the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II.

Compiled from Wikipedia

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Sunday 日曜日

Sunday (日曜日, Nichiyōbi) means the day of the Sun in Eastern and Western traditions.



About the images:
1. My snapshot of the Huacachina sand dunes, Peru, 2008
2. Haruhi Suzumiya at Apollo's Sun temple, Naxos Island, Greece, 2006

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Saturday 土曜日

Saturday (土曜日, Doyōbi) means the day of stone in Far Eastern traditions.


About the images:
1. My snapshot of the Lulworth Bay sea arch in Dorset, 2004.
2. Riko Narumi (成海 璃子) at the beach. Sand is a fine grained stone.

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Friday 金曜日

Friday (金曜日, Kin'yōbi) means the day of gold in Far Eastern traditions.



About the images:
1. My snapshot of Inca Kola, the national soft drink of Peru.
2. Miku Hatsune (初音ミク) hugging a loli and a shota in Pokemon suits posted by Muteki.

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Thursday 木曜日

Thursday (木曜日, Mokuyōbi) means the day of wood in Far Eastern traditions.



About the images:
1. My snapshot of a Buddha head intertwined with Bodhi tree roots, Thailand, 2006
2. Edited from Cheryl Cheng's sketch.

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Wednesday 水曜日

Wednesday (水曜日, Suiyōbi) means the day of water in Far Eastern traditions.



About the images:
1. My snapshot of the Yellow Sea, Korea, 2006
2. An image contribution from Archer112

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Tuesday 火曜日

Tuesday (火曜日, Huoyaori) means the day of fire in Far Eastern traditions.



About the images:
1. My snapshot of Wesak day 2009 celebrations in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
2. Aya Hirano (平野綾)

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Monday 月曜日

Monday (月曜日, getsuyôbi) means Moon day in both Eastern and Western traditions.



About the images:
1. Snapshot of a secluded moon during my geology fieldtrip to the Arches National Park, Utah, 2008
2. Otonashi Saya (音無 小夜) (right), a vampire (hence a child of the moon) from the BLOOD+ anime series.

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Bathing

In Western culture, it is typical for people to bathe in the morning before starting the activities of the day or meeting with others outside the home. Arriving at work without having showered may be seen as a sign of unprofessionalism or slovenliness.

In contrast, people in East Asia customarily bathe twice a day especially during the evening or the night, the rationale being that after a day's work one should remove sweat and dirt, in order to be comfortable and clean, thus keeping the bed clean.

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The Religious Character of American Patriotism

It's time to recognize our traditions and answer some hard questions (1987) Frederick Edwords

In the last few years, we have witnessed a number of patriotic celebrations in the United States -- celebrations that have taken on an almost religious expression. In 1976, it was the glorious bicentennial of our independence. In 1984, American jingoistic displays associated with the opening and closing of the XXIII Summer Olympic games in Los Angeles were televised around the world. On July 4, 1986, amid hoopla and fireworks rarely equaled, the Statue of Liberty was rededicated in New York Harbor. Finally, on September 17, 1987, we celebrated the bicentennial of the signing of the U.S. Constitution. Festivities commemorating the final ratification of the Constitution on June 21, 1788; the passage of the Bill of Rights on September 25, 1789; and the ratification of the Bill of Rights on December 15, 1791, were comparatively subdued but recognized nonetheless.

That these are more than just anniversaries in political history is made clear not only by how we tend to celebrate them but in the reactions we receive from people abroad: they simply cannot understand our fervor. After all, as Americans we do not belong to a single racial group, do not share the same religion, and are mostly relative newcomers to the national soil we inhabit (so new, in fact, that many British still refer to the United States as "the colonies"). Lacking, then, a single racial, religious, or long-standing geographical identity, our cultural unity and patriotic zeal seem hard to explain.

