.
The
technology to identify the sex of a fetus became widespread in
Asia in the mid-1980’s, and more parents each year have used
it to weed out less-valued daughters before they are born. It is
illegal throughout Asia but the balance of boys and girls in the
younger generation continues to worsen in many of these
countries, especially China & India.
.
Because son preference has been a significant phenomenon in Asia for
centuries, the Chinese actually have a term for such young men
who will have difficulty in finding wives—“bare branches”
because they will never bear fruit.
. The results of such evils, as kidnapping and selling women to provide
brides for those who can pay the fee. Scarcity of women leads to
a situation in which men with advantages—money, skills,
education—marry, but men without such advantages will not.
. Throughout history, bare branches in East and South Asia have
played a role in aggravating societal instability, violent crime
and gang formation.
. Forty percent of the world’s population is in China and India. The
likelihood of diminishing prospects for democracy, stability
& peace because of the extremely low status of women in
those societies will affect not only Asia but the world.
.
Scientists
in China have disturbing news about a strain of the flu virus
circulating among ducks in Asia. The virus is getting
professionally more lethal to mammals.
. After analyzing the genetics of the virus, the researchers conclude
that the virus had mutated over time to become more lethal.
. Research is alarming because the virus jumped to people in Hong Kong in
1997, causing deaths.
.
In
Asia, with 60% of the world’s population, 7.4 million people
are living with HIV. The epidemic is fueled by injected drug
use, infected sex workers and sex between men, but is fast
moving into the general population, says a new report by U.N.
AIDS organization.
. China & India have the severe epidemic in the number of provinces,
territories and states. In Indonesia and Vietnam, infections
among people who inject drugs have soared.
. The UN report praised Thailand and Cambodia for slowing the rate of new
infections through preventive programs.
. People near the Aral Sea in Central Asia have 3.5x more genetic damage
than a US sample group, leading to higher cancer rates.
.
China
is not likely to raise interest rates in the short term, an
official with a Govt. research institute was quoted as saying by
state media.
. China’s ministry of land & resources announced on its Web
Internet it had more oil reserves than expected, news that may
bring relief to a country increasingly concerned with its
growing reliance on crude oil imports.
. Apache has been ordered to pay $71 million in damages to Texaco’s
Chinese unit.
. DOC ruled that shrimp from a number of Chinese and Vietnamese companies
is being sold in the US at unfairly low prices. It imposed
preliminary duties ranging as high as 113%. Four of six
countries accused of selling shrimp at unfair prices, besides
China & Vietnam, were Thailand & India (4 from Asia).
The other two were Brazil and Ecuador. The six accounted for 74%
of all exports in 2003.
. Pfizer said its Chinese patent for Viagra had been overturned and that
it would appeal. This is the first time the Chinese Govt. had
overturned a pharmaceutical patent.
. Beijing agreed to stop giving tax giving tax breaks to domestic
producers of semiconductor that it doesn’t give to companies
that exports such products to China, announced the USTR office.
. China is preparing strong policy measures to support local
semiconductor companies, after a deal with the US to scrap its
preferential tax regime.
.
The
half million people who marched in Hong Kong last week sent a
strong message to Beijing and its attempts to contain the
city’s democratic aspirations are not working.
.
Condolezza
Rice met top Chinese leaders and rebuffed their demand for an
end to US arms sales to Taiwan.
. She reaffirmed US position of not supporting independence for Taiwan,
and opposed unilateral action by either side to change the
status quo.
.
The
LDP (Liberal Democratic Party) of P.M. Koizumi suffered a
setback In key upper house elections last week by losing one
seat while the DP (Democratic Party)
gained 12.
.
North
Korea appears to have found a new way to keep its flaccid
economy upright: selling fake Viagra to South Koreans. Drug
trafficking has been a crucial source of foreign currency for
Kim Jong Il’s cash-strapped regime for some time.
