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December 23, 2024
 

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Rick Mercier
COMMENTARY / World
May 14, 2002
Time for U.S. to scrap Cuba embargo
FREDERICKSBURG, Virginia -- In his travels around Cuba this week former U.S. President Jimmy Carter will meet a friendly, resilient people who have bravely withstood the stupidity and cruelty that have emanated from both sides of the Straits of Florida.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 15, 2001
Fruits of U.S. economic expansion eluded many American families
FREDRICKSBURG, Virginia -- We're supposed to remember the 1990s as a period of economic expansion unlike anything the United States had ever seen. But to Oya Oliver and the rest of the staff at the Fredericksburg Area Food Bank, that decade always looked a little different than the official story that...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 8, 2001
U.S. stays silent on its own 'dirty wars'
Carlos Mauricio and Martin Almada can only marvel at the self-righteousness with which the United States has insisted on punishment for former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 25, 2001
Riding roughshod over planet and people
While many of us were celebrating Earth Day on Sunday, environmental activists Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera spent another day in a Mexican jail. Soldiers arrested the pair in May 1999 and, says Amnesty International, tortured them until they confessed to guerrilla ties. Amnesty rejects this, saying...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 18, 2001
'Zapatour' gives hope to Mexico's poor
Seven years after stunning the world, the leaders of the Zapatista rebels have come out of hiding in the Lacandon jungle and traveled to the concrete jungle of Mexico City to promote indigenous rights and work toward a just and peaceful resolution to the simmering conflict in Chiapas state.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 27, 2001
GOP keeps its faith in the Confederacy
President George W. Bush's nominee for attorney general, John Ashcroft, must wonder why he's gotten so much heat for comments he made about the Confederacy. After all, in the ultra-conservative circles he frequents, there's nothing taboo about his unreconstructed opinions -- even his likely future boss...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 17, 2000
Deadly defoliant continues to take a toll
BOSTON -- U.S. President Bill Clinton's historic visit to Vietnam this week conjures up troubling memories from the past, but it also draws attention to a Vietnam War-related public-health disaster that continues to plague both Vietnamese and Americans: Agent Orange contamination.
COMMENTARY / World
May 14, 2000
Myanmar's Karens fight for freedom
MAE SOT, Thailand -- Theirs is the longest-running insurgency in Asia, against a regime widely recognized as one of the world's most repressive. And yet the Karen National Union, which launched a guerrilla war in 1949 to secure a homeland for the Karen ethnic minority in eastern Myanmar, is anything...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 27, 2000
Even after 25 years, U.S. herbicide Agent Orange takes a heavy toll on Vietnam
HO CHI MINH CITY -- It's time for the afternoon meal at the "peace village" ward in Ho Chi Minh City's Tu Du Hospital, and staff members wheel carts of milk and porridge into the rooms where 58 children -- ranging from newborns to teenagers -- are staying.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 24, 2000
Election aftershocks rocking Taiwan
TAIPEI -- Taiwan continues to feel the aftershocks of the political earthquake that hit last Saturday, when Democratic Progressive Party leader Chen Shui-bian's presidential victory rocked the foundations of party politics on an island that has been ruled by the same party for more than half a century....
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 18, 2000
Taiwan goes to the polls at a critical time
Four years ago, Taiwanese cast votes in the island's first ever direct presidential election as China lobbed missiles into the Taiwan Strait. This time around, the fireworks are coming not from the Chinese mainland, but from a three-way, neck-and-neck race that has Taiwan's ruling Nationalist Party (KMT)...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 1, 1999
East Timorese exile recounts the horrors of Indonesia's quarter-century occupation
Special to The Japan Times When Bella Galhos packed up her Indonesian military youth-corps uniform and shipped it off to the Indonesian government from Canada, she was saying goodbye to a dangerous double life and was beginning her crusade to inform people about a genocide that has largely been hidden...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 20, 1999
East Timor reveals West's hypocrisy
Two places on opposite sides of the world share similar circumstances: innocent people killed and displaced by government forces and paramilitaries. The violence on one side of the world begets harsh condemnation and a series of threats from Western powers, followed by a massive bombing campaign. The...
Bankruptcies and suicides rise as Japanese struggle with mounting debt
Lawyers estimate that personal bankruptcies in Japan are on track to reach the highest since 2012 this year.
Honda and Nissan consider mutual production of vehicles, report says
Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe at the Japan Mobility Show 2023 at Tokyo Big Sight in October 2023.
The mighty Mekong River's growing plastic problem
A group of elephant keepers in Chiang Saen, Thailand, remove plastic waste from the Ruak River, a tributary of the Mekong River, as a pair of Asian elephants bathe behind them.
Record 78% of people in Japan feel anxious, government survey finds
The public opinion survey on people's lives, conducted by the Cabinet Office, found that 28.1% of respondents think that their standard of living is at a lower-middle level among the general public — the highest percentage to give that response in 35 years.
Nippon Steel alleges undue White House influence on doomed deal review
U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the economy at the Brookings Institution in Washington on Dec. 10.
Casual workouts, cool living, ‘complete’ food: Japan’s health trends of 2024
In 2024, efficiency trumped effort among Japan's fitness-focused aspirants.
The mighty Mekong River's growing plastic problem
A group of elephant keepers in Chiang Saen, Thailand, remove plastic waste from the Ruak River, a tributary of the Mekong River, as a pair of Asian elephants bathe behind them.
Japanese officials inspect Yokota Air Base over PFAS concerns
The Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo in September 2019. An inspection of the base by Japanese government officials on Friday came amid public pressure to investigate suspected links between the use of PFAS-containing firefighting foam by the U.S. base and contamination of soil and groundwater in western Tokyo.
Crime numbers rise in Japan for second straight year
A police officer stands in front of the residence of a man alleged to have stabbed two junior high school students in Kitakyushu.
A year of Oscar wins and a quiet push for diversity
Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “Evil Does Not Exist,” released in Japanese theaters in April, sharply dramatizes the clash between rural and urban values. The film won five awards at the 2023 Venice Film Festival, including the second-place Silver Lion prize.

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