SENAY EMMANUEL WRITES – On June 30th, 2019, US President Donald Trump met with North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un at the Demilitarized Zone, which separates the two Koreas. With that, Trump became the first sitting US president to visit the isolated country. This symbolic gesture made for an incredible photo…
Author: Asia Media Staff
U.S. POLITICS: BOMB-DROPPING WOMEN FLYING HIGH IN AMERICA’S GENDER WARS
ANDREA PLATE WRITES – Retired Lieutenant Colonel Amy McGrath served 20 years in the Marines, flew 89 combat missions and dropped bombs on Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Now, she’s aiming for a bigger target: the Senate seat of Republican Majority leader Mitch McConnell, the longest-serving US Senator from the…
Saudi Arabia: Nicki Minaj’s Rap Against Appearing at the Jeddah World Fest
By Asia Media Staff — Rapper Nicki Minaj is a humanitarian. Did you know that? She didn’t, until recently. After “careful reflection,” Minaj told the Associated Press, she has pulled out of her much anticipated headline appearance at the Jeddah World Fest in Saudi Arabia July 18. “While I want…
TOKYO: ARE YOU LEADING US, OR FOOLING US? ‘CLIMATE APARTHEID’ ASSERTS UN
NICOLE ALAVERDIAN WRITES – The G20 Summit, held June 28th and 29th in Osaka, garnered the attention of the international community as top government officials from each member country came together to talk about pressing global issues. Some topics on the agenda: the trade war debacle and climate change. Japan,…
THE suzerainty ESCAPE: how beijing can make Hong Kong happy again
TOM PLATE WRITES – One of the most significant political events in years and potentially one of the most historic will be known as the Battle for Hong Kong. And it is anything but played out. Beijing achingly wanted Hong Kong and decades ago got what it wanted. But is…
LOS ANGELES: PRE-PUBLICATION PARTY FOR NEW BOOK ON VETERANS OF ASIAN WARS TRAPPED IN VETERANS ADMINISTRATION TREATMENT SYSTEM
Asia Media International’s Senior Advisory Andrea Plate celebrated a pre-launch party for her book “Madness: In the Trenches of America’s Troubled Department of Veterans Affairs,” which was produced by Asia Media International and published by Marshall Cavendish Asia, at the Del Rey Yacht Club in Marina Del Rey. The four…
FASHION OF ASIA: Sorayama’s silver Mylar – erotic, hyperreal with displays of desire
ANNALISA DEL VECCHIO WRITES – During last year’s Pre-Fall 2019 show, creative director Kim Jones of Christian Dior collaborated with famed Japanese artist Hajime Sorayama to unveil a series of retro-futuristic fashion pieces featuring signature elements of both experts’ brands. Dior director Jones said in an interview that he was…
BANGKOK: MORE HOT AIR ADDED TO THE WORLD ENVIRONMENT
OLIVIA AMERCUA WRITES – At the 34th ASEAN Summit, held recently in Bangkok, all member nations made a pledge through the “Bangkok Declaration on Combating Marine Debris” to strengthen their fight against ocean pollution. ASEAN, which stands for Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is comprised of 10 countries: Thailand, Indonesia,…
KOREAN CONUNDRUM: IS IT TIME FOR XI JINPING TO UP HIS GAME?
GUEST CONTRIBUTOR LEE HONG-KOO WRITES – Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to North Korea is cleverly timed. World leaders attending the Group of 20 (G-20) summit in Osaka, Japan, a week after the visit, will be eager to discover whether China will have a forward-looking stance on the North Korean…
SHADOWS OF WAR: ARE THE TWO KOREAS THE CORINTH AND KORCYA OF OUR TIME?
[Editor’s Note] – The rise of a new global power has often led to hegemonic wars. In the following essay, Prof. Graham Allison discusses how the rise of China might affect the Korean Peninsula and offers his insights on the possibility of a second Korea war. An earlier version of…
INDONESIA: SANCHIA HAMIDJAJA ON ART AND POLITICS
YINING WONG WRITES – The election cycle in Indonesia, sexism, differences in cultural upbringing — graphic designer Sanchia Hamidjaja has covered them all. Recently, I got to speak to her about her experiences as a creative professional in her home country, Indonesia, and her interest in shedding light on the…
HONG KONG: WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN BIG GOVERNMENT MAKES A BIG MISTAKE?
TOM PLATE WRITES — How should citizens react when Big Government does a bad thing that screams out for correction? One approach is to slip into denial and imagine nothing at all happened, because leaders are apt to err, so the best thing for your mental health is to look…
GULF GEOPOLITICS: WILL THE LACK OF UNITY ENTICE THE U.S. TO GO IT ALONE?
SENAY EMMANUEL WRITES — Last month, Arab leaders held an emergency summit in Mecca to address threats presented by Iran, following attacks on oil tankers off the coast of the United Arab Emirates. While Saudi Arabia described the attacks as “naked aggression,” Iran denied having anything to do with them.…
VET AND VETERAN ACTOR WES STUDI: ‘War may be hell—but peace can be a killer, too’
Actors of color have fought long and hard for cinematic breakthroughs— Sidney Poitier, the first African American Oscar winner (“Lilies of the Field, ” 1963); Ben Kingsley, the first Asian—he is half-Indian—to win an Oscar (“Gandhi,” 1982); and Hallee Berry, the first African American woman to win an Oscar (“Monster’s…
VETERANS OF ASIAN WARS: THE TERRIBLY SAD STORY THAT NEVER ENDS
ANDREA PLATE WRITES – For 15 years, I was a senior staff social worker at the United States federal government’s Department of Veterans Affairs—the country’s largest integrated healthcare system— in its largest branch, located in West Los Angeles, California. Each year, the system serves 9 million veterans nationwide. One summer…
CHINA: THE ABC’s – AND FYI’s — of Those Notorious VPNs
GUEST CONTRIBUTOR PAUL BISCHOFF – Cuisine, tech, and business aren’t all that China excels at – it also has one of the world’s premier internet censorship systems. The Great Firewall of China is made up of both technical controls and tight regulations that restrict what its internet users can access, and…