Thursday, July 1, 2021

Tokyo Olympic games is a large barrier to library access

    Yesterday the Tokyo metropolitan reported 714 new daily coronavirus cases. When the state of emergency since April was ended on June 20, Tokyo had 376 new cases. In about 10 days, it has grown about twice.

    I am living in the Tokyo suburb area, and I am a freelance journalist who covering science, technology, and social issues. Since 2011, the year of the Great East Japan Earthquakes, I have been well known as a journalist who has specialized in poverty issues. In addition, I started my doctoral study on social welfare policy making in Japan in 2014. Now I am writing the dissertation, and planning to finish it in this September.

    Also, I have disabilities. I use a wheelchair every time I will go out. When I get on buses or trains, drivers or station staffs help me. It means I have opportunities to contact other persons without enough social distances. In about these 5 years, station staffs have been reduced and support for persons with needs have been outsourced for security companies. But the workers from those companies are not employed and trained to work in stations and help people with disabilities. I should brace for discriminations and inadequate treat against me. Of course, I can raise my voice to change those situations, but no one is responsible for these situations. 

    At a station in Tokyo metropolitan area, an aged male worker of a security company worked for several years to support passengers in wheelchairs, but the person liked to touch female passenger's body. I think it was sexual harassment, but in the Japanese context, he will never be punished. I know some women in wheelchairs hated him and avoided to use the station. "Fortunately", many aged workers left their jobs because of Covid-19. Since 2020, I didn't see him.

    Anyway, the problem for me is the rising risk of infection. I don't agree to have Olympics in this summer, but Japanese government will never give up. I think I should avoid to be in Tokyo metropolitan area till this September, the Paralympic games will end up. I have 2 cats. I receive visits by care helpers twice a week. I should not infect to save my cats and the care helpers. 

    There is a large problem. To avoid being in metropolitan area means that I can't access the National Diet Library. I am attending the graduate school in Kyoto, and it is difficult to access the university library in the same reason. I should finish my assertion with resources that I can access. 

    Of course, my work as a journalist have been restricted by Covid-19 in the same reason. With minimum face-to-face coverage, with minimum use of transportation, with restricted resources, I have been continuing my job. I think I loved sports, but now I wonder my love for sports was real or not. Now for me, Tokyo Olympics are severe threat and large barriers. As a result, many Japanese who like to play or watch sports allowed to have Olympics in this summer amid Covid-19, and there is no measure to stop it.



 


    



Friday, May 17, 2013

Japanese public assistance is going to be killed

Today, The bill to amend The Public Assistance Act is sent to the lower house of the Diet. 

The bill may defeat the public assistance in Japan, because it will make difficult to apply for public assistance. If a person will apply, the welfare office will investigate the 
assets and the work of he/she and his/her relatives by the law. After that, the relatives will be required to maintain the person by the law too. And this bill contains many contents to make severely difficult to ask public assistance.

The bill will make many poors or domestic violence victims to commit suicide, to be killed by hunger (Japan have thousands of people who killed by hunger per year) or to be killed by disease without treatment.I wish the fact around The Public Assistance Act in Japan will be broadcasted in foreign media, especially the media in the US. Because establishments in Japan tend to afraid that if they can be favored or not by the people in the US.


Especially, to whom working for foreign media:

I'm a writer,. I don't have enough skill in writing English, but I can brief the facts, the problems, the contexts and the frame. 
Please feel free to contact me.
Yoshiko MiwaE-mail miwa(at-mark)miwachan.info

FYI:
One of my articles about the bill (In Japanese)
"The public assistance will be killed in real senseIncredible contents of the bill to amend The Public Assistance Act"
http://diamond.jp/articles/-/36055
x

Sunday, March 17, 2013

“Every child should attend good schools” About 30 years of trial and effort in a poor neighborhood in the City of Boston

At Mar.15 2013, I wrote an article in my running story "The truth of social aid(生活保護のリアル)"about Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative(DSNI) for "Diamond Online", one of very popular media among business persons in Japan.


貧困層の子どもたちを“悪い学校”に行かせない!
アメリカ・ボストン郊外で続く約30年間の試み 
http://diamond.jp/articles/-/33342

But the medium doesn't have English site, so I release the translation into English here. Thank you Mr. Jose M. Barros and his daughter that they helped me to make this translation.





