Blaine's travels

As Blaine finishes a 34-year career in newspaper journalism for the WashPost and NYT, I want to mark the occasion with a list of the countries stamped into his passports.

He was a foreign correspondent in Africa, Eastern Europe and Asia for the WashPost, made some trips for the NYT, and has taken a few vacations here and there.

So, the list:

USA (including stories from all 50 states and Guam)
Canada
UK
France
Italy
Portugal
Germany
Denmark
Ireland
Norway
Sweden
Switzerland
Austria
Poland
Hungary
Russia
Bulgaria
Romania
Czechoslovakia (before the split)
Yugoslavia (before the split)
Serbia
Croatia
Bosnia
Slovenia
Macedonia
Montenegro
Kosovo
Albania
Greece
Turkey
Iraq
Azerbajan
Ethiopia
Eritrea
Somalia
Kenya
Uganda
Rwanda
Tanzania
Burundi
Congo
Zambia
Sudan
Mozambique
Mauritius
Zimbabwe
Botswana
South Africa
Angola
Ghana
Liberia
Nigeria
Ivory Coast
Jamaica
Bahamas
Bermuda
Philippines
Indonesia
Singapore
Japan
North Korea
South Korea
China
Taiwan
Thailand
Australia
Burma

67 countries! Wow.

Trailing spouse: Philippines and Thailand edition

Blaine has 2 months left as the Post's Tokyo bureau chief but he can't slack off! He's been in the Philippines for 9 days and was scheduled to return tonight, but has now been sent on to Thailand to cover the govt unrest there.

Alas, we were looking forward to his return tonight and to family activities during the upcoming "Golden Week" holiday in Japan. Come home soon, Blaine!

Blaine's latest...

... is another great story about the Philippines at election time.

This country generates so many sad stories: it exports its workers (including many women to Tokyo as domestic "helpers," whose children stay in the Philippines) and fails to make progress on social improvements and infrastructure. Here's the top:

In Philippines, pre-vote largess doesn't translate into post-vote progress

By Blaine Harden
Tuesday, April 27, 2010

MANILA -- It's election season in the Philippines, and the short-term forecast is for manna from heaven.

For voters who live in Baseco, a slum built on garbage beside Manila Bay, it's hard to keep track of all the incoming goodies. Roads have been paved. Playgrounds have been built. A maternity clinic is under construction. One candidate bankrolled a beauty contest. Another sent in doctors bearing free antibiotics. Demolition of squatters' huts has been halted. Free food is expected on May 10, election day.

"It is like a fiesta," said Ray Campanera, senior councilor in the local government here. "Life is a little bit happier."

Yet for the residents of Baseco, as for the poor who account for a third of the 92 million people in the Philippines, pre-election good times are almost always followed by post-election betrayal.

Politicians who win election in this former U.S. colony have one of the worst records in Southeast Asia for stiffing the poor, coddling the rich and indulging themselves, according to a mountain of data and a chorus of economists....

Blaine's latest...

... is an excellent read from the Philippines about the corpse of Ferdinand Marcos!

Here's the top:
Late Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos makes cameo in busy campaign season

By Blaine Harden
Thursday, April 22, 2010

BATAC, PHILIPPINES -- The waxy-looking corpse of Ferdinand Marcos, dead almost 21 years and chilling in a refrigerated glass coffin here in his home town, has joined the Philippine political circus.

In the chaotic run-up to national elections May 10, about 85,000 candidates are clamoring after 17,000 positions, from town council member to president. Political violence has claimed at least 80 lives, including 57 in one incident. And families that have long called the shots in the Philippines are angling for advantage.

That's why the body of the former president is putting in a publicity-grabbing campaign cameo, with the careful contrivance of his widow, Imelda. The former first lady -- who became infamous for her many fancy shoes and whose first name became a synonym for greed -- is 80 and is once again running for political office, along with her son, her daughter and a sizable gaggle of lesser Marcos kin...

Blaine's latest...

... is a "Letter from Japan" about the men who use hammers to pound out the aluminum noses of shinkansen, the Japanese bullet trains. Lovely writing!

Headline: "A hammer -- yes, that low-tech tool -- helps mold noses of Japan's bullet trains"

Blaine's latest...

... is a front-page story about the US military's redeployment to Guam, a US territory - and how bringing 79,000 people (mainly Marines and their families) to the island could severely damage the environment and sewer and water systems.

Among the highlights:

"Many families have members serving in the armed forces; among the 50 states and four territories, this island regularly ranks first in recruiting success. Guam's killed-in-action rate is about four times as high as on the mainland...

Led by the Marines, American forces liberated the island in 1944, and people here say they still feel a debt to the United States. To repay it, they proudly call their island the "tip of the spear" for projecting U.S. military power in the Far East...

"We don't mind being the tip of spear, but we don't want to get the shaft," said Simon A. Sanchez II, chairman of Guam's commission on public utilities.

Blaine's latest...

are two stories about women and social pressures in Japan and South Korea.

This story looks at why Japanese women are so thin - and they are incredibly thin. While American women have gained weight - obesity has risen from 17 percent to 35 percent since 1980, Japanese women (other than those over age 70) have actually lost weight over the past 25 years.

