Earlier this month, the Japanese Finance Minister, Shoichi Nakagawa, appeared at a press conference during the G-7 summit in Rome. He was wasted. Hammered. Three sheets to the wind. Plastered. Drunk as a skunk. I mean, wasn’t even able to come close to acting even remotely sober. Worse than Joaquin Phoenix on Letterman. Watch the clip and be astounded:
Dave’s last post about self-serving Lenten disciplines made the point that few such disciplines actually introduce real suffering in our lives. Mostly, these “disciplines” are about personal self-improvement projects. If we really wanted to suffer, Dave pointed out (somewhat tongue-in-cheek) we would do things like stop brushing our teeth or overdraw our checking account. Now we can add “Hold a major press conference in an international setting while completely intoxicated” to the list.
Watching this clip reminded me of the phrase in the Anglican prayer of confession: “there is no health in us.” Heavy stuff. But this clip proves it. If someone in such a position of power could be enslaved to something that totally destroyed his career and reputation, the human problem must be pretty bad. I think Archbishop Cranmer was right. There is no health in us.
PS–Nakagawa resigned in disgrace but blamed the gaffe on some cold medicine and jet lag. Sounds like he hasn’t yet reached a place where he can call a spade a spade. Wonder what it will take for him to hit bottom.
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COMMENTS
4 responses to “How To Wreck Your Career”
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Shucks, the video has already been removed (darn copyrights!)… But your story reminds me of the interview fiasco with Paula Abdul.
An interesting fact is that in Japan, drinking is a big part of networking and connection. My brother lived there for 4 years as a non-drinker, and said people were much slower to trust him and befriend him because he wouldn’t drink with him.
Isn’t it funny how we (as humans) can be so quick to judge? And how we may not follow all of the laws of our land (okay we just DON’T), yet we have tacit rules for when that’s okay and when it’s not, culturally?
An excerpt from our Ash Wednesday service yesterday:
“Almighty God…who desires not the death of sinners, but rather that they may turn from their wickedness and live…”
Oh that we would but see sin as the death it is, that we (as a people and culture) would seek purity over wickedness.
I found another version of the clip. See if this works.
Go back to the orginal post and try watching the video there. Should work.
HA! My bad. It didn’t work the first time but TADA. Now it did. Wow, it seems like he’s asking questions (though I don’t speak Japanese)… I’ll have to show my brother (who DOES speak Japanese) and ask him for his thoughts.
Watching it makes me want to impersonate him (poorly). Thanks for finding another -working- link!!