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Arms export by Japan
Should the world let painful history repeat itself? Step by carefully calculated step, Japan is moving toward becoming a military power ― as it was 70 years ago. Nothing shows this better than Tokyo’s decision Tuesday to throw away its 46-year-old ban on the export of weapons and military hardware.…
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East Asia
Can South Korea unify North Korea by absorption?
Lessons to be learned from Crimean crisis The unrolling Ukrainian crisis has been in the news a lot of late. The recent succession of Crimea can be seen in various ways, but it seems that this dramatic event hints at one possible scenario of Korea’s future. Indeed, why did Crimea…
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West Asia
A forgotten story of rebellion in British Raj
“Once upon a time” the British ruled in the Indian sub-continent. I find this phrase “once upon a time” rather interesting in our context. It creates a distance between the events of the story and the reader: distance in time, connection or direct relevancy. Today, the history of the sub-continent…
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South East Asia
Satellite TV channels boom in Bangladesh
While a satellite TV broadcasting policy is under consideration by the government, the private satellite television sector in Bangladesh has been flourishing day by day. These TV channels were established with the primary aim to transmit news and entertainment, and the network of channels has been expanding with a continuous…
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East Asia
S. Korea blasts Japan for history distortion at UN debate
South Korea blasted Japan’s distorted view of history at a U.N. Security Council open debate on “War, its lessons, and the search for a permanent peace,” on Jan 29. 2014. China and North Korea also voiced criticism over Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s recent visit to the Yasukuni Shrine. Below…
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South Asia
Gold for garbage: Innovative way of waste management
Twenty years back people laughed at Ms. Nargis Latif, who hails from a well-off family of Karachi, when she started collecting municipal waste for recycling and propagated the slogan “waste for gold” as an idea aimed to create self-employment opportunities and get rid of environmental problems. Even though she did…
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East Asia
Confederation or instant unification
Over the last few months we have seen a number of signals which indicate that Marshall Kim Jong Un, the young North Korean dictator, is really serious about changing his country. Most likely, he wants to turn his country into a mini-China, where cutthroat capitalism will be practiced under the…
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South East Asia
Aung San Suu Kyi for President?
Recent signs point to Aung San Suu Kyi being able to vie for president in the 2015 elections. First, the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) has formally proposed amending a proviso in the constitution that bars her from being a candidate for the top leadership post. Clause 59(f)…
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South East Asia
Hasina wins election: political conflict persists
The Bangladesh Awami League (AL) president Sheikh Hasina has become the prime minister of the government again for the third time, as her party has achieved massive victory in the just-concluded parliament elections. The AL secured 232 seats in the 300-seat unicameral Jatiya Sangsad (parliament). Sheikh Hasina, who was sworn…
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What N. Korea’s peace proposal means
A train runs on the rail track, which the two Koreas hope to reconnect as part of an agreement reached in 2000, in the fog at the Imjingak Pavilion near the border village of Panmunjom, which has separated the two Koreas since the Korean War, in Paju, South Korea, Saturday,…
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