IV. International
(11-15-07)
.
Half of
Asia’s
death from malaria occurs in
Burma.
A third of the children are malnourished; most of its
people live on less than $1 a day.
.
Armies of lobbyists descended on
Beijing
in anticipation of the 17th Communist
Party Congress that began in mid-October. The
gathering chose a new generation of leaders, setting the
political agenda for the next 5 years.
.
Southeast
Asia’s oceans
are fast running out of fish, putting the livelihood of
up to 100 million people at risk and increasing the need
for governments to support the maintenance of fish
stocks, said Garyl Williams of Australia’s Lowy
Institute.
.
Petro China
raised $8.94 billion from its initial public offering
(IPO) in Shanghai, making it
China’s
largest domestic IPO. The oil & gas company priced its
4 billion shares at $2.24 each, at the top end of the
indicative price range.
.
China-made toys seized in Hong Kong
were being tested last week after scientists in
Australia found that
similar ones contained a chemical that concerts into a
powerful “date rape” drug when ingested, officials said.
.
The number of people with HIV in mainland
China
rose by 3k month between 1/06 and 6/07. The Chinese
Center for
Disease Control & Prevention
said that as of 9/07, some 220k people from 31 provinces
and municipalities have reported HIV infection; about
55k developed AIDS.
.
With his month-old
government paralyzed, Japanese P.M. Yasuo
Fukuda made an unsuccessful offer to share power
with the opposition party that is causing the paralysis.
.
Japanese warships were
ordered home from the
Indian Ocean
after opposition lawmakers refused to support an
extension of their mission supporting US-led forces in
Afghanistan.
. A supposedly
recent attempt in Japan to fix a bid for a public
contract came undone when a company faxed the details of
who should win the city government (southern Miyasaki
prefecture) offering the job, said the Nishi Nippon
Shimbun news.
.
China is
Burma’s
leading arms supplier and trading partner, and has just
won the right to build a major oil pipeline there.
Beijing’s support for abusive governments would be
troubling under any circumstances, but its influence is
magnified because of its veto on the UN Security
Council to block international sanctions.
. Through the
years, people in Burma grew poorer and were stalked by
disease and malnutrition. Schools and hospitals crumbled
from neglect. Insurgencies raged along the rugged
borders. The only real constant has been the Junta
which usurped power in 1962 and has run a promising
nation to the ground.
.
The brutal military crackdown has shattered the
relationship between the generals and the monks. The
regime has spent years building new pagodas and donating
alms to cultivate its image as protection of the faith.
It can hardly claim that role now.
.
From among a crowd of
between 20k to 50k demonstrators, South Korean
farmers clashed with riot police at a massive rally
against a free trade deal with the
US. They are worried the
deal would lead to US produce pouring into the country,
threatening their livelihoods.
.
Unfavorable exchange rates significantly reduced the
operating profits of South Korea’s small and
medium exporters (211 companies out of 650 surveyed
= 32.5% due to sharp appreciation of Korean won against
US dollar) in first half of this year, said Korea
Export Insurance Corp last week.
.
Overall US meat exports were estimated to fall this year
and next despite higher productions, partly because of
suspension of exports to South Korea, the latest report
by USDA (Dept of Agriculture) said.
. Philippine
politics is jumping from the frying pan to the fire,
with corruption reeking to the high heavens, from the
top, with 10 million of its citizens working abroad,
scattered in 190 countries worldwide, and sending back
to their families $15 billion in annual remittances.
.
The hands of Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo are tied to
allowing corrupt bureaucrats to get away with massive
corruption, e.g., NBN contract because either she or
members of her family share in the loot, or the corrupt
bureaucrats know too much about her past, e.g.,
electoral fraud in 2000 & 2004 to be untouchable.
.
The FBI, the Australian Federal police and an Israeli
consultant at Nonoy
Aquino
International Airport have apparently (and separately)
concluded that the Glorietta blast (10/19) was caused by
accidental gas explosion, and not to presage martial law
or divert people’s attention to scandals of GMA’s
administration.
.
Burma’s
military government ordered the expulsion of the top UN
representative in the country (Charles Petrie, a French
national who works for the UN Development Program,
exposing anger over his public endorsement of the
country’s pro-democracy protests.
.
Ranging from the Asia Times to South China
Morning Post to a collection of western bloggers,
they make the claim that various WDC-based agencies and
a few key political actors are actually pulling the
strings in the Burmese uprising.
