ブリュッセルの政治動向分析

　　On Christmas Day, I went to the uppland nation (one of the student association buildings) with Rod, where christmas party was held for those who have no company. They served a variety of traditional swedish food for those who come there for free. What a nice kind party is it!
　　When I entered uppland nation, there was something strange atmosphere inside the building. The rooms inside there are full of immigrants or homeless people. I know it is quite rude to say like this, but I thought at first as if I were in wrong place.
　　According to Rod, this party started in early 1960s when radical left movement was overwelming over the world. Some student wanted to have Christmas party for anybody who is not fortuned to have his or her company. Since then, this party was organized by some volunteer people.
　　I know this kind of event is really kind and nice, but I still felt awkward because almost people came there with their family or friends.That means that if someone comes there completely alone, it just leads him to feel more loneliness.

　今日は一日、部屋に缶詰になって卒論を書いている。文字通り、一歩も外に出ずに。リビングルームにいっても誰もいない。今日はクリスマスイブだ。いつもと同じ風景。部屋の隅っこには、クリスマスツリーがポツンと置かれている。圧倒的な無音がすべてを包み込む。僕は、ホットコーヒーを持って、部屋の机へと戻る。
　ふと、ホットメールを開くと、「日経ビジネス」のメールマガジンが届いている。「ああ、また来てる」。めんどくさそうにメールをあけてみると、いつものお馴染みのラインが立ち並ぶ――「元気な職場を目指して」。「部下とのコミュニケーション術」。「聞き上手になるために」――。メインは経済なはずのに、いつも「コミュニケーション」についてのコラムがランキング上位につけている。不思議だ。
　ほんとうに日本のビジネスマンの多くが、こういう代わり映えのしないマニュアル作法を読みたがっているのだろうか。そうだとしたら、彼らにとっては、経済情勢の分析よりも、職場における人間関係の方が重要ということなのか。よくわからないが、たぶんそういうことなのだろう。ただ、僕にとっての確かなる事実は、そんなマニュアル指南を読んでも、さっぱりためにならない、ということだ。
　ため息が出てくる。はぁ。気を取り直して、パソコン画面を下へとスクロールしていく。すると、小田嶋隆の「ピース・オブ・ザ・警句」という文字が目に入る。おお。小田嶋さんじゃないか。ここにも連載持っていたのか。しかも、なんとまたナイスなタイトル。さっそく第一回目のコラムから嘗め回すようにして読む。久々の小田嶋節に触れて笑転。やっぱ日本語っていいなと思う。読んでいてジーンとする。
　と、そうじゃない。そうじゃないのだ。
　僕が今回わざわざ日本語で書いて伝えたかったことはこの小田嶋さんのコラムのことではない。その下のリンクに張られている、小田嶋隆（コラムニスト）さんと岡康道（クリエイティブディレクター）さんの対談「人生の諸問題～ウェブ時代のコミュニケーション作法（笑）～」のことである。一言で言うと、これはすごい。とてつもない破壊力を持った対談録である。これですよ、こういうことですよ。コミュニケーションというのは。人生どう生きるか。そのヒントが、ここにはある。具体的なエピソードを散りばめながら、ズバッと本質が抜き取られている。
　小田嶋隆氏と岡康道氏が高校時代からの友人というのが、それ自体がビッグニュース。まったく知らなかった。これを組んだ編集者は本当に良いところに目を付けたものだと思う。敬服。というのも、ここに出てくるような青春時代の生き生きとした場面をビビッドに引き出すのは、どんな卓抜なインタビュアーでも無理だ。その空気を一緒に吸った仲間がいなければ絶対に出てこないものだ。
　というか、岡さんってこんなにぶっ飛んだ人だったのかと、まずそこからびっくりだ。そう、あれは一年かそこら前のこと。うちの大学のメディアの授業に岡さんはゲストとして来ていた。僕はモグリで参加していた。岡さんが自分の作ったＣＭを流して解説していたのを覚えている。ただ、そのときの印象は「謙虚でカッコいい人だな」くらいのものだった。「変」という言葉はまったく浮かんでいなかった。まさかこんな人だったとは…。自分の人の見る目の無さにはいつも情けなくなる。
　親愛なる日本の友人たち、是非とも一読をお薦めします。