If you go into most clothing stores here, even Banana Republic in expat-friendly Roppongi Hills, there aren't many items over a size 6 and size 0 is very common. (This, and the fact that almost everything is sized for shorter people, saves me heaps of time and money.) In the US, many women gain weight during pregnancy and never lose it, but several Japanese moms at Arno's or Lucinda's school have had babies and bounce back below 100 lbs within a few months.

But many women take thinness to scary levels; it's anecdotal, of course, but I've seen many more anorexic women here than I ever did in NYC.

Blaine's second story (which actually ran first) is about the difficulties of being a working mother in South Korea. One woman, a marketing executive with a 6-yr-old son, took out full-page newspaper advertisements to declare "I Am a Bad Woman" because she is sick of being criticized by her husband, son and mother-in-law for continuing to work.

The story includes this astonishing statistic: "South Korean law allows a full year of subsidized parental leave, but intense peer pressure at work means that working mothers usually take little time off, according to government surveys. Only about 35,000 parents in this country of 49 million people (my italics) took advantage of child-care leave subsidies last year."

It's fascinating to compare lifestyles in Japan and other countries we visit to the American way of life; every country has its own specific pathologies. In Japan, it's incredibly difficult for Japanese women to have full-time, high-powered jobs and also have children - in part because Japan's immigration laws don't allow them to hire lower-cost immigrants for childcare. (Expats with certain work visas can, by contrast, hire immigrants as nannies.) The Japanese also smoke much more than Americans do.

But it's impossible not to live here and not recognize that the U.S. has serious food issues. It's not just about obesity rates, but (I think) because the food industry creates and Americans accept a high-volume array of processed foods that have too much salt, sugar, fat and calories. In Japan, food is seasonal, served in much smaller but still filling portions and lacks the American corn-syrupy sweetness, even in chocolate. Arno recently took a small bite of a Milky Way that was leftover from Halloween, declared it was too sweet, didn't eat the rest.

Blaine's latest...

...is an incredibly sad story about a Korean man who took his wife and two daughters to North Korea and then abandoned them there. He lives in Seoul now, and as far as he knows, his wife and daughters are in a prison camp.

Headline: "A family and a conscience, destroyed by North Korea's cruelty"

And here's Blaine's video, also terribly sad:

Blaine's latest...

... is an analysis of the Toyota situation, on p. A1.

Blaine's latest...

... is an excellent story on the impact of global warming in Australia.

Headline: "A lingering pool of disbelief: Despite a decade of record drought, Australian farmers refuse to buy into climate change"

It's timed perfectly for the Copenhagen conference on climate change.

Don't forget to check out the amazing photo gallery that goes with it. One photo shows how eucalyptus tree trunks and roots have been exposed by the near-disappearance of Lake Hume in southern Australia.

Trailing spouse: Health edition

Blaine is in Seoul this week to report the last story in his yearlong examination of North Korea. It's a valuable time to be there because the Obama administration has sent its special envoy, Stephen Bosworth, to Pyongyang this week. (Here is Blaine's preview about that.)

Unfortunately, though, Arno has been sick since last Saturday with a very bad cold, low fever, congestion and general unhappiness. He skipped 4 days of school and only today - Day 6! - he felt well enough to trade his horizontal couch position for a trip to the grocery store to buy some Japanese candy that is packaged in small boxes. He actually doesn't care much about the candy but wants to use the boxes for "junk art," an obvious sign that his brain is working again.

So I've been tethered to the house for days and days! I can't wait for Arno to go back to school tomorrow, Friday, so I can get of here, go swimming, do some holiday shopping - or just hang out in Tokyo.

Trailing Spouse: Obama edition

Blaine has been quite busy in the past week covering President Obama's visits to Japan and, today, to South Korea.

Here are some of his stories, often with WashPost White House correspondent Anne Kornblut:

Hiroshima: The dreaded invitation
Obama declines offer to visit the bombed city on his first trip to East Asia

In Japan, Obama stresses Asia's role in U.S. economy

Obama, Japanese premier at odds over air station negotiations

Obama to discuss vexing N. Korean behavior with S. Korean leader

In Seoul, Obama will confront trade and security issues

Blaine's latest: North Koreans make weapons out of forks and spoons!

I'm slow to post this, but Blaine wrote an awesome story, "N. Korea Swiftly Expanding Its Special Forces" (published 10/9) about a massive increase in North Korea's Special Forces. In the event of a South Korean or US attack on the DPRK, these commandos would come over the border to wreak havoc in Seoul, potentially killing many thousands of people.

Fun facts to know and trade:

- North Korea now has an estimated 180,000 special forces commandos! The US, by contrast, has about 51,000 special forces worldwide (Army Rangers, Navy Seals, etc.)

- Among other routes, these deadly folks could fly over the border in low-flying World War II-era biplanes.

- Like villains in a 007 episode, North Korean special forces are skilled in "throwing knives, firing poisonous darts and running up steep hills wearing backpacks filled with 60 pounds of rocks and sand."

- They are also "drilled in street warfare, chemical attacks, night fighting, martial arts, car theft..."

