Asia Media International Founder Tom Plate was interviewed Friday Nov, 4 by the Associated Press of Australia about the coming U.S. national elections Tuesday. The key question was, obviously, the probable effect of a Trump victory as compared to a Clinton victory. Said Plate, a columnist for the South China…
Category: Asia Pacific
AUSTRALIA: A DRY SPELL FOR AUSTRALIAN TRAVELERS?
JAMES ROYCE WRITES — Indonesia has long been the premier year-round vacation destination for millions of traveling Australians, especially among those looking to escape high-alcohol prices and expensive party lifestyles in their native home country. From Sydney Airport, a flight from from Sydney Airport to Ngurah Rai International Airport in…
AUSTRALIA: THE WAY TO DEAL WITH CHINA
Former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating (1991-1996, pictured right) offers a crystal-clear vision of China’s rise in Asia in a deeply thought-provoking interview with Kerry O’Brien, one of Australia’s most respected journalists. The hour-long radio session with the highly informed, forward-thinking Keating, now 72, covers a valuable range of topics,…
AUSTRALIA: CHINESE MEDIA TARGETS AUSTRALIA OVER SOUTH CHINA SEA
JAMES ROYCE WRITES — Chinese state-run media has recently gone out of its way to label Australia as “an ideal target for China to warn and strike,” if it ventures into the continually-contested South China Sea. The Global Times, known for its hardline nationalist stance, blasted Canberra early last month…
AUSTRALIA: Welcome Back Malcolm, Now Get To Work.
JAMES ROYCE WRITES — After one of the longest election campaigns in national history, fittingly concluded with a week-long results-counting cliff hanger, Australia is welcoming back Malcolm Turnbull as its 29th prime minister. Despite running both a widely criticized and altogether lackluster campaign, Turnbull and his Coalition successfully scraped back…
AUSTRALIA: WOE IS OUR WEB SPEED
JAMES ROYCE WRITES —You’d think Australia — a rich, resourceful, forward-thinking country surrounded by Asian neighbors — would have broadband speeds comparable to or better than most. Sadly you’d think wrong. It wasn’t quite enough of an issue to push the ruling coalition out of power in Australia’s recent federal…
AUSTRALIA: Trump Spells Bad Times for Australian Peace of Mind
MERLIN EVANS WRITES – A US Presidential election victory for Donald Trump could force Australia to more than double its defense budget. A former defense official who now heads the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), Peter Jennings, warned the reduction in US involvement in Asia that Trump proposes would force the…
AUSTRALIA: Friendly Reminder From Aussie Media to US – Elections are ‘Not a Game Show’
JAMES ROYCE WRITES — Unless you have spent the last couple months under a rock, you’ve been keeping up with, or at least have heard about, the wild presidential election currently going on within the United States. And although Australia’s capital of Canberra is located more than 16,000 kilometers away…
AUSTRALIA: The High Price of Cheap Labor
JAMES ROYCE WRITES — A bad day of surfing might be better than a good day of working, but Australian surf wear brand Rip Curl is experiencing neither of these pleasures after admitting to using factories in North Korea, where work conditions are reminiscent of slave labor, to create the…
AUSTRALIA: Big Brewhaha Over Foster’s Beer
JAMES ROYCE WRITES — Cracking open a cold one is a beloved tradition down under, but one U.S. man is calling into question the Aussie integrity of Foster’s lager. Leif Nelson, a self-proclaimed New York City beer aficionado, has filed a lawsuit against Miller Brewing Co. in U.S. District Court.…
AUSTRALIA: To Find Asia’s Newest Tech Hub, Just Look Down Under
JAMES ROYCE WRITES – Cities like Tokyo, Beijing and Seoul have long fought to attract technology funders, firms and talent. But there’s a new kid on the block, and it woos with an Aussie accent. Melbourne, Australia used to be internationally recognized solely for being the most ‘livable’ city in…
AUSTRALIA: Online Piracy Starting to Feel the “Netflix Effect”
JAMES ROYCE WRITES — Piracy rates in Australia have dropped in recent months, and the introduction of Netflix this March might be the culprit. The video streaming giant sees itself as a key competitor to the many pirate sites and services that offer video content illegally around the world. By…
AUSTRALIA: Greste Prepares for “Left Off”…of Pardon List
JAMES ROYCE WRITES – Australian Al Jazeera journalist Peter Greste may have been freed from Egyptian prison last February, but his name was not present on a list of 100 pardons released by Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi earlier this week. The decision made by President Sisi came a day…
NEW ZEALAND: Ahoy! Piracy on the Rise
VERONICA BANEZ WRITES – Is piracy becoming too big of a problem? Some may argue that pirating movies off the Internet is simply nothing more than a form of free entertainment. After all, why pay so much money to watch a movie when one can simply get it online for…
NEW ZEALAND: The Rise of Convenient Entertainment
VERONICA BANEZ WRITES – Lightbox, Neon, Netflix, Quickflix, Sky TV. These are only a few of the many streaming movie and television services that are provided in New Zealand. James Croot and Blayne Slabbert, writers for the website Stuff.com, really put into perspective the wide range of differences between all…
AUSTRALIA: Pranking Leads to Chilled Speech
KAYLA DE BONDT WRITES – The Australian high court has cleared the way for a Sydney radio station to face charges for an on-air stunt which ultimately led to the suicide of a pranked nurse. In the process, the court backed the power of the country’s media watchdog to identify criminal…