What is it, then, that binds us? The answer can be found in a set of ideals and myths pervading our national consciousness that has been growing for two centuries. Whether we admit it or not, even if we claim we are not religious, we frequently tend to operate according to the prophetic vision, dogmas, and rituals of a generally unacknowledged religious tradition. Our behavior belies this as we take pilgrimages to its shrines, view its relics, sing its songs, celebrate its holy days, show respect to its saints and martyrs, and respond to its symbols. The United States is indeed a religious nation, but its unifying religion is not Christianity or any other world faith -- not even "the religion of secular humanism," as has been claimed of late. It is instead a unique national belief system best called _Americanism_.

THE CREATION OF A TRADITION
New nations are frequently formed when an already existing ethnic or religious group re-identifies itself and breaks away from a larger body. In the ancient past, new nations formed from the consolidation of similar tribes. In both cases, however, a long prior tradition existed, a tradition that cemented the union. But in 1776, a group of people from diverse linguistic, national, ethnic, and religious traditions, isolated on the coast of a continent they had only recently inhabited, suddenly decided to set themselves apart from the rest of the world. This must have seemed a preposterous undertaking to many.

Could a nation last without a common bond in some time-worn ground for unity? This was a bold experiment -- a government invented out of the whole cloth. If the project was to work, a unifying tradition would have to be invented to go along with it.

In his Centennial Oration of July 4, 1876, the great American agnostic Robert Ingersoll gave his view of how this came about:

There were the Puritans who hated the Episcopalians, and
Episcopalians who hated the Catholics, and the Catholics who
hated both, while the Quakers held them all in contempt.
There they were, of every sort, and color and kind, and how
was it that they came together? They had a common
aspiration. They wanted to form a new nation. More than
that, most of them cordially hated Great Britain; and they
pledged each other to forget these religious prejudices, for
a time at least, and agreed that there should be only one
religion until they got through, and that was the religion
of patriotism.

But the religion was more than just patriotism. As early as 1749, Benjamin Franklin pointed to "the Necessity of a Publick Religion" that would promote good citizenship and ethical standards. Later, in his _Autobiography_, he laid out "the essentials of every religion," limiting them to the following few items:

. . . the existence of the Deity; that he made the world and
govern'd it by his Providence; that the most acceptable
service of God was the doing good to men; that our souls are
immortal; and that all crime will be punished, and virtue
rewarded, either here or hereafter.

He then proceeded to accord "different degrees of respect" to existing religions depending on how far they departed from this outline and to what degree they added other doctrines that were divisive or unhelpful to public morality. His ideas were shared by many of the founders.

For example, in his first inaugural address, Thomas Jefferson asked his audience to carry on the American principles of government, secure in the knowledge that happiness and prosperity would result. After all, Americans were a people who were

. . . enlightened by a benign religion, professed, indeed,
and practiced in various forms, yet all of them inculcating
honesty, truth, temperance, gratitude, and the love of man;
acknowledging and adoring an overruling Providence, which by
all its dispensations proves that it delights in the hap-
piness of man here and his greater happiness hereafter. . .

Other elements of this public religion were set forth in the Declaration of Independence. However, they were presented not as the absolute or God-given truths of prior religions but as "selfevident" truths discoverable by human beings. Furthermore, these truths were not a Decalogue of divine commands but an assertion of "unalienable rights," a notion no less religious for not being traditional. Noticing this, British journalist Gilbert K. Chesterton wrote in 1922 that America is "the only nation in the world that is founded on a creed. That creed is set forth with dogmatic and even theological lucidity in the Declaration of Independence."

Conspicuously absent from the writings of many of the nation's founders and first presidents are indications of belief in Christ, hell, and Original Sin. But they all mentioned God -- and not merely the clockwork God of deism but a god actively involved in history. Their "public religion" clearly was not Christianity, though it could include Christians and others within its embrace. In some ways it harked back to the Old Testament with its view of America as "the promised land." This was prevalent in many writings of the time. Jefferson concluded his second inaugural address in this vein:

I shall need, too, the favor of that Being in whose hands we
are, who led our fathers, as Israel of old, from their
native land and planted them in a country flowing with all
the necessaries and comforts of life; who has covered our
infancy with His providence and our riper years with His
wisdom and power . . .

