Saturday, June 04, 2011

Ugly Democratic Party & Leaking Ceiling + Air-Conditioner

内閣不信任案が2日、否決された。与党内から造反する議員が続出して、宮沢内閣に対する不信任案可決を思い出させるような状況になるかとみられたが、あっけなく否決された。その後の民主党内のいざこざには深く落胆すべきか、それとも笑いをこらえるべきか。
沖縄県普天間米軍基地の「国外、少なくとも県外移設」、アメリカ大統領への「Trust me」発言、さらに政界引退の決意撤回で知られる前首相は現首相の態度を「男として、人間として、あるまじき態度だ」「許しがたい。『ペテン師』といわれても仕方ない」(産経電子版)と評している。この人に「ペテン師」と呼ばれてはたまったものではない。民主党を自分の手の届かないところにやりたくないというこの人の姿勢から、この政党は公党ではなく、ハトヤマ私党だとの印象がますます強くなった。
また、「市川房江時代」から社会市民連合時代にかけての同志だったという田上等氏は、「『菅が将来、もし首相になったら日本人を辞める』という仲間が周りに少なくなかったことを、ご存じないでしょう」(産経電子版)と語っている。不信任案採決直前の民主党代議士会で首相が「若い世代に責任を引き継ぎたい」と言ったのは、(いつなのか知らんが)自らの退陣とともに、ハトヤマ、オザワを道連れにしようということではなかったか。この3人には即刻退場してもらいたい。
この「若い世代」は何をやっとるのか!

*
I think it happened last Wednesday. My memory is somewhat blurred. Late morning when I still had not eaten anything, I heard the sound of water dropping just outside the tiny flat. The ceiling was leaking obviously because of some work being done upstairs. Immediately I went up to complain, but any of the workers did not understand English. From the gesticulation of one of the guy, apparently the manager, and my fragmentary capability of the Chinese Mandarin language, he understood that he was saying that they had cut some pipe and that is why it was leaking. I said to that, “I don’t care what is happening up here. I do care what is happening down there.” Soon the leakage stopped.
The following day, the same man knocked on the door to ask to do some work inside my flat. I knew very noisy dismantling work had been going obstructing my own work. I understood this much only with his gesticulation. He called the man of the management company, “boss” as he described in English, whom I had met many times before, and passed the earpiece to me. He said the work would continue for three hours. I should also have complained about the fact that there had not been any prior notice. But that is after the event and I think it would have made any difference. A worker began dismantling part of the ceiling here for extending a piping from the flat upstairs. For all those hours, I kept silent, sitting on my rocking chair with a fan and not feeling doing anything, work or otherwise. The dismantling guy cleaned up the mess he created. Of course, I had to do more cleaning work afterward.
It seems the work will continue some more. Last night, I brought the shoe rack inside because all my footwear was covered with dust. They don’t know how to take precautionary measures and how to clean up after work. (I miss my country.)
And this afternoon, there was another case of leaking, this time inside the flat. I loudly complained and it stopped after a while.

*
Making things worse still, the air-conditioner has also been leaking since around the time when the work started upstairs. I first thought that the leak should be because of a clogged cooling-water drainage, as the piping is crudely designed and tough to clean up. Then I thought it should be because of the piping work upstairs. Funnily, I had no leak yesterday. Then tonight it started happening again. I don’t know if this leakage has anything to do with the work as the drainage seems independently installed. The air-conditioner itself looks very old. Its front cover cannot be opened easily for cleaning. I looked at the filters and they were okay.

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