“Every child should attend good schools”
About 30 years of trial and effort in a poor neighborhood in the City of Boston


Most of social security systems in Japan were constructed after the defeat in 1945, and they were based on the mission of Occupation. Of course, social aid system is one of them. 
We Japanese tend to learn things from other developed countries and how are the situation in these countries?
This time, I described efforts for children in poverty of a NPO in the City of Boston. The NPO has been contributed in established the local community for about 30 years.

A NPO which fought against the poverty problem in the society “Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative”


 On the afternoon of Feb.19, 2013, I was taking a bus ride from the center of Boston City to an  urban area. I wished to visit a NPO “Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (DSNI)”, which is well known as initiative against the poverty problem in the area. Before that, I had contacted DSNI to make appointment but I didn't receive an answer yet. I thought I should visit there and see the building and the area.

 I could read about DSNI, but I wouldn't have known how about the area and the building just by written materials. I went to a bus station “Dudley Square”, and I took another bus ride. The landscape from the window of the bus changed to more and more desert. I could see some real estate shops and food shops, but about half of these shops were not doing business. There buildings were also filled with graffiti. In the area, there were many houses with post-colonial taste. These houses would be considered  as luxurious houses in Japan, but some of them had “For Sale” signs or were deserted as so no one could live in it.

 I got off the bus at the destination, and I found the building of DSNI. I crossed the street and moved to the front door. I had just wished to go inside the building and get some written materials, and I introduced myself to a staff at the counter. I said, “I am a writer from Japan and I am interested in your activities.” So I got a courtesy to have an interview.

Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative(DSNI), the center of Dudley area's reconstruction for about 30 years.
 I interviewed Mr. Jose M. Barros. He came from the Republic of Cabo Verde as an immigrant in 1977 when he was 24 years old. He became a staff of DSNI in 1996 after working as a Public Relation Liaison for the Cape Verdean Consulate in Boston. As resident and member of DSNI, he is now working as a Community Organizer and Planner on education, civic engagement, parent organization and outreaching.


DSNI's web site. Their history, their activities and their vision are described.



What can we do for children and parents in poverty?


 At first, Mr. Barros emphasized that
“We (DSNI) don't provide services. We work with people who come with different needs. We plan and organize. Most of the time, we refer them to other community service organizations. Because of language issues, I tend to help parents by making a call translating letters for them. As I said, DSNI does not provide services”.   
In Japan, the relationship between supporters and people with needs tend to become “service provider” and “service recipient”. And we may consider DSNI's activities as none other than services. But DSNI seemed to be in another ground.

 What are DSNI's activities for children in poverty?
“We work with parents with children 0-5 years old and we help them access services for their children that usually they cannot get for their kids to be able to succeed before they go to school. We work with them and their children”. 
 What kind of children?
“We don’t discriminate. We work with all parents and their kids” 

 I wanted to know about the activities for children with disabilities, because I have disability. At that time, they didn't have children with disabilities, but Mr. Barros said that “If a child comes with disabilities, they will be served the same way”.

And Parents without problems don't visit DSNI. Many poor minority parents visit and need helps from DSNI.  What kind of the problems do they have?
“Parents often don't have enough English skills. So they have many difficulties in getting necessary information and making progress at administrative institutions. We bring resources and information to them that otherwise they cannot get”
 The children don’t get enough intellectual stimulation at their home.
“Normally, children in the rich neighborhood, when they get to 3rd grade they have about 6000 vocabularies versus our children with only a 1000.”
That is a very serious difference. It may not be only the number of vocabulary, but also it affects them in many aspects, like getting more knowledge, learning and using higher concepts.
“At 6th grade, the difference becomes larger. Children in the early age have abilities to absorb words like sponges and use them later”
 Especially for the children before school, it is important to make their parents more conscious and   to back up home environments for children.
“So we are working with the parents and making an effort to know what we can do to cooperate. We are working with the parents whose children are 0 to 5 to give them tools they need for the success of their children”.
But the parents don't have enough time.
“Parents in our communities often have 2 or 3 jobs, full time and part time. They are working on Saturday or Sunday. They don't have enough money. Some children stay at home without adult supervision and care. Many of the parents can't speak English as well, so they don't have a voice. I’m working with a single father who has 5 children, and they go to 3 different schools. The mother is still in Cape Verde. This type of separation does not benefit families.” 
 I don't know the school system in the US very well. I know a little about it because the Internet. In Japan, each area has only one elementary school /junior high school zone. But in the US, the situation is different from Japan. Boston has many different schools. There are many choices for parents. If there are many kids in a family, it is possible that parents will need to advocate, making sure their children go to the same school. And I think parents without skills in English can't negotiate.
“So we have an education committee. The committee works with parents and schools. We work to empower them before the system. In the US children with special needs have the same right to education. The committee brings that information to parents with special need children. We encourage them to visit their children's school and meet the teacher. Most of the time a parent with a special needs child needs to advocate to get those services.” 
Mr. Jose M. Barros, The Community Organizer and Planner of DSNI. He came from Republic of Cabo Verde and became a staff of DSNI in 1996 after working as a Public Relation Liaison for the Cape Verdean Consulate in Boston. He is also a resident of Dudley area. 


