Yōkoso Japan! (?)
On Tuesday, Japan will put in place one of the toughest systems in the developed world for monitoring foreign visitors. Modeled on the United States’ controversial U.S.-Visit program, it will require foreign citizens to be fingerprinted, photographed and questioned every time they enter Japan.*
I first learned about these measures only a few days ago, and the thought would not give me peace ever since: now that’s a hell of a way to greet your guests! Welcome to Japan! Please put your finger on the scanner and smile for the camera. Thank you.
By yesterday (Tuesday) the welcome party was already set up and ready to roll, as International Herald Tribune reports. That was quick, but we all now that the efficiency standards here are set higher than elsewhere; or so it appears.
My feelings about this are still mixed, but none of them is of nature to give me peace of mind. You know, as Samuel Porter Jones put it, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” It also doesn’t matter that you don’t like politics or that you try to stay away from it, the politics has now a new long, long arm to reach you wherever you might be. It’s called GWOT (Global War on Terror), and it’s even scarier than it sounds.
So, as long as I’m still on the red pill and allowed to do it, I decided to open this new category on my blog, entitled “The Shape of Things to Come”. You probably won’t like what you’ll be reading, just as I most certainly won’t like what I’ll have to post. But think of it as “Reason & Science” reflected in a mirror darkly, so go ahead and read anyway. Who knows what topic you might find interesting: energy depletion, global warming, war with no end in sight. Pick your poison.
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* Source: “New Japanese immigration controls worry foreigners” by Martin Fackler, article in International Herald Tribune; published on November 18, 2007
