#Economist states that #UK has lost eight years, while many eurozone countries back at 2005 levels; slide to continue tinyurl.com/74z7fkl—
Asad Yawar (@Mediolana) February 24, 2012

120m people in Europe are without access to safe clean #water + sanitation; Eastern Europe particularly affected tinyurl.com/859dete #Rio20—
Asad Yawar (@Mediolana) February 23, 2012

Yet we at Mediolana are, to utilise what seems to be a vaguely fashionable Americanism, conflicted, our excitement about the PS Vita overshadowed by the realisation that it represents something intensely sobering: if not the last great Japanese electronics device, then perhaps the last great pre-Fukushima manifestation of Tokyo-based ingenuity.

As regular readers of this blog will know from our 18th December 2011 post FC Barcelona in Post-Fukushima Tokyo: The Fallout Begins, we at Mediolana share the concerns of many, both in the international community and within Japan, that the response of the Japanese government to the catastrophe of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster has been largely inadequate, and that the problems surrounding the multiple meltdowns are far worse than most in officialdom can bear to countenance.

However, a recent article from the Japan Times has forced us to reevaluate our perspective. On 20th February 2012, it was reported that the Deutsche Schule Tokyo Yokohama, a 1904 establishment that serves as an educational hub for German speakers resident in Japan’s largest conurbation, has been forced to seek financial aid from Berlin because, in the wake of the nuclear crisis, enrolments at the institution have collapsed. Many of those whose families left the school did so on advice from the Deutsche Botschaft Tokyo: Germany’s Japanese embassy.

In the content of Sony’s monumental US$2bn losses for Q4 2011 – a shortfall that was mirrored by other Japanese companies, such as Sharp – the recognition by many Germans who remained in Japan after 3rd March 2011 that the attractions of the world’s third largest economy are fading fast post-Fukushima is an ominous sign for the medium-term future of what was for decades Asia’s paradigm nation. It is now even more imperative for the Japanese administration to act – with transparency and fortitude – to decontaminate Japan and guide it through to a post-nuclear future. Otherwise, the price that will be paid is clear: the history books will record 2011 as the year in which modern Japan – which is generally agreed to have its genesis in the 1868 Meiji Restoration - ceased to exist.

New #Routemaster debut delayed by one week owing to 'certification issues'; 27/02/2012 should see Route #38 get NB4L tinyurl.com/6t35z7o—
Asad Yawar (@Mediolana) February 20, 2012

66,000+ flee #Mali as #Tuareg military offensive intensifies; Tuaregs depart #Bamako, #ECOWAS 'deeply concerned' tinyurl.com/6qf3heb #AU—
Asad Yawar (@Mediolana) February 20, 2012

Recently however, our CSO did find himself wondering whether one of Dr. Nordström’s most brilliant notions – that of the United States of America not as a country, but as an idea – still has as much validity as it once did. In the excellent compilation Kjell in Concert, the Associate Professor at SSE’s Institute of International Business posits the idea (also featured in his work with Dr. Ridderstråle) that the USA is a virtually uniquely straightforward country into which to assimilate: within 3-5 years of ‘plugging in’, anyone can ‘become American’, with the Austria-born former Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger cited as an paradigm of this phenomenon. Nordström contrasts the United States with the ‘impossibility’ of ‘plugging in’ to European countries such as Finland, Poland and France, which are presumably (and perhaps correctly) perceived as less open and receptive to immigrants.

But while for much of modern history this dichotomy may have been essentially true, we at Mediolana have some qualifications of our own to the proposition that the United States is that much easier to ‘plug into’:

1. A Diverser Europe? In the past couple of decades, a European generation has grown up that is entirely used to the presence of people of foreign or even non-European origin, particularly those raised in large urban areas. For these people, multiculturalism is not so much good or bad; it just is, and monoculturalism, whether in cuisine, dress or language is simply unthinkable. This is not merely the case on the streets of London or Berlin, but even remote countries such as Finland: as of 2009, c.10% of Helsinki’s population has a mother tongue other than Finnish. When it is entirely normal for football players of African origin to represent non-colonial countries such as Switzerland and Norway, we can in at least some senses speak of a Europe in which diversity is intensifying.

2. A More Insular America? As Dr. Nordström has acknowledged elsewhere, the United States is not nearly as welcoming to at least some outsiders as it once might have been. 2000s creations such as the Department of Homeland Security and the Mexico – United States barrier evince a country which is actively seeking to become less diverse and which is no longer confident about the presence of people with certain (perhaps ill-defined) characteristics, despite the huge economic and cultural costs of such a disposition. In any country, when the political climate is pervaded by fear, militarism and uncertainty, those who are visibly and/or linguistically different from the perceived average are unlikely to feel at home, regardless of how well they have integrated into the mainstream.

#Tweets in #Arabic grew from 30,000/day in June 2010 to 2m+/day in October 2011; Farsi, Dutch, Turkish usage all rocket tinyurl.com/6nqt93w

— Asad Yawar (@Mediolana) February 17, 2012

One performance – a sublime ninety minutes sporting the red-black shirt of the soccer and cultural asset in the perhaps increasingly tenuous ownership of Silvio Berlusconi – was enough, apparently, to bury a decade of negative appraisals. Ibra, we are told, is now one of the best, if not the best, strikers in the world. The fact that clubs such as Ajax, Internazionale and FC Barcelona – as well as Milan – have all paid out a king’s ransom for Ibrahimović is no longer an anomaly, and his presence in a squad a guarantee that his club will win their domestic league is, we are assured, not the stuff of coincidence.

What next? What will be the next piece of nonsensical, incredible dogma to be vanquished, with Damascene conversions aplenty ensuing? Could it involve something from the world of economics? Or is that hoping for far too much?

Harold #Tillman says UK government should loosen #visa restrictions on #Chinese tourists to avoid 'losing billions' tinyurl.com/849j3a7—
Asad Yawar (@Mediolana) February 15, 2012

#Apple acknowledges human rights issues at #China factories, proposes audits; China Labour Watch 'unimpressed' tinyurl.com/7rmr3pd #MacBook—
Asad Yawar (@Mediolana) February 15, 2012