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Tag Archives: Japan


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Good News Tuesday for June 27, 2023: Iceland Suspends Annual Whale Hunt, Japan Redefines Rape and Raises Age of Consent, Company to Pay 10 Billion for Contaminating Water, and a Pregnant Bus Driver Saves 37 Students

Seeking Balance One Tuesday at a Time

Iceland Suspends Annual Whale Hunt

Iceland’s government has suspended this year’s whale hunting until 31. A “government-commissioned report concluded the hunt does not comply with Iceland’s Animal Welfare Act.”

“There is no humane way to kill a whale at sea, and so we urge the minister to make this a permanent ban,” said the Humane Society International’s executive director for Europe, Ruud Tombrock.

This article from The Guardian reports that Iceland’s whaling season runs from mid-June to mid-September, and “it is doubtful (the one remaining company) would head out to sea that late in the season.” Warning: The article opens with a photo that may be difficult to look at.

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Japan Broadens Definition of Rape and Raises Age of Consent

Japan recently passed laws to redefine rape from “forcible sexual intercourse” to “non-consensual sexual intercourse.” The new law raised the legal age of consent from 13 to 16, and the statute of limitations for reporting rape was increased from 10 to 15 years. It also specifies situations where a person may find it difficult to give consent. BBC has details.

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Company to Pay 10.3 Billion Over US Water Contamination

Chemical manufacturer 3M Co. will pay at least $10.3 billion to settle lawsuits over contamination of about 300 U.S. drinking water systems with potentially harmful PFAS “forever chemicals” used in nonstick and water-resistant products. The money will help with costs of filtering PFAS from systems where it’s been detected and testing others. AP has more.

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Pregnant Bus Driver Gets All Students off the Bus Before it Burns

Imunek Williams got all 37 students off her bus before it burned. Here’s the video:

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Good News Tuesday for April 27, 2021: Earth Restoring Conservation, Paying it Forward Hero Highlight, Sneakers on the Red Carpet, and Samurai Trash Collectors

Seeking Balance One Tuesday at a Time

This post turned out longer than I expected with the extra videos, but I hope you will at least watch the last one about the trash collectors.

Conservation Projects Working to Restore the Earth

CNN brings us nine conservation projects working to restore the earth. Click here for photos and project summaries.

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The Pay it Forward Effect and a Hero Highlight

I just found “The Pay it Forward Effect” on Facebook. They also have a website: The Pay it Forward Effect where you can read about the organization and the cards they send you to encourage others to pay it forward. Some of the stories on the FB page are the one where a mom pays for someone’s birthday cake every year on her deceased son’s birthday. the one where the retired math teacher helps a dad on the subway trying to relearn fractions to help his son with homework, and a story from seven months ago about teenager Justin Gavin who rescued a family from a burning car. (See below.)

I know Justin got more than a “special coin.” He got to be on the Drew Barrymore Show where he received a proclamation and some surprises. You watch that happen here:

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The Oscars: Women Making History

Chloe Zhao became the first woman of color to win the award for best director for Nomadland which also won best picture. Many other women won awards, but I had to mention Chloe Zhao, because I love that she wore sneakers on the red carpet and didn’t conform to the typical glam standards. You can read more here.

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Japan’s Trash Collecting Samurai

Street performers in Tokyo have fun picking up trash and entertaining, but they are also serious and caring young people. Learn more about this “new generation of samurai,” and their inspiring teacher, in this subtitled video.

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For the Dolphins of Japan

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way in which its animals are treated.”

(Mahatma Ghandi)

When I was in college, I wrote a research paper about dolphins. I learned that dolphins are more intelligent than dogs and cats, more intelligent than cows and pigs, maybe even more intelligent than the great apes.

I don’t eat any of these animals who feed their babies with milk from their bodies, like I fed my babies.

Dolphin culture is so different from ours. They don’t have hands so, they don’t build machines.  They don’t have technology.  Certainly not as we know it.

But they do have language and songs and love.

Young dolphins in Taiji, Japan are being captured and sold into slavery for “entertainment” after watching their family members being killed.

The Japanese fishermen say it is part of their culture to capture and kill the dolphins.

What about the culture of the dolphins?

It was once a shameful part of  American culture to capture and enslave people from Africa and other countries. We know that was horribly wrong. We know better now.

It is time for humanity to value kindness and life above profit. I pray through my anger that the people of Japan will stop this violence.

For more information:

The Intelligence of Dolphins:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kH68iL5SL3g

http://www.seashepherd.org/cove-guardians/what-you-can-do.html

Bottlenose_Dolphin_KSC04pd0178