ItalianoDear my G-Lovers
My thoughts can be read
on the GACKT Blomaga,
so those who want to read all of them, check it out.
*This is an extract from the GACKT Blomaga.
(Updates thrice a month)
http://ch.nicovideo.jp/channel/gackt
Brr brr brr…
Yume nara samenaide (If it’s a dream don’t wake up)♪♫… …
Kono sora no mukou he~ (Beyond this sky)♪♫･･･････、
Yes, hello…
Hm???
Eh… Who’s this?
Ah~~~, it’s you.
It’s been quite awhile.
What’s up?
It’s rare that you call me right?
Eh?
「Was France alright?」… you ask…
What’s that, all of a sudden…
Even though I’m out of France,
and have gone to Italy already…
That being said,
I’m arriving in Japan.
Right now, I’m just walking in.
Eh?
「It’s because I read about the incident in France」… you say…
Ah~ that.
Somehow, it’s been blown up into quite a huge thing.
It’s not the same…
I didn’t particularly
say 「I got discriminated~!!」 or
anything like that
or create any kind of commotion at all…
The story grew out of proportion
and I thought, what a wreck…
What I wanted to say was
whether you’re the one discriminating or the one being discriminated,
both parties definitely will have their own root problems.
That’s what I wanted to get across.
It’s not a problem that can get solved easily,
and it’s also not about pinning blame on anyone.
If you’re put in a situation of being discriminated,
depending on the circumstances,
you have to handle it as your own responsibility,
at the same time you can’t let yourself get discriminated against.
Ever since that article came out,
I got flamed from China, with them saying things like
『You’re criticizing us Chinese!!!』
or
『Don’t discriminate the Chinese!!!』
It’s almost as if it’s become about China…
To say it clearly, that’s not what it’s about either.
I really want to say “read properly till the very end!”.
Whether you’re Chinese,
or Korean,
or Asian in general I would never discriminate against anyone.
Even though it’s easily understandable if you just read my whole entry.
Why would you just pick up random parts of it.
Be it Japanese,
Chinese,
Korean, it’s not about any of you.
Those who are being discriminated
are usually the ones whose actions
invite discrimination.
Those people
go to foreign countries and do things that are a nuisance to the locals,
like things that are intolerable
or appear to be lacking in manners to the locals.
But y’know,
what it is that Japanese like us
do when they’re overseas,
or the things that Chinese people like them do,
even if we’re in our own countries, there’s no way to know so,
to solve a problem like this
we have to raise our level of education,
and firstly start with ourselves
to live without being embarrassed of ourselves!
That’s what it is.
In the past, our parents always said this right?
『Whether you’re going out
or wherever it is you’re going
please don’t make yourself an embarrassment! 』
This is really what I’m trying to say.
It’s not a simple case where
just because they are Caucasians they discriminate Asians.
For them,
they have no idea what kind of person I am
so honestly, there is no relation.
If we classify people
into Caucasians, Blacks, Asians…
and categories like these,
you can’t really recognize who’s from where…
Well,
we’re all the same anyway right?
Are you a Black person from Africa,
or a Black person from America,
or a Black person from Europe,
or are you a Caucasian from England,
or a Caucasian from France,
or a Caucasian from Norway,
or a Caucasian from America…
the difference can hardly be noticed.
That’s why, in a conclusive summary,
we’re put into the category of Asians.
Isn’t that fine, in any case.
We’re Asian anyway.
So, saying “Asians are being discriminated by Caucasians!”
is a big misunderstanding.
There definitely exists the discrimination of Asians but
it’s not particularly discrimination by Caucasians.
Everything depends on the person in question.
From both the discriminator and the discriminated.
For example,
just because the person was French,
it doesn’t mean that the whole country discriminates.
That’s also wrong.
Of course,
there are many in France who are very prideful.
Even so to say that everyone
discriminates would be erroneous.
In fact,
when I visit France,
in clubs I can hit on locals
and on the other hand, I get hit on too on a daily basis,
at the same time I have many French friends.
With them,
they respect me,
and I respect them too.
It appears that they too have read this article,
and instead they apologized.
『We’re sorry that you had to experience something like that』 they said.
No, no,
it’s not your fault,
and I didn’t write about it with blame in mind so,
please don’t simply swallow
what the news stories abstracted! I told them.
I also said,
the full story is written in my blog so please read instead!
Of course when I walk down the streets,
there were many elder folks who spoke nicely with me.
Of course,
there were also times when they were mean.
On this point,
isn’t Japan the same as well?
Amongst the people who are Japanese like you,
there are those with bad attitudes,
and those who are kind.
It’s the same.
It’s not about the country, or skin colour,
or age.
Eh?
「So what should we do?」… you ask…
Firstly, you have to take yourself seriously right?!
You have to live in a way that isn’t embarrassing.
Japanese especially
are people who like saying 「equality equality!!!」 but
for that as well, if you don’t start with yourself it won’t work.
For example, something like 『gender equality!』.
What a strange phrase.
If you really understood the meaning of this phrase,
you should be chanting
『gender equity!』. (equity=fairness)
In the first place,
between men and women,
there is already a basic difference in the conditions of their bodies.
If equality was applied, for the women,
wouldn’t it instead become tougher for them in many instances?
If that really happened in this world,
there will definitely people making noise and saying
「This isn’t equality!」 right?
However,
there aren’t people who start public demonstrations
with all those people who are saying 「equity equity!」.
For this,
such things happen because they don’t really understand the meaning of equity
and conveniently misinterpret the meaning of equality.
Do you understand this difference between 【equality and equity】?
【equality】 is the idea that
regardless of your personal qualities, abilities, effort, results or outcomes,
following a given set of rules,
everyone will be given or treated the same.
