Welcome to the Abiko Free Press

The 3/11 anniversary book project is really coming along, so much so, that it's time to let you in on a few thoughts.

If you only get one thing from this post, get this thing: this ain't no Quakebook. Quakebook was awesome, but it was also of its time - the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown. People needed a way to explain their feelings and raise money to offer immediate relief to the survivors.

That moment has passed. There is still a need to help the survivors, but now it is more about reconstruction than relief. And for all of us, even those not directly affected, there is a massive need for an evaluation of 3/11 and what has, or more to the point, hasn't happened in the year since.

There is a massive need for independent, honest journalism. The truth, in other words.

But not the truth of the TV networks addicted to sentimentality in their quest for advertising bucks; or the truth of the newspapers who must feed the egos of their Rosebud-seeking proprietors; or even the truth according to charitable foundations beholden to their agendas, no matter how worthy.

Nope.

Just the truth. At least, as best as we can get at it. And how best can we get at it? By being as knowledgeable as we can, as independent as we can, as fearless as we can.

There is no corporation backing this project, no proprietor, no agenda. We seek the truth. On our own terms. Our only funding will come from the readers. "We the people" is our only agenda.

Are we riding the coattails of disaster to line our pockets? Hell no. There are far better ways to make money than writing a book, trust me. But "a free press" doesn't mean we can do this for free. Everyone working on the project gets an equal cut of whatever we make. At last count, there were 12 people involved in the 3/11 project, so any profits will be split 12 ways. If we sell this book for $2.99 on Amazon with a 70% royalty plan, as we plan to, that equates to around 20 cents per person, per book after tax.

Having said that, many of the contributors are giving their cut to charity, and that is wonderful. But that is an additional bonus.

This is journalism, not charity.


Welcome to the Abiko Free Press.

(And welcome to Philip Brasor, who has written an insightful chapter on the media and 3/11 for the book who kindly allowed Our Man in Abiko to video the skype interview and post it here. It's Our Man's first, so please forgive his lack of craft. He will improve. Probably.)

3/11 Anniversary Project: Meet the troops

These good folks have agreed to write a chapter each on the meaning of 3/11:

• Jake Adelstein, author of Tokyo Vice.
• Jamie El Banna, founder of Ishinomaki charity It's Not Just Mud.
• Philip Brasor, freelance writer with a regular column at the Japan Times.
• Orlando Camargo, senior advisor at Ogilvy & Mather Japan and Re-Imagining Japan.
• Michael Cucek, writer of Shisaku, a blog on Japanese politics.
• Kiyoshi Kurokawa (with Hiromi Murakami) head of the independent parliamentary committee to investigate the Fukushima nuclear accident. 
• Richard Smart, journalist.
• Nathalie Kyoko Stucky, journalist.
• Hiroko Tabuchi, reporter for the New York Times.

Aided and abetted in the editing and PR departments by Sandra Barron, a Japan hand with her editing finger on Japan Pulse; Dan Ryan, Quakebook editor and blogger; and yours truly, the least qualified to be to be leading such talented troops over the top. But it's an honour.

3/11 Anniversary Project -- Day One

Let's call Feb 1st, 2012, Day One of the 3/11 Anniversary Project.

Sure, Our Man has been running around for a few months behind the virtual scenes cobbling together a team to write an ebook that attempts to answer the question: what does 3/11 mean one year later? But today, the work begins for the team in earnest. The contributors have started contributing and suddenly what seemed pie in the sky before Christmas is most certainly a raw turkey that needs cooking. Something like that.

What is the 3/11 project and what is the Abiko Free Press? The short answer is not sure yet. But this is what is known on Day One:

• Our Man wanted to do what Quakebook proved was possible to do with technology and willpower in one week to mark one-year on from the triple disaster of earthquake, tsunami and meltdown.
• This time, there isn't the immediate need for relief that Quakebook addressed, but there is a massive need to understand what has happened, and what has not since 3/11. And, don't know about you, but Our Man didn't want to leave it to the old men at the Yomiuri Shimbun or the hacks at News Corpse International to tell him what to think. 
• In other words, there is a hefty need for some serious, professional independent journalism.
• Seems to Our Man we have the technology (email, twitter and Word 2007) to write our own news, without the need for the tycoons. 
• What we independents don't have is the money.
• But we do have royalties. And all will be split equally between contributors. How? Not quite sure yet, but watch this space.
• Contributors? What contributors? Details will follow.

By the way, Our Man had hoped to finish his Half-Life novel and launch that before the 3/11 anniversary project got underway, as a kind of trial balloon to smooth out all the wrinkles before this project got going, but life (and more radical rewrites than expected) got in the way. If he can publish that though, he will as soon as possible but the anniversary is a deadline that can't be missed.

We have until 3/11/2012 to publish this book.

And we shall.

Details to follow on who is contributing.