3-1 We need to talk about Kim

ESG season3 has launched

We need to talk about Kim  [December 31st 2011]

Kanda 8th Jan 2012 10:00-12:00

Ogawa, Iino, Ono, Ido, Shimada, Sugawara and Mizutani

http://www.economist.com/printedition/2011-12-31

[Leaders] We need to talk about Kim.

[Leaders][Economics blogs] A less dismal debate

[International][Muslims and the Koran] In the beginning were the words

[Business][Ethnic Advertising] One message, or many?

*[Mercenaries] Mad Mike comes in from the cold

   Our season 3 session started from this week. In season 3, we change our debate style and start a new project called “ANSWER”. All of our discussion is held in English and we increase facilitators from 3 to all members. “ANSWER” project aims to make a response to the articles related to Japan. From the new year of 2012, we start a brand-new ESG.

   Ono chose the first article about Kim dynasty in North Korea. As you may know, Kim Jong Il was dead in December and his successor Kim Jong Um turned out to be the next leader of the country. We need to talk about Kim as the title says. Ono skipped making summary and we went into discussion directly. This topic is popular among us so it was a good decision. We already read the article beforehand so we don’t need summary actually. We discussed mainly about “how long does Kim’s dynasty seem to last?” and “what kind of action should we take to make North Korea more open and democratic? ” We also talked about the key person named Jang Song Teak, China’s diplomatic strategy and the power game between China and US.

   Next article Iino picked up was about blogging of economists. Blogs are blamed for cheapening debate in some field. Yet the article insists that they have enriched economics. He chose it because he is interested in how blog or SNS change the world and wanted to discuss how we should make the most use of them as producers or consumers of blog/social media. Interesting “Killer question” of the discussion was “Can you open your blog online with your real name?” Iino has his blog and he opens in his real name and the position in his company because he wants to be a person who can stand as an individual. But most of us feel nervous about opening blogs and stating opinions in real names. Why can US people open and we can’t? We agreed that economists in Japan should state their opinion on their blogs to enrich economics.

   Two articles picked up by Ogawa and Shimada was about people who are unfamiliar to us. “In the beginning were the words” shows us academic current situation of the Koran. “One message, or many?” is about ethnicity and business. Both articles tell us about the world we do not face with in our daily life. The Economist usually picks up topics from every region in the world so it is interesting to know how the people in other society in other culture live a life and make their living.

   Sugawara san chose the last article about mercenaries from the article in 2002. She is interested in military and security so she always picks up related to these issues. We could get to know insightful knowledge and facts from her presentation.

   We started to use Saint-Marc Café in Kanda from the end of the last year. It is comfortable because there are few people in Kanda on Sunday and this café has much space and large table on the 3rd floor. We are going to use this space for a while.