IV. International
(05-01-08)
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In most Asian
countries, the bulk of the crop is kept at home, because
rice is much more than a mere food. It is a strategic,
riot-generating political resource—an emotionally
resonant symbol of plentitude and proud self-reliance.
Economists and rice researchers expect that higher farm
prices should by autumn result in a sharp increase in
rice production across
Asia.
.
The largest rice-eating nations, e.g., China & India,
usually grow more than enough for domestic consumption.
The pan Asian surge in rice yields, though, has had a
perverse effect. It convinced many governments that they
no longer needed to invest in research and extensive
services to improve harvests.
.
Membership in Asia’s separate and unequal rice clubs
(importers & exporters) is determined by relative
amounts of land & water. The standout exporters are
Thailand,
Vietnam and Cambodia
which have fertile river deltas with land and climate
that are nearly perfect for rice cultivation. At the
other end are the importers, e.g., Indonesia,
Malaysia and Philippines, island nations with
limited land area, transport complications, problems
with typhoons and their long history in rice import.
.
Rice-growing nations are driving up prices from
producers that want to sell abroad. The Vietnam Food
Association asked members to stop signing export
contracts through June, following China which imposed a
5% tax on exports as of January 1. Egypt banned rice
shipments through October.
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The way to the political
future of three major South Asian countries now lies
through the stomachs of their poor millions. Escalating
food prices may have far-reaching consequences for
India,
Pakistan and
Bangladesh,
each of which is currently passing through a crucial
political phase.
.
Undeterred by shootings
& clashes, Nepalese embraced the country’s return
to democracy with millions voting in an election meant
to secure lasting peace in a land riveted by Communist
insurgents and an autocratic king.
. The
day-to-day lives of ordinary Tibetans in Xining, one of
the largest provinces of China, with one of the smallest
economies, show that resentments rooted in ethnicity &
culture are not far from the surface in towns & cities
outside the Tibet Autonomous Region.
. Boycotting
the Olympics is the wrong strategy with
China
regarding
Tibet. Don’t
mix the CCP with the Chinese people. The Olympics is an
event that gives China respect from the community of
nation, rather than legitimacy to the CCP. What happened
in Tibet is unacceptable, but humiliating the Chinese is
worse.
.
The president of the
International Olympics Committee (IOC), Jacques Rogge,
rebuked the Chinese government, calling on the
authorities to respect its moral engagement to improve
human rights and to provide the news media with greater
access to the country ahead of the
Beijing
Olympics.
. A Chinese
court sentenced former Communist Party chief (Chen
Liangyu Chen) to 18 years in prison, sparing him the
death penalty, for serious economic crimes, involving
misuse of about $400 million, a third of Shanghai’s
pension funds.
. In China,
stories of environmental pollution are common. Luoyang
Zhonggui High-Technology Co. in Henan province near the
Yellow River produces polysilicon destined for
solar energy panels sold around the world. But its
byproduct (silicon tetrachloride) is a highly
toxic substance that poses environmental hazards.
. Hu Jia, a
human rights activist and commentator, was tried in a
Beijing court on charges of inciting subversion against
the Chinese government through his writings on the
Internet. His lawyer (Li Fangping) complained he was
given only 20 minutes to defend Hu, not enough time to
mount a persuasive case.
. Taiwan’s
next president (Vincent Siew) sat down with the Chinese
leader Hu Jintao for a brief but historic chat raising
hopes that the rivals would ease decades of hostility.
. Taiwan
Semiconductor Mfg. Co, the world’s largest contract
chip maker will spend $5 billion to expand a
manufacturing plant in Hinchu, using the new production
lines as R&R center, a company spokesman said.
. Japan
Air Lines may seek financial compensation from
Boeing for delivery delays (3rd delay in
April) of its new 787 jetliners to replace the older
bulkier planes with the more fuel-efficient 787s in
August.
.
Japan executed 4
convicted murders, the second group to be hanged this
year in line with Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama’s
policy of reducing the death row population. The
execution brings to 10 the number of hangings under
Hatoyama.
.
Lee Kun-Lee, chairman of
the Samsung Group, was indicted for alleged tax
evasion and breach of trust. He resigned in disgrace
after apologizing to South Koreans for causing
“much grief.” Samsung officials said he would pay back
taxes and donate $2 billion of the hidden $4.5 billion
of stocks to “good causes” in
Korea.
.
