NewsTrust - Asia - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Independent)

Occupy Honolulu: Hawaiian Musician Makana Performs Protest Song to World Leaders at APEC Summit

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Nov. 14 (Interview) - within the heavily guarded compound where the summit took place, renowned Hawaiian musician and guitarist Makana carried out his own act of protest. Makana had been invited to play instrumental music at the gala dinner Saturday night. At the dinner, Makana opened his jacket to reveal a t-shirt which read, "Occupy with Aloha." Then, instead of performing the background instrumental he was scheduled to play, he started to sing a protest song he had released earlier that day.

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Dubai Camel Milk Producers Hope To Export 'Camelicious' Brand

Sun, 22 Aug 2010 02:40:15 -0700

Huffington Post - Aug. 22 - DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- The camels know the drill by heart. Just after dawn, they file on their own -- always in groups of 12 -- into metal stalls for milking. Workers attach automated pumps. The milk flows into a system of chilled pipes

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World Faces Serious New Economic Challenges

Wed, 21 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Olivier Blanchard - Apr. 21 (Opinion) - We at the IMF now forecast global growth to reach 4.2% in 2010, an upward revision of 0.3% from our January forecast, and 4.3% in 2011. Alongside growth, global trade has also shown a strong rebound, and so have capital flows. And, as discussed in the newly released Global Financial Stability Report, financial market conditions and stability have improved. These good global numbers hide, however, a more complex reality, namely a tepid recovery in many advanced economies, and a much stronger one in most emerging and developing economies.

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Technology in the classroom: China's challenges

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 11:54:06 -0700

GlobalPost - Apr. 13 - Coming in May: Education Heroes Short stories about heroes in education – teachers, administrators, innovators and others who are making a difference in education around the world. Coming in June: Educating Girls in Traditional Societies A look at the

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Why I’m Working as a Saigon Massage Girl

Mon, 12 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

New America Media - By Lan Pham as told to Andrew Lam - Apr. 12 (Opinion) - Lan Pham, 21, works in a massage parlour in District I of Ho Chi Minh City, better known as Saigon. It’s where most tourists stay when they visit Vietnam. Like millions of young people from the rural, Saigon is a big magnet with promises of better life for those who come from backbreaking work in the rice fields and cycle of debts. Pham spoke with NAM editor, Andrew Lam, who visited his homeland on the occasion of the 35th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War.

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Why Kyrgyzstan’s Social Media Matters

Fri, 09 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Registan.net - By Sarah Kendzior - Apr. 09 (Opinion) - Once again, Central Asia is deemed irrelevant because it is Central Asia. The tweets, blog posts, and news articles written by people in Kyrgyzstan — often with great emotion and care — are dismissed because they were written for people in Kyrgyzstan. But for whom, may I ask, are people in Kyrgyzstan supposed to be writing?

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Between Genghis and Caesar

Fri, 22 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

sptimes.ru - By Yulia Latynina - May. 22 (Opinion) - You may not have known it, but in terms of his biological progeny, Genghis Khan was the most successful man of all time. It is estimated that one in every 200 people is a descendant of the prolific 13th-century khan of the Mongol Empire. That means that his military strategy of killing and raping brought countless biological dividends for future generations

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Winning the Peace

Thu, 21 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New Republic - By Michael Schaffer - May. 21 (Opinion) - After a quarter century of bloodshed and somewhere over 80,000 deaths, Sri Lanka's civil war didn't really settle anything. It began in 1983 in a flawed-but-functioning postcolonial democracy whose leaders never seemed quite up to the task of integrating different ethnicities into one nation. It apparently ended on Sunday, in a still-flawed, newly-swaggering postwar democracy where that basic task of integration remains even more elusive.

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The St. Petersburg Times - Opinion - Islands Apart

Mon, 18 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

sptimes.ru - By Peter Rutland - May. 18 (Opinion) - Prime Minister Vladimir Putin descended on Japan last week, accompanied by a dozen governors and more than 100 Russian business leaders. Yet the visit failed to break the impasse in Russian-Japanese relations over the four islands east of Hokkaido, which Russia seized in 1945. This means that the two countries are still without a peace treaty and an agreed mutual border 64 years after the end of World War II.

