IV. International (01-02-08)
.
For a repressive police
state, Burma
has curiously porous borders. Along the water border
with Thailand, legions of displaced farmers, smugglers
and army deserters slip back and forth with little
trouble and no paperwork.
.
Taiwan’s
high court cleared opposition presidential candidate Ma
Ying-jeon of graft charges, securing a place for the
former Taipei mayor in the March elections.
. Hindu
extremists ransacked and burned eight rural churches
in eastern India, marring Christmas celebrations in a
corner of the country with a history of violence against
Christians, officials said.
.
China and India
began a small joint military exercise, the first time
the 2 countries have cooperated militarily at that high
level. The past rivals, who fought a brief war over a
border dispute in 1962, have grown even closer in recent
years, mostly due to burgeoning trade ties, reported the
Agence France-Presse.
.
Japanese manufacturer Toto apologizes to
customers and offer free repairs for 180k high-tech
toilets-thrones that feature heated seats, air
purifiers, blow dryers and water sprayers, after at
least 3 caught fire.
. In recent
years, the camps that Lashkar (Pakistan) once used
primarily to train Pakistanis to fight for
Kashmir
have increasingly become a training ground for other
militant groups and extremists who come from around the
world to learn guerrilla warfare, said former & current
US & allied counter-terrorism experts.
. China
pledged that its
worldwide research for oil and gas to power a booming
economy will be carried out in a spirit of fair play and
international cooperation so as not to disrupt sensitive
international markets.
.
It is the world’s second-largest
coal producer with 2.21 billion tons mined in 2006. With
reserves of 1,034.5 billion tons or 13% of the world’s
known total in 2006, the country cannot afford to ignore
this traditional energy source despite the pollution it
produces.
. The
Chinese army has come a long way. It was most
readily associated with the shooting of protesters in
Tienanmen Square 18 years ago and increasingly helping
in relief efforts after floods and other natural
disasters. The army has also been the driving force
behind recent achievements in space exploration.
.
Japanese P.M. Yasuo
Fukuda arrived in
Beijing on a 4-day visit
for talks with Chinese leaders in a bid to improve ties
strained by wartime memories. They are expected to focus
attention on economic and environmental cooperation
measures, including transfer of Japan’s waste-cutting,
energy-saving and low-pollution technology.
. Fifty-five
million years ago the world’s climate was
catastrophically changed when volcanoes melted natural
gas frozen in the seabed. Now
Japan
plans to drill for the same icy crystals to end its
reliance on imported energy. Its liquefied natural gas
import bill last year was $23.3 billion.
.
Billions of tons of methane hydrate, frozen chunks of
chemical-laced water buried in sediment some 3k years
ago under the Pacific Ocean floor, may help Japanese
energy independence from the Middle East and Indonesia.
Japanese engineers have found enough “flammable ice” to
meet its gas use demands for 14 years.
. North
Korea indicated slowing the disablement of its
nuclear facilities because of what it said was a delay
in receiving economic aid under an international deal.
US, SK, Japan, China and Russia have pledged economic
compensation for disabling its nuclear facilities by the
end of 2007.
. The former
mayor of Seoul (Lee Myung-bak) was elected president of
South Korea.
He built his campaign around his own inspiring narrative
of bootstrap prosperity. His life story resonates in
this rags-to-riches nation, destitute at the end of the
Korean War but now the world’s 13th largest
economy.
. The mergers
and acquisitions market is expected to heat up this year
as the incoming administration vows to speed up the sale
of government stakes in big name companies.
.
In RP, who is to blame
for running up the country’s massive public debt to more
than 70% of the GDP, in spite of which abject poverty
continues to rise; 1/3 of the population (23
million) subsist on les than $1 a day, an ever-larger
number f its population are forced to find work abroad
and support relatives left behind?
.
President GMA is pushing for OFWs to pay taxes, despite
the absence of adequate services and protection at home
and abroad, propagating a big lie by indirectly blaming
them for the fiscal crisis and poor tax collection.
Meanwhile, big-time tax evaders, like Lucio Tan, go
unscathed.
.
The Philippine car industry has yet to recover
from the Asian financial crisis as it still faces weak
domestic demand and competition from used imported
vehicles, the Philippine Institute for Development
Studies (PIDS) said.
.
Ousted P.M. Thaksin
Shinawatra will make Hong Kong his Asian base as he
plots a triumphant return to
Thailand,
reported the South China Morning Post. He
announced he will return to Thailand between Feb and
April,, and would prove his innocence of corruption
charges laid against him by the military junta and the
courts after he was
deposed.
