4/13/2011

Need for accurate information

Information: a subject brought to the world's attention with painful
urgency through the recent Japanese nuclear accident.
Everybody is looking for clear, accurate, timely and honest information.
Yet neither the Japanese government nor TEPCO provides this information.
That makes just about everybody on the planet mad.
The difference between the nuclear disaster and oriental medicine: there
is no NEED to provide any such information pertaining to oriental medicine.
Yet the lack thereof may nevertheless cause long-lasting damage. (I refrain here from giving examples related to oriental medicine in a desperate attempt at NOT offending certain people (and I believe, I do not have to discuss the attitude of the Chinese towards information!), but …)

A general example.
In Germany many (most) people are familiar with "Fujiyama" (Mt. Fuji),
but nobody knows "Fujisan" (which is the proper way the Japanese call
this mountain).
One of THE representative Japanese-German dictionaries available lists
also "Fujiyama".
(Even the American government has it:
http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/LivingWith/Historical/LewisClark/Info/summary_mount_st_helens.html)

A mistake introduced many decades ago by someone apparently not familiar
with Japanese (characters). Again, the "san" in "Fujisan" stems from the
character for mountain, but here again somebody with VERY incomplete
knowledge of Japanese interpreted this as meaning "Mr. or Mrs.", which
is also read "san" in Japanese.)

When even general information (which should maybe considered common
sense (?)) is full of mistakes, misunderstandings etc., imagine the
situation in a field as complex as oriental medicine.