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The love that dares to squeak its name

Happy Valentine's Day from Tokyo.

My own small attempt to stand against the tsunami of overpriced chocolate, unnecessary wrapping paper and merciless commercialism is below, a piece which also appears in this morning's paper here.

I had always assumed that Japan had the most nauseating Valentine's Day in the world. In researching this story, I learned that in South Korea it is far, far worse. They have taken Valentine's Day and White Day and added half a dozen more spurious Days of their own.

There was interesting sight on Omotesando Avenue this morning, just in front of Gap at the crossing with Meiji Dori, which I cack handedly photographed with my phone.

Apologies for the quality of this image. It shows a young man holding up a sign which reads in Japanese Give me chocolate. On his T-shirt, almost invisible in this picture, ate the English words No Wari.

Valentine's Day in Japan being the day when fanciable young chaps receive choco from their sweet hearts, I take him to be one of the Himote, the anti-Valentine's movement whom I describe below, engaged in a sarcastic act of satrical performance art.

Or perhaps he just had no girlfriend. And no chocolate. I hope he found some. None of the many, many passers-by paid him the least attention. But, true to his T-shirt slogan, it didn't seem to wari him at all.

Cluster bombs of the Secret War

Last week I made my first visit to the beautiful and neglected country of Laos to learn about these vicious objects:

. . . unexploded cluster bombs. My story appeared here in Saturday's Times. I attach a longer version below.

Thanks to the many people who helped to organise the trip. Those interested in learning more about the issue can look at their various websites.

I was invited by the International Committee of the Red Cross which is campaigning for an outright ban on all cluster munitions. Our host were the Lao government's National Regulatory Authority UXO and Lao National Unexploded Ordnance Programme which struggles on bravely in the face of an impossible task. The United Nations Development Programme also supports demining in the country.

A fascinating part of the story, which I had too little space to dwell on in my piece, is the effort by the Lao government and UNESCO to aquire World Heritage Status for the  Plain of Jars, a beautiful and mysterious archaeological site which, in my view, was plainly constructed by extraterrestrials.

I encountered two NGOs doing valuable work in Laos - the Mines Advisory Group (which tries to defuse the cluster bombs before they go off), and COPE Laos (which helps the victims after they do). In this picture, Joe Pereira of COPE displays some of the prosthetic limbs which the organisation makes for injured Laos.

All these photographs were shot for the ICRC by the excellent Vientiane-based photographer, Jim Holmes.

Continue reading for my story . . .

'The Tide is High'

Anyone interested in the plight of the Carteret Islands should look at a podcast by the estimable Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert, with whom I travelled there last December. Beautiful images and an interesting commentary, including interviews with the Carteret islanders themselves.

The picture above was taken on the fishing boat which took us over to the islands. Jeremy is on the right.

Journey to the Carterets (Words and Photographs)

This month the photographer Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert and I travelled to the Carteret Atoll, a collection of tiny coral islands far off the coast of Papua New Guinea. For at least 20 years now it has been obvious that the Carterets, and their population of 2,600 people, are sinking into the sea. As usual, it's difficult to state with absolute confidence why this is happening. Is it because of a submarine volcano which is causing changes in the level of the sea bed? Or is because - as this research demonstrates - global warming is causing sea levels in the South Pacific to rise steadily?

You can read my piece from Thursday's paper here; Jeremy's put a few of his photographs on his blog here, here and here; and a few of my own follow.

Click on any of these images to enlarge. (All photographs are the copyright of Richard Lloyd Parry.)