FILM REVIEW BY LANI LUO – “Wake up. This is the new China. Things need to be planned and centrally controlled.” This quote comes from a short film written by Craig Rosenthal called Shanghai Love Market. Clearly, the title indicates that the story is not an academic critique on the…
Sometimes, one must give a little to get a little, a lesson Singapore is learning the hard way. Specifically, if the city-state gives in and grants the FBI access to evidence collected in the investigation of US engineer Shane Todd’s death, it will continue receiving generous funding from the US…
ALEXANDRE GUIRAUD WRITES – Myanmar’s Ministry of Information has seen concerned unions protest the draft of the Printing and Publishing Law that has been submitted to the parliament. When instated in 2011, the New Government expressed that changes aimed towards the freedom of expression would take place, contrary to the…
BRIAN CANAVE WRITES – Has Taiwan developed its first medium-range guided missile that can be used against mainland China? According to South China Morning Post and Michael Tsai, defense minister of the former government of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, this is true. In fact, Taiwan had successfully developed the…
CORY LAI WRITES – Hong Kong was rightly proud to welcome the 37th International Film Festival which premiered the long awaited “Ip Man: The Final Fight.” It’s a good film. But the Los Angeles-based Hollywood Reporter revealed that raunchy R- rated comedies are the real moneymakers with the city’s current…
KIARA BRAMASCO WRITES – One of Bangladesh’s leading newspapers, The Daily Star, has reported that poverty levels are decreasing. The United Nations’ latest development report stated that there are 40 poor countries that are helping to reduce poverty levels and that “Never in history have the living conditions and prospects…
RYAN LIPPERT WRITES – It will take a lot more than a friendship with Dennis Rodman to bring peace to the Korean Peninsula. After a short period of reduced tension between North Korea and the international community, things are now back to the way they were. North Korea’s nuclear program…
An amateurishly doctored picture of convicted war criminal Delwar Hossain Sayedee’s face superimposed on the moon has sparked violence by his supporters who apparently saw it as a divine omen. The photo, which was posted to the Jamaat-Shibir Facebook page Saturday night, quickly went viral, and was spread by supporters via…
Last week, former NBA star Dennis Rodman visited North Korea, watched a basketball game with Kim Jong-un, and in the process showed that there may be hope for better relations between North Koreans and Americans, if not between the governments themselves. Rodman came to North Korea to work on a…
After entering its most difficult stage February 26, China’s ongoing medical reform has been approved. On March 1, the new China-World Health Organization Country Cooperation Strategy went into effect and will establish funds to subsidize emergency medical fees. This means medical bills accumulated by the poor and patients whose identities…
In light of news that the Chinese military has been engaged in cyber-espionage attacks around the world, the publication Taiwan News asked both the Executive Yuan and the Taiwanese National Security Council what’s been done to ensure the country’s cyber safety. The National Security Council has yet to provide a…
Institutionalized violence against women is nothing new to the Maldives. A 15-year-old rape victim was prosecuted after she confessed to having a physical relationship with another man besides her rapist. Her sentence is 100 humiliating lashes when she turns 18 plus 8 months of house arrest at a children’s home.…
After months of alleged dawdling, an article in the Financial Times seems to have persuaded Singapore police to let the FBI help investigate a U.S. scientist’s death. Shane Todd, a 31 year old electronics engineer from Montana, was found hanging dead in his Singapore apartment last June. His death was…
We’re living in a time in which social media plays a crucial role in our lives, whether digitizing human interactions, making us more/less connected, or even mobilizing revolutions. Whatever it is, we cannot deny the fact that we’re being grasping a double-edged sword. As with any other type of technology,…
What the region’s overheated news media has termed “the most high profile graft trial in decades” is finally over… maybe. Last week, Ng Boon Gay, former Central Narcotics Bureau Director, was acquitted of all four charges of corruption. He was accused of obtaining oral sex from Cecilia Sue, sales manager…
Who knew that Do-Re-Mi could spell Do-Re-Banned? Two Vietnamese singers in the US have been banned from performing in Vietnam, accused of opposing the mother country with slanderous lyrics. Thanh Tuyen and Tuan Vu, along with a handful of others, were charged with slander for their performances on the latest…