.
The deposed prime
minister will be arrested if he returns from self-exile
as planned, even if his victorious allies form a
government following last weekend’s general election,
officials said.
.
Amulets consecrate by the late Luang Poo Jiam of Wat
Intrasukaram have become a compulsory uniform accessory
for about 4k soldiers from the Northeast deployed in
Pattani. They have been ordered to wear the amulets at
all times or face punishment of 3 nights behind bars.
.
Despite
Vietnam’s
largest initial public offering of the State-owned Bank
for Foreign Trade of Vietnam, or Vietcombank, with its
97.5 million shares being on offer, its impact on the
national stock market is not clear.
.
The economy grew at its
highest rate for a decade, 8.5% and was achieved despite
the cruel blow of its first drought and then successive
late-in-the-year floods.
.
Top ten economic events in 2007: 1) A year of
record growth (at 8.44%, a record for past decade); 2)
Exports up 21.5%; 3) Foreign investments record
high (at $5.4 billion); 4) Stock market
capitalization at 45% of GDP; 5) Record foreign
tourists at 4 million; 6) Inflation blamed
rapidly on rising food and fuel costs; 7)
VietJetAir became first private airline; 8) Ten
years online with 18 million Internet users, accounting
for 21.6% of population, compared with 18.7% in the
world and 12.4% in Asia; 9) Collapse of Can Tho
bridge under construction; 10) Great losses in
lives and property in central region caused by storms
and flooding.
.
President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono urged the mass planting of trees throughout
Indonesia
as rescuers dug with their hands through mud for
survivors from a landslide that killed at least 67
people, said the Sydney Morning Herald,
while tens of thousands were forced from their homes.
.
Upstream oil & gas
regulator BPMigas says it is upbeat about achieving this
year’s oil exploration target, although last year’s
output expectation was not achieved. Chevron, which
produced 415k barrels of oil per day last year,
(almost half of the country’s production), is expected
to raise output to 441k barrel a day.
. With its
high population but low telephone penetration rate,
Indonesia remains among the new lucrative in the world.
But lack of clear regulations has created confusion
among operators and the public.
.
How many jobs have the
left the US for
India is open to debate. Congress has ordered a GAO
study & the IT Assn of America has commissioned a
Nobel-winning economist to do the same. Both reports are
due in 2008.
.
The number is high and is moving far beyond
telemarketing and other low-level, back-office work.
Some of America’s biggest technology companies, from
Oracle and Intel to Hewlett-Packard and IBM, employ
thousands in
India and
have plans to double & triple their offshore engineering
work force.
.
Its call-center industry has added nearly 200k workers
since March 2002 and will reach total employment of 350k
by early 2008, said researchers at Stanford U. Some
predict more sophisticated work is on the way. US banks,
brokerage firms, insurance companies and mutual funds
will send 560k or 8% of their workforce offshore within
the next 5 years, according to consulting firm A.T.
Kearney. Every job sent to India saves financial
companies $25k annually, the firm said.
.
Despite obtaining higher marks in examinations and
performing better at workplaces, women are finding out
it is increasingly difficult to get promoted to top jobs
in both public and private sectors, a new survey by the
Associated Chamber of Commerce and Industry of India
(AssoCham) reveals. Just 3.3% of women are elected to
top positions while the vast majority (78.9%) continues
to grind at junior levels. At the mid-level are 17.7% of
the women surveyed. Consequently more women in the metro
areas are opting for self-employment.
.
Benazir Bhutto
was a frivolously wealthy feudal landlord amid bleak
poverty. The scion of a thieving political dynasty, she
was always more concerned with power than with the
well-being of the average Pakistani. Her program
remained one of old-scene patronage, not increased
productivity or social decency. During her years as rime
minister,
Pakistan went
backwards. Her husband looted shamelessly and ended up
fleeing the country pursued by the courts. The Islamist
threat, which she artfully played both ways, spread like
cancer.
.
In a culture of insatiable ambition, she will now become
a martyr. In death, she may pay back some of the
enormous debt she owes her country. After the inevitable
rioting subsides and the spectacular conspiracy theories
cool a bit, her murder may galvanize Pakistanis against
the extremists who’ve never found great support among
voters, but who nonetheless threaten the state’s ability
to govern.
.
Bhutto may shine as a rallying symbol with a far purer
light than she cast while alive. The bitter joke is
that, while she was never serious about freedom, women’s
rights and fighting terrorism, the terrorists took her
rhetoric seriously—and killed her for her words, not her
actions.
