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November 25, 2024

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COMMENTARY / World

Oct 9, 2000

Palestinians fight decades of injustice

By Sam Bahour

AL-BIREH, West Bank -- Areen, my 6-year-old daughter, has been unusually quiet. This normally energetic, very talkative child could not fully understand why school was canceled on Saturday after she was dressed and ready to go. On Sunday, during the news broadcast of the death of 12-year-old Mohammed...

COMMENTARY

Oct 9, 2000

The crystal balls grow opaque

By Takamitsu Sawa

All kinds of "self-confident" experts make predictions in the mass media about the economy and politics. In Japan, such experts are rarely held accountable if they err in their predictions. In the late 1980s, when the bubble economy peaked, Japanese experts expressed the following opinions that later...

COMMENTARY / World

Oct 9, 2000

Taiwan's 'experiment in government' fails

By Andrew Perrin

TAIPEI -- The ground heaved and shook in Taiwan's turbulent political landscape last Tuesday, and by the time the dust had cleared after the sudden resignation of Prime Minister Tang Fei, President Chen Shui-bian's 5 month-old model for government -- in his words, "a government for all the people" --...

COMMENTARY / World

Oct 9, 2000

ASEAN+3 gives Asia hope for the future

By George Sioris

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- A new acronym emerged recently in the world of international relations: APT. For those unaware of its meaning, we translate: "ASEAN Plus Three," i.e., the Association of Southeast Asian Nations plus Japan, China and South Korea.

COMMENTARY

Oct 9, 2000

A chicken in every pot, TVs in every home

By Doug Bandow

WASHINGTON -- With a tough election looming in the United States, congressional Republicans have opened the Treasury to every interest group with a letterhead. Budget analysts Stephen Moore and Stephen Slivinski figure this Congress may end up as the biggest social spender since the 1970s.

EDITORIALS

Oct 8, 2000

Yugoslavia's new beginning

The end of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic came, comparatively speaking, with the proverbial whimper. There were massive protests, general strikes and sporadic outbreaks of violence. But there was no cataclysm, no gruesome show trial and execution as was the fate of former Romanian tyrant Nicolae...

COMMENTARY / World

Oct 8, 2000

Bush's energy plan is a lot of hot air

By Jerry Taylor

Another day, another energy plan. On Sept. 29, Texas Gov. George W. Bush rolled out his third (by my count) action plan for reducing high energy prices. It's basically plan No. 2 modified with a handful of bad ideas borrowed from Vice President Al Gore: additional tax credits for renewable energy and...

COMMENTARY / World

Oct 8, 2000

Can Arafat turn Mideast violence to good?

By David Hirst

BEIRUT -- With a few exceptions, the Israelis contend that the bloody tumult in Israel and the occupied territory has been instigated and stage-managed by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat as a means of strengthening his hand in the faltering peace process.

COMMENTARY

Oct 8, 2000

The Japanese people really are different

By Gregory Clark

This year there were two Olympics. One was for the world generally. The other was for Japan, with audiences glued to events where hysterical announcers could declare a Japanese victory.

EDITORIALS

Oct 7, 2000

The U.S. gets a real choice

There are complaints aplenty about U.S. politics, but the first debate between this year's presidential candidates was a reminder of what is right with the system. Rarely do voters anywhere have the opportunity to see their candidates square off and discuss issues in an intelligent and direct manner....

COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW

Oct 7, 2000

And now, the green peril?

By Constantine Pleshakov

Today, the green banner of Islam inspires almost as much fear as the red Soviet flag did several decades ago. This fear is not entirely unjustified. Of course, it would be silly to label Muslim culture "aggressive" or "intolerant"; yet too many acts of aggression and intolerance have been conducted under...

COMMENTARY / World

Oct 7, 2000

Britain's future is at the heart of Europe

By Glyn Ford

Britain is still on course to join the euro despite the narrow rejection of formal membership by Denmark in last week's referendum. Denmark is Europe's second-smallest country, represents only 2 percent of European gross national product, and anyway has already tied its currency, the krone, to the euro....

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.

A boom for business tourism in Japan?

By Kathryn Wortley

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

The celebrated artist ‘updating’ the kimono

The celebrated artist ‘updating’ the kimono

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