EUROPEUS

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe did it again while being questioned whether South Korean women were forced to become sex slaves during World War II saying, “There's no evidence to prove there was coercion.” Of course, the South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon said that the Japanese P.M.’s remarks were “not helpful” but the truth is that it is the Japanese people's turn to do something about this man and his government, remove them and send them to where they really belong: the trash of history.

I read it and I couldn’t believe it. So I read it repeatedly to realize what it was saying. A minister from Japan dared – that’s the mildest word I can come with – to say that women are “birth-giving machines”. If the man did that from naivety then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has a problem and the health minister Hakuo Yanagisawa must definitely step down from the government immediately, but if he meant it then Japan has serious problem. In my brief passage from that beautiful country I keep the most poetic memories. Mainly because the people I met there introduce me into Japanese culture and sensitivity and one thing for definite was their appreciation to the women.

I have personal issues with words like ‘patriotism’ not because I don’t believe that it is good to love your country but because the line between patriotism and blind chauvinism is very narrow and you never when you have crossed to the other side. I do appreciate my home country and whatever I do my roots will always be there and, wherever I go, part of this country will be in my luggage.