Yoji Kamata: Resistance and Renewal in Post-Fukushima Japan
YT
His 2012 talk in Berkeley.
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This week it emerged that Francis has widened the remit of the Ordinariates in Britain, America and Australia. Until now, only ex-Anglicans and their family members could join the new body. But, thanks to a new paragraph inserted into the Ordinariate's constitution by Francis, nominal Catholics who were baptised but not confirmed can join the structure. Indeed, the Holy Father wants the Ordinariates to go out and evangelise such people. Put bluntly, this suggests that English bishops who wanted to squash the body – and whose allies were rushing to get to the new Pope in order to brief against it – have been thwarted.
While I acknowledge the dangers that can come from alienation between production and consumption, nevertheless I cannot support any imperative to “re-localize” the economy. First of all, we live in a globalized and globalizing world, and it is simply not possible to turn back time. Localism cannot and will not turn the tide of globalization. Second of all, as Solovyov points out, my infinite moral potential can achieve greater realization through the greater number of people to whom I am connected, and globalization connects me to more people. Third, economic cooperation between nations made possible through globalization, or the international division of labor, has proved to be an effective (though not sufficient) means of raising the quality of life of people all around the world, surely a sign not only of material progress but moral progress as well. Through specializing in what each locality can produce most efficiently to serve others around the world, more is available through trade at a lower cost for all. Perhaps paradoxically for some, such specialization increases efficiency and therefore sustainability.