Person of the Year

Below is my comment on the article of "Person of the Year", TIME
issued on December 25, 2006 - January 1, 20007.

So delightful is your selection of “you”, me and other millions of people as Person of the Year. It is the only hope in our world’s chaotic conflict between the Arab and America, the haves and have-nots, and the global warming and the greed of high economic growth that a huge number of nameless individuals emerged distinctively this year as the main player through “YouTube”, “Myspace” and other Web 2.0 tools on the web because the collective power of people could be stronger to lead our planet in the better direction in the future, even though they only pursue their own goals at the beginning.

I am one of those nameless people, who actively started expressing the opinions in the blog, the Japanese popular social networking service “Mixi” and your “Letters” corner.

Russia's Bitter Chill

Below is my comment on the article of "Russia's Bitter Chill", TIME
issued on December 4, 2006.

Your report on Russia shows us the surprising paradox that the stronger the Russian economy becomes, the less freedom of speech people over there can get. Namely, the life of many dissidents criticizing Putin regime has been threatened seriously in and out of Russia without any strong support from the West because Europe is now dependent on Russian energy to a certain degree.

It is still unknown whether the death of Litvinenko relates to Kremlin although Scotland Yard is trying very hard to investigate the case. I do hope the England authority keeps uncompromising stance on Russia as the leading country of democracy and free speech. If Litvineko’s case ends up with no true criminal, democracy will be at risk and the awful sort of espionage will more flourish all over the world.