The efforts of DSNI in about 30 years to construct the local community


 I'd like to introduce DSNI. What kind of NPO is it?
 DSNI's mission is not only to help the children in poverty. DSNI was founded in 1984 to reconstruct the Dudley area, which is in most serious poverty among the Boston city. According to DSNI's web site, Dudley was a desolate neighborhood with arson at that time. After that, for about 30 years, DSNI has been making actions with patience to re-establish the area. Also DSNI has been constructed good relations with the government and other organizations and a strong financial bedrock.

 Now DSNI has 3 big agendas, “Sustainable and Economic Development”, ”Community Empowerment” and “Youth Opportunity and  Development”. The actions with parents and children are included in the last one.

 According to DSNI, the neighborhood is 37% African‐American, 29% Latino, 25% Cape Verdean, and 9% White and other.  The average annual income is $12,332. The poverty line in the US is $17,029, so it may not be an exaggeration to say that almost all of the Dudley area is in poverty. The jobless rate of the area is 13.6%. According to www.census.gov, of 2010 the population of the  Dudley area in 2007 was about 11,000. The year of these date are not clear in the site, and this poverty line is 1999's. These date may be on several years ago, but the situation in the Dudley area doesn't improved so much, I think.

Does DSNI give weight to the growth of children? Of course, it is important to educate the children well to solve poverty problems and to guarantee the children's rights. But moreover, I think the Dudley area has many children. According to DSNI, about 1/3 of the people in the area are under 19 years old. About half of all families in this area have children under 18 years old. This is double to the Boston city area. 
 Of course, we Japanese don't have reason to neglect our responsibility to grow up children, however our society is facing  to decline in the number of children.


The area nearby DSNI is a deserted residental zone. There are shops that they are not doing business and buildings with graffiti.

In a book "American Community" by Yasushi Watanabe, a cultural anthropologist, DSNI's history and their challenge until around 2005 are described. 


One of the big tasks, “That children will continue to have a dream”


 Statistics tell that the situation of the Dudley area is very tough. Under the situation, how can children dream their future and make efforts to make sure their dreams will come true?
“That is what we are trying to do”
I think it is difficult. It is very difficult for the children not only to dream something for just a moment, but to continue that dream for years and to continue to make efforts.
“Every kid wants to be someone but you’ve got to help them continue their dream. 
We have to tell them that they can do it a lot of times.”
 But it is not easy to continue their dream without role models. For children, the appearance is a very big problem.
“We have a lot of minority children in schools, but the teachers come from the white communities. We don't have a lot of teachers that are minorities that look like the children.”
I think the effect is not only that the children can't find the role model that looks like them, but they may tell the children how few their opportunities are to get higher education and future job.
“We tell children that 'you can do anything', but the curriculum of the school is made by someone who is not living in this area. They don't know the situation around the children in this area. Sometimes the children have single parent or don't have parents. Sometimes they do not have enough food. Sometimes they are living with many brothers and sisters in a room. All are different the from children of rich family”
The children may react sharply to the school and teachers because teachers only say proper words.
”We have to tell the kids: “Dream Big! Anything is possible; you can be whatever you want”. But also we hope that teachers can believe in them. A lot of teachers don't believe that. Actually, every kid is intellectual and has ability to succeed”
Sometimes teachers from the white community offend the children, and the teachers return to the white community.
“Some teachers look down on the kids and they offend them, but the teachers are protected by union.”


