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PaperclipPerfector  5mo ago (text post)   1549 thread views

Transnational Thursday for June 13, 2024

Transnational Thursday is a thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or international relations history. Feel free as well to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.

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I considered putting this in the Culture War thread but decided it fit better here. US Saudi "petrodollar" pact ends after 50 years.

One of the reasons, if not the main reason, the US Dollar is the world's reserve currency is that OPEC agreed to index the value of oil in US Treasury bonds. That agreement is a big part of how the US has managed to ring up only modest national debt despite sizeable budget deficits, and has a been significant factor in maintaining "Pax-Americana". It seems to me that the State Department and the Senate both allowed the agreement to expire with little (if any) effort put into negotiating an extension or consideration for the implications.

To my lay-person's eyes this looks like it should be a big deal but it also seems to have been completely ignored by all the big name news sources outside NASDAQ and the WSJ. Are media moguls trying to bury the story or am i just being paranoid?

FYI, there does not seem to be an actual "pact" or "agreement" for 50 years of petrodollar. (If you look at your link, it's not an article by the actual "nasdaq" but by some affiliate "tipranks")

China for example has been buying oil denominated in RMB since last year, this "petrodollar going away" isn't a singular event that happens.

US will still be the most used currency in world trade by some margin, though its share of the total will gradually decrease... probably.

I mean, are there any indications that Saudi Arabia is actually going to start accepting other currencies?

It is the biggest possible nothingburger or the smallest possible real world impacting event. Nothing will change drastically, but it is a sign that the US ability to control the whole world is slipping further. The real world consequences will be meh.

It does seem interesting. What remains to be seen is to what extent the Saudis will actually start pricing or selling at least some oil in currencies other than USD, and whether the US will be less committed to defending the current Saudi regime.

and whether the US will be less committed to defending the current Saudi regime.

Presumably they would? My loose understanding is that the Saudis would likely start developing their own nuclear deterrent without the US defending them, and the US is pretty keen on avoiding nuclear proliferation.

I've seen a lot of hype over this being the Doom of America over the years but the present reaction has indeed been subdued. Is this not the thing the doomers were dooming about, or is it not doomy after all? Or is the doom yet to come?

It makes the doom possible but does nothing to bring the doom about in and of itself.

My (admittely amateur) impression is that this is not the thing the doomers were dooming about and the effects are likely to be pervasive and long term rather than immediate and flashy.

So, transnational Thursday stories- South Africa has a coalition between the DA and the ANC which re-elected Cyril ramaphosa as president. Hopefully the DA is able to tamp down on ANC corruption and incompetence, but I wouldn’t hold out hope, and the finer details of the coalition agreement haven’t been released yet.

The problem here is that the ANC have almost all of the power because they have a free choice of coalition partner - they can work with the DA or MK or EFF plus 3 seats from small left-wing parties. MK's ask is that Ramaphosa resigns, which makes that the deal the ANC least wants to do, but if the DA asks for too much the ANC can work with EFF+ instead.

For unclear reasons, the ANC has invited any party who wants to join the coalition even through they only need the DA's votes (knowing that EFF and MK would say no) and the cabinet is expected to include IFP (the right-wing Zulu party) and Patriotic Alliance (Faragism for Coloureds) ministers.

In Japan, after the long dark of tourist-free COVID and with a yen at its weakest in almost 40 years, the throngs of visitors have returned. With a vengeance.

Issues include: People dropping their garbage in various inappropriate places (including Mt. Fuji, which you now must pay to climb, as well as anywhere else since public garbage bins are not particularly common in Japan), overcrowding tourist spots or places near tourist spots (like parking lots), harassing geiko (geisha) by aggressively demanding photo ops, and generally poor form..

I read an article recently (written by a Japanese guy) that this is all Japan"s fault. <- This is in Japanese but a good summary is in this X thread.. Basically the argument is that when Japan began stressing the term omotenashi in its bid for the Olympics, a term which basically means "generous hospitality," the idea on planet earth suddenly became that Japanese are pushovers and you can come here, kick up your feet, and be served warm sake by subservient and obedient Japanese hosts, we are at. Your. Service. Thus people, armed with this knowledge, arrive in hordes to take advantage.

I think the above argument, while you have to give it kudos for being self-flagellating in the best Japanese sense (while also slightly condescending and arrogant--because do foreign visitors really look up and try to understand esoteric terms like omotenashi? I wouldn't think so.) is somewhat off the mark.