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The Nut Graph | Scaling the language barrier

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0800

thenutgraph.com - By Wong Chin Huat - Mar. 04 (Opinion) - The standard of English has deteriorated in Malaysia, over the past decade, while the English language is enjoying increasing importance in a globalising world. Taking both these factors into consideration, isn't the call to abolish [the policy of English for Teaching Mathematics and Science] and reinstate the old status quo irrational and irresponsible? I don't think so.

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Secretary Of State Hillary Clinton's Trip To Asia

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Council on Foreign Relations - By Paul B. Stares - Feb. 18 (Interview) - he Japanese are clearly very happy that Secretary Clinton is beginning with her Asia trip with Japan. And they clearly are reassured that Japan still counts in Washington's calculus. Tell us what are the leading sort of issues that she's going to be bringing up with the Japanese and what she's looking to hear from them.

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Mrs. Clinton Goes to Asia

Mon, 16 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

National Review - By Dan Blumenthal - Feb. 16 (Opinion) - In fashioning her Asia policy, Secretary Clinton has a chance to make a clean break with her predecessors, who tended to view every Asian challenge in isolation. The United States can begin to view Asia as a whole, with interconnected problems and multilateral solutions.

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YES! Magazine's Fran Korten on Her Friendship with Barack Obama's Mother

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Fran Korten, Amy Goodman - Jan. 26 (Interview) - Well, last week I had a chance to speak with Fran Korten. She’s the executive director of YES! Magazine. She joined me in the firehouse studio to talk for the first time about her friendship with Barack Obama’s mother, Ann Soetoro.

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Groundbreaking 2-year backpacking odyssey across the 33 provinces of China

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

chinatravel.net - By Rebekah Pothaar - Nov. 11 (Interview) - A photographer, his camera, a backpack, two years, one country, 56 cultures, 1.3 billion people, 33 provinces and 56,000 kilometers.

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"The Majority of the World Supports Iran"

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Subrata Ghoshroy - Oct. 08 (Interview) - In an exclusive and wide-ranging interview, Chomsky discusses the global politics of Iran's and India's attempts to become nuclear powers.

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Memo to Obama, McCain: No one wins in a war

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

ZSpace - By Howard Zinn - Jul. 18 (Opinion) - BARACK OBAMA and John McCain continue to argue about war. McCain says to keep the troops in Iraq until we "win" and supports sending more troops to Afghanistan. Obama says to withdraw some (not all) troops from Iraq and send them to fight and "win" in Afghanistan. For someone like myself, who fought in World War II, and since then has protested against war, I must ask: Have our political leaders gone mad? Have they learned nothing from recent history? Have they not learned that no one "wins" in a war, but that hundreds of thousands of humans die, most of them civilians, many of them children? Did we "win" by going to war in Korea? The result was a stalemate, leaving things as they were before with a dictatorship in South Korea and a dictatorship in North Korea. Still, more than 2 million people - mostly civilians - died, the United States dropped napalm on children, and 50,000 American soldiers lost their lives.

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Carrots for the General

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

3 Quarks Daily - By Edward B. Rackley - Jun. 23 (Opinion) - In the case of Burma under General Than Shwe and his military junta, no carrots have been tried, to my knowledge. Sticks in many shapes and sizes have been brandished and swung, to little effect. Economic sanctions, asset freezes, arms embargos and travel bans are currently in effect by the US and EU. I posed the question to a Burmese dissident last week. He reflected a moment, then smiled and said, 'A missile launch pad in Thailand, that's all we need'. No sticks, no carrots, just elimination: everyman's fantasy. Were regime change so easy!

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The Math of Myanmar's Survival

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

American Footprints - By China Hand - Jun. 02 (Opinion) - What the Myanmar government has to do is quite simple. It has to get the cyclone victims out of the relief camps and back into their villages, hope they can scrape together the bare necessities of shelter and food to sustain a working life, get them the wherewithal to plow and seed their fields, and make sure they finish up the planting in eight weeks from today--and twelve weeks after the worst natural disaster in the country's history.