All schools must be good schools


 In 2012, DSNI founded a new charter school. Now the school is small and has only K1, K2 and 1st grade children. Boston Teacher Residency in collaboration with DSNI and is responsible for opening this school.  For this year, BTR has been preparing teachers for Boston Public Schools. Now they are using this new school as a “Teaching Academy” to train new teachers and help the new school. In the future, there is a plan to extend to 5th grade.
 If all of the children in poverty go to such a school, will the problem with education for children be solved? 
“No. We are going to make all school good schools. In Boston, many children of minorities unfortunately go to bad schools or to schools that are not performing well. For some children to attend a good school, the parents send them to schools in suburbs, which come with long bus ride and hours away from their family and their community. If all schools were good schools, every child would be going to their local school”
 To Mr. Barros, what is the equal opportunity in education?
“If I cannot put my child in a school because the school is bad, then I shouldn’t force your child to go there either. Now if it’s not good me, it’s not good for you. If your child goes to a good school, my child needs to go to a good school also. Doesn’t matter how much I make.”
There are many things to realize.
“We are putting pressure on the school. We are putting pressure on the city not to cut the budget. Or organizing parents to go and talk to the Mayor of the City or the City Councils. We have to organize parents and change the teachers’ mentality”.


Near the entrance of DSNI, many brochures about the basis of human lives like emergency call, English education or health education are distributed.
Inside of the building of DSNI., there is moss green themed  very calm and comfortable space.


 I think DSNI's challenges and efforts in the past have been achieved now. But yet, there are many problems to be solved. Especially, with the children in the infant stage now, if it is too late the problem will be solved in 3 or 5 years. 
 With the long-term vision, DSNI is working to solve urgent issues. I will take notice of DSNI in the future.








Tuesday, October 9, 2012

A Great Science Communicator Prof. Yamanaka, With or Without Novel Prize (ノーベル賞と無関係に偉大なサイエンスコミュニケータ、山中教授)

Yesterday, Prof. Shinya Yamanaka (Kyoto Univ.) won the Nobel Prize for work on iPS cells. As a Japanese, I'd like to celebrate Prof. Yamanaka.

And I'd like to notify about how he has been struggling to raise research fund. After  the Japanese government's budget screening process in 2009, it is too difficult to get research fund from government for top-lever researcher like Prof. Yamanaka. Of course, Prof Yamanaka can raise donations from companies. A research center named "CiRA", which now he is working for, has been raising and allocating donations from companies or individuals.

CiRA's page about funding
http://www.cira.kyoto-u.ac.jp/j/about/fund.html

From 2011, Prof Yamanaka has been acting as an advertising tower in a cloud funding system to protect jobs of research technicians. He runs in marathon events for civilians for advertising. This makes easy to understand for general public that scientific researches need many kind of people including research technicians, and it is too difficult to hold their life and career formation at government expense.

JustGiving Japan
http://justgiving.jp/c/7882

I'd like to admire Prof. Yamanaka as an excellent science communicator. 
Congratulations! 
I want to see in the future more actively science communication as a Nobel prize winner.




昨日、山中伸弥教授(京都大学)がiPS細胞に関する研究でノーベル賞を獲得されました。一人の日本人として、祝福を申し上げます。

さらに私は、山中教授がどのようにして研究費を獲得しているかについて知ってほしいと思います。2009年の「事業仕分け」以後、日本では、山中氏のようなトップレベルの研究者でも、国費(科研費)の利用が難しくなっています。もちろん、山中氏はさまざまな企業から寄付を得ることが必要な立場にあります。企業からの寄付は、山中氏の所属する研究所が集め、配分しています。

CiRA 「ご支援のお願い」
http://www.cira.kyoto-u.ac.jp/j/about/fund.html

昨年から、山中氏は自らクラウドファンディングを行い、テクニシャンの雇用を守っています。クラウドファンディングのPRのために、自ら市民マラソンに出走しています。このことにより、山中氏は、研究にはテクニシャンを含めた多様な人々が不可欠なこと、その人々の安定した生活とキャリア形成が国費では難しいことを、日本の一般の人々に訴えています。

JustGiving Japan
http://justgiving.jp/c/7882

私は、素晴らしいサイエンスコミュニケータとして、山中伸弥教授を讃えます。
山中先生、おめでとうございます。
今後、ノーベル賞受賞者として、さらに積極的にサイエンスコミュニケーションを展開されますことに、期待しています。