ELLA KELLEHER WRITES (latest in her review series of great new books from Japan) – Many are already well aware of love’s fragility, but At the End of the Matinee (2021) proves that love can also be incredibly resilient. Based on a true story, Keiichiro Hirano’s book depicts an agonizing…
Month: May 2021
SOUTH KOREA: PRESIDENTS BIDEN AND MOON ASK, “CAN’T WE ALL GET ALONG?”
AIDAN SMITH-FAGAN WRITES — President Joe Biden hosted South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the White House last Friday. After a day that included a medal of honor ceremony and a long, private discussion between the two heads of state, Biden and Moon held a joint press conference at which…
CHINA’S RISE: US MUST BE A BETTER VERSION OF ITSELF TO ACCOMMODATE THE RE-EMERGENCE OF A MAJOR POWER
TOM PLATE WRITES — It was quite a good romp. There in square five was Elliott, who helped run the college student newspaper way back then, now a professional psychotherapist. A few zoom squares away was lifelong friend, author and noted screenwriter Aaron. Then there was John, zooming in to the…
BOOK REVIEW: FIRST PERSON SINGULAR (2021) by HARUKI MURAKAMI
ELLA KELLEHER WRITES (latest in her review series of new Japanese books) – This imaginative and captivatingly ambiguous recent release by Murakami reads like a game of two truths and a lie (in this case, seven truths and a lie). First Person Singular (2021) presents its audience with eight entrancing…
US-CHINA RELATIONS: FOREIGN POLICY AIMED AT OBSTRUCTING CHINA WON’T SUCCEED
TOM PLATE WRITES — Marvellously, sharp streaks of sunshine are starting to break through America’s Covid-19 cloud cover, but the fog over US foreign policy seems heavy. It involves India, China and Russia. Let’s start with India and employ the British poet W.H. Auden’s words – “the gates of hell are…
CORONAVIRUS CHRONICLES: THE SUITE LIFE TURNED SOUR
ALEXANDER SMITH WRITES — I found myself on a plane home just two days after LMU announced it was closing down campus and moving to virtual learning. However, home for me was not the usual house or apartment, it was a hotel in downtown Houston. My dad has been in the hospitality business…
VIDEO: BIDEN ADMINISTRATION AND A NEW APPROACH TO DENUCLEARIZATION OF KOREAN PENINSULA
EVENT — The Loyola Marymount University Center for Asian Business, in collaboration with the Center for International Business Education, presented a special webinar on April 22th 2021 with Victor Cha, Senior Vice President and Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. Dr. Cha holds…
KUWAIT: WOMEN’S RIGHTS FACE AN UPHILL BATTLE
LAMA ALTAHER WRITES – On April 19, 2021, the brutal murder of Farah Hamza Akbar offered a watershed moment to grapple with the country’s discriminatory laws against women. A Kuwaiti woman was killed by a man against whom she had previously filed two cases for harassment which followed her family’s…