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Greetings for the New Year

15 Jan, 2009

Happy New Year, King of the Pond!

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Croc: Look, I'm not the one that devoured the aracari. That guy is only 1.2m long and 8 kilos in weight, but I am as long as 2m and weigh more than 25 kilos. People around here call me 'King of the Pond.' Wasn't born here but took the liberty of settling in this pond. I feel cozy here. Lots of food. That's why I'm getting fat around the middle these days, ha, ha, ha....


The year 2009 is the 80th anniversary of Japanese emigration to Amazon.
The memorial ceremony is slated to take place in Belem on September 18, and in Manaus on September 20. The actual commemoration day falls on some day in November, but these events have been brought forward because the 120th anniversary of Japanese emigration to Peru will be held about the same time, so the people involved will be able to participate both of these commemorative functions.

Also, this year marks the bicentennial anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth.
To me, the global financial crisis in last October appears to be the result of having been hung up too much on the evolutionistic view that our economy, and civilization in general, will ever evolve, although I'm not sure whether Darwin himself had advocated such a view per se in the first place.

The fauna and flora of the Amazon haven't changed basically since 1850s when Alfred R. Wallace was roving the tropical rainforest here. Well, the only difference is the human population increase: there were only 1500 people in Manaus back in those days, whereas the city of Manaus currently embraces a population 1.8 million!

Penned on Jan. 7, 2009

Shoji Hashimoto

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