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COMMENTARY

Dec 22, 2009

Rice prices rock a buoyant economic boat

By Michael Richardson

SINGAPORE — Asia is leading the world economy out of recession. The region's most populous nations — China, India and Indonesia — appear to doing particularly well, setting the pace for renewed growth in Northeast Asia, South Asia and Southeast Asia.

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 22, 2009

Recognizing confident India as indispensable

By Dominique Moisi

PARIS — "Do not forget India." That warning made sense 10 or 15 years ago; not any longer. India is now impossible to ignore, much less forget, owing not only to its rapid economic growth but also to the country's increasing geopolitical stature.

COMMENTARY

Dec 21, 2009

No such thing as classless

By Hugh Cortazzi

According to Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the taxation policies of the Tory (Conservative) Party were decided on the playing field of Eton (one of Britain's top private schools). Thus, Gordon Brown, whose Labour government trails in the opinion polls behind the Conservative opposition, seemed from this...

COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE

Dec 21, 2009

Hatoyama girds to review security alliance with U.S.

Only people in their late 60s and older remember the turmoil that raged in Japan in 1960 between the proponents and opponents of ratifying the revised security treaty with the United States. As these generations have aged, the security alliance between the two nations itself has grown somewhat antiquated...

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 21, 2009

Legacy of '89 digressed from the U.S. script

By Jeffrey A. Engel and Motoko Rich - Hikari Hida

COLLEGE STATION, Texas — With the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the relatively nonviolent overthrow of communism throughout Central and Eastern Europe, optimists predicted a new golden age of a world filled with peaceful democracies. History, for some, seemed to have come to an end. But the optimists...

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 21, 2009

Renewed dialogue welcome, but talks alone won't win peace

By Harsh V. Pant

LONDON — Speculation has been building up on the Subcontinent that dialogue between India and Pakistan is about to restart. Last month Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh declared in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir that if Pakistan showed "sincerity and good faith," India "will not be found...

COMMENTARY

Dec 21, 2009

Taiwan poll's weight overhyped

By Ralph Cossa

HONOLULU — Voters in Taiwan went to the polls in 17 counties and cities recently to elect mayors and magistrates. The ruling Kuomintang (KMT) party won 12 of the 17 seats and enjoyed an overwhelming victory in elections of county and city councilors and township chiefs. The opposition Democratic Progressive...

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Dec 20, 2009

Stunning book speaks volumes about the ravages visited on Tibet

By Roger Pulvers

Ten years ago, near the end of 1999, the Chinese author Wang Lixiong received a package from a young woman of Tibetan origin named Tsering Woeser. It contained several hundred black-and-white negatives.

COMMENTARY

Dec 20, 2009

Wake up a friend about China at Christmas

By Tom Plate

LOS ANGELES — Attention last-minute holiday shoppers: We have an easy-to-purchase gift to recommend. And we guarantee that it will fit all sizes, shapes and tastes. This is assuming your intended recipients are intelligent, literate and eager to learn about the world.

COMMENTARY

Dec 19, 2009

An abuse of intelligence

By Hugh Cortazzi

The U.K. government has been under pressure for some years to hold an inquiry into British participation in the Iraq war and on the events that led up to the decision to go to war. The various previous inquiries were seen by many as inadequate or whitewash. The government eventually conceded that once...

COMMENTARY

Dec 18, 2009

Illegal wall exacerbates disaster for Gazans

By Cesar Chelala

NEW YORK — Collusion between Egypt and the United States in building a wall separating Egypt from Gaza not only threatens Gazans' health and quality of life, already seriously deteriorating because of the de facto Israeli blockade, but also violates international law.

COMMENTARY

Dec 18, 2009

Realities of disarmament

By Ramesh Thakur

WATERLOO, Canada — The international commission on nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament, chaired by former foreign ministers Gareth Evans of Australia and Yoriko Kawaguchi of Japan, faced two hurdles even before its work was completed.

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Wealthier women in the prewar era had been the targets of various media-related health campaigns that mistakenly encouraged them to avoid everything from riding bicycles to reading novels when their monthly cycles came around.

Menstruation in Japan: Breaking the silence, slowly

By Tomoko Otake

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Yamagata’s Zao Onsen Ski Resort is a classic beauty

Yamagata’s Zao Onsen Ski Resort is a classic beauty

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