IV. International
(9-16-08)
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In China and India
where middle-class aspirations have trumped concern
about gas prices and climate change, cars continue to
chase bicycles off the streets. Two decades ago in
New Delhi,
bicycles held a 60% share of the traffic flow;
down to 4% today.
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Recent history suggests that the cycling decline in
China and India may be short-lived. A similar decline
occurred in
Taiwan 30
years ago when the export-based economy shifted into
high gear. Many of Taiwan’s 23 million residents bought
motorcycles and then cars, as the bicycle disappeared as
the commuting vehicle.
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Japanese commuters ride bikes often but not for very
long, usually less than 15 minutes. Train stations are
no more than one and a half miles apart in most of the
city. Compared with walking or taking a bus, riding a
bike shaves precious minutes off the daily trip to and
from a station.
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Violent outbursts are
continuing in the Xinjiang region of
W. China, with
the latest resulting in the deaths of two policemen who
were attacked 8/23 while searching a cornfield for a
woman believed to be involved in a separatist cell. Each
of four attacks in August was directed at police or
security forces.
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In both Xinjiang and the nearby Tibetan region, China
has deployed thousands of security personnel in recent
months to keep the peace and root out troublemakers.
Tensions remain high and the government might consider
keeping those forces in the region indefinitely.
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The Chinese media criticize the Dalai Lama as someone
who cannot be trusted, while government officials insist
their problems in Xinjiang are the work of terrorist
forces attempting to split China.
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Tens of thousands of
angry protesters, many of whom lost their life savings
in illegal investment schemes run by legitimate real
estate and mining companies were closed by police in
Hunan province,
residents and news agencies reported.
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Since 2004, high-return investment schemes have been a
popular way for real estate and mining companies and
even local associations of private businesses to raise
money. Typically, they offer investors returns of 3% to
10% a month, compared with bank account interest rates
of about 5% a year. The funds collapse when investors
panic and demand their money back en masse.
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Victims include laid-off workers investing their
pensions and farmers who had sold their land to
developers and have no other way to earn a living. The
chairman of the board of one real-estate company and a
member of a local consultative Congress was a well-known
local entrepreneur, according to Sing Tao Web site.
Nearly 40 companies raised about $1 billion this way.
When some companies had difficulty repaying, people
began to panic.
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Ten of thousands of
Taiwanese marched in the streets of the capital to
protest the president’s efforts to improve relations
with rival China.
It was the first protest rally against Pres. Ma
Ying-jean since his inauguration in May.
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As much as 20 tons of the toxic milk powder has entered
the Taiwanese market and been sold to 10 distributors in
many parts of the country.
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Honeywell International was given approval for an
extension of a previously issued license to sell engines
to Taiwan for its Indigenous Defense Fighter.
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Since the 1970s when the
newly affluent Japanese began to travel overseas
in groups led by flag-waving guides, they have been
scoffed at for overrunning the ancient temples of
Angkor in Cambodia,
crowding out the Northern Lights in Alaska, and grabbing
too much Gucci in the capitals of Europe.
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A long slide in Japanese overseas travel is all but
certain. The problem of overseas travel is exacerbated
by fear of terrorism and disease. Looking at survey
data, the young people are increasingly becoming
“risk-adverse, comfort-seeking, incurious about foreign
lands and loathe to strap on a backpack to travel
rough.”
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Another reason is the emergence in the past 15 years of
a large part-time workforce, which now includes a third
of all employed Japanese. Part-time jobs which are held
disproportionately by people in their 20s tend to pay
less and offer less generous vacation benefit than
corporate positions that were widely available before
the Japanese economy nose-dived in the 1990s.
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If the news of Kim Jong
Il’s of North
Korea
serious
illness is true, who is the likely successor to him? Kim
Kyong Hui is a younger sister, married to Chang Sung
Taek is one of his most influential aides before being
purged in 2004. He was rehabilitated later and named to
oversee internal security.
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Kim Jong Nam is the eldest son, considered the likely
successor before he fell out of favor in 2001 after he
was caught trying to enter Japan on a fake passport to
visit Tokyo Disneyland.
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Kim Jong Chui recently assumed an important post in the
ruling Korean Workers’ Party, the same one his
father took over in 1969 before succeeding his own
father, fueling speculation he could be next in line.
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Was the proposed
Mindanao Peace a ploy to break up southern
Philippines?
