Japan killjoys wage war on Valentine’s ‘conspiracy’…Read full details

A group of Japanese protesters stage an anti-Valentine's Day demonstration march in Tokyo on February 12, 2017. As Japan prepares to celebrate Valentine's Day, a curmudgeonly group of protesters have called for an end to public displays of love, claiming it hurts their feelings.<br />KAZUHIRO NOGI / AFP

As Japan prepares to celebrate Valentine’s Day, a cranky group of marxist protesters have called for an end to public displays of love, claiming it hurts their feelings.

Members of ‘Kakuhido’, or the Revolutionary Alliance of Men that Women find Unattractive, unfurled a giant “Smash Valentine’s Day” banner as the party-poopers set off to try and overthrow the annual celebration of romance.

The grumpy comrades elicited curious looks from passers-by in the trendy Shibuya district where they rallied against commercialism and chanted other buzz-kill slogans such as “public smooching is terrorism!”

“Our aim is to crush this love capitalism,” the group’s public relations chief Takayuki Akimoto told AFP.

“People like us who don’t seek value in love are being oppressed by society,” he added. “It’s a conspiracy by people who think unattractive guys are inferior, or losers — like cuddling in public, it makes us feel bad. It’s unforgivable.”

Previously, the killjoy group has also protested against “housewives who control Japan’s future” as their hapless husbands work all hours at the office.

Valentine’s Day in Japan is a huge money-spinner for the confectionery business as women are traditionally expected to buy chocolates for the men in their lives — from lovers to work colleagues.

Men reciprocate a month later on White Day, a Japanese marketing brainwave dreamt up by confectioners in the 1980s to keep the cash tills ringing.

“The tradition of giving chocolates means you’re always competing,” said Akimoto, 33, blasting what his group calls the “passion-based capitalism” of Valentine’s Day.

“You’re judged by how many sweets you get. It’s a business strategy by the chocolate capitalists, it’s ridiculous.”

Valentine’s Day originated as an ancient Christian and Roman tradition and Akimoto fumed: “Religious overtones have been twisted and turned into a vehicle to make money.”

Japan is experiencing a loss of mojo with couples apparently too stressed or busy to have sex, frustrating government efforts to raise the birthrate as policymakers struggle to cope with a shrinking population.

Akimoto claims the group’s message has begun to hit home after 10 years of protests.

“Recently you hear of more people spending Christmas alone or women growing tired of Valentine’s Day,” he said. “We believe that through our fight, we’ve helped contribute to that social shift.”

Kakuhido was founded in 2006 by Katsuhiro Furusawa, who began reading the Communist Manifesto after being dumped by his girlfriend and came to the conclusion that being unpopular with the opposite sex was a class issue, fuelling his anti-Valentine message.

Akimoto offered some advice for would-be disciples of the spoil-sport group, which also protests White Day and Christmas.

“We’re saying you don’t have to enjoy Christmas or Valentine’s Day,” he said joylessly, adding that Kakuhido is also taking aim at Halloween.

“Just spend the day doing normal things. Our enemy is formidable, but we are ready for a long, drawn-out war.”

US President Donald Trump to ‘ban immigrants from Syria and 6 other Muslim countries’

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump is set to sign several executive orders, including one on building a border wall with Mexico, this week to crack down on immigrants – one of his central campaign promises – and could suspend immigration from some Muslim nations, media reports have said.

Trump is expected to order the construction of the border wall with Mexico, the first in a series of actions to bolster national security, The New York Times reported.

The border wall was a signature promise of Trump’s campaign to control the illegal flow of immigrants.

His actions would also include slashing the number of refugees who can resettle in the US and blocking Syrians and others from “terror prone” nations from entering, at least temporarily.

He and could move to suspend some immigration from Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, either temporarily or “indefinitely,” sources familiar with the plans that have been under consideration were quoted as saying by the ABC news.

“Big day planned on NATIONAL SECURITY tomorrow. Among many other things, we will build the wall!,” Trump tweeted.

He also plans to review whether to resume the once-secret “black site” detention programme; keep open the prison at Guantanamo Bay; and designate the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organisation.

Trump is expected to target legal immigrants as early as this week, White House officials said, by halting a decades-old programme that grants refuge to the world’s most vulnerable people.

The refugee policy under consideration would halt admissions from Syria and suspend it from other majority- Muslim nations until the administration can study how to properly vet them.

The plan is believed to be in line with a ban on Muslim immigrants that Trump proposed during his campaign, arguing that such a step was warranted given concerns about terrorism.

The expected actions drew strong criticism from immigrant advocates and human rights groups, which called them discriminatory moves that rejected the American tradition of welcoming immigrants of all backgrounds.

“To think that Trump’s first 100 days are going to be marked by this very shameful shutting of our doors to everybody who is seeking refuge in this country is very concerning,” said Marielena Hincapie, the executive director of the National Immigration Law Center.

“Everything points to this being simply a backdoor Muslim ban.”

Sources outside the government familiar with the Trump team proposals say they expect any presidential action will not impact young immigrants currently benefiting from former President Barack Obama’s initiative known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which provides temporary legal protection and work permits, ABC News said.

During the campaign, Trump promised swift action on immigration on “Day One” in office. He pledged to cancel all federal funding to sanctuary cities, suspend immigration countries with ties to terrorism, investigate abuses of visa programmes and deport criminal undocumented immigrants.

It’s almost a well-known fact that most US technology titans were not exactly thrilled by Donald Trump’s victory in the US elections.

In fact, many of them openly opposed him during his election days. Breaking the frosty relationship, the US President elect met the movers and shakers of the world’s biggest technology industry.

Source: Economic Times