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East Asia
Senior Korean diplomat found unconscious with brain bleed in Singapore
One of South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s key staffers has collapsed with an apparent brain bleed while the president and state executives were in Singapore for this year’s annual ASEAN Summit. Moon broke the news on Friday. He said Kim Eun-young, the director-general of the South Asia and Pacific Foreign…
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East Asia
Turning to Religion: Indonesia’s Widodo Plays the Islamic Card
Back in late 2009, a former military colleague of Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was asked whether Indonesia would see the emergence of a new and more dynamic leader now that Yudhoyono was entering a second and mandated final term with nothing to lose and the economy riding the crest…
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South East Asia
Singapore and Populism
A newspaper columnist who deigned to lecture government ministers for speaking over the head of common folk was, in turn, chided for appealing to populism that is anathema to the ruling People’s Action Party, as it smacks of politics of free lunches. “Ministers, please speak plainly to people” was the…
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East Asia
A Populist Wind is Blowing on Italy
On March 2018, during the last general election, Italy elected a populist government. With the law professor Giuseppe Conte as the head of the coalition cabinet, the far-right League (1989) led by Matteo Salvini and the post-ideological Five Star Movement (2005) led by Luigi Di Maio are running the country.…
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South Asia
Populism in Pakistan: Myth and Reality
“Populist promises to reverse every tough decision are nothing but empty rhetoric, irresponsible leadership, and bad politics. They are not the solution to Ireland’s problems”, Enda Kenny, an Irish politician, had once said. His saying could be applied to Pakistan in its entirety if the word ‘Ireland’ is replaced with…
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East Asia
Summit Misdirection: Trump’s North Korea Ploy to Tackle Iran
US President Donald Trump’s summit meeting on North Korea’s nuclear weapons and his administration’s reversal of the multilateral nuclear deal with Iran negotiated under former President Barack Obama are being treated as separate matters. In this article, I suggest that the two events are related. Trump cares far more about…
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East Asia
Books to Read
Along with the last decade’s global trend of liberal retreat and authoritarian ascent, and as authoritarian states — China and Russia in particular — vigorously try to expand their influence across the globe, a new notion of “sharp power” has recently begun to attract attention. This refers to the ability…
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East Asia
South Koreans overuse antibiotics: World Health Organization
Antibiotic consumption is higher in South Korea, compared with most other members of the OECD, a club of mostly rich countries, according to a report revealed Monday. The World Health Organization’s (WHO) report on an overview of consumption of antibiotics around the world shows that South Korea used 27.68 defined…
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East Asia
K-Trend: Finished Korean college exam? Time for cosmetic ops
With Korea’s annual College Scholastic Ability Test for high school students and others wishing to go to universities set for this Thursday, many of those sitting tests are likely to have a common post-exam agenda ― getting their looks perked up with cosmetic surgery. The seasonal trend has been…
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East Asia
China always on the way to improve business environment
Improvement of the business environment is an on-going process, and there is always room for things to become better, Chinese President Xi Jinping remarked in a speech delivered at the opening ceremony of the first China International Import Expo (CIIE). Enterprises from around the world are tying the knot in…
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