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Why the Burmese Junta Failed to Respond to Cyclone Nargis

Sat, 24 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The Irrawaddy - By Ko Ko Maung, Saya San - May. 24 (Opinion) - Bad news is constantly toned down for the supreme leader and analysis sweetened for his taste. In the end, any urgent calls for action were muted; his subordinates retreated timidly into corners while the natural disaster spun out of control. Millions of innocent people suffered as a consequence. As a former commander of offensives against Karen insurgents and civilians, Than Shwe's warhorse mentality must have bred a cold toleration for human suffering over the years.

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Southeast Asia: Rice and food price crisis

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Global Voices - By Mong Palatino - Apr. 28 (Opinion) - Prices of rice and other basic food items are increasing in the world. The global food price crisis is affecting millions, possibly billions of people. Food policies are challenged. Governments are imposing emergency measures to calm down their restless constituents. The Southeast Asian region, home to several emerging and developing economies, is also struggling to cope with the situation.

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Bloggers Rock the Vote in Malaysia « Webs@Work

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Webs@Work - Mar. 08 (Editorial) - Did the Web make a difference in the elections in Malaysia? The opposition has claimed several high-profile scalps in the ruling Barisan Nasional as blogger-politicians poise to make history. The opposition has taken the northern island state of Penang, with blogger Jeff Ooi successfully using his blog as a platform to launch a political career.

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Oil prices hit record in world market, Bangladesh asks for help from Arab countries

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Ground Report - By Muhammad Azizur Rahman - Mar. 06 (Opinion) - Recently oil price hit record. It's cross the limit. It's now over 100 dollar per barrel. Developing country like Bangladesh have face huge problem. OPEK already declare them not increate their reverse. So in future oil price increase day by day. In our country like Bangladesh have fallen huge problem. Euro strong day by day against dollar. So oil price increase day by day. I think if we use euro for buy oil we have profit. Arab country should start sale oil only euro currency. Immediately we need negotiate with Arab country and how we get oil in a limit price and hurry agreement with them. In future oil price increase so lot. So if we not think now we not face the problem. Government should realize the situation and take the steps very soon. Otherwise we have not continued our economy normally and everywhere we face problem to complete our target. We face problem to complete our budget. We give huge subsidy for oil. For this reason Bangladesh economy not back in right track. Our farmer is poor so if we reschedule oil rate they are not complete their irrigation. So we not reschedule oil price rate. This is huge problem for our government and we never ever know how we overcome this problem. If oil price reduce we overcome this problem otherwise like our country have never ever gain and day by day they became poor and poor and the reach country became rich day by day . As a Muslim country we request our Arab brother please give oil Bangladesh in low rate and help us to buildup our economy.

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Philippines: Failed mutiny draws mixed reactions

Sun, 02 Dec 2007 10:33:08 -0800

Global Voices - By Mong Palatino - Dec. 02 (Opinion) - For a background of the failed mutiny last Thursday, check the initial blog roundup by Preetam Rai. After a six-hour takeover of the luxury Peninsula Hotel, Senator Antonio Trillanes, Brigadier General Danilo Lim and about twenty other rebel soldiers surrendered to police authorities. The government is preparing to file additional charges against the mutineers and the civilian personalities who supported the aborted coup. The website of the rebel soldiers identifies the issues which led to the group's uprising:

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Myanmar: Internet Blocked

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 08:58:30 -0700

Global Voices - By Preetam Rai - Sep. 28 (Opinion) - There have been massive support from Myanmar bloggers for the current protest activities, and the whole Myanmar blogosphere is overwhelmed with news and photos. Because of that, Myanmar Junta got chickened out and banned the political blogs, almost immediately followed by banning the whole blogger domain hence all other Myanmar blogs. A few bloggers tried to bypass proxy and blog using email-to-blog techniques.

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Blame it on the rain

Tue, 07 Aug 2007 13:43:14 -0700

Sepia Mutiny - Aug. 07 (Opinion) - Monsoon rains come every year, but the flooding caused by this year's downpour has been some of the worst in decades for India, Bangladesh and Nepal. 19 million people have been displaced by the deluge. That's roughly the entire population of New York State, the 3rd largest state in the union, or around the entire population of Sri Lanka.

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