How much of this public religion Jefferson or other founders of the republic may have personally believed is not central here. What is important is that they felt a need to_promote_it and, in so doing, to give roots to a population that previously shared little in common. George Washington spelled out this utilitarian rationale in his 1796 farewell address:

Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined
education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and
experience both forbid us to expect that national morality
can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.

THE BUILDING OF A MYTHOLOGY
No religion is complete, however, if it only has a unifying doctrine. It also needs a unique history, complete with saints and martyrs. Thus, it was not long before the principal figures in the saga of the United States' founding began to take on a heroic character.

In the growing mythology, George Washington, "the father of his country," came to be immortalized as a type of latter-day Moses who led his people out of British bondage and to a "sweet land of liberty." Benjamin Franklin was immortalized, too, as the intellect behind the holy cause. These two became the most prominent among the stock characters of nineteenth-century children's U.S. history textbooks. That this imagery remains strong is evidenced by the satirization of it in this scene from the Broadway musical_1776_by Peter Stone and Sherman Edwards:

JOHN ADAMS [to Franklin]: It doesn't matter. I won't
appear in the history books anyway -- only you. Franklin did
this, Franklin did that, Franklin did some other damned
thing. Franklin smote the ground, and out sprang George
Washington, fully grown and on his horse. Franklin then
electrified him with his miraculous lightening rod, and the
three of them -- Franklin, Washington, _and_the horse --
conducted the entire Revolution all by themselves.

BEN FRANKLIN: I like it!

But the Old Testament analogy does not end here. Like the Hebrews who followed Moses, the brave patriots who followed Washington soon strayed from the truth and fell from grace. Robert Ingersoll, in his Decoration Day Oration of 1888, summed it up in a manner common to the oratory of his time.

When their independence was secured they adopted a
Constitution that legalized slavery, and they passed laws
making it the duty of free men to prevent others from
becoming free. They followed the example of kings and
nobles. . . . They forgot all the splendid things they had
said -- the great principles they had so proudly and
eloquently announced. The sublime truths faded from their
hearts. The spirit of trade, the greed for office, took
possession of their souls.

And so a war was required to redeem the nation, Ingersoll maintained:

The conflict came. The South unsheathed the sword. Then
rose the embattled North, and these men who sleep tonight
beneath the flowers of half the world, gave all for us.
They gave us a Nation -- a republic without a slave --
a republic that is sovereign, and to whose will every
citizen and every State must bow.

Added to the liberation imagery of the American Revolution were the new elements of a fall, repentance, sacrifice, death, and rebirth. Abraham Lincoln was especially adept at getting this message across. In his Gettysburg Address, he spoke of "those who here gave their lives that that nation might live," the honored dead who "gave the last full measure of devotion" so that "this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

One almost feels need for the concluding phrase: "but shall have everlasting life." It's hardly surprising that generations of American school children were once required to memorize and recite the Gettysburg Address. Such was a ritual and a sacrament of the national religion, much as the Pledge of Allegiance is today.

The Gettysburg Address took on an even greater meaning after Lincoln was shot. For then it was Lincoln who had become the blood sacrifice so that the nation might be reborn. The imagery of Lincoln as savior, as an American Christ, arose immediately in the sermons that resonated from the pulpits of a grieving nation. The Reverend John McClintock in New York said it most explicitly:

We had no fear about Abraham Lincoln, except the fear that
he would be too forgiving. Oh! what an epitaph -- that the
only fear men had was that he would be too tender, that he
had too much love; in a word, that he was too Christ-like!
And how Christ-like was he in dying! His last official
words in substance were, "Father, forgive them, they know
not what they do." And on Good Friday he fell a martyr to
the cause of humanity.

The Reverend Henry Ward Beecher, the most famous cleric of his day, practically canonized Lincoln in the conclusion of his sermon:

In the midst of this great continent his dust shall rest, a
sacred treasure to myriads who shall pilgrim to that shrine
to kindle anew their zeal and patriotism. Ye winds that
move over the mighty places of the West, chant his requiem!
Ye people, behold a martyr whose blood, as so many
articulate words, pleads for fidelity, for law, for liberty!

