Icelandic air
I belong to a Facebook group called “Motainai Japan.” “Motainai” means something like “don’t waste things.” It’s a free giveaway group for people who want to unload things from their homes - furniture, books, clothes, toys, tools, and more. I've used it to redistribute books plus a few household things.
I’ve seen plenty of people abuse the group's rules in addition to simple common sense. I mean, I’ve seen many dumb posts by people with little sense offering things like a bag of gravel, a bag of dirt, broken appliances, a cracked mirror and furniture fit for the garbage dump. On Wednesday, December 9, 2020 I was home much of the day, and I decided to test group members by posting a photograph of my bottle of Icelandic air. It’s a 2-liter water bottle repurposed to hold two liters of air from the Reykjavik’s Keflavik International Airport. No kidding!
Bottle of Icelandic air. Not fresh air anymore. I've had it since a trip to Iceland last year. Seems ridiculous to keep it. Pick up at Nakano-fujimicho Sta. on the Marunouchi Subway Line in Tokyo.
Within ten minutes I was temporarily suspended from the site until December 12th - a 72-hour suspension. That was too bad, because there was something else from my apartment that I wanted to post for redistribution right away, and it had to wait ‘til the weekend.
The group’s administrator did not contact me to dispute my post. My account was just suspended. Perhaps another group member complained. No one can prove that my post was not genuine, true, factual, serious and legitimate. No one asked me. It bothers me because I’ve been raised to think that “due process” is a civil right, or at least simply good manners. What happened to me on December 9, 2020 was not a due process. I think the definition of a “due” process is that any process that affects me must also involve me.
Perhaps in this time of the coronavirus pandemic there is concern about the very idea of foreign air as a contaminant, representing a bacteriological or virological threat. But, honestly, it would surprise me if anyone really thought like that.
Or not.