The Displaced Nation

A home for international creatives

When in doubt, have a pint of Guinness

1 Comment Posted by on March 20, 2011

The Dunkirk spirit appears to be alive and well in Tokyo, according to an article by Nick Allen in the Telegraph.

Despite employers’ offers of repatriation and pleas from worried relatives in Britain, a small number of stalwart Britons are ignoring warnings of radioactive winds, and instead are drinking Guinness in the Mermaid pub.

One of them, Michael Summons, has elected to stay “because he loves the country,” while Martyn Terpilowski, a 34-year-old investment broker, says he feels it’s his duty not to leave.

His mother, however, disagrees. He should not put money before his health, she says.

It will probably be little comfort to her to know that, according to Ann Coulter’s blog:

“There is, however, burgeoning evidence that excess radiation operates as a sort of cancer vaccine.”

The exodus of expats from Japan, however, suggests that most people would prefer not to discover at first hand if Ms. Coulter’s theory is correct.

 

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One response to “When in doubt, have a pint of Guinness”

  1. ML Awanohara March 20, 2011 at 8:02 pm

    As I wrote on my own blog, Seen the Elephant, the thing I dreaded most when living in Tokyo was being there for the Big One, which experts had been predicting years before I arrived.

    So I’m lucky I missed it. But what if I hadn’t been? Who’s to say I wouldn’t be holding up the bar at the American or British Clubs, rather like the people in the Titanic who decide to go down with dignity, dressed in their best, brandy glass in hand.

    Besides, one lesson I learned from living in Japan for so long is that it’s best to consume sashimi (raw fish) with a bit of sake just in case it isn’t entirely fresh. It’s not implausible that the same principle might apply to low doses of radiation. (I’m not, however, buying Ann Coulter’s claim that the more radiation the better, if you want to avoid cancer. Since when did she have a medical degree?)

    Reply

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