　　Getting up at 7am, I resumed writing letters to my family and my friends. Then at 11am, I met my friend, Rod, who comes from Britain and has been living in Sweden for over 30 years. His occupation is to translate Swedish into English. He is also interested in Japan and practicing Japanese at Stockholm university.
　
　　We talked about the book “Dogs and Demons (犬と鬼)” written by Alex Kerr, a devoted japanese lover who comes from American but grew up in Japan. He argues in this book that Japan is far from a developed country. He is critical about how politicians and bureaucrats misguided Japan since 1990s.
　　His anger is not only toward the construction business connected with politics which has ruined beautiful landscape, but also the old-fashioned education system which has deprived people of critical thinking.
　　Rod seemed to be surprised to read this book. He asked me to what extent his arguement in this book is true and valid. I told him that although it is true Japan has ruined many beautiful landscape and our politics are in confusion and education systems are far from working properly, I am not so sure about to what extent Japan is in danger when compared with other countries.
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　　Then, I went to “cosmos cafe” which is located in front of V-Dala nation building. At 13:30, I was supposed to meet my Swedish friend, Stefan, who used to live in Japan for 2 years and work as a music engineer and as a language teachter in charge of Swedish and English.
　　For almost two months, he has been my private Swedish teachter here in Uppsala. To my sad, however, he is going to leave here tomorrow and he will be back in Japan next week.
　　After entering the cafe at 13:15, I resumed preparing for a special card for him, putting my foto and decolations as nicely as possible. Finally I added one of my favorite poem by Terayama shuuji （寺山修司）――”If there is such a life that is filled with farewell, then I don’t need such a life. (さよならだけが人生ならば、人生なんかいりません)

　　Yesterday, Korean girl and German girl left out of this building at 7 am morning. Then Bosnian girl who has been living in Germany went back home. They seemed really sad. I imagined what it will be like when I go back to Japan.
　　Anyway, there is something peaceful atmospher in my corridor now. No noise, No sound. When I looked our christmas tree, it reminds my of the noisy days when my corridor mates were still living here. But I don’t dislike this kind of silence. I poured a cup of coffee for me and started reading the book ” Wind up Bird chronicle ( ねじまき鳥クロニクル）” by Murakami Haruki in a quiet common room.
　　At 13pm, I went out for city library and there I read that book for two hours, sitting in a comfortable armchair. I was surpried that reading this book in English gives me the almost same impression as reading original japanese version.
　　According to Sir,Uchida Taturu (内田樹), who is one of the most prominent phylosopher or critics in Japan now, Murakami’s work is unaffected by the damage which is inevitably accompanied by the translation from one language to another.
　　I completely agree with this idea. One main reason why I have the same imprssion despite reading in different languages is not just due to the well skilled translation but also to Murakami’s unique way of writing, which has in some way universality over the world.
　　”the adults in this world who are not pessimistic are a bunch of idiots”.
　　Then, I went to the athletic club in the center and swam for half an hour. Since it got cold here, I gave up doing jogging and started swimming instead. This is really good exercise for me. I concentrated on swimming for thirty minutes and then I took a steam sauna for fifteen minutes.
　　When I came back to my building, I continued reading that book again, until Thomas appeared in the common room. I started cooking korean style soap with rice. I boiled water in the pot and put sliced potato, carrot and leek into it, then I added some miso and Kimuchi paste.
　　This is one of my favorite food in this cold winter season. I shared this food with Thomas. Then we made chocolate cake. There is nothing better than eating hot chocolate cake while drinking beer.

