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COMMENTARY

Aug 30, 1999

The social safety net tightens

By Hugh Cortazzi

LONDON -- The moral obligation to help the poor and ensure that they have adequate food and shelter is recognized and promoted by the main religions of the world. The obligation has been assumed by civilized governments worldwide, but implementation varies hugely and there are no easy answers to the...

COMMENTARY

Aug 28, 1999

Politicians go head to head

By Minoru Tada

Political chaos in August ended when the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its junior coalition partner, the Liberal Party, agreed to form an alliance with New Komeito, despite widespread fears that the tripartite negotiations would fail because of policy differences. By successfully playing a political...

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 28, 1999

Aid that gets 'lost' en route to the poor

By Cesar Chelala

NEW YORK — Recent reports indicate a massive diversion of funds from international donors providing aid to Bosnia. According to officials from the antifraud unit set up by the Office of the High Rep- resentative, the international agency responsible for carrying out the civilian aspects of the Dayton...

COMMENTARY

Aug 24, 1999

Japan's false sense of security

By Ryuichiro Hosokawa

During a recent TV talk show, in which high school- and university-age people were participating, the coordinator asked, "Do you love Japan or do you hate Japan?" Most participants answered they love Japan. If I remember correctly, only a few said they hate this country.

COMMENTARY

Aug 21, 1999

Mr. Robertson's agenda

By Hugh Cortazzi

LONDON -- The appointment of George Robertson, formerly the British secretary of state for defense, as secretary general of NATO has rekindled discussion on a number of important defense issues facing Europe. Robertson should be able to influence the outcome, but decisions will largely rest with the...

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 21, 1999

South Asia's dwindling hopes for peace

By Farhan Bokhari

ISLAMABAD -- Weeks of lingering hopes for a limited improvement in relations between South Asia's two large nuclear-armed neighbors, India and Pakistan, were shattered in less than two minutes when an Indian fighter jet shot down a Pakistani naval patrol aircraft.

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 21, 1999

No mystery to doing business in China

By Christopher Lingle

It seems that many so-called China experts try to enhance the value of their services by attributing a certain amount of "inscrutability" to the Chinese that only they can decipher. Besides being a patently offensive assertion, this is also grossly misleading.

COMMENTARY

Aug 20, 1999

A season for political typhoons

By Kenzo Uchida

The Japanese political world entered a summer recess when the extended ordinary Diet session closed Aug. 13. The session, convoked in January and extended in June for 57 days, passed a series of important bills, thanks to a legislative tieup among the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, the Liberal Party...

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 18, 1999

High price of blood politics

By Gerald Segal

You see it in Kosovo and you see it in Taiwan -- indeed it is everywhere. International disputes are shaped by disputes about blood. Sometimes, as in Kosovo, the argument is that Serbs and Albanians cannot live together because they are deeply divided by blood and resulting ethnicity. Sometimes, as in...

COMMENTARY

Aug 15, 1999

U.S. Taiwan policy is courting disaster

By Gregory Clark

Don't underestimate the size of the Taiwan problem. As with the two other divided Asian nations -- Korea and Vietnam -- past U.S. policies mean there is every chance of eventual escalation into full-scale hostilities.

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 15, 1999

Angola: A catastrophe in the making

By Cesar Chelala

One of the consequences of the Balkan conflict has been the distraction of international attention from other equally serious conflicts worldwide. Such is the case of Angola, a country that for the last several years has been plagued by a ruthless civil war. While world nations and international aid...

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 15, 1999

End the 'one China' fiction

By Alexander K. Young

China is again rattling its sabers over Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui's recent statement that Taiwan will henceforth conduct its relations with China as "a special state-to-state relationship."

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.

Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.

By Tomoko Otake

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