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EDITORIALS

Mar 9, 1999

The limits of Hun Sen's power

Ta Mok, the infamous one-legged military leader of the Khmer Rouge, was arrested last weekend in Cambodia. "The Butcher," as he is known, was one of the last holdouts from the guerrilla group. An unrepentant hardliner, Ta Mok commanded the loyalty of a dwindling band of insurgents, who were troublesome,...

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 7, 1999

Violence: The Americas' new pandemic

By Cesar Chelala

NEW YORK -- From Argentina in the south to Canada in the north, violence is becoming an increasingly serious problem in the Americas, affecting all nations in the hemisphere. What makes this phenomenon especially worrisome is that children and adolescents are among its main actors, and victims. Violence...

COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW

Mar 7, 1999

Is patience a Russian virtue?

By Constantine Pleshakov

Amid the apocalyptic news about Russian pensioners being unable to afford any medicines beyond traditional folk remedies, Russian workers not paid salaries for months and Russian children in the on the verge of starvation, one piece of news is conspicuously missing: reports of mass protests. It is true...

EDITORIALS

Mar 6, 1999

Old men and bad dreams

Two unrelated news stories that have been gathering momentum in the United States in the past few weeks have focused attention all over again on the touchy issue of old crimes and delayed punishments. The conflicts involved are not novel -- they surfaced as recently as last year, when Spain attempted...

EDITORIALS

Mar 5, 1999

Dispel illusions in Sino-U.S. relations

The last few weeks have been difficult ones for Sino-U.S. relations. The U.S. canceled the planned sale of a satellite to a Chinese-led consortium, the annual State Department human-rights report released last week slammed Beijing's policies and the Pentagon has warned of an ominous Chinese missile buildup...

EDITORIALS

Mar 4, 1999

Japan passes a medical milestone

The nation breathed an almost audible collective sigh of relief this week, thankful that a successful precedent has now been set for organ transplants. Apart from the media hullabaloo and a short-lived controversy over the diagnosis a couple of days before the verdict of legal brain-death was pronounced,...

COMMENTARY

Mar 4, 1999

Sunshine alone isn't enough

By Ralph Cossa

South Korean President Kim Dae Jung's announcement of a proposed "package deal" with North Korea, put forth once again on the first anniversary of his inauguration, represents a valiant attempt to save two very important initiatives: his own constructive engagement policy with the North (also known as...

EDITORIALS

Mar 3, 1999

Pick priorities, Mr. Clinton

Last week, U.S. President Bill Clinton set out his foreign-policy framework and goals for the last two years of his term. In a speech to California business and political leaders, he urged Americans to "embrace the inexorable logic of globalization." For Mr. Clinton, that translates into a policy of...

COMMENTARY

Mar 3, 1999

Japan's other big Year 2000 problem

By Gregory Clark

For over 40 years now, the ritual has been the same. Each new Japanese administration resolves firmly that it will solve Japan's festering territorial dispute with Moscow, once and for all. Delegations and prime ministers visit Moscow. And each time the results are zero.

EDITORIALS

Mar 2, 1999

Kosovo's tentative peace

No one expected much from the Kosovo peace talks that were held last month in the French town of Rambouillet. Yet even with those diminished expectations, few people are much satisfied with the results. The talks have recessed until March 15, no party signed anything, fighting has already erupted between...

COMMENTARY

Mar 2, 1999

A world bereft of leaders?

By Hugh Cortazzi

LONDON -- Hardly a day goes by without someone deploring the lack of political and economic leadership in our world. Commentators bemoan that with the departure of politicians like former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl the world is bereft of political leadership....

EDITORIALS

Feb 28, 1999

Shiny happy people

The elusive butterfly of happiness has been fluttering before humanity for a long time. America's Thomas Jefferson declared the pursuit of it an inalienable human right over 220 years ago. But a good 1,800 years or so before that, another great farmer-philosopher had seen the urge to chase happiness...

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

Cainz enriches lives and communities through DIY

Cainz enriches lives and communities through DIY

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