　　On december 18th, I had last seminar in this year. We discussed about how to create the peaceful situations in post conflict countries, especially focusing on reconciliation within intrastate countries–Bosnia and Rwanda.
　　There is no way of constructing sustanable state without creating social (national) identity or social solidarity. In order to attain that goal, it is important to have mutual understanding through truthtelling between different ethnithities.
　　Although we had concreate discussion about this, I am not so sure about whether truthtelling is really working in post conflict area or not. I would rather think that it is quite difficult for people who were killing each other at that time to reach mutual understanding and it is only time to solve this problem, which always made us feel kind of hopeless.
　　Then, I went to the English department building where I was supposed to meet my swedish friend and practice our own languages–swedish and japanese. He had been living in Japan for two years. It is a bit difficult for him to speak fluent japanese but he could still understand some words and sentence including kanji.
　　He is not so tall and rather slim than muscle. I guess he is around thirty years old, having him with wallet by Armani. His appearance gives me the impression of dandy and gentleman. In fact, he is a kind of guy who never misss to care for others.
　　Still to me, he is filled with mysteries. He got married with japanese girl 5 years ago. He said, however, things between two doesn’t seem to go along well. He said that he wanted to think it over and let things go when he came back to japan. Things are not so easy as it seems.
　　As you may know it, Japan has one of the most strict rule when it comes to nationality. He can continue living in Japan as long as he is married with japanese. But if he once get divorced, there is no way for him to stay in japan except to get working visa or study visa. Of course, it is not so easy to get working visa, though.
　　By the way, we did practice swedish and japanese through the book ” Norwegian Wood” by Murakami Haruki. I am reading the just the part where Watanabe and Midori meet in a quiet restaurant near university. There are a lot of useful phrases in this book. I hope I could memorize all of words appeared in this book until June. In order to achieve that goal, I have to read at least two pages everyday.

　　I went to frisskolan to play floorball with my friends yesterday night. But there were just 6 people coming there. As a consequence, I had to continue moving without taking rest, which made me terribly exasted, it was really good exercise though.
　　I recently realized that people who are doing some kind of sports on a regular basis are not likely to be depressed. This is true. Exercise makes people relax. I would like to reccomend Japanese people who are constantly depressed to do some exercise, be it running or swimming.
　　Today, I run to my university so as to be on time for my course, “Development and Armed Conflict”. Despite my effort to be on time, however, the lecture was chanceled suddenly. I went to the library and prepared for the seminar tomorrow. I have to answer the following question “Describe and discuss trasional justice and reconcilliation–what are the potential benefits versus challenges they may pose for a postconflict development country?
　　To tell you the truth, I find myself that I don’t like this “peace and conflict” study so much. It is true that Uppsala university is the one of the famous one when it comes to “Peace and Conflict Study”. And I am quite amazed that people here are trying to be as empirical and theoritical as possible regarding this issue in which people are likely to be emotional.
　　Contrary to the study in this field in Japan where people tend to jump into the conclusion about what we should do to make peace, they stick to observe what are the common factors among conflict countries and extract the tendencies and patterns. It is understandable that they call themsemves “Political scientist”. (In japan there is no proper word for “political science”＝政治科学（？）)
　　Still, I don’t like this subject. This is not that I don’t want to think about peace, but that I think these theories are not so useful to explain the reality. Of course it is important to theorize, but I am not the suitable man to do that.
　　Probably, that ‘s why I chose to study about “history of diplomacy” in my professor hosoya. I want to focus on the persons who are involved in the center of decition-making rather than the structure or something like that. Maybe I am far from the so-called “scientist”.

　　There was Christmas party in my corridor yesterday. Most of my corridor mates are going back to their home during winter vacation, some of whom never come back again here in Sweden. So it was virtually final party with our Ekeby members yesterday.

　　We put a lot of ornaments on our Christmas tree and decorated our room in a nice way. Then each of us has cooked some food or desserts. I made a cheese cake which my Japanese friend taught me how to make. This cheese cake was so delicious that everyone wanted to have another pieces.

　　After eating dinner, we had a present exchange game. As I have written before, we have been doing Christmas present game since November. Each of us has duty to give present every week to his or her secret partner whom only you are supposed to know. So each person had to guess who your partner was when he or she got the present.

