HONG KONG: LONG SENTENCES AND THE SHORT END OF THE STICK FOR FEMALE DRUG OFFENDERS
MONICA KELLY WRITES — Is prison population growth an indicator of justice in Asia? On November 2, Hong Kong officials announced a record-breaking seizure of over half-a-ton of methamphetamine reportedly worth $39 million USD. Drug trafficking is not new to Asia: the continent’s meth trade is estimated to be worth…
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SOUTH KOREA: POLITICAL WINDS HAVE SHIFTED ON CLIMATE CHANGE
MONICA KELLY WRITES — President Moon Jae-in announced last Wednesday that South Korea will be carbon neutral by 2050. This will be achieved through the Green New Deal – a multi-billion- dollar plan that will invest in energy technologies to create jobs and help curb greenhouse emissions. The hallmark plan…
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SOUTH KOREA: CAN THE FLU VACCINE KILL YOU?
SARA ALTUWAIJRI WRITES — The flu season is fast approaching. The South Korean medical establishment took steps to prevent a severe epidemic by giving out flu vaccines, but this took a tragic turn when more than 1500 elderly people died seven days after receiving it last year. This year there have been…
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SOUTH KOREA: LOCK ‘EM UP…FOR 14 DAYS OF COVID QUARANTINE
MALCOLM KAM WRITES — With the COVID-19 crisis, South Korea remains open to most incoming travelers as long as they participate in a 14-day quarantine. So if you are planning to visit South Korea, it is recommended that you check online for official information regarding the quarantine process (short-term foreign…
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CHINA-US TENSIONS: BIDEN SHOULD PRESS THE ‘PAUSE BUTTON’
KISHORE MAHBUBANI WRITES (courtesy of The Straits Times) — The first American president to enter my personal consciousness was John F. Kennedy. It wasn’t his stirring rhetoric that reached me as a child in Singapore. It was the news of his assassination. The sense of loss was globally palpable. History…
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US-CHINA RELATIONS: A SUCCESSFUL BIDEN PRESIDENCY NEEDS TO HEAL BILATERAL TIES AND RESPECT ALLIES
TOM PLATE WRITES — A re-released photo of Joe Biden, then U.S. vice-president, on the North-South Korean border, is being touted by some as evidence of embedded American imperial complacency. Yet it’s almost a required photo stop for American politicians who, as if some mountain-climbing Edmund Hilary, can never be happy…
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JAPAN: WHY SHOULDN’T THE EX-PRIME MINISTER HONOR THE DEAD?
TAYLOR BOSVELD WRITES – Why is there a war memorial in the middle of Tokyo honoring people who committed wartime atrocities? Why has the ex-Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, recently visited the war memorial for the second time in as many months since stepping down? The first visit drew…
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PAKISTAN: ISLAMOPHOBIA TAKES TO THE STREETS
LIAM ROGERS WRITES — The people and government of Pakistan are protesting French President Emmanuel Macron’s response to the killing of a French high school teacher, Samuel Paty, on October 16th, as well as Macron’s anti-separatism bill signed into law October 2. Meanwhile.the French government has begun closing mosques, naming…
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INDONESIA: CAN OPPORTUNITIES BE GAINED FROM THE US-CHINA TRADE WAR?
SIANY GUNAWAN WRITES – For Indonesia, the world’s two major trading partners -China and the US- and the multiplier effects of their trade war- have intensified pressure on Indonesia’s aim to accomplish its targeted growth goal in Jakarta. Yes, the US-China trade war could end up benefiting the Indonesian economy…
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CHINA: THE NEW ANIMATED FEATURE “OVER THE MOON” OUTSHINES “MULAN”
CADY-BREE ABE WRITES — Both audiences and critics alike are over the moon for, yes, Over the Moon, the newest computer animated feature to hit Netflix on October 23. The Chinese film, produced by Peilin Chou (“Kung Fu Panda,” “Abominable”), stars Chinese-Filipina actress/singer Cathy Ang as Fei Fei, American born…
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ARMENIA AND AZERBAIJAN: A BORDER THAT BORDERS ON PERPETUAL WAR
TIA CARR WRITES — On October 24, a humanitarian ceasefire was agreed to by Azerbaijan and Armenia, facilitated by the US State Department. Beginning at 8 AM the following day, Azeris and Armenians were legally obliged to lay down their weapons. Instead, a mere 45 minutes after the truce the…
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PHILIPPINES: PRESIDENT DUTERTE SCORES HIGH MARKS FROM FILIPINO FANS DESPITE LOW REGARD FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
LULU ALKHALIDI WRITES – In polls conducted by Pulse Asian between September 14 and September 20, the rating for Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte’s performance was 91%. The poll was of course conducted during the coronavirus pandemic, with 5% of the population giving a negative response while 4% were undecided. In…
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JAPAN’S MEDIA AND U.S. ELECTION: TEA, SYMPATHY AND LOW PROFILE
MARK SCHREIBER OF THE JAPAN TIMES WRITES — Four years ago, Japan’s tabloids and weeklies reported on the contest between Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and Republican nominee Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential election with unrestrained gusto. By this writer’s count, the volume of U.S. election coverage in Japan’s weeklies…
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KAZAKHSTAN: RACISM DISGUISED AS SATIRIC HUMOR IS NO LAUGHING MATTER
ELLA KELLEHER WRITES — Sacha Baron Cohen’s sequel, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2020), has sparked outrage and controversy among the Kazakh community online, which argues that the movie promotes an ugly portrayal of its native country.…
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LOOKING BACK: ‘LUST, CAUTION’ THE GREAT MOVIE
ELLA KELLEHER WRITES — Lust, Caution (2007) made by the visionary director, Ang Lee, is an erotic espionage film1 that begins in 1938, during the Second Sino-Japanese War. The story of this film has been believed by many to be inspired by true events and the life of a Chinese…
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BIDEN AND CHINA: ‘SLEEPY’ … OR POSITIVELY RESTLESS?
TOM PLATE WRITES — Change will come, it has to. But America’s hyper-confident commentariat has convinced itself that China-U.S. policy Democrat Joseph Biden, on track to become the 46th president of the United States, will be stuck in the cement of the New Coldness and would differ little from Trump’s.…
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