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November 29, 2024

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COMMENTARY / World

Aug 29, 2005

Pat Robertson gives religion a black eye

By Cesar Chelala

NEW YORK -- Statements broadcast last week by television evangelist and former U.S. presidential candidate Pat Robertson throw a disturbing light on the influence of religion in American politics. Robertson told his audience that American agents should assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to...

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Aug 28, 2005

Intelligent Design: One chance encounter explains it all

By Roger Pulvers

Ijust happened to be reading the Kansas City Star the other day when a fascinating article caught my eye. The Star reported, in its Aug. 2 edition, that the Kansas Board of Education has approved a draft of new science standards proposed by supporters of so-called Intelligent Design.

COMMENTARY

Aug 27, 2005

Beware the green terrorists among us

By Doug Bandow

WASHINGTON -- Political terrorism, exemplified by 9/11 and most recently in London, may pose the greatest security threat facing most nations. But other terrorists also lurk among us, mostly in the guise of animal rights and environmental activists.

COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW

Aug 26, 2005

Playing war in the Far East

By Constantine Pleshakov

MOSCOW -- Chinese walk into Vladivostok, Russians occupy Qindao. Amphibious armored vehicles negotiate the surf, jet fighters refuel in the air, troops land on barren beaches. A Hollywood World War III movie? An Internet prank? A hallucination from a crazed war veteran? Nope, they are joint military...

COMMENTARY

Aug 25, 2005

Know when not to apologize

By David Howell

LONDON -- Here is a telling statistic about Japan's foreign policy that is little known in the West, and may not be widely known even in Japan itself.

COMMENTARY

Aug 23, 2005

LDP again at the crossroads

By Keizo Nabeshima

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi views the forthcoming general election, set for Sept. 11, as a national referendum on his top-priority plan to privatize the postal system. "I would like to ask the people whether they are for or against postal privatization," he told a nationally televised press conference,...

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 22, 2005

Taiwan skimping on defense readiness

By Richard Halloran

HONOLULU -- The political leaders of Taiwan, both government and opposition, are in serious danger of misreading or ignoring the increasingly stiff warning signals coming from Washington.

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 22, 2005

Asian chance after Annan

By Ramesh Thakur

The term of Kofi Annan as U.N. secretary general (SG) expires Dec. 31, 2006. Countries and individuals have begun to position themselves to succeed him. If Asians are to have a credible chance of filling what should rightfully be their turn at the job, their discussions and negotiations in the next six...

COMMENTARY

Aug 22, 2005

Unhealthy fixation on 'miracle' growth

By Frank Ching

HONG KONG -- In the late 1970s, after China had emerged from the frenzy of the Cultural Revolution and it was again politically correct to talk about development, economists and officials focused on two principal economic indices: GVIO and GVAO, or gross value of industrial output and gross value of...

COMMENTARY

Aug 22, 2005

Victor's logic in hindsight

By Kiroku Hanai

Every August Japan is filled with prayers for the 3.1 million Japanese who died in the Pacific War and feelings of resentment against the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This August, which marks the 60th anniversary of the end of the war, Japanese media have done intensive reporting to...

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Aug 21, 2005

All together now, as yesterday's no-no becomes the status quo

By Roger Pulvers

When I first arrived in Japan in the 1960s, I was friends with a Western sociologist who was genuinely frustrated. When he went around surveying public opinion, he said that he found Japanese people to be stubbornly reserved and conservative. Apparently, those who responded to his questions about social...

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 20, 2005

Consolidating against conflict, disaster

By Eric Teo Chu Cheow

SINGAPORE -- Despite some initial difficulties, the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations preserved its cohesion as a credible regional organization to end a weeklong series of annual meetings on a good note late last month in Vientiane:

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

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