BRODIE PAUL AND WILLIAM MELLOR WRITE (from the Foreign Correspondence Club of Hong Kong) – One of Asia Pacific’s most distinguished foreign correspondents, two-time FCC President and life member Anthony Paul, passed away in Brisbane on July 14, aged 81. Partially obscured, Tony Paul in the shadow of Ambassador Graham…
TOM PLATE WRITES – Thanks to an inspiring visit by the National Committee on North Korea, a handful of staffers – not to mention their prof – may have learned more about the intricacies of the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea and its regional relationships in two hours than in…
TOM PLATE WRITES – Exquisite food was only the half of it, but what a fabulous half it was. A multi-course lunch at Hermitage in Jakarta (www.hermitagejakarta.com/dining) set the table for Asia Media International’s first mini-reunion in Jakarta, Indonesia, where Loyola Marymount University has a lively and loyal alumni contingent…
SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST COLUMNIST TOM PLATE WRITES – To appreciate the sageuk drama unfolding on the Korean Peninsula, understand that not just two Korean entities have starring roles in history’s cast but three. The first is the Republic of Korea of the south – developmentally accomplished, politically volatile. The…
TOM PLATE WRITES — Tom Wolfe, who had little to say about Asia alone but whose novels and journalism had everything to do with how we all live today, on whatever continent, in this messed-up globalized world, was the love of magazine editors. He was famous among them for never…
TOM PLATE WRITES — The first thing that must be said to Dr Mahathir Mohamad and his Bersatu party for their stunning ejection of the greedy incumbent prime minister is simply this: Congratulations! Sometimes politics is fiendishly complicated, but in this case it is not. The voters of the Republic…
ASIA MEDIA WRITES — Thanks to Loyola Marymount University Asia Media staff initiative, our video department is undergoing ambitious expansion. Please check out https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC187IodwIc6m8Yc0QBXyUfQ/about. The video effort is being led by staffers Deng (‘Momokoo’) Yuchan and Epiphany K.Hulburd. Both exceptionally talented students are majoring in Film and Television Production in…
“I have noticed that even people who claim everything is predetermined and that we can do nothing to change it, look before they cross the road.” – Cosmologist Stephen Hawking
THE BRITISH BROADCASTING CORP. CARRIE GRACIE –Dear BBC Audience: My name is Carrie Gracie and I have been a BBC journalist for three decades. With great regret, I have left my post as China Editor to speak out publicly on a crisis of trust at the BBC. The BBC belongs…
TOM PLATE WRITES -If you’d like a snapshot of the current state of US diplomacy versus the state of PRC diplomacy, simply compare how the two top diplomats of each country are doing. Not so good for the American side: whereas the foreign minister of China looks well-suited, secure and…
TOM PLATE WRITES — To what does Mr Xi Jinping truly aspire? Who does China’s ‘paramount leader’ think he is? Mr Xi Jinping doesn’t need fawning media coverage to mislead him into believing something he may or may not be. Whether China’s president is crowned person-of-the-year by a self-important U.S.…
S PROF TOM PLATE WRITES — Despite not having before his all-seeing eyes the example of Donald J. Trump, the 17th century philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal came to the conclusion: “All human evil comes from a single cause, man’s inability to sit still in a room.” Next week, our…
TOM PLATE WRITES – How sad is the ongoing family quarrel in otherwise brilliant Singapore? On my first trip to Singapore, as a Los Angeles Times columnist, which featured my first interview with Lee Kuan Yew, then titled senior minister, I returned home feeling I had seen something special and…
TOM PLATE WRITES – The rude acidity of the Trump administration’s slap-down of the largely symbolic Paris Climate Accord has stung eyes and optimisms around the world. We move from having a U.S. president known for “leading from behind,” as the Obama hyper-caution was termed, to a successor who proposes…
TOM PLATE WRITES – International relations gets advertised and promoted by international-relations theorists as it were insanely complicated. But simply saying so doesn’t make it so. Sometimes it is all quite simple, and not in the least insane. For those who live in a neighborhood of nations with those allegedly…
AMI FOUNDER TOM PLATE WRITES – Last week the 45th President of the United States paid proper tribute to the People’s Republic of China – which, by the way, would have been a whirlwind week for the Trump Administration even without the big-deal dinner for leader Xi Jinping. And though…
