"Children should be seen and not heard."

This is a phrase we have long heard. Should not the same hold true for governments? After all, politicians are very much like infants. They make a lot of noise, most of which is incomprehensible, their attention spans are short, they get bored very easily and are incapable of cleaning up their own mess.

Junichiro Koizumi's government was an especially noisy one. Much sound and fury emanated from that great communicator. However, "Sound and fury signify nothing." This we also know from old. Or to be more precise, since 1606, when Shakespeare said so in "Macbeth."