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November 28, 2024

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COMMENTARY / World

Jan 31, 2004

U.S. oil firm leaves toxic legacy in Ecuador

By Alejandro M. Garro and Cesar Chelala

NEW YORK -- Drilling for oil without adequate safeguards is one of the most destructive industrial activities both for people and for the environment. This danger has been particularly stark in the case of oil exploration and exploitation in the forested areas of the Amazon basin.

COMMENTARY / World

Jan 31, 2004

Mad cow disease: a blessing in disguise

By D.P. Considine

Mankind's history is rife with examples of natural phenomena radically changing its existence, the ice ages and small pox to name two. HIV has had a profound effect on sexual behavior the world over. Now, a mysterious protein -- a prion -- is about to change the eating habits of many people in the West...

COMMENTARY / World

Jan 28, 2004

Troubles cast a shadow on EU future

By Jonathan Fenby

LONDON -- Europe's currency has never been stronger. The European Union has been portrayed as a "post modern" association of states that have moved beyond the use of force to a more rational organization of their relations. Though still hobbled by inflexibilities, its economies are forecast to show stronger...

COMMENTARY

Jan 27, 2004

Changing the Constitution

By Keizo Nabeshima

Constitutional revision looms as a major political issue in Japan. It was a key agenda item at the January conventions of the two largest political parties, the Liberal Democratic Party and the Democratic Party of Japan. The LDP decided to draw up a revision plan in 2005, the 50th anniversary of the...

COMMENTARY / World

Jan 26, 2004

Trade, tourism thrive on DPRK border

By David Wall

LONDON -- I spent the first two weeks of this year on a whistle-stop tour of Northeast China -- an area once known as Manchuria. The term Northeast China usually means the three provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning.

COMMENTARY

Jan 26, 2004

Avoid the road to isolation

By Kiroku Hanai

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi once again showed insensitivity to the feelings of fellow Asians by going to Yasukuni Shrine on New Year's Day to honor Japan's war dead. Convicted Class-A war criminals are among those whose memories are enshrined there.

COMMENTARY

Jan 26, 2004

Fog of politics obscures war

By Brad Glosserman

For most Americans, World War II began Dec. 7, 1941, when Japanese forces attacked Pearl Harbor. Europeans date the beginning of the war to the 1939 invasion of Poland. Few Westerners appreciate the length and savagery of the Sino-Japanese war that was already in full force even by then.

COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK

Jan 26, 2004

Foreseeing the future -- and ignoring it

By Hiroaki Sato

NEW YORK -- U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy has recently reminded us why the U.S. forces decided not to go all the way to Baghdad during the Persian Gulf War. Addressing the Center for American Progress in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 14, he pointed out that it was none other than the first President Bush and...

COMMENTARY / World

Jan 25, 2004

Ties that bound Seoul's foreign minister

By John Barry Kotch

SEOUL -- Foreign Minister Yoon Young Kwan's resignation Jan. 15 grabbed headlines in Seoul with South Korean-American relations at the heart of it. Although his successor and career diplomat, Ban Ki Moon, has promised to clean house, this won't be easy.

COMMENTARY / World

Jan 25, 2004

Wise choice for the judgment of Hussein

By Toshio Kuroda

Last May U.S. President George W. Bush declared the Iraq war over, although the resistance movement showed no signs of abating. Even the arrest of former President Saddam Hussein in December has brought no fundamental change in the situation.

COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW

Jan 25, 2004

Surprise guests inspire unholy thoughts

By Constantine Pleshakov

MOSCOW -- It started with a rectangular jellyfish floating toward the lower right-hand corner of my computer screen. The jellyfish carried a logo, Kodak Easy Share, and was of a nauseating white-yellow-red design. The jellyfish had been there for quite a while, distracting me from students' papers and...

COMMENTARY

Jan 24, 2004

Tolerance in the name of God

By Hugh Cortazzi

LONDON -- So many crimes have sadly been committed in the name of religion that many humanists reject religion while Marxists regard religion as the opium of the people. Humanists and Marxists who condemn religion fail to see the good that can flow from sincerely held religious beliefs, but the perversion...

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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