What it boils down to is Japanese manners and customs are simply less boisterous in most contexts than those of the visiting cultures. So people talking in normal voices on trains is somewhat nerve-wracking. People walking three or four abreast down a busy sidewalk is outrageous. And of course manhandling Kohana-chan on her way to the teahouse because damn this is an Instagram moment if ever there was one, is, yes, a bit gauche.

But it's pretty bad. Shinsaibashi is like Chinatown on steroids. You see lines 2 blocks long to get into Hermès and Rolex, though the Richard Mille shops still seem quiet and relatively unpopulated. I hear more Korean in some areas than Japanese.

Anyway so far it's just a matter of Japan being--inexplicably--unprepared for a large number of international travelers. Solutions have not been particularly inspired. In Kyoto they simply do not let tourists enter certain sidestreets in Gion.. I expect the bottom-line folks are loving it, but the regular Japanese in most areas do not. Kyoto is, for me, at least on the normal circuits I would traverse, no longer very pleasant. But then I'm a tetchy ass.

In Kyoto they simply do not let tourists enter certain sidestreets in Gion.

How do they tell a Korean expat living in Kyoto apart from a Japanese tourist from Sapporo? Or a Japanese-American tourist?

Anyone not there at the teahouse by teahouse invitation would constitute a tourist. Which is to say, foreigners or non-Japanese are not prohibited in principle qua being foreigners or non-Japanese, but if the purpose is to take photos and gawk, one would be considered a tourist. If one has a teahouse reservation, etc., of course entry would be permitted, regardless of nationality.

Japanese tourists don't count as tourists obviously, tourist just means gaijin. For the rest they get excluded. I doubt a Japanese-American could get past a real Japanese person, even at a glance(ignoring that racially pure Japanese-Americans are almost non-existent).

Any of the people you listed (Japanese, non-Japanese such as a Japanese American, etc.) would be welcomed in these areas if they had been invited or if hey had themselves made reservations at a teahouse. This would be relatively rare, I expect, because unless one speaks Japanese quite well the whole experience of sitting and being entertained by a geiko would be quite mystifying and wasted. Like a deaf person given a ticket to a symphony. It would be largely pointless. I know an American who used to frequent the tea houses and sit with the mamas--he was a filmmaker and photographer and for whatever reason they took to him. He spoke, as far as I knew, little Japanese, but somehow communicated and even came out with a few books of photography for the girls working at the time (upwards of 15 years ago now.) So someone like him, he would be allowed around. It's the clueless influencers who want to livestream their walk through geisha-land for their gazillion followers who are unwelcome. Or anyone just there "to look."

Why should they even try?

I will be visiting Japan for the first time next year to attend Expo 2025 in Osaka. I have previously attended Expo 2010 and Expo 2015. Expo 2010 was one of the largest gatherings of human beings in history. Expo 2025 might become quite crowded if Chinese tourists arrive in significant numbers.

Milan 2015 was good, so was Dubai despite the issues. It’s a shame the US doesn’t do world’s fairs anymore. The US rejoined the bureau of expositions in 2017 so maybe it will happen eventually. I really like them, if anyone reading this hasn’t visited one you should, it’s like Epcot but huge and more real (and more weird).

Curious what your background is.

In English typesetting they always used curly apostrophes. Keyboards only have one key for both single quotes and apostrophes, so straight apostrophes are more common for text on the web.

Word processors and now phones usually correct a straight apostrophe to a curly one.

I've never heard anyone say curly apostrophes are incorrect before. I've only had people get upset for not using ’ in websites.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6711892/right-single-apostrophe-vs-apostrophe

https://cmosshoptalk.com/2019/03/19/smart-apostrophes-cmos-6-117/

Welp. I stand corrected. My background is only ever using English on the internet. Where the straight apostrophe seemed to be the correct one. Now I find out the right-slanted apostrophe is the one typically used in professional publishing.

When I type in my phone's browser the apostrophes are slanted the same way as cimarafa's. Nothing to do about it.

Really? That`s very interesting.

I wonder if Asian tourists will populate the Expo. Probably some. I don't know how many. I think a lot of Chinese come over just to do shopping, and not necessarily much else. (I am making this up; I don't actually know.) Do you have tickets already? I think there will be many, many Japanese there, as it's certainly something heralded locally as a thing to go to.

Japanese tourists have high expectations, but everyone understands what those are and interactions tend to be smooth. The issue with non-Japanese is often not that they are barbaric (though some, of course, are) but it's like a game of Ice Hockey and suddenly a team shows up geared to play tennis, or rugby, or Calvinball. A lot of scrambling and confusion.

Anyway I live on the outside of Osaka, and I pass through the city regularly. Perhaps like ships we will pass in the night. Or afternoon.

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