- And finally, in what may be my all-time favorite fact from one of Blaine's stories: These DPRK commandos can "use spoons and forks as weapons." You don't read about that every day!

Mystery treats at the konbini

One of the games I play in Japan is "mystery treat": At the konbini (convenience store), I buy random things without knowing exactly what's in them. I search the label for English clues, decipher Japanese hiragana when I can (like finding the word oishi, which means "delicious"), look for color clues (among soy milk boxes, for example, I've learned that yellow is banana flavored, pink is strawberry, green is green tea), and buy it anyway.

Sometimes it works, like when I found green-tea flavored milk or honey-flavored milk with tapioca in it. Sometimes it doesn't, like when I bought ume (sour plums).

Tonight I found an unusual ice-cream treat at our local AM/PM konbini. The only English was "White Taiyaki," and because it was in the ice-cream freezer, it seemed logical to guess that it would be a fish-shaped ice-cream dessert.


This is what it looked like inside: a palm-sized fish, very lightweight. The outside layer was made of very thin, styrofoam-y, edible wafer material.


I've seen fish-shaped treats lately at the grocery store, which led me to believe there were greater cultural forces at work in the design. I was right... Wikipedia tells me that a taiyaki is taiyaki is a "fish-shaped cake" that is usually filled with azuki (red bean) paste. I think they must also be an expression of autumn, because the Japanese love seasonal variations in food. Here's the taiyaki from Wikipedia.


I'm not a huge fan of azuki because it can be thick and bland; today's other "mystery treat" was azuki-bean-flavored soy milk that I bought for Lucinda. Not a big hit. So I took a bite and...


Delightful! Inside the fish, there is vanilla ice cream and a thin layer of sweet red bean jam.


So delicious that after Blaine finished writing about the new Japanese prime minister, he rode his bike to the konbini to get one, too.

Blaine's latest...

...is about the sudden reversal of North Korea's leadership succession from Kim Jong Il to his youngest son, Kim Jong Un, because Jong-Il's health might be better. In early summer, N Koreans were being taught a song about Jong-Un, but no longer. Interesting stuff.

Blaine's latest... and Japan's big election

The Japanese rejected the Liberal Democratic Party after 54 yrs in power, and replaced it with the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ).

The new ruling party brings some needed fresh faces and more women into the government. And to encourage child-bearing, the party has promised to make childcare much more widely available and to send monthly $250 checks to families for each child. (Turns out that we're eligible because we're also paying high Japanese taxes, so we won't complain.)

But do Japanese voters really want change? And is dramatic change really possible in this stable - and some might say ossified - society? Stay tuned. Should be interesting.

North Korean computer attacks

About 10 days ago, the WaPo, NYT and AP wrote about cyber-attacks against US Govt and South Korean websites that are believed to come from North Korea.

One newspaper was also targeted - the Washington Post - which (who knows?) may have something to do with Blaine's stories about the DPRK this year.

Blaine's latest...

... is a terrific and sad front-page piece about North Korea's concentration camps. Truly horrifying places, where people survive on next to nothing until they are worked to death. And yet the US Govt, Hollywood and DPRK allies like China don't say or do anything about them.

The Post added a neat multi-media display with a map and details of five labor camps, and more precise details of one camp, Camp 15.

Here is the lede:

N. Korea's Hard-Labor Camps: On the Diplomatic Back Burner
By Blaine Harden
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, July 20, 2009

SEOUL -- Images and accounts of the North Korean gulag become sharper, more harrowing and more accessible with each passing year.

A distillation of testimony from survivors and former guards, newly published by the Korean Bar Association, details the daily lives of 200,000 political prisoners estimated to be in the camps: Eating a diet of mostly corn and salt, they lose their teeth, their gums turn black, their bones weaken and, as they age, they hunch over at the waist. Most work 12- to 15-hour days until they die of malnutrition-related illnesses, usually around the age of 50. Allowed just one set of clothes, they live and die in rags, without soap, socks, underclothes or sanitary napkins....

..."We have this system of slavery right under our nose," said An Myeong Chul, a camp guard who defected to South Korea. "Human rights groups can't stop it. South Korea can't stop it. The United States will have to take up this issue at the negotiating table."

Ancient history

I've been reading some of Blaine's old stories because we are thinking about writing a book together, and I stumbled on a story he wrote just 2 years ago about a family trip we took to San Diego. The headline was "Simple Pleasures for the Sippy-Cup Crowd."

It included this excellent photo of Arno, who was really, really, really into pirates (and donuts) at age 2 1/2. He has since become serially obsessed with Superman, Spiderman, Batman, Star Wars (Luke and then Anakin Skywalker), Transformers and, now, Ben 10.


I'd forgotten most of these details, and it was an excellent reminder of how far we and the children have come as a family. They're older and more interesting, we're older and more patient - and we're all better at managing adventures and travel uncertainties together without having to deal with naps and, for the most part, tantrums.

North Korean insurance scam

Blaine has a truly excellent story on the front page of Thursday's WashPost: about the North Korea goverment's insurance scam that brings hundreds of millions of dollars into the "hermit kingdom."