Who is the Ideal Mother?

I hope everyone has gotten their mothers day gifts or if you live far from your mother, I hope you all sent out our gifts/cards in the mail.

Mothers Day is tomorrow (5/9/09) and the research division of company P-NEST surveyed more than a thousand females in junior high and high school about the holiday.

One of the questions, asked was

"Which celebrity do you think is the ideal mother?"

The #1 answer was former Morning Musume member Nozomi Tsuji. She is married and has one daughter. (Born in 2007) Tsuji had 10% of the votes in the survey, spread almost evenly across the junior high and high school students.

The top five were ranked model Tsubasa Masuwaka at #2, followed by a tie between Miki Maya and Nanako Matsushima. Hitomi Kuroki ranked 5th. The high school girls placed Kuroki at #2 and Matsushima at #3. Masuwaka and Maya tied for 4th.

WAIT.. I have more poll goodness. In American polls, mothers voted that they would rather have Jennifer Aniston to babysit their kids than Angelina Jolie. I guess the Tombe Raider star is a bit too dangerous for kids in some mothers eyes? Maybe, but the poll was created by AOL-sponsored ParentDish.com and Ellen Degeneres and Portia de Rossi were ranked #1
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Yakuza in Recession?

So a Twitter friend of mine Misspentlife asked me to post some information on the Japanese Mafia, in response to a question I asked twitter friends. I asked my twitter friends what they though would be interesting topics for a blog post and Misspentlife wanted to know what the Yakuza were up to these days. Well, I can tell they have been hit hard by economic crisis, and management has been thinning out the ranks in an attempt to save themselves.



I didn't realise that even the Japanese Mafia would have to downsize.
In an article found on News.com, former yakuza member, Taro Hiramatsu(who was unceremoniously kicked out last year.) stated

The yakuza have been hit by the financial crisis because they've invested in the stock market among other things. For yakuza today, money buys everything, including senior positions.

It seems the yakuza are leaving their old ways behind for new corporate ones, which doesn't bode well for the organization with this economy. Taro Hiramatsu stated that,

In the past, your rank was decided on courage and the sacrifices you made to the group, including being ready to give up your life,

Now it seems it's all about the money, but when the money starts to run out.. You end up like Taro and get the boot!It may be time for gangsters to dust off their ancient code of ethics.When asked about this topic in the article, Hiramatsu responds,
I think that a majority of yakuza are reflecting on whether throwing away traditional for capitalist-style values was the best thing to do,"
"Bushido, the yakuza's samurai spirit, is disappearing. The disappearance of those values is not only bad for yakuza but for Japan as a whole."

Will be interesting to see if the Yakuza can pull themselves back together.. or will the yakuza become an endangered species? :-o




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