China's new European trade hub: An Irish town of 18,000 - Christian Science Monitor
The Athlone Institute of Technology hosts more than 200 Chinese students – one of the links that helped bring the trade hub to the town, says Prof. Ciaran Ó Catháin, the president of the school and one of the players in the project negotiations. Professor Ó Catháin would not disclose ...
Vietnam’s Problems, Promises - Asia Sentinel/RTÉ World Report
“We tend to lose around 20% of our staff every year after Tet” (the Vietnamese New Year), said Kim Jung Hee, manager of a factory in Binh Duong province, an hour's drive from Saigon's centre. Her Korean company NB Blue employs a thousand workers, in a clean and well-lit factory ...
Thailand sentences American to prison for insulting king - Los Angeles Times
"In Thailand they put people in jail without proof," Lerpong said Thursday, his arms and legs shackled, wearing an orange prison jumpsuit. "I was born in Thailand, but this does not mean I am Thai. I am proud to be an American citizen."
DMZ: Road trip to the world's most heavily armed border - CNNGo
SEOUL - As the tour bus moves from central Seoul to the city outskirts, the seamless transition from one of the world's biggest and most vibrant cities to the world's most heavily armed border is as surreal as it is functional, with roadside bus-stops giving way to military watchtowers even ...
Potent mix for Timor-Leste - Asia Times
DILI - Land, corruption and poverty are all on the table as Timor-Leste gets into political mode ahead of parliamentary and presidential elections scheduled for 2012, with one controversial figure already throwing his hat into the ring.
If Samuel Beckett met Pol Pot - Asia Sentinel/Irish Examiner
TIK PANHAO, CAMBODIA - In some of Cambodia’s thousands of killing fields, the bones of the dead can sometimes be seen, rising to the surface after storms or rain, like grisly emblems of an unburied past. Perhaps 16,000 died at the s-21 Detention Camp in Phnom Penh, or at Choeung ...
Voting ends in southern Sudan referendum - Sunday Tribune
Kyeli, Blue Nile State, Sudan - “Soon after we married, my husband was killed during the war”, says Hawa Abdul-Gadr. Her eyes show a suppressed grief, but her demeanour is purposeful. That said, there is a perceptible sadness - long-kept under wraps but perhaps closer to the surface than she ...
An unbreakable bond? – Asia Times
JERUSALEM – In 'The Great Divorce' C.S. Lewis attempted to allegorise about a reality which he admitted he could not know, but tentatively hoped to suggest. The US-Israeli relationship, to most, seems like an unbreakable bond, and any potential divorce might be regarded as unimaginable. But when Israeli Prime Minister ...
Narcotic use, drought rob babies of food – The Washington Times
DIRE DAWA, Ethiopia | When drought and food shortages hit, it is the very young who suffer first, and most. Weighing only 10 pounds, Ayaan is among nearly 100,000 Ethiopian children whose lives are at risk. Just four days before her first birthday, she is lighter than an average 3-month-old ...
Corruption trumps tribalism – New York Times (IHT)
Kenyans were cynical about their political establishment long before the latest election violence. One wisecrack doing the rounds since last year says "there is more chance of a Luo becoming president of the United States than president of this country" - referring to Barack Obama, whose father hails from the ...
“If you come here again we will kill you” – National Catholic Register
February 3rd, 2011
http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/where-do-iraqi-christian-refugees-go-turkey/
Sarmad and Sandra packing clothes for fellow refugees in Istanbul (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
ISTANBUL — For Sarmad, translating e-mails from English to Arabic for fellow Iraqis is a welcome change from the incessant fear of murder he lived through in Iraq. In his hometown, Mosul, attacks on Christians have been an almost-daily reality throughout the past few years since the ousting of Saddam Hussein in 2003.
“I was stopped at the university,” Sarmad recalls. People he describes as “terrorists” told the 18-year-old mechanical engineering student, “If you come here again, we will kill you.”