　　This was really awesome Christmas game I had ever had. Each presents we got had their own unique taste and sense of humor. The uniquest present was the one that French girl made for Bosnian girl. She made a calender for 2009 which was filled with a lot of pictures in this Uppsala life.

　　Moreover, although there is nohing to do with Christmas presents, a girl who is from Lithuania voluntarily made a SlideShow(PowerPoint) with nice music, which was full of our memorial pictures. She must have put a lot of effort and time in it. It was so great that everyone almost burst into crying.

　　I was really impressed and a bit jealous with their talent. I thought from the bottom of my heart that I was really happy to meet them and the fact that they are leaving this Ekeby makes me all the more sad.

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　　Come to think of it, Lithuanian girl gave me a chocolate present and a special card. In that card, there is a speech by Winston Churchill. ” We make a living by what we get. But we make a life by what we give”.

　　Today was the day of Rusia ceremony. Although I don’t know well what the Rusia is about, this december 13th is the day when the darkness is the longest of the year. At this day, the center was filled with people and a lot of ceremonies were taken place here and there.

　　I have seen the choir girls dressed in traditional white robe with yellow crown in their head and candel in their hand. They were walking around the city and singing sacred songs. The girls had almost all long and blond. I heard from my swedish friend that the girls are a kind of representive chosen among many. In fact, they are good at singing songs and I like to see them sing “santa rusia”.

　　Then I went to the forest with my friends Hanns and Thomas. The purpose of it was to get a christmas tree for our corridor. I have never expected to cut wild tree for christmas. Although I know it is illegal to cut wild tree in the forest, there was no choice for us but to do it. We made excuse ourselves that this would be a good memory for us in the future.

　　Looking for good trees on the Hanns’ car, I could see some other people trying to cut tree and bring it back. There are a lot of good trees which are suitable for Christmas here in Sweden. Finally we got a 100 percent perfet tree shaped like Christmas one. This tree would be decorated in a nice way tomorrow and we are going to put our presents in front of it.

　To my surprise, I woke up at 11:30 this morning.
　This was the first time for me to get up this late after coming here in Sweden, although I did drink just a few of vocka with my friends. For breakfast, I ate corn freak with milk and some bread. Then I went to center of the city in order to buy christmas presents for my secret friend.
　In my corridor, we are doing Christmas present game. We have made it a rule since last month that each of us give tiny and cute present to your secret friend every week until December 14th, the day for our Christmas party. We are not supposed to tell who your secret friend is and we have to give present to them in a way so as not to let them notice who you are.
　Looking around five shops in the center, I printed out my picetures and I bought some funny cards and seals and foto-note(mujirushi無印). I am going to make some unique foto-note which is focusing on that person I give it to.
　Does it seem funny? People (especially girls) in my corridor are quite good at making tiny presents funny and better. Some people put so much effort into decorating rquite unique cards and some make favorite music songs into CD.
　Not only that. when we have party at our corridor, they try to do the best――making a concept of the party such as “red and black” which makes all participants dress in red and black. Elaborating a good poster for the party. Decorating our room in red and black.
　I am surprised the way they put their intelligence into that kind of things. This is a sort of ability we japanese students(people) are not likely to have. We usually have party at restaurant (izakaya) when we have special celemony. All we have to do is to look for a good place suited with the size and taste of the party.
　Of course we have many good party places in Japan. Tokyo is the one of the most exciting cities in the world. You can find all kinds of well-made things there. Good restaurant, exciting club, comfortable manga cafe, nice karaoke, amusement complex, disney land. However, I have to say that there are somethiing completely lacking in it.
　What we japanese need now is not already-well-made stuffs but the will to make something by ourselves. In that sense, it is quite good experince for students to live in a environment where you can find nothing exciting amusement place.

