Minor Rants

I don't have time to develop these themes into full scale rants, but I do have few things on my mind.

First, yesterday I was approached by the a couple of members of the student affairs committee. How I came to be chairman of this committee is in itself worthy of minor rant, but that is not what we are on about today. It seems that there have been a number of minor and not so minor thefts around the school--several (more than 8) students have had their wallets lifted from their bags and one student had a personal computer stolen. The modus operandi was remarkable similar.

The nefarious criminal waited until students had gone to the bathroom and left their bags unattended in the classroom--this despite posters hanging in each classroom clearly warning students that "IT IS IRRESPONSIBLE TO LEAVE VALUABLES UNATTENDED" . The diabolically clever criminal would then rush in grab the wallets, strip the cash and then pitch the wallet in the trash where it would later be found by the janitors. Somehow the criminal was able to avoid the crime preventing effects of the security posters fastened to walls.

School authorities were baffled. I was even unaware. Anyway, yesterday the student affairs committee members came to me and told me that two students had witnessed a girl taking wallets from two bags. The members wanted to know what the school should do.

My immediate response was, "Call the police!" My enthusiasm for involving the police can surely be seen as my ultimate maturity into a middle-class bourgeousie citizen.

The committee members said that this was impossible. The school doesn't want to involve the police. In fact, after hearing of the school's unwillingness to act, the two witnesses had gone to the local police box and filed a complaint. The police had immediately called up the school and asked if the school wanted them to come up and investigate. The school said, "NO!" and in a powerful demonstration of government authority bowing to the cooperative spirit of Japanese culture, the police complied. I think this goes a long way in explaining Japan's low crime rate.

Now, what is the school to do in this situation. I dreaded the answer to my next question, but felt that this might be where the conversation was heading. "Should someone from the student affairs committee talk to the suspect?" I was relieved to hear that this was also impossible. The suspect has rights, I was told and we the student affairs committee members have no authority to question her. Who has the authority to question suspects, I asked. Confused looks crossed the faces of the committee members. Why the police of course, they answered. "Call the police!" I insisted. Tired smiles, "No that is impossible."

What to do? Several possible solutions were proposed. We could hire security guards to stand in each class all day. The hallways and classrooms could be wired with security cameras. "The girls soccer team locker room too?" I asked. Instead of having offices, teachers could be assigned a classroom where they would spend all day -- like a homeroom teacher in high school. In the end, we decided to call a meeting and invoke the power of the full student affairs committee --kind of like when the Legion of Superheros calls a meeting and you get the big Marvel Comics Annual where Spiderman and Ironman team up to defeat Dr. Doom.

The crime preventing effects of meetings are well recognized in Japan, but personally I can't understand why. The people who most often attend meetings must be politicians and they are they biggest criminals in the country.

*******

On a less serious note... My walk home takes me past a vending machine that sells pornographic videos. The exixtence of the vending machine does not surprise me--a clever application of technology. Its location next to the all boys high school--simply recognizing the niche market. Now I myself would never buy pornographic videos from a vending machine (so close to where I work). But I always make sure I walk close enough by the machine that I can get a peak at what is on offer. What struck me is that every day the videos are different. Somebody out there is buying a huge number of these videos. Isn't that odd?