. North Korea is producing & deploying new intermediate ballistic
missiles with a range of 1,800 to 2,500 miles, putting within
reach dozens of military US installations in Japan & other
parts of the Pacific region, said South Korea.
. In the countries’ highest-level talks in 2 years, Secretary of State
Colin Powell met privately with North Korea’s foreign
ministers at an Asia-Pacific security conference in Jakarta.
North Korea has repeatedly rebuffed world pressure for it to
halt its suspected nuclear-arms program.
.
Higher
world temperatures are hurting rice crops. A research team
working in RP studied 12 years of rice yield and 25 years of
temperature data. For every degree of warming, rice yields
dropped by 10%.
.
RP has negotiated agreement with foreign governments that require that
maids be given a day off per week.
.
The new round of joint military exercises between Filipino &
American troops in Mindanao will not stir up tensions between
the military and the secessionist MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation
Front) despite the fact the exercise will be held in
rebel-infested areas, said the Defense Secretary of RP.
.
King
Bhumibol Adutyady of Thailand has inaugurated Bangkok’s first
subway line, a $2.5 billion project that city officials hope
will ease the capital’s notoriously congested traffic.
.
A possible fresh outbreak of bird flu after 600 chicken at a
farm died within a few days. Avian influenza, spread across much
of Asia from 12/2003 to 4/2004, killing 24 people. About 100
million fowl died or were culled.
. US cut the number of delegates to the world AIDS conference in Bangkok,
citing need for savings. Cutback affected only HHS
participation, but not that of DOD, VA and State.
.
Thailand has embarked on negotiations towards a trade
agreement with the US which is stressing for stronger protection
for its drug manufacturers, especially for their clinical test
data.
.
The
export of women for domestic service has grown dramatically
since the Asian financial crisis in 1997 severely affected some
countries in the region, like Indonesia.
.
The two top candidates in Indonesia’s presidential
elections, e.g., General Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of the
Democrat Party and the incumbent President Megawati Sukarnoputri,
are scheduled for the Sept. 20 runoff, with 34% and 26% of the
votes respectively. General Wiranto of the Golkar Party came in
3rd with 22%.
.
Several
Asian companies were less affected by the crisis, like Malaysia,
Singapore & Hong Kong, where middle-class families can
afford to have cheap domestic help to iron clothes, do laundry,
cook & clean, as well as wash several cars that might be
sitting in the garage.
.
In Malaysia, a country of 23 million people, 160k Indonesian
maids were registered last year, compared with 585 in 1991.
Another 100k were probably working in Malaysia illegally,
according to Indonesia’s Commission on Violence Against Women.
. Saudi Arabia has the largest number of Indonesian maids (about 200k),
according to the Indonesian Govt., even though terrible abuses
are reported there every year.
.
The connection between maid & employer is made by
commercial recruitment agencies, which often operate out of the
public eye.
.
India’s
new government will push ahead with economic reforms, including
privatization even when there are objections from its Communist
allies, said its finance minister.
.
US is ready to sign an “open skies” agreement with India that would
remove all civil aviation restrictions, such as limits of
destinations and government approval for price & service
charges, said a US DOT Asst. Secretary.
.
At least 22 people, including 7 policemen and 3 children were killed in
Kashmir in 3 flare-ups of violence despite peace moves by India
& Pakistan.
.
A
Tamil Tiger suicide bomber detonated explosives at a police
station killing 4 officers and wounding 7 other people in the
first attack in the Sri Lankan capital (Colombo) since the
rebels signed a ceasefire 2 years ago.
.
Tibet
looks to traditional medicine as economic cure. Tibetan medicine
production is a growth industry identified by the government as
an economic backbone.
.
The surprisingly strong performance by a coalition of
democratic candidates in Mongolia’s June 27 polls was not just
another milestone for democracy in the vast steppes of that
sparsely populated nation of nomadic herders. It showed how
democracy can rapidly take root in even the most traditional of
Asian countries.
