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November 27, 2024

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COMMENTARY / World

Aug 3, 2003

Airline clipped its own wings

By Ramesh Thakur

The self-defeating myopia of British Airways employees and the mind-numbing ineptitude of BA management combined to produce a nightmare journey recently. I had flown flight BA 8 from Tokyo to London on Friday, July 18, landing at Heathrow's Terminal 4 around 5 p.m. I was due to catch another BA flight...

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 3, 2003

What will succeed the Korean armistice?

By John Barry Kotch

SEOUL -- One of the ironies of the Korean War, whose legacy was commemorated last Sunday, is that one cannot be sure that it is finally over. While the armistice has held for 50 years, the parties to it are still engaged in controversy, with the Korean Peninsula drifting deeper into crisis and the prospect...

COMMENTARY

Aug 2, 2003

Exaggeration leads to tragedy

By David Howell

LONDON -- Politicians always exaggerate, or at least embroider the facts. Like lawyers they have a case to make and an audience to persuade. So they emphasize the strongest points in their argument and slide over the weaker ones.

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 1, 2003

Terrorists find new haven in a quiet corner of Asia

By Eric Teo Chu Cheow

SINGAPORE -- The failed mutiny by 300 Philippine Army soldiers, which gripped Manila's financial district for 21 hours on Sunday, highlighted the intricate problem of security and terrorism in Southeast Asia.

COMMENTARY

Aug 1, 2003

Political roadblock spurs military detour

By Ronald Meinardus

MANILA -- Military interventions in Philippine politics are not a novel phenomenon. The politicization of the armed forces occurred during the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos, when the influence and power of officers were determined not by merit or performance but by political allegiance to factions...

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 1, 2003

Too rich, too complex to be run by slaves

By Kevin Rafferty

HONG KONG -- China's new premier, Wen Jiabao, on his first visit to Hong Kong in his new job gave a resounding speech, declaring that local people were in charge of their own destiny. The question now is whether he meant it and whether the leaders in Beijing are prepared to trust the maturity of Hong...

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 1, 2003

The transmutable Mr. Blair

By David Wall

LONDON -- Prime Minister Tony Blair is back in London after his whirlwind tour of Northeast Asia. For many of us the high point of his tour were the delightful moments at Tsinghua University in Beijing when, following a range of predictable questions that he answered with the usual bromides, he was asked...

COMMENTARY

Jul 30, 2003

Unwise cuts in Japan studies

By Hugh Cortazzi

LONDON -- Information about Japan and Japanese culture was regrettably limited and unsophisticated for many years after World War II. Influential people in Britain, such as the late Sir Peter Parker, realized that the ignorance and prejudices of British people about Japan were damaging British interests...

COMMENTARY

Jul 29, 2003

A turning point for ODA

By Keizo Nabeshima

Japan's ODA Charter, which sets forth the basic principles and objectives of the nation's official development assistance, is to be revised for the first time since it was established 11 years ago. The Cabinet is expected to approve an updated version in late August.

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 28, 2003

A Tibetan history lesson for China

By George Sioris

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- With India's recognition of the Tibet Autonomous Region as a part of China -- a corollary result of the recent talks in Beijing between Chinese and Indian leaders -- the region has ceased to be viewed as a historical buffer state between two Asian giants. This is of tremendous...

COMMENTARY

Jul 28, 2003

More transparency needed in investigations of suspects

By Kiroku Hanai

Little progress is reported in Japan-U.S. talks on legal proceedings in the alleged rape of an Okinawan woman by a U.S. serviceman. A hitch has developed over the demand by U.S. authorities for greater protection of the suspect's rights.

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 28, 2003

Political reformers of Japan unite!

By Gerald Curtis

The new buzzword in Japanese politics these days is "manifesto." The Japanese language does not use capital letters, but if it did, you can be sure "manifesto" would be written with a capital M to convey the weighty tone with which it is pronounced by those who believe it is the answer to Japan's political...

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.

Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat

By Greg Dvorak

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

SWCC keeps changing with keyword ‘new challenges’

SWCC keeps changing with keyword ‘new challenges’

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