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“Sat Paul, Do you disagree with me?” Learning globally to act locally

Read in Japanese (日本語 )

by Akio Matsumura

The media coverage over the U.S. health care debate throughout the last month has been extraordinary.  Put aside your thoughts on the outcome—the coverage helped viewers become more familiar with U.S. politicians and the U.S. political process.  And many were left disappointed.  The deep rift that splits American politics invites bitterness and disappointment at all levels.
As I have had the pleasure of meeting with so many politicians, in and out of the U.S., in my thirty five years at the UN and other international organizations, I would like to share my perspective on the potential power of our elected leaders.   I think I can paint a more hopeful picture than the one we are witness to currently.

Politicians share a host of characteristics.  First, their sensitivity to and engagement of broad population groups is important.  It is why they are elected.  Second, they promote ideas and opinions with a success that other sectors struggle to match.  Their goals are threefold: to build consensus, foster action, and finally succeed with legislative implementation. Particularly impressive is their ability to transcend tough challenges—whether they are daily hurdles or national referendums.  Here, I find their dynamic spirit of sympathy to be invaluable.  Politicians can identify and sympathize with another person; bureaucrats find this very difficult.

My wife Maki and I had the great pleasure of welcoming so many political leaders to our small apartment in New York.  Through these visits and long-lasting friendships I have been fortunate to glean many insights from the political world.… Continue reading

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On the Eve of the Creation of Japan Parliamentarians’ Federation for Population (JPFP)





Dr. Osamu Kusumoto
Secretary General/Executive Director
Asian Population and Development Association (APDA)
Secretariat of Parliamentarians Federation for Population (JPFP)






On the Eve of the Creation of Japan Parliamentarians’ Federation for Population:
General Draper and parliamentarians’ activities on Population and Development
Background of Mr. Akio Matsumura’s article
Japan Parliamentarians’ Federation for Population (JPFP) was established as the world’s first non-partisan parliamentarians group on population and sustainable development in 1974 It is not well known that General Draper who was American Retired General of Army played a key role in creating the JPFP. Nor is it widely known that General Draper is a great benefactor of Japanese recovery from World war II.

William H. Draper was a famous banker before the war, and he was the key figure in the 180-degree shift of U.S. policy for Japan. As the Under Secretary of the Army, General Draper submitted the report to the U.S. Government in 1948 in favor of redirection of the Occupation policy by General Douglas MacArthur, which had been repressive and crippling Japan’s economic recovery.

In fact, General Draper’s plan laid the basis of economic growth of Japan after World War II. Some of his contributions include: his lobbying the U.S. Congress for foreign aid for Japan; his appointment of Joseph Morrell Dodge as an economic advisor to Japanese economic recovery; and fixing the exchange rate at 360 Japanese yen per of US dollar. Such General Draper’s plans helped Japan leap from a developing to a developed economy. Such contributions made by General Draper are not adequately recognized or appreciated by Japanese people.
… Continue reading
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Why Did McDonald’s Go the Moon? There Are No Financial Deposits in the Spiritual World

Read in Japanese.

By Akio Matsumura

In September of 1973 I was working down to the last moment to arrange the Japanese Parliamentary Study Mission to Asian Countries on Population and Development headed by former Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi. It was hosted by the International Planned Parenthood Federation in London and the UN Population Fund in New York. General Draper called me from Washington to tell me that Mr. McDonald would be joining the mission and would be arriving the following day in Tokyo from the U.S. I was to meet with him and explain the program for the trip. I didn’t know who Mr. McDonald was, so I asked a Japanese friend who he might be. He said, “Oh yes, a McDonald hamburger restaurant just opened at Ginza, so he might be the owner of the McDonald restaurant company.”

The next day we met and ate lunch at the Hilton Hotel in Akasaka. He was an older gentleman, with white hair, so I asked him at the beginning of lunch, “Mr. McDonald, when you were 31, like I am now, what did you dream of being?” He told me, “Akio when I was your age I was so interested in the universe, and spacecrafts. My dream was that one day man would go to the Moon. And Akio, when we first landed on the Moon in 1969, many of my company’s products went there.” His face was glowing with pride–he was telling me the story as a grandfather would to his grandson.… Continue reading

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From Akio: My Honeymoon Memory of the Israelis and Palestinians: Can a computer game for peace be profitable?