Al-Qaeda in Iraq has targeted the country’s fast-disappearing Christian population, describing them as “legitimate targets” and causing unknown hundreds of thousands to flee in recent years. Out of an estimated 800,000 to 1.3 million Christians during the Hussein era, now less than half are thought to remain in the country.
Since an Oct. 31 attack on Baghdad’s Our Lady of Salvation Church, thousands more Iraqi Christians have run to Turkey. Exact figures are unknown, but Chaldean Church records show more than 600 arrivals in December 2010 alone, which exceeds the total arrivals for all of 2009.
The Oct. 31 attack began when Islamic militants with ties to al-Qaida took Sunday worshipers hostage. As police moved in, 58 people, including two priests, were killed.According to accounts of the carnage, a young child was killed when one of the attackers blew himself up inside the church. Over 100 more were wounded. (more…)
MIST on the Bosphorus – The Guardian
February 1st, 2011
The term MIST has been coined to describe the next tier of large emerging economies – Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea and Turkey. Can Turkey live up to the hype?
Fishing off the Galata Bridge, Istanbul (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
Simon Roughneen in ISTANBUL – Acronyms have long been a favourite of policy wonks and policymakers, shorthand for describing the world and the changes taking place in it. Jim O’Neill, the Goldman Sachs economist who came up with the now-mainstream “BRIC” catch-all for four quite different economies – Brazil, Russia, India and China – has done it again.
“MIST” – or Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea and Turkey – is O’Neill’s latest rhetorical agglomeration, pulling four more far-flung countries together and talking-up the next tier of large “emerging economies”. (more…)
Muted International Reaction to Opening of Parliament – The Irrawaddy
February 1st, 2011
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=20648
BY SIMON ROUGHNEEN AND LALIT K. JHA – While international media headlines focused on the “historic” opening of Parliament in Burma, international diplomatic reaction has been somewhat muted.
Since Monday’s first sitting of Burma’s Upper and Lower Houses of Parliament, little has been said by countries or international organizations that either have strong trade or diplomatic links with Burma, or by those that have been critical of the ruling junta.
Among the few to make any comment, a foreign ministry statement from Tokyo said, “The Government of Japan will closely observe the future direction of the National Assembly, including its administration, debates to be taken, as well as activities of pro-democracy movement and ethnic minority parties.”
A US statement ahead of Monday’s opening sessions was less optimistic. “The Nov. 7 parliamentary elections were neither free nor fair, so unsurprisingly it has yielded a parliament dominated by the pro-junta Union Solidarity and Development Party, so-called USDP, and military officials,” said State Department spokesman P J Crowley. (more…)
Will Freedom of Expression Hold in southern Sudan? – PBS Mediashift
January 27th, 2011
http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2011/01/will-freedom-of-expression-hold-in-southern-sudan026.html
Inside Radio Bakhita (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
JUBA, SUDAN — “If someone from southern Sudan trusts you, they will tell you enough to write a book,” said Sr. Cecilia Sierra Salcido, a Mexican nun and media entrepreneur who runs Radio Bakhita. “We broadcast a special history series, as so much here has not been written or recorded, and so many people have stories to tell.” (more…)
Sudan: Blue Nile State Weighs its Future – Voice of America
January 18th, 2011
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/africa/decapua-sudan-blue-nile-18jan11-114124159.html – see audio here.
Sudan’s Blue Nile State did not take part in the just completed independence referendum in Southern Sudan. Technically part of the north, its sympathies often sided with the south during the long civil war. Now, its residents are wondering what their relationship with the Khartoum government will be if the south breaks away.
Yabus airport, Sudan (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
Irish Journalist Simon Roughneen toured the region while the south voted on succession. (more…)
Voting ends in southern Sudan referendum – Sunday Tribune
January 16th, 2011
As the south prepares for independence, the borderlands remain volatile and some feel left out of the political changes taking place
Hawa Abdul-Gadr teaching Arabic to women from Kyeli (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
Kyeli, Blue Nile State, Sudan – “Soon after we married, my husband was killed during the war”, says Hawa Abdul-Gadr.