To this day, whenever an American hears the "Battle Hymn of the Republic," he or she thinks of Lincoln and his death. What is the song about? Think of the words. It is about "the glory of the coming of the Lord" in the last days when "his terrible swift sword" shall destroy the wicked. Yet, our mental associations turn to Lincoln who died for the sins of a nation and whose "truth is marching on."

The song is appropriate in a way, however, for in the religion of Americanism there is also a vision of the millennium, a paradise on Earth to come. Ingersoll offered his version of this at the conclusion of his Decoration Day Oration of 1888.

A vision of the future rises:
I see our country filled with happy homes, with
firesides of content, -- the foremost land of all the earth.
I see a world where thrones have crumbled and where
kings are dust. The aristocracy of idleness has perished
from the earth.
I see a world without a slave. Man at last is free.
Nature's forces have by Science been enslaved. Lightning
and light, wind and wave, frost and flame, and all the
secret, subtle powers of earth and air are the tireless
toilers for the human race.
I see a world at peace, adorned with every form of art,
with music's myriad voices thrilled, while lips are rich
with words of love and truth; a world in which no exile
sighs, no prisoner mourns; a world on which the gibbet's
shadow does not fall; a world where labor reaps its full
reward, where work and worth go hand in hand . . . -- and,
as I look, life lengthens, joy deepens, love canopies the
earth; and over all, in the great dome, shines the eternal
star of human hope.

Of this speech, the _New York Times_ of May 31, 1888, reported:

Enthusiastic cheers greeted all his points, and his audience
simply went wild at the end. . . . Nor did the enthusiasm
which Col. Ingersoll created end until the very last when
the whole assemblage arose and sang "America" in a way which
will never be forgotten by any one present.

Ingersoll was popular, even with many who opposed his agnosticism, because he advanced a common doctrine using inspiring and emotional language that spoke to the heart. One could either espouse traditional religion or advocate freethought and still be inspired by a religious display of Americanism.

THE APPROPRIATION OF A TRADITION
Because of the power this common religion has held over the imagination of Americans, different groups have continually tried to claim it as wholly their own. For example, in 1912 _An American Bible_ by Elbert Hubbard was published. This was a collection of selected sayings from eight American "prophets" -- Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, Robert Ingersoll, Walt Whitman, Abraham Lincoln, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Hubbard himself (who devoted nearly half of the book to his own writings). The selections had a decidedly freethought slant, and the book was a bestseller in its time and remained popular into the 1940s.

When I attended in 1987 the annual Hill Cumorah Pageant put on by the Mormons in Palmyra, New York, I noted how cleverly they used Americanism to make their bizarre religious ideas more palatable to non-Mormons. American flags flew on flag poles throughout the pageant area, the program opened with the national anthem, and a giant flag on the hillside was waved by over a hundred Mormon youth. Then there were fifteen minutes of bicentennial hoopla involving claims that America's founders were guided by God in all their actions. Only after this common emotional ground was established did the uniquely Mormon part of the program get under way. And even in this latter part, the mythical pre-Columbian followers of Christ in the Americas were depicted as advocates of liberty and democracy -- an indication of the influence Americanism had on Joseph Smith when he published _The Book of Mormon_ in 1830.

And Christian fundamentalists constantly try to tell us, in spite of well-established evidence to the contrary, that our forefathers and mothers were practically all devout Christians.

It should be noted that fundamentalists from other countries don't generally attempt such claims. For example, Ian Taylor, a Canadian fundamentalist and creationist, was willing to suggest in the June 1987 _Bible-Science Newsletter_ that Thomas Paine was probably the real author of the Declaration of Independence, a claim usually advanced only by American freethinkers. He further argued that most of the signers of the document, including Franklin and Jefferson, were members of the alleged _Illuminati_ conspiracy and were non-Christian Freemasons. One would never hear such things from Jerry Falwell!