One of the winners could have been the US which would
have been rewarded by the Muslim parties with permanent
military bases from which to monitor Jemaah Islamiyah in
Indonesia and Malaysia as well as Chinese activities in
the Spratlys.
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Inflation surged to
12.5% in August, a 17-year high, said the government,
warning that the rise could impact economic growth
targets for this year.
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Schools are not producing the many kinds of skills for
its labor market needs which is hurting economic growth,
according to an Asian Development Bank study.
. Indonesia
stopped sharing samples with the World Health
Organization (WHO) in Dec’06 out of fear that
pharmaceutical companies would use them to make vaccines
that are too expensive for poor countries. This is the
standard process—Indonesia sends a virus to WHO but it
suddenly ends up with the US government.
. The
Supreme Court upheld a ruling by the nation’s
anti-monopoly body that found Temasek Holdings Pte, a
Singapore-based investment firm, guilty of violating
anti-trust law.
. Winning
Muslim support and refining the image of corrupt
lawmakers ahead of next year’s elections are motives
behind effort to pass an anti-pornography law, observers
say.
. Malaysian
Foreign Minister warned that violence in Mindanao (RP)
could worsen unless the government and the National
Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) return to the
negotiating table.
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Rights activists condemned the arrest of a Malaysian
opposition lawmaker and two journalists under a tough
security law accusing the government of trying to avert
an opposition bid to seize power.
. The US
summoned Malaysia’s top envoy in Washington to protest
its crackdown on dissent at a time when the opposition
is attempting to take over power in Kuala Lumpur.
. Thailand’s
PM was forced out of office after a court ruled that he
had broken a conflict-of-interest law by hosting a TV
cooking show. The court said the cabinet must resign but
will stay for now as a caretaker govt.
. Acting
premier Somchai Wongsawat has an advantage over two
other rivals in the People Power Party (PPP) in
the race to become the next PM. He is favored by former
PM Shinawatra who is still influential.
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Exports next year are set to expand from their original
10%, as shipments have been only affected marginally by
political uncertainty, the Department of Export
Promotion reported.
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PM Hun Sen of
Cambodia
just won reelection for a new 5-year term. In the past
10 years, US and many other countries have been pressing
hi to pass a comprehensive anti-corruption law. Hun
continually promises but never delivers.
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Kuwait has agreed to give Cambodia loans totaling $546
million to develop agriculture, build hydro-power
facilities and construct roads, said the Cambodia
Foreign Minister. This is the second-largest aid pledge
ever received by the country, after aid and loans
totaling $601 million from China last year.
. Cambodian
Muslim students will be allowed to wear Islamic attire,
including hijab, as of the new academic year in October,
reported the Phnom Penh Post.
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An estimated 1.3 Dalit
women work as manual scavengers, carrying away human
waste from dry-pit latrines! In this status-obsessed
society, some upper-caste Indians still refuse to eat
food prepared by a Dalit.
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A Dalit is an untouchable in
India.
To break away from the inhuman plight they were born
into and shackled by the caste system, they head for the
factories of New Delhi and Mumbai, change their last
names where caste is more easily escaped there, giving
them access to new and better-paying jobs in the big
cities.
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The largest non-government study (funded by the U. of
Pennsylvania) of economic gains made by the Dalits in
India’s strengthening economy, including the survey of
20k Dalit households, show that migration to urban
centers is helping one of India’s most impoverished and
ostracized communities break free from such constraints.
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India PM Manmohan Singh
in under fire about a nuclear deal with the US after a
letter came to light in which the US says supply of
nuclear fuel would stop if India conducted a nuclear
test.
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Asif Ali Zaldari, the
widower of slain PM Benazir Bhutto and a controversial
politician with little experience in governing was
elected president of
Pakistan
on 9/06. He has promised a tougher fight against the
Taliban and al Quaeda extremists ensconced in the tribal
areas.
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A Pakistani lawmaker defended a decision by SW tribesmen
to bury 5 women alive because they wanted to choose
their own husbands, telling stunned members of
Parliament to spare him their outrage.
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Twenty people were killed in SW Pakistan 8/27 after US
and Afghan troops crossed from Afghanistan to pursue
Taliban insurgents in an early morning attack, the first
known instance in which US forces conducted an operation
on Pakistani soil since US-led war in
Afghanistan
began, said victims and a Pakistani official.
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Cholera has broken out among many, up to 300k Pakistanis
who fled the fighting between government forces and
militants, said the International Committee of the
Red Cross (ICRC).
