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| Odaiba, Tokyo. |
Recently I ventured on foot across the ominously named "Rainbow Bridge," which spans Tokyo Bay, to visit the artificially created land of Odaiba. When Tokyo holds the Olympics in 2020, this is the area that will host the athletes' village as well as many of the other facilities and venues.
I say ominously-named, because "rainbow," rather than pleasant associations of sunshine after rain or pots of gold left by leprechauns, now has more disturbing ideological connotations; whether it is the "Rainbow Nation" of South Africa, with its genocidal tendencies, or the rainbow flag used to promote the deconstruction of gender roles in the West and the promotion of mass, multi-partner buggery.
I say ominously-named, because "rainbow," rather than pleasant associations of sunshine after rain or pots of gold left by leprechauns, now has more disturbing ideological connotations; whether it is the "Rainbow Nation" of South Africa, with its genocidal tendencies, or the rainbow flag used to promote the deconstruction of gender roles in the West and the promotion of mass, multi-partner buggery.
But while Japan keeps a tight watch on its borders – at least for now – the nation and its culture occasionally pay lip service to the globalized Western (ab)norms now symbolized by the borderless gradations of the chromatic spectrum.