American fundamentalists feel duty-bound by the pervasiveness of Americanism to admire our nation's founders and claim them as their own. It just won't do to suggest that they were anything less than good Christians, for that might imply that Christianity is unpatriotic and Americanism is heresy! It would also require belief that most of the nation's great heroes are now burning in hell. Christian Reconstructionists, however, frequently take such a view because, harboring few illusions about the religion of our forebears, they really mean to overthrow the present order and set up a theocracy.

A TWO-EDGED SWORD
That America is most religious when it is most patriotic cannot, I think, be denied. A common religiosity seems to run through our national life. The evidence of it is everywhere. One event sticks in my mind. When I was a teenager, I attended a summer camp for boys, established by the U.S. Marine Corps. We all had drill instructors who, to us, seemed pretty rough. Because of this, one teenager wanted to go home. But when our sergeant told us that this teenager had said he would "walk across the American flag" to get out of there, the guys in my group went crazy with rage and wanted to kill him. He had to be moved to a different group for his own protection.

This is one of the dangers of Americanism. It leads to fanaticism and bigotry. And because it calls upon ideals that are sometimes seen as higher than the law, it makes possible an Oliver North and, worse, a public admiration of an Oliver North.

We are inculcated with this Americanism in our youth and we reflexively respond to key words, strains of music, symbols, and imagery. It is no wonder that religious, political, and social organizations deliberately seek to evoke patriotic responses.

But, in spite of the fact that blind patriotic belief, like any such belief, is dangerous, there is a positive side to it as well. By its very nature, it is the glue that holds this diverse nation together. As such, it is the best reply to the charge that America will collapse in a post-Christian era, floundering without roots or religious moorings. It will not, for America does have roots and religious moorings, even without Christianity. The Christian Reconstructionists sense this and are none too happy about it.

Of course, this is where problems emerge in today's political climate. So long as Americanism was never acknowledged as a unique religious tradition separate from all others but was merely fought over by different groups trying to claim it as their own, religious extremists did not question it. However, after World War II, J. Paul Williams, a follower of John Dewey, declared that "Democracy must become an object of religious dedication." He hoped that providing metaphysical sanctions and ceremonial reinforcements for a now explicit American faith would enable Americans to better compete against the more zealous patriotisms of fascism and communism. In 1967, Robert N. Bellah expanded on this notion with what he called the "American Civil Religion" -- a faith that he said was already institutionalized and included common theological ideas as well as the principles of democracy. And in 1987, Martin Marty's _Religion and Republic_ appeared, exploring further this line of thinking.

With the growth of these ideas came increased attacks on the wall of separation between church and state. More and more, the Religious Right has used these ideas in their challenges to the notion that the United States and the public schools can be value neutral or religiously neutral in any absolute sense. John W. Whitehead argues from this perspective in his book,_An American Dream_, which calls for "salvaging the soul of America" by a rejection of American Civil Religion and an explicit "return" to our supposed Calvinist roots.

Defending public education against the predations of such religious apologists is not easy. It will continue to require sophisticated argumentation that takes into account the historically religious character of American patriotism. We will have to face our traditions for what they are and realize that _absolute_ neutrality is not possible in a nation that is so clearly a product of Western culture in general and American culture in particular.

But this is no reason to throw out the baby with the bath water. A _relative_ neutrality, in the context of our historical traditions, has been supported by many court decisions and can be maintained flexibly with consistency. This approach is especially necessary when the public schools, facing onslaughts from growing numbers of adherents of Eastern religions, are called upon to defend their teaching of Western values.

Also, a relative neutrality need not be overly permissive. For example, the more theological aspects of Americanism can still be kept out of public education in deference to the rights of non-theists. But this should not lead us to fool ourselves into believing that the end result is a product sanitized of religiosity. The religious nature of our reverence for the documents of our republic, our forebears, and our nation's history will continue to make its presence felt.