　　The standard of writing in my blog has been “focusing on what I really want to tell my readers”. I was careful not to write something like iary. I could write something like diary in my diary. I thought this blog is good opportunities to communicate with a lot of people.
　　It is not clear so far if my aim has been achieved or not. I surely wrote some of them just for my friends and my family. In any case, it is clear that I was trying to write this blog in a way or another, hoping that someone would find something useful, which eventually makes me happy.
　　From now on, however I would like to use this blog just like my own diary. One of the main reasons is that I feel my English really arkward after using Japanese for writing this blog. I don’t know whether it is ture or not, but I surely feel depressed at the fact that concentrating on writing Japanese makes it difficult for me to keep up my English in a good way.
　　My favorite book about English practice is ”英語ひとすじの道～practice makes perfect”, written by tougo katuaki(東後勝明） who was in charge of NHK Radio English teacher. Although I read this book two months ago, I really realized from the bottom of my heart how I disregard the importance of practice.
　　His message is clear: You have to put yourself in a situation where you are supposed to use only English and think only in English. He emphasize that thinking not in Japanese but in English is a important point to keep in mind. Even if you are in a English-speaking country, it would be no advance if you use Japanese a lot. In order to improve English, I always have to use English and think in English.
　　I know there are a lot of things that I would like to show you. But I have to put priority on English practice. I am sometimes frightened to find that I have no improvement in my English when I arrive in Japan next year. Although it is embarrassing to write this blog in my poor English, I have no choice but to do.
　　I am going to write this blog for me (and few people).

　「あ、そうだ」。
　思い出したようにテレビのチャンネルを回してみると、ちょうどノーベル賞の晩餐会が中継されていた。赤レンガの古めかしい雰囲気の空間のなかで、人々はディナーを楽しみ、ダンスを踊っている。歴代のノーベル賞受賞者の映像を交えたり（ミルトン・フリードマンが受賞したときの混乱ぶりなど）、受賞者らしき人たちが現れて簡単なコメントを述べたりしている。日本人の受賞者の姿は残念ながら見えていないようだ。
　スウェーデンといえば、まず思いつくのがこのノーベル賞。12月10日に晩餐会が行われるストックホルム市庁舎は、テレビで見た人もいるかもしれない。この市庁舎を１０月に訪れたときのことをよく覚えている。「スウェーデン・ポリティックス」という授業で、カリナ女史に連れられて、スウェーデンの国会議事堂を見学し、レストランで料理を食べたあとのこと。その他の学生はみんな忙しいようで、最後の市庁舎の見学ツアーに残っていたのは、カリナ女史と僕の二人だけだった。
　　　　　　　　
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　ストックホルム中央駅から歩いて５分、メーラン湖とバルト海が重なり合うその場所に、市庁舎は聳え立っている。青と黄色の国旗を揺らめかせ、空へと向かって伸びる赤ずんだ建物。小奇麗な都会の真っ只中にあって、その存在はどこか毅然とし歴史を感じさせる。この市庁舎が、たったの８０年しか年季が入っていないとは、そのときゆめにも思わなかった。
　当時の設計士は、市庁舎を実際よりも「古く」見せようとした。レンガに赤と黒の塗装を施し、歴史を帯びさせ、他にはないような芸術溢れるものにしたかった。妥協を許さない人間として知られた彼は、完成までには右へ左へ、多くの歳月をようしたという（ってガイドの人が言ってた）。
　ノーベル賞晩餐会のディナー会場となるのは、いわゆる「青の間」。二階から幅の広い階段が半円を描くように優雅に降り立ち、一階には銀色のタイルが広がる。晩餐会では、１２００人近くのノーベル賞関係者がここで一斉に食事をするため、ほとんど歩く場所がなくなるという。
　「青の間」の壁には、外観と同じく赤茶色のレンガが塗り込まれている。これら壁の一つひとつには異なる模様が施されており、くぼみが見てとれる。ドレスを着た貴婦人が、階段を歩いて舞台に向かうとき下を向かずに済むように、ということらしい。ただ、「青の間」の肝心の青色がどこにもない。この設計士をしても、「水の都・ストックホルム」にはどうしてもできなかったらしい。
　「青の間」の先に進むと、明るい朱色に染まった荘厳な空間が現れる。王様の部屋かと思えば、そこは市の議会であった。中央の議長席には、天井から細やかなカーテンが舞い降り、左右の線対称を際立たせる。現在もここで議会が開かれているというから不思議だ。市議員は集中して議論ができるのだろうか。東京の都庁でこんなファンシーな部屋を使ったら、すぐに苦情が来るだろう。
　
　　　　　　
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　もともとノーベル賞晩餐会はここで行われていなかった。市庁舎が完成したのち、紆余曲折を経てここへやってきた。しかし、年々ノーベル賞の歴代関係者が膨らんでゆき、この市庁舎には人が入りきらなくなっている。いま、晩餐会の会場を別の場所に移すかどうか議論されているという。　