 

On December 27, 2007 the World Business Academy published my article, “Planting the Seeds of Peace.” In it I mentioned how I visited India after many years and met with many parliamentarians and business leaders, encouraging them to establish an unofficial network with their counterparts in Pakistan. Sadly, the date of December 27, 2007 also became the date of the assassination of Mrs. Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan. Exactly one year later, December 27, 2008, Israel began her assaults against Hamas, escalating the ground war. My aim is to steer you away from what we are all watching on television. I will put the conflict of the moment aside to tell you the story of my honeymoon memory of the Israelis and the Palestinians.

In Cairo on May 4, 1994, the Gaza-Jericho agreement (sometimes called the Cairo Agreement) was signed by Israel and Palestine. From this accord grew the Palestinian Authority and the relationship led to the Oslo Peace Process. During this time, October 1994, I was at my home with Ambassador Angier Biddle Duke and Mr. Bradford Morse, former Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). We judged that, in light of the positive climate, it was a good momentum to organize what would be the Jericho conference.

I sought the counsel of several old friends: Co-chair of the Global Forum, Rabbi Awaraham Soetendorp of the Netherlands; Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, Director of the Israel Institute of Talmudic Publications in Jerusalem; and the Israeli Minister of Culture, Mrs. Shulamit Aloni.… Continue reading

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Into the Invisible: Dr. Thor Heyerdahl and the Kon-Tiki Expedition

Often a scientist is comfortable within his or her academic field. They work where the grant money is and stay within its provided boundaries. Dr. Thor Heyerdahl could not stay so comfortable. A Norwegian anthropologist, archaeologist, geographer, ethnographer and zoologist, he did not confine his life studies to fit within the ordinary scope of work. Ancient civilizations traded and migrated across oceans, he believed, and so he added “explorer” to his job description in order to pursue his research.

The Kon-Tiki expedition in 1947 showed that it was possible on primitive materials to sail from Peru to Polynesia across the Pacific Ocean, a route that Dr. Heyerdahl believed was used for trade and migration between ancient South American and Polynesian civilizations. Most scientific evidence points out that these civilizations had little in common, and despite this rejection from the academic and scientific communities, Dr. Heyerdahl completed the expedition. The success inspired him to sail across the Atlantic on papyrus boats, Ra and Ra II, to prove that Egyptian mariners could have journeyed to the Americas.

On these expeditions and others around the Polynesian islands he noticed the polluted condition of the Pacific Ocean. Dr. Heyerdahl spoke to the Secretary-General of the United Nations and became a key player in developing a United Nations program on the environment.

His great imagination and confidence in his views inspired him to defy the commonly held scientific and academic beliefs and follow his own missions and explorations. He was willing to take a large risk that the expedition would not work successfully, and that his research would then fail.… Continue reading

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Social Time Bomb: migration in cities


The UN published a report (read summary here in the Guardian) that cities are growing and their inequalities are growing with them. Now over half of the human race lives in cities and that trend is not predicted to change. The cities are not growing equally, however, and become more fragmented and unjust with growth. The UN report finds that race is a crucial factor regarding equality in the US and Canada. Many US cities such as New York and Atlanta ranked as equally as high for inequity as did Nairobi. Racial inequality in cities stems from trickle-down theories and creates social tensions that lead to violence, political fractures, and over all destabilizes the society.

Most migration has been from rural areas to cities, thus creating mega cities such as Mexico City, Mumbai, Sao Paulo and Delhi. This migration has left rural areas weak without working-age men and little room for development, economically or communally. Flooding into the cities, migrants have created slums around the outside of the cities in an urban cone, such as El Alto adjacent to La Paz in Bolivia, or the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. These informal homes have shaken the economies and infrastructures of the cities that they surround. The governments can’t account for their activities nor govern them effectively. Poverty is the defining factor of these shanty-towns and from it stems a multitude of social problems. Cities are ruining themselves with their inequity and social divisions.

Paradoxically, as many cities have been facing the dilemmas of population growth, others are dealing with its converse.… Continue reading