Americanism, for all its shortcomings, dangers, and new problems, has successfully served for over two centuries as the religious unifying factor thought so necessary for successful governments by the Roman statesman Cicero, by America's founders, and even by humanist historians Will and Ariel Durant. Whether it will continue, and whether it should, are questions to ponder as we celebrate our various national anniversaries.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

_The Annals of America_, Vols. 3 and 9, Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 1976.

Bellah, Robert N. _The Broken Covenant: American Civil Religion in Time of Trial_, New York: Seabury Press, 1975.

Franklin, Benjamin. _Autobiography_.

House of Representatives, U.S. _Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the United States_, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1952 and subsequently.

Hubbard, Elbert. _An American Bible_, East Aurora, NY: The Roycrofters, 1912.

Ingersoll, Robert G. _The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll_, Dresden Memorial Edition, Vol. IX, New York: The Ingersoll League, 1939.

Stone, Peter, and Sherman Edwards. _1776_.

Whitehead, John W. _An American Dream_, Westchester, IL: Crossway Books (a division of Good News Publishers), 1987.

This is a slightly edited and updated text, with bibliography added, of an article of the same title appearing in the November/December 1987 issue of The Humanist magazine (Pp. 20-24, 36). The author is the executive director of the American Humanist Association and managing editor of The Humanist.

(C) Copyright 1987 and 1994 by Frederick Edwords

So long as profit is not your motive and you always include this copyright notice, please feel free to reproduce and distribute this material in electronic form as widely as you please. Nonprofit Humanist and Freethought publications have additional permission to publish this in print form. All other permission must be sought from the author, who can be contacted through the American Humanist Association, which can be reached at the following address:

For American patriotic zealots.

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Sleep

Sleep. How much of it do we need?

In a global society increasingly bombarded 24/7 with an endless stream information, we as a species are not getting enough rest. The National Geographic Magazine reported the demands of work, social activities, and the availability of 24-hour home entertainment and internet access have caused people to sleep less now than in premodern times.

A large and continuous lack of sleep lead to mental, emotional, and physical fatigue.
The amount of sleep we need (as recommended by Wikipedia):

Age and condition	Average amount of sleep per day
Newborn	up to 18 hours
1–12 months	14–18 hours
1–3 years	12–15 hours
3–5 years	11–13 hours
5–12 years	9–11 hours
Adolescents	9–10 hours
Adults, including elderly	7–8 (+) hours
Pregnant women	8 (+) hours

Are you getting enough sleep?

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My Daughter Sings On Sunday

My daughter sings a duet with Zebra - Double Lariat:

The male voice belongs to Zebra, a singer on Nico Nico Douga (a Japanese video site).
The female voice belongs to Tako Luka, my octopus shaped virtual daughter.

Have a great Sunday! May it last forever!

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Weekend!

Ah, it's the weekend once again! The sky brightens and flowers blossom...

What do you usually do on weekends?

Some interesting facts about the weekends around the globe:
The most common weekend is on these two days - Saturday and Sunday

In the Muslim world, Friday is made a part of the weekend to accommodate for Friday prayers. The legal work week in the Middle East is typically either Saturday through Wednesday (Saudi Arabia), Saturday through Thursday (as in Iran) or Sunday through Thursday as in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, and Syria. A working week of Sunday through Thursday, with Friday and Saturday as the weekend, is becoming more common, with Qatar shifting to this model in 2003, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates in 2006, Kuwait in 2007, and Oman in 2008.

For most Israelis, the workweek begins on Sunday and ends on Thursday or Friday at noon to accommodate the Jewish Sabbath which begins Friday night. The standard workweek is 43 hours per week, while a workday is 8 hours per day.

The Jewish Sabbath, known as Shabbat, is from sunset Friday to when it is fully dark on Saturday. The Muslim holy day begins is on Friday and the Christians' equivalent is on Sunday.

The ancient sabbath is the origin of the present-day practice of the weekend, otherwise known as Saturday and Sunday in Western countries.

