The old colonial architecture (I wrote about it here) is one of Yangon’s greatest assets. Everywhere in the downtown area you are surrounded by the crumbling jewels from the old days, setting you off on a trip back in time. Alas, there does not seem to be a decent effort out there at making an appealing visual document of this amazing heritage.
Category Archives: Economics
Japan’s Growth Model
Taking on a topic as big as Japan’s post-war economic miracle for my book project requires a good structure and solid preparation. I have used this blog before to digress on economic topics (e.g. here and here) but have so far shunned the main prize: how did Japan manage to pull off one of the most remarkable episodes of economic growth in human history?
Supporting friends
I just backed two of my friends in their respective crowd funding endeavours.
Christoph and I lived together during university. A few years ago, he and his friend and fellow ex-SOAS student Guy, embarked on quite a special journey.
They founded Planetary Collective, a multidisciplinary and multimedia initiative set to nurture a sense of interconnectedness amongst us: amid a growing ecological and ideological crisis, a new worldview is necessary.
Part of their inspiration draws from the experience astronauts recount from seeing earth from space.
Their milestones on this journey have been nothing short of impressive. Their short documentary about the Overview Effect has already garnered more than 1m views on Vimeo:
Now they are proceeding with their feature-length piece, set to be released in early 2014. Continuum will present the views of a whole list of thought leaders from the field of science and philosophy. Planetary now need $80k+ to finalise post production as well as shoot additional interviews.
Their fantastic Kickstarter image film has plenty of Tokyo footage – Christoph and Guy stayed with a mutual friend while here in Japan last year, before my arrival:
My friend Brett has a somewhat smaller yet no less ambitious project: exploring the themes of his forthcoming book in more detail and with great interactivity, Brett wants to start a London-based School of Financial Activism.
Brett and I studied at Cambridge together and he has been living the “dream” of a freelance consultant, writer and activist for a good part of the last couple of years.
What I like in Brett’s work is that he has travailed the serious realm of high finance for a few years and thus understands the jargon and, what is more perhaps, has less of a refusenik style than many anti-establishment writers.
I think a major reason I have been relatively at ease with my recent “career step” (i.e. quit my day job and plunge into the unknown of a break as yet undefined in length) has been the experience of friends like Christoph and Brett.
For their inspiration I want to thank them. To their worthy projects I gladly give!
World Bank / IMF meetings 1964
The second week of September 1964 saw more than 2,000 delegates from 103 countries come to Tokyo’s Hotel Okura to attend the first World Bank / IMF meetings ever held in East Asia. Back then, Japan was still a recipient of Bank loans and technical cooperation but was soon – and somewhat reluctantly – going to graduate from the ranks of recipient countries.
A pin commemorating the meetings (from World Bank archive)
Filming the buildings
A friend came and visited us here so posting has been a little sporadic as of late. We did a lot of sightseeing and filmed a few of the buildings I aim to showcase in the book project I’ve introduced on the blog before. I put some jazz music in for the mix (a Jimmy Giuffre song from 1958).
Factcheck update: Kasumigaseki Biru is 147m high and buildings were allowed a maximum height of 31m before 1963, when the Building Standard Law got a revision.
Economic Miracle from Ben Bansal on Vimeo.
The Three Sacred Objects
Killing time before the Sumo tournament in next door’s Ryōgoku Kokugikan kicks off is best done in the Edo Museum. a monumental building designed by Kikutake in the early nineties. Apart from the beautiful and plentiful models of old Edo inside, I found the 20th century section especially interesting. Here, Japan’s post-war economic miracle is brought to life with three exhibits that were “sacred” in the 1950s: a TV, washing machine and refrigerator.
Finding miracles – Norman Macrae
The Economist’s anonymity policy makes it somewhat difficult for individual journalists to rise to fame. It’s thus not surprising that the death of Norman Macrae in 2010 did not create more widespread coverage given that he spent his entire career with the weekly paper. With Macrae, though, the world lost one of its most formidable journalists that had a very special connection to Japan.
Fancy flying to Tokyo on Alitalia? Ad in Economist 1962
Japan back then and China now
To my surprise I have found myself following a rather economics-heavy debate on overinvestment in China recently. I’m interested because of my forthcoming e-book project. One of the chapters will be on Japan’s economic miracle. Apart from pondering investment to GDP ratios I was wondering: can we compare today’s China with post-war Japan?
House in Hangzhou, China