　バルト三国の一つ、ラトビア。
　首都リガの港に降り立ったとき、あることに気が付いてぞっとした。頭のどこを探しまわしてみても、ラトビアについての知識がこれっぽっちもないのである。人口がどのくらいなのか、「ありがとう」をラトビア語でなんと言うのか（そもそもラトビア語ってあるのか）。どこへ行こうにも、何を見るべきなのか全くわからない。その意味で、僕にとってのラトビアはまったくの異国の地であった。
　港を出て、ぼんやりした郊外を歩く。
　道に沿って、赤茶色のレンガの建物が続いている。注意して見てみると、どの建物も少し煙がかったように古めかしく、ところどころ柱が欠けている。レンガの連なりの前には、行き場を失った車がぎっしりと詰まっている。どこかで見たような風景で、どこか違和感を感じさせる風景。小奇麗な車の数々と古びた低い建物。ふと遠くを見渡してみると、大きなビルがぽつんと二つ、突然変異で出てきたかのように聳え立つ。西ヨーロッパとは少し異なる、奇妙な無秩序が漂っている。
　町の中心部に近づくと、少し景色が変わる。
　古びた丸っこいドーム型の教会の周りには、これまでの古びた赤レンガとは異なり、比較的に新しいクリーム色の建物が多く見える。のっぺらしたデザインの壁に、ぽつりぽつりと小さい窓が重なるようにして編まれている。中世のハンザ同盟のときからの名残のせいだろうか。あるいは、ヒトラーの支配による影響だろうか。どこかしら、ドイツの建築物に似ているような気がする。
　さらに奥に歩いていくと、白色を基調として、ドームの先端を黒色と金色でコーディネートしたこじんまりとした教会が見えてくる。教会といっても、その形はどこかお城のようでもある。明らかに西ヨーロッパのものとは異なる、ロシア正教会のものだろう。
　ロシア正教と聞いてまず思いつくものが、偶像崇拝。この教会も入ってみてすぐ気づくことに、とにかく、イコンが多い。女神を象った偶像、カーテン、そして絵。あらゆる壁という壁に、ランク分けされた人の顔がぎっしりと詰まっている。それらイコンは、どれものっぺりとしている。ドイツ人の友人いわく、「当時は金が塗りこめられていたのだが、ほとんどは盗まれてしまった」のだという。
　教会の聖壇にはカーテンが敷かれており、人が入れないようになっている。しかも、教会にあるべきはずの、聖書を読むためのイスがない。神の前では、座ってはいけないというのだろうか。さすが「正教」というだけあって、厳格さがにじみ出ている。
　　　　
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　ロシア的であり、大陸ヨーロッパでもあり、北欧っぽくもある、いろんなものが混じり混ざった、ラトビア。多文化主義（マルチカルチュラリズム）という言葉があるが、ラトビアが抱えるものはそのように主体的に選び取ったものではない。むしろ、歴史の大きな流れのなかで強制的に埋め込まれたものである。振り子が振れたときにそれに従うしかない。そんな風にして右へ左へ傷あとを残しながら生きてきたのがこの国なのではないか、と感じた。
　今度は、ちゃんと時間を取り、下調べをして訪れたいところだ。