South Korean judges released convicted executives
without requiring prison time, a recent study of
white-collar prosecution fraud in 82% of the cases. The
leniency can be traced in most from a judge’s
determination that a corporate defendant has contributed
to the growth of
South Korea’s
economy.
.
Conservatives, allied with South Korea’s president,
claimed a Parliamentary majority boosting the
government’s plans to revive the economy, embrace the US
and take a firmer line with North Korea.
. North Korea
is one of the 5 nations on the list of state sponsors of
terrorism which makes it subject to sever export
controls, particularly of dual-use technology & military
equipment. These controls prohibit much foreign aid &
obligate US to oppose financial assistance for it from
the World Bank & Intl. Monetary Fund.
.
US is prepared to lift 2
key economic sanctions against North Korea under a
tentative deal reached with that country, requiring
Pyongyang to acknowledge US concerns & evidence about a
range of nuclear activities, US and Asian diplomats
said.
. Diplomats
say Japan is upset that North Korea may be taken off the
terrorist list before questions are resolved about North
Korea’s abductions of Japanese citizens. In its 2004
report, the US State Department said the kidnapping
issue was a factor in North Korea’s inclusion in the
list, but in recent months the administration has
steadily unlinked the 2 issues.
.
Birth and poverty rates
in the
Philippines
(RP) are among the highest in Asia, where 4 out of 5 of
the country’s 91 million people are Catholics, also
stand out in Asia for its government rejection of modern
contraception as part of family planning.
.
Rice self-sufficiency in RP is defined by history,
weather and a population growth that is among the
highest in Asia.
It has always imported rice in the last 100 years, said
the executive director (Rolando Dy) of the Center for
Food & Agribusiness at Manila’s University of Asia in
the Pacific.
.
Filipino consumers have paid higher prices for rice than
people in countries where the grain is grown more
efficiently. Still, local farmers are falling further
behind the rice-consuming demand of a country where the
poor eat more rice per capita than the rich or
middle-class and are the fastest-growing segment of
society.
. The
biggest investment impediment to RP is the prospect of
social explosion. When too many people are brutalized &
dehumanized by poverty, the country encounters periods
of instability and disorder. The higher the political
risks, the lesser are the chances of attracting foreign
investments, which are the easiest to scare.
.
Across
Thailand,
thousands of people live without access to rights &
government services because they are simply not listed
on a household registration list. This list determines a
person’s official citizenship status under Thai law.
Persons unregistered at birth for a variety of reasons
cannot apply for a driver’s license, are ineligible for
university admission, no access to healthcare & other
welfare services, and cannot legally travel outside of
their province.
.
Illegal immigrants (54
in number), most of them women (37 women/17 men),
suffocated in the back of an unventilated truck in S.
Thailand while being smuggled toward the resort island
of Phuket, police
said.
.
About a million people from desperately poor Burma are
registered to work in Thailand, while an additional
million are estimated to be working illegally. Large
numbers of illegal immigrants who came to Thailand are
from its other poor neighbors, e.g.,
Laos
and Cambodia.
.
The Indonesian
government’s crackdown on Jemaah Islamiyah has resulted
in hundreds of arrests in recent years, thanks partly to
forensic and technical help from foreign governments.
. Malaysia
will withdraw its unarmed peacekeepers from the southern
Philippine region of Mindanao in September dealing a
blow to multi-national efforts to secure peace in a
region troubled by nearly 40 years of conflict. Libya
and Brunei also have small contingents in the monitoring
team.
.
A crowd of Chinese onlookers chided and hit members of a
Japanese family with inflated plastic bats after the
three unfurled a Tibetan flag before the start of the
Malaysian part of the Olympic tour relay.
.
Chip designer ARM
has extended its design center in
Bangalore,
India,
adding room to double the number of staff there to 700
from the 350 it currently employs.
.
Pakistan’s new
government introduced a bill to lift curbs on the mass
media, its first legislative move to loosen controls
imposed by Pres. Pervez Musharraf under a state
emergency.
.
The international aid
group Action against Hunger has pulled out of
Sri Lanka
saying it has no trust in a government investigation
into the massacre of its workers nearly two yeas ago, a
spokeswoman said.
. Fighting
has occurred in recent months following the government’s
promises to capture the rebels’ de facto state in
the north and crush them by the end of the year. But
diplomats and other observers said the army was facing
more resistance than it expected.
