Making the most of your words

This story (just scroll down the page for the link now, if you don't want to spend any time reading this rubbish) was actually written before the sinking of the Ehime Maru by the US submarine Greenville. (I have witnesses who read the story before the sinking). As far as the actual event goes, I have been pretty sickened by the sentimentality of the Japanese media, who seem determined to wring every last drop of pathos out of the situation, showing weeping families who are "angry" with the Americans for refusing to bring up the sunken ship with the remains of their loved ones entombed therein. I wonder what the reaction of the Japanese "Navy" (Maritime Self-Defense Force) would be in a similar situation? My guess is that you wouldn't see any sign of an apology for years, and any court-martial or enquiries would be held far from the public gaze.

Despite the somewhat prescient nature of the story, I make no claims as to my ability to prophesy the future, so please don't ask me for stock market predictions, racing tips, or the outcome of your current romance. I could give you an answer, of course, but it would be as wrong as anybody else's.

The story really expresses my impatience (too weak a word, really) with those Japanese organizations who refuse to employ anything remotely resembling a native English speaker when it comes to making public pronouncements. For instance, Hitachi's current slogan is "Inspire the Next". The next what? one asks oneself (if anyone from Hitachi who knows the answer to this wants to tell me, I'm all ears). Another company I knew had their slogan for the year printed on the business cards of all its employees: "Let's think tomorrow" (...but not today, we're too busy). Or how about a car called the "Naked" (I'm not kidding, but at least they spared us the slogan "Let's drive Naked"). At Tokyo Big Sight (not site), a multimillion dollar international exhibition center, the following was on prominent display.

Enough ranting. Enjoy the story. It's in PDF format, and has been designed to be read using either Adobe's Acrobat Reader or (the program I formatted it for), the Acrobat eBook Reader. Click either of the icons below to link to Adobe if you don't have these (free) programs installed on your system.

Click on the PDF document icon above to view the story (less than 60k). Your mileage may vary with the installation of Acrobat, but most people find they can download by right-clicking (or muttering the equivalent Macintosh incantation).

I would really appreciate some feedback on this, if you want to give it.

NOTE: This story is copyright. You are free to read it, but you may not reproduce it for gain or otherwise without my prior consent. I have disabled printing and text selection. If this annoys you, then tell me why you need these features, and maybe we can come to some arrangement.