.
The Burmese army is forcibly forcing children to cover
gaps left by a lack of adult recruits says a report by
a US-based human rights organization. Human Rights
Watch (HRW) says children as young as 10 are beaten
or threatened with arrest to make them enlist.
.
. Malaysia’s
opposition and human rights groups condemned authorities
last week for attempting to suppress the biggest
political rally in a decade with tear gas, water cannon
and arrests; 30k protesters marched to the royal palace
where they were briefly addressed by dissident former
Deputy Premier Anwar Ibrahim.
.
P.M. Abdullah Ahmad Badawi urged the country’s majority
Muslims to respect other religions, an apparent effort
to placate minorities and diffuse racial tensions ahead
of a snap general election (not due till 2009, but P.M.
is expected to seek fresh mandate in early 2008).
.
Malaysian conglomerate MMC Corporation has signed
a deal to take part in a joint venture project to
develop a $535 million container terminal at
Jeddah Port
in Saudi Arabia.
.
Volcanic eruption is not
unusual in
Indonesia
which has about 70 active volcanoes. One of them, Anak
Krakatau, blasted a gigantic cloud of smoke and flaming
red rocks hundreds of meters into the sky last week. It
rose from the sea decades ago when an underwater
eruption in the late 1920s led to its birth.
.
In the latest & largest of a string of controversial
acquittals, an Indonesian timber baron (Adelin Lis) has
walked away from illegal-logging charges, prompting an
outcry from environmentalists. Because of logging, land
clearing and forest degradation, it is the world’s 3rd
biggest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.
.
Land clearances in Indonesia to meet the growing global
demand for palm oil pose a serious threat to the
environment, a BBC report has warned. Forests are
being burned and pet wetlands drained for plantations,
causing the release of carbon dioxide into the
atmosphere, Greenpeace said.
.
Japan’s Mitsubishi wants to build a factory to
make light aircraft parts in Thang Long Industrial
Park in Hanoi as a prelude to the manufacture of
civil aircraft in Vietnam, P.M. Nguyen Tan Dung
was told.
.
The Song Da Corporation inked a VND13.4 trillion
($837.5 million) contract with the management board of
the Son La hydroelectric power plant project to
make the company the plant’s developer.
. It is much
easier for businesses to access credit in Vietnam
because of improved regulations and the growth of joint
stock commercial banks, economists said.
. Most
National Assembly deputies of the Hanoi delegation
agreed last week that State property should be available
for hire to avoid waste and raise revenue.
. India’s
stock market continued its relentless climb as investors
bet that an unexpected interest rate cut by the US
Federal Reserve will stimulate global equity
investment.
.
Dubai
plans to deport 1k construction workers, mainly from
India, if they continue to strike over pay and living
conditions. The workers live in dormitory-style rooms
inside makeshift camps, often with poor sanitation and
lacking basic services.
. Will
Manmohan Singh be able to do a George Bush to save
the nuclear deal between two strategic partners? Will
India witness in coming days the buildup of a partisan
consensus on the deal as the US did some months ago?
.
Rather than use the more
than $7 billion in
US
military aid to bolster its counter-terrorism
capabilities,
Pakistan has
spent the bulk of it on heavy arms, aircraft and
equipment that US officials say are far more suited for
conventional warfare with India, its regional rival.
.
While Gen. Pervez Musharraf justified his emerging rule
decree as helping combat terrorism, it could end up
weakening his ability to rein in the al Quaeda militants
who ultimately threaten America’s interests. Each step
he takes to strengthen his hold on power in the name of
stability seems to generate instability of its own.
. Pres.
Musharraf said new elections will be held as early as
the first week of Jan. 2008. He said imposing the
emergency had been his most difficult decision. US & *UK
cautiously welcomed the move and opposition head Benazir
Bhutto called it a “first positive step.”
. Sri Lanka
struck a major blow against the Tamil Tigers,
killing the rebels’ political chief (S.P.Thamilselvan)
and top peace negotiator in a surgical government
strike.
.
Sri Lanka’s environmentalists, civil society and
academics are opposing attempts to destroy the remaining
forest cover and plant sugar cane, a crop that is
associated with poverty and repeated failure in
the island.
.
Sri Lanka, which has the 6th highest
software piracy rate in the world, has suffered $86
million in retail revenue earnings. A global study
reveals that it has the 2nd highest
software piracy rate in
Asia.
