今日、印象に残った言葉を英語で

Impressive Words Today

「ノーベル平和賞という「可能性の芸術」の選択において一つの見識を示すのが、北欧の人たちであるというのが興味深い。強大な軍事を持たない立場から、常に国際情勢を測る「ウサギの耳」を持つ人たち。政治が「可能性の芸術」であることを知り、平和を願うのは、強者ではなく弱者なのだろう。」

           （脳科学者・茂木健一郎さん・今朝のツィートより）

Japanese brain scientist Kenichiro Mogi tweeted today as follows:

"It is interesting that the members showing a good judgment in the selection of the Nobel Peace Prize as an art of possibility are the Scandinavians. They have big ears which consistently observe the international situation from the position without great military force. In this sense, I would say that those who wish for peace, understanding that politics is an art of possibility, are not the strong but the weak."

                         （英訳の責任は管理人にあります。更新する場合があります。）

出典   

オスロ国際平和研究所（ＰＲＩＯ）HP

Harpviken's 2014 Nobel Peace Prize shortlist

• Japanese people who conserve Article 9
• Edward Snowden
• Novaya Gazeta
• Denis Mukwege
• Malala Yousafzai

Japanese people who conserve Article 9

Institutions matter and constitutional principles matter, particularly when rooted in popular support. Article 9 of Japan’s constitution says that the state will abstain from ‘the right of belligerency’, and that it will ‘forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes.’ In Japan, a large part of the population sees this non-aggression commitment in its constitution, effective as of 1946, as the main cause the country has stayed out of war ever since. In a region characterized by deep tensions, there are concerns that, the reinterpretation of Article 9 in Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government earlier this year, is the precursor of armed confrontation. A group of citizens, including many Abe-supporters, have formed the “Japanese people who conserve Article 9”, seeing international recognition – such as the Nobel Peace Prize – as important in preserving what they see as the manifestation of a basic national value (there are also other groups working for the same cause). We may have come to think of wars between states as virtually extinct after the end of the Cold War, but events in Ukraine and simmering tensions in East Asia remind us they may reappear, and a return to a principle often hailed in earlier periods of the Peace Prize would be well timed.