【equity】 is the idea that
regardless of gender or age, and basing on you as a whole person
you will be given an equal chance
and according with the result or outcome achieved by the person,
you will be given or treated accordingly.
In other words,
from a certain point of view, equality and equity are complete opposites.
If equality was applied, it will create unfairness,
of course if equity was applied,
inequality will be created.
Do you understand?
For example,
【No matter how much you work or not
everyone gets the same pay】 is equality.
That’s how part-time jobs are right?
To me, I think that these part-time jobs
in the first place are those that
start to bring out naturally a no-good kind of thinking.
A part-time jobs shouldn’t be based on an hourly rate.
Part-time jobs that are based on hourly rates have no meaning.
It is from this that the youngsters entering society
start to cultivate a bad kind of thinking.
Whether I put in effort or not
I can only get the same amount of pay.
Like this,
everyone will not put in effort anymore right?
the rewards that the hard workers and the slackers get
are different.【Those with great success will get great rewards
while those with small success will get small rewards】
That is equity.Because there is such a difference,
you’ll start to think “Let’s work hard!!!!”
“Let’s create results!!!”
“Let’s succeed!!!”.Because there is this difference,
because a disparity will be created,
the idea is that society will get more and more developed.
cases where【no matter how much you work or not
everyone gets the same pay】,
you may start to feel that such a system is unnecessary but,
it can be said that part of this is to help the weaker people so
it becomes a necessity.However,
if you’re a weaker person
you’re never given opportunities,
but your results are ignored while you get to work in a place where everyone gets treated the same,
isn’t it also important to give these people a place to work respectably?
If such a reason is given its understandable.
For example, people with physical disabilities and such.
Or handicaps who can’t work together with healthy people.
You can understand that the world needs a relief system.
However, if everyone on earth made use of that system because they could
we can’t tell apart exactly who are the weaker ones
and who are the ones who can work well right?
That,
is considered a blasphemous act
to the people who are really weaker
Do you get what I’ve been talking about?
Eh????
「It’s too complicated to understand」… you say…
*sigh* … … …
Seriously… …
Fine, I get it.
If that’s the case,
I’ll use a simpler analogy to explain it.
But this is only one possible scenario.
Don’t assume that this applies to everything.
If I use these images I downloaded from the internet to explain
it should be easy to understand.
Here,
there are 2 versions
of these kids trying to watch a baseball game over a fence…
When you look at these two images,
do you know which represents equality?
Many Japanese who see this,
will say that the image on the right side is equality.
This is the answer.
The left image is【EQUALITY】.
The right image is【EQUITY】
in other words, fairness.
Understood?
There are many Japanese
who look at the right image and think that it was dealt with equality right?
Because they don’t understand the ideas behind it,
equality and equity are mixed together,
they force the impossible on the world.
It not an exaggerated story.
With thoughts and ideas, people are built,
streets are built,
and then societies are built.
War,
is nothing more than a product of a thought or idea.
In the left picture,
regardless of each child’s height,
they are given the same number of boxes.
In other words, it is【equality】.
In the right picture,
starting with whether each child can see the game,
they are all given an equal ability.
In other words, it is【equity (fairness)】.
Well, that’s just one example.
Don’t assume that simply understanding this means you know it all.
That, too, is dangerous.
In the first place,
there are contradictions that exist in these two pictures.
Eh?
「I have absolutely no idea what contradictions you’re referring to!」… you say…
*sigh*…
That’s why I said, “don’t just take everything you read at surface value!” right?
You see,
by right, if you want to watch a baseball game,
it’s better to watch it while sitting in a chair.
In other words,
these kids are watching it without paying for tickets.
If we’re going to add those people who paid for tickets into the equation,
and see that those who didn’t pay are able to get the same thing,
do you understand that it is an odd situation to talk about equality and equity?
That’s why,
essentially using just this picture
to explain【equality and equity】is not sufficient.
It’s not a case where these kids paid to watch the game
and were sitting in the seats
when they find that one of them can’t see the game because he’s too short.
If that was the case, they can adjust their respective chair heights to see better.
This would then be considered as 【equity (fairness)】.
Be it a concert, a baseball game, or a boxing match
the same can be applied right?
During the end of this month
I will be going to watch the fight between Pacquiao and Mayweather,
and the same can be applied to this match.
If you wanted to watch from the first row,
you will pay for higher priced tickets.
If sitting further away is fine for you, the prices of the tickets will decrease accordingly.
This is obvious right?
The tickets for the first row
has become Platinum Tickets.
They’re being sold at 10,000,000 yen.
If these seats were being distributed
even if you paid, 10,000,000 yen you might end up in the last row.It’s the kind of thing that will make you protest right?
If that happened no one will want to pay for it.
It’s basically putting the cart before the horse.If I were to add on to the right side photo of those two,
it can be considered as【equity】but,
I don’t think… it’s really【equity】.Well,
if I put it like this you can understand right?
Of course,
I think that for【equality and equity】
to understand their true meaning is difficult.
However,
it is important to think hard about things like this.
Like what’s【equality】?
And what’s【equity】?
Not that you should think about it in difficult terms,
think about it simply and build on it.
All of it is a simple connection of thoughts.
Alright,
it’s about time for things to get hectic so,
I’m going to put down the phone.
The airport is really crowded today.
It’s going to be troublesome.
Well, until next time.
Once more, try organising your thoughts in your head.
If you get stuck, contact me again.
Okay?
Think ha~rd about it.
GACKT
My thoughts can be read
on the GACKT Blomaga,
so those who want to read all of them, check it out.
*This is an extract from the GACKT Blomaga.
(Updates thrice a month)
http://ch.nicovideo.jp/channel/gackt
Source: GACKT Blog
Translation: GACKT ITALIA Team
© GACKT ITALIA