IV. International
(06-16-08)
.
Celebrations continue in
South Asia
(Nepal and Pakistan) which has just witnessed the
defeat of dictatorship. But the war for democracy is yet
to be a fully and friendly war. Popular movements and
mandates have yet to put away a period of issues
involving personalities that symbolize a discredited
past.
. In a giant
statement from the Group of Eight countries,
joined by China, India and South Korea, urged oil
producers to boost output, which has stalled at about 85
million barrels a day since 2005, and called for
cooperation between buyers and producers.
. Led by
Japan, Asian countries pursued export growth with
undervalued exchange rates that favored some industries
over others. Good government is selective; some
fast-growing societies tolerated much corruption.
.
Nearly 70 dams scarred
by the force of China’s most powerful earthquake
in 3 decades were in danger of bursting, the government
said last month, while looming rains added to worries
about relief efforts for millions of homeless survivors.
.
On the 19th anniversary
of China’s bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters
in Tienanmen Square, civil rights activists are calling
on the country to release more than 100 prisoners from
the 1989 protests as a sign of its commitment to improve
human rights ahead of this Summer Olympics.
. Police in
China’s Sichuan province forcefully removed more than
100 parents protesting the death of their children in a
poorly constructed school that collapsed in last month’s
earthquake.
.
Greatest priority to CCP in the aftermath of the recent
earthquake is how to reconcile with action their boast
that they are there to save the people. Unfortunately,
the people consider this as nothing more than an empty
slogan.
. With as
many as 1 million earthquake survivors in urgent need of
housing, China is beginning to rebuild from scratch. In
Sichuan province workers are erecting a new town of
blue-roofed for 20,000 people in Beichuan, a town wiped
out by the 7.9 magnitude earthquake.
.
When
Japan
was threatened by soaring oil prices in the 1970s, its
response was swift, smart and successful. It became the
developed world’s most efficient user of energy, thanks
to government leadership, engineering skills and
conservative efforts.
.
It has the highest proportion of people older than 65
and the smallest proportion of children younger than 15.
Without immigration in substantial numbers, it will soon
run perilously low on people of working age. Among the
developed countries, it is near the bottom in the number
of foreign-born residents (1.6%) vis-à-vis the US (12%).
The largest number comes from
Korea, followed by China
and Brazil.
.
If their politicians do not want to talk about
immigration, the other way left for Japan to slow down
population decline and maintain its workforce is to
persuade more Japanese women to marry, have children and
remain on the job. It struggles to pay the pension and
healthcare costs of the world’s oldest population, with
a debt burden of 180% of its GNP, the highest ever
recorded by a developed country.
.
Japanese youngsters are
getting addicted to the Internet—linking cell phones
that the government is starting a program warning
parents and schools to limit their use among children.
. A man (Tomohiro
Kato) accused of ramming pedestrians with a truck
and then stabbing 17 bystanders in Tokyo’s popular
Akihabara district posted a series of messages on the
Internet, including one just before the attack that
“it’s time,” police and media reports said.
. South Korea
asked the US to refrain from shipping beef from animals
that were more than 30 months old at the time of
slaughter which many people have believed raises the
risk of mad cow infection. Until the US complies, it
appears that all beef imports will remain on hold.
.
Former Pakistani
minister Benazir Bhutto smuggled in critical data on
uranium enrichment to make nuclear weapon on a state
visit to North
Korea in
1993, said London-based author Shyam Bhatia to
facilitate a missile deal with Pyongyang.
.
If the account is verified, it could advance the
timeline for North Korea’s interest in uranium
enrichment. The assertion makes sense because there were
signs of funny procurements in the late 1980’s by North
Korea that suggested a budding effort to assemble a
uranium enrichment project.
.
In 2007, Pres GMA of the
Philippines
spent a total
of P249.5 million to pay salaries of regular employees,
and P10.7 million to pay casual and contractual
employees for a combined P260.2 million to cover her
office and 58 other offices, agencies, committees and
commissions under her.
.
In the same year, she spent double the amount for her
domestic and foreign travels for a total of P589.5
million and P34.1 million respectively, according to
Commission on Audit. In fact, she spent much more
(P618.6 million) in donations to unknown beneficiaries,
said COA.
.
Her administration also spent large amounts for broad,
discretionary and seemingly identical accounts,
including confidential expenses (P56.8 million),
representative allowance (P14.5 million), other bonuses
and allowance (P28.8 million), transportation allowance
(P10.3 million), advertising expenses (P6.9 million),
additional compensation (P24.8million), extraordinary
expenses (P6.64 million), miscellaneous expenses (P5.4
million), other personnel benefits (P119.8 million),
subsidy to regional offices/staff bureaus/branch offices
(P46.6 million), year-end bonuses (P21 million), cash
gift (P11 million), and honorarium (P651,000), foreign
travel per month (P49.04 million), and domestic travel
per month (P2.84 million).
.
The US Navy aborted its
3-week effort to use helicopters aboard a warship off
Burma
to deliver
much-needed aid to cyclone survivors, after the
country’s ruling military junta ignored repeated offers
to assist.
.
Those needing help
travel for miles through mud and rain to reach one
source of help they can they can rely on:
Buddhist monks. At a makeshift clinic near Bogale (an
Irawaddy Delta town 75 miles SW of Yangoon), hundreds of
villages left destitute by Cyclone Nargis arrive each
day seeking the assistance they have not yet received
from the government or international aid workers.
. Burma’s
military junta just extended the House arrest of Nobel
Peace Prize-winning democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi
for another year, drawing a softer criticism than usual
from foreign governments that seem focus on helping
survivors of Cyclone Nargis.
.
Research in Motion (RIM
TO) met Indian officials in
Canada to discuss
government security concerns that email sent on the
Blackberry device can’t be traced or intercepted, but
there was no news of a resolution.
. With
inflation soaring, the Indian government announced the
highest ever increase in retail fuel prices, triggering
bitter political criticism and angry street protests.
.
At the time,
Pakistan was
in desperate need of new missile technology that would
counter improvements in Indian missiles. Bhutto said she
was asked to carry critical nuclear data to hand over to
Pyongyang as part of a barter deal. She claimed to have
done more for Pakistan than all the military chiefs put
together.
.
A new report by the
Rand Corp said Pakistan’s intelligence, service and
other government agencies provided the Taliban and other
insurgents with training at camps in Pakistan as well as
intelligence and financial assistance and help crossing
the border. If this doesn’t end, the region’s log-term
security is in jeopardy!
.
Afghan Pres Hamid Karzai has pleaded with the world
community to address issues of militant sanctuaries in
Pakistan. It supported the Taliban regime in Afghanistan
before 9/11 but denied supporting the insurgents, and
acknowledged the problem of militant infiltration.
.
Pakistan seized 3 bomb-laden vehicles and arrested 3
suspects, uncovering a plot for a suspected suicide
attack near the capital, Islamabad, just days after an
assault on the Danish embassy, officials said.
.
Security forces in
Tibet
have arrested 16 Buddhist monks on charges of planning
or carrying out separatists bombings that authorities
said were inspired by propaganda from the Dalai Lama,
said China News Agency.
.
Chinese judicial
authorities have disbarred two activist lawyers who
offered to defend Tibetans arrested in a recent Chinese
security crackdown in what Beijing Judicial Bureau
officials described as willingness to take sensitive
cases involving charges of human rights abuses by the
government.