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Blood and Personality

There is a popular belief in Japan that a person's ABO blood type or ketsueki-gata (血液型) is predictive of their personality, temperament, and compatibility with others, similar to the Western world's astrology. This belief is also widespread in South Korea.

Blood type was a contentious issue in the 1920’s and 30’s. The interest in blood types in Japan grew as a reaction against Western racism. Scientists in the west found that type B was common in Asia, but rare in Caucasians. As type B was typical in animals, they argued that Asians were inferior, lower on the evolutionary scale. Japanese scientists were keen to disprove this ludicrous theory, debate continued and it became a popular “ology”.

The respective blood groups and the corresponding personality profiles:

Type O – The Warrior

• trendsetter
• loyal
• passionate
• self-confident
• independent
• ambitious
• vain
• jealous

Type A – The Farmer

• calm
• patient
• sensitive
• responsible
• overcautious
• stubborn
• unable to relax

Type B – The Hunter

• individualist
• dislike custom
• strong
• optimistic
• creative
• flexible
• wild
• unpredictable

Type AB – The Humanist

• cool
• controlled
• rational
• sociable
• popular
• critical
• sometimes standoffish
• indecisive

Compatibility by blood groups:

• A is most compatible with A and AB
• B is most compatible with B and AB
• AB is most compatible with AB, B, A and O
• O is most compatible with O, and AB

This obsession over blood types have inspired movies such as My Boyfriend Is Type B (B형 남자친구) in South Korea. One would wonder about how true this is.

Modified from: Japan Visitor

Further reading on blood groups and anthropology.

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Bleach

Although Bleach (ブリーチ) has gone the way of Naruto (ナルト) in having countless fillers and endless fights, the core story of the anime series convey important messages and criticism about contemporary Asian society.

About Bleach (ブリーチ) - Longtime Bleach fans can skip this section
For those who have not watched any of the episodes, Bleach (ブリーチ) follows the trials and adventures of orange-haired Kurosaki Ichigo (黒崎 一護) in the world of the dead and the shinigami (死神 - death gods in Japanese mythology) as he fights for the lives of his comrades and that of the world (represented by Karakura Town).

Interestingly, the liquid cleaner bleach is used in dying hair orange for dark haired people.

Bleach (ブリーチ) is the brainchild of manga artist Tite Kubo (久保 帯人), was released in 2004 and is still ongoing at the time of writing (the current episode is Bleach 231).

Three principal worlds exist within the Bleach (ブリーチ) universe: Soul Society (尸魂界), Hueco Mundo (虚圏) and our world (Earth, represented by Karakura Town).
Soul Society is the afterlife (heaven), a place of imperfect peace policed by the Gotei 13 (護廷十三隊), a military organization of the shinigami which consists of 13 squads each led by a shinigami captain.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Hueco Mundo is home to Hollows (虚 - evil spirits who feast on other souls) and represents "Hell" in its traditional sense.
Both sides war against each other, shinigami seeking to "purify" the dangerous Hollows and the Hollows seeking to eat their hunters. Karakura Town sits uncomfortably between those two worlds.

Kurosaki Ichigo (黒崎 一護) is an orange haired teenager who lives with his two sisters and father in Karakura Town, and is approached one day by Kuchiki Rukia (a shinigami) who changes his life forever when she transfers her power to him.
Ichigo is then taken through a fight after fight bonanza through the streets of Karakura Town, and thence to Soul Society when Kuchiki Rukia is arrested by her aristocrat brother Kuchiki Byakuya (朽木 白哉) for transferring her powers to a mere mortal (Ichigo). Ichigo rushes to save Rukia before her death sentence is carried out.

Anti-establishment messages are obvious in this part as Ichigo, a rebellious but righteous teenager, fights against the authorities (represented here as the Gotei 13 of Soul Society) against a punishment valid in the eyes of the law (Rukia transferred her powers to a mortal without permission) but unfair in terms of the situation (Rukia's life was endangered by a hollow, she transferred her powers to save her life, and that of the Hollow's potential victims).

