E-News & Songs 14:00~19:30 January 10 (Thu), 2019 月番リーダー：佐藤一雄
(1)今日は3か月に一度の英語歌唱練習会「OLDIES」の日、担当幹事の進行で参加者
全員が2~3曲を披露した。年初とて日本語歌唱も許され大いに盛り上がったが全員が発声、表現に進歩を見せている。筆者はBee Geesの「Massachusetts」やP.P.M.の「500Miles」を歌った。本来Bluegrass演奏が趣味だが未だ力あるOldiesも皆と大いに楽しんでいる。
Today was the quarterly singing day of silver [OLDIES] for us prior to English News study. The attendants threw down their repertory and showed excellent progress including phonation and expression. The writer sang Bee Gees’ “Massachusetts” and “PPM’s “500 Miles” that varies a quite a bit from my favorite -American Bluegrass Music. Anyway, we all enjoyed singing and listening to golden oldies that still have the power and we hope will never fade.
（２）2018年11月21日付けジャパンタイムズ紙社説「来年2019年は経済危機に備える必要あり」という途方もなく大きな提唱を論じ合った。今回より編集者の意図を尊重し「章」
ごとに各メンバーに音読して貰い予め筆者が伝えておいた8項目の論点と質問について発言してもらった。Today, we discussed tremendously huge issue titled “We should brace for economic troubles next year” -The Japan Times’ Editorial dated Dec.27,2018. From this time, the leader, as he had asked the attendants to provide their own answers to his eight main questions per each chapter of the editorial, went on with firstly reading aloud and then present their own perspectives expressly.
同時にK.M.氏より予め筆者に章別の意見と回答が寄せられ内容を吟味しつつ大いに参照させてもらった。もう一人のK.M.氏より「世界的に企業業績の見通しは悪化している」と題する円相場、小売売上高騰の数値に対する米連邦準備理事会と財務省ミニューシン長官の言動の不安定性等を記述したダイアグラムを提供して頂き復習にも役立った。遠く関西から参加されたM氏や都心の女性メンバーM.K.氏、Y.N.氏も他参加者と共に生活に即した発言があり興味深いものがあった。Whilst, as Mr. K.M. had kindly given the leader his written comments about the difficult questions, the leader could refer to his reading in large measure. Another Mr. K.M. gave us a diagram of forecast of Yen’s value, unstable words and actions by FRB and U.S. Treasury Secretary-Steven Mnuchin as for their statistics on risky runup of retail value that was of great help for us. Mr. M who joined the meeting from afar from Kansai and lady member like Ms. M.K. and Ms. Y.N. stated interesting suggestions based real life setting that certainly speeded our heated discussions.
ジャパンタイムズが警鐘する2019年世界経済の下降予測の原因には、中国や米国そして日本の経済成長率が安定しているにも関わらず多くの不穏な世界情勢の影響があるようだ。
The matter of possible downturn of world economy that The Japan Times warn seems to root in unsettled world situation despite the factors that economic growth of U.S., China and Japan have been quite stable at a fixed level nowdays.
例えば、❶ウオール街、上海市、東京、ロンドンの株式市場の2018年末から発生している株価乱高下。❷株価、為替動向を市場に委ねるとするトランプ大統領に反対するFRBと財務省間の軋轢。❸不透明な米中貿易戦争。❹IMF-国際通貨基金の今期世界経済成長率の下方修正。❺一部米国政府機関の閉鎖に伴う民心、投資家の不安。❻不穏な言動を日米に繰り返しつつ北朝鮮に傾き経済制裁決議に公然と離反する韓国の文在寅大統領を今や疑問視するG20各国等々ざっと筆者が数えただけでも２０部類の不安材料が内外に存在する。
For example, ●Flurry of stock quotation in Wall Street, Shanghai , Tokyo and London equity markets,●FRB and U.S. Treasury’s backlash against President Trump who commends finance markets to their trend, ●Nebulous trade war between U.S. and China, ●I.M.F. revised down growth of the world three major countries’ economy for this entire period, ● Anxiety of the public and institutional investors due to partial closing of U.S. government departments, ●Majority of G20 nations who express skepticism about S. Korea’s President Moon Jae-In’s disturbing behavior to U.S.A. and Japan and coram populo-infringement of worldwide agreement of economic sanction to be continued against North Korea, and so forth; thus, there are countless examples more than 20 categories as far as counted.
従って我々の議論も一方的ではネガテイヴになりがちであったが悪循環議論を避けるべくﾎﾟｼﾞﾃｲｳﾞな要素も考えてはみたが「強い円」「トランプの対中国強硬外交」、「平和の祭典・東京五輪パラﾘﾝピック」など10項目程度に限られた。しかしながら各メンバーと大きな主題にチャレンジしｼﾞｬﾊﾟﾝﾀｲﾑｽﾞ紙今回編集者の主張を掘り下げて賛否両論話し合えた事は多少とも株取引、外貨預金、日常の輸入食材や酒類購入等を通じて世界の金融に全く無縁ではない各メンバーにとっても意味のある本日の学習発表であった。
Our debates, consequently, were entirely prone to be negative but still we tried to reckon with approx. ten (10) positive kinds of factor to avoid vicious circle such as “Strong Yen”, “Trump’s hardline approach to China” ,”The second Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games to be held in 2020-Global Fest of Peace. The leader would like to set a high value that each one of attendants challenged to discuss the huge issue deriving into POV of the relevant Editor of The Japan Times, regardless of Affirmative or Negative or Addition, and yet we obtained a list of updated information of stock exchange market, bank deposit of foreign currency, imported foodstuffs and alcoholic liquors, etc. related to our daily living. (Peter Kazuo Satow reports from Tokyo on 10th Jan.,2019)