Her eyes show a suppressed grief, but her demeanour is purposeful. That said, there is a perceptible sadness – long-kept under wraps but perhaps closer to the surface than she would care to admit.
Eschewing outward self-pity or sentimentalism, she chops her left hand down from her cheek, as if swatting away an invisible spectre. “I am happy now here, we have peace and I hope it stays.”
Hawa spent eleven years in a refugee camp in Ethiopia. The border is just fifty miles away from this village in southern Blue Nile state, but for those long years, home here in Kyeli seemed like a distant dream. “I came back in 2006, after the word spread about peace in the camps.” (more…)
“I want my child to go to school here” – RTÉ World Report
January 16th, 2011
http://www.rte.ie/news/av/2011/0116/worldreport.html#&autoplay=true - audiostream
Shertiyo, Blue Nile State, Sudan (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
Five and six hundred yards long queues form either side of the entrance to polling stations – men on one side, women on the the other. They wait in excitement and euphoria on the first day of polling — here — in what would be the new capital of an independent southern Sudan. The scenes have been repeated all across the region in voting this week to decide whether the region should remain part of Sudan or form the world’s newest country. (more…)
Suspense in Sudan: Letter from “the land of Cush” – National Catholic Register
January 11th, 2011
http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/suspense-in-sudan/
Simon Roughneen in Juba, southern Sudan.
Lining up to vote in Juba: some southern Sudanese waiting 6-7 hours and more to cast the ballot (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
Apologising for delaying the liturgy, U.S. Senator John Kerry paid tribute to the people of southern Sudan, addressing a congregation at St.Teresa’s Cathedral in Juba, the region’s capital. Sen. Kerry is Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and has visited Sudan three times times in recent years on behalf of the Obama Administration. He sat next to Salva Kiir, President of the Government of South Sudan (GoSS) – as the regional authorities here are known. A U.S-backed 2005 peace deal, which ranked as President George W. Bush’s main foreign policy successes, gave the mainly Christian south a degree of self-Government after 22 years of war, causing 2 million deaths, with the Islamist-leaning Government in Khartoum.
Kiir attends Mass here every Sunday, when he is in town, so his presence is no big deal to locals. However Sunday January 9 saw the start of a week-long referendum, with southern Sudanese voting whether to remain part of Sudan, or secede and form their own country (more…)
Independence – and challenges – loom for southern Sudan – Irish Examiner
January 10th, 2011
http://examiner.ie/world/independence-for-south-sudan-to-present-challenges-141639.html
JUBA , Sudan. The dateline here and now says ‘Sudan’, but later this year it will likely read ‘South Sudan’ or ‘Nile Republic’. Biblical references such as ’Cushitia’ or ‘Azania’ are also being touted as names for the what will be world’s newest country. Four million voters in southern Sudan are likely to vote to leave Africa’s largest state in a referendum that started early on Sunday.
John Kerry and Salva Kiir meet with clergy before Mass in Juba on Jan 9. (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
Just before 8am, I spoke to Charles Juma-Seyis at the end of a 500 yard long queue at Konyo-Konyo polling station in central Juba, the usually low-key and ramshackle would-be capital. “I don’t mind waiting to vote, we have been waiting more than fifty years for this day”, he said. (more…)
Charcoals in winter: China comes calling in Europe – Asia Sentinel/Jakarta Globe
January 6th, 2011
http://asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2904&Itemid=422
DUBLIN – Europe is becoming a new horizon for China’s business-based diplomacy, less than a year after the European Union overtook the US to become China’s second-largest trading partner. Chinese investment expansion is increasingly turning to Europe, and it is finding a grateful audience.
Last September, before the arrival of the International Monetary Fund and an €85 billion bailout offer-you-can’t-refuse for the economy once known as the Celtic Tiger, Ireland Prime Minister Brian Cowen tried to sell Chinese investors on the proposition that the country could