As Ichigo battles to save Rukia, a twist in the story is added with the unexpected betrayal of Aizen Sōsuke(藍染 惣右介), a respected and innocent looking shinigami captain, who reveals that the execution of Rukia has been part of his plan to take over all of existence. He plans to oust the ultimate ruler of Soul Society (the King), who is hidden away in another dimension. But in order to do so, he needs Hougyoku, a device which holds the key to accessing the King's hidden dimension. This device was implanted in Rukia.

Aizen's betrayal at the end of this arc reveals that the establishment (Soul Society) had been in the wrong all the time (albeit unknowingly). It also pokes holes at the notion of an infallible government, where corruption can occur despite the best of intentions. The subsequent fillers further exposes the scheming and court intrigues in the Gotei 13 and other parts of the government. This occurs time and time again in the Bount (バウント) escape from Soul Society, the Vizard and Urahara Kisuke's exile and the Syūsuke Amagai-Kasumiōji affair (The noble Kasumiōji clan was led by a corrupt leader in cahoots with Captain Syūsuke Amagai, who betrayed Soul Society).

Racing to save the world, Ichigo now sides with the Gotei 13 and battles the forces of Hueco Mundo, led by Aizen. Although under absolute rule by Aizen, the court of Hueco Mundo is not in perfect agreement, with Hollows going against Aizen's plans (instigated by a certain Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez (グリムジョー・ジャガージャック)).

Aizen's court exudes a difference from that of the Gotei 13. While the Gotei 13 is representative of a medieval court with all its rituals, rules and hierarchy; Aizen's court is more of a modern, almost democratic in some aspects.

1. Aizen sits down with his equivalents of the Gotei 13 captains in a stereotypical meeting room, his Espada; whereas in Gotei 13 meetings, the captains stand in their respective positions in an Edo-style court.

2. The shinigami wear samurai style uniforms, whereas the Espada uniform is modern in concept.

3. The rank mobility in Espada is greater than that of the Gotei 13, one merely has to defeat the higher ranking Espada to get promoted; whereas Gotei 13 captains are appointed by the Captain Commander, Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni (山本元柳斎 重國) and has to be endorsed by at least two other captains.

4. Members of Aizen's court have Spanish names (representing the Western world, traditionally perceived to be more "modern" in Asia following the colonial times), while the Gotei 13 have Japanese names (perhaps showing a traditional Asian representative).

5. Both Gotei 13 and Aizen's court are ruled by an absolute authority and the imperfections in this system do show in the actions of its subordinates.

At this point, Ichigo's primary adversary shifts from shinigami captain Kuchiki Byakuya (朽木 白哉) to the fourth Espada, Ulquiorra Cifer (ウルキオラ・シファー)).

Both Kuchiki Byakuya and Ulquiorra (the antagonists) are arrogant, cold and regal in their manner, very loyal to the establishment and its rules. Ichigo, the protagonist, on the other hand, is down-to-earth, emotional and willing to go against the establishment if needs be.

In summary, Bleach (ブリーチ) is the voice of the rebellious teenager, which is so often suppressed by the strict traditional Japanese society (and by extension East Asian communities in general), where conformity is an absolute must. This suppression is suspected to play a role in various social ills such as the hikikomori (ひきこもり) phenomena and Japan's economic slowdown, as put forth by Michael Zeilenziger in his book Shutting Out the Sun: How Japan Created its Own Lost Generation.

Or is it just another cartoon aimed at hormone-ridden teenagers?

Links:
Bleach Wiki
On Japanese Conformity by Dyske Suematsu
On Japanese Conformity by Tetsuo Kogawa

Picture credits (from top to bottom):
1. I shot the night picture in Hyde Park, London and the Hitsugaya wallpaper is by Faye.

2. Rukia both in drawn and life form was taken from Dailycostume.com

3. Kuchiki Byakuya was drawn by Athena-chan of deviantart.com

4. Ulquiorra was sourced from best-animes-wallpapers.blogspot.com

5. Ichigo's angry pose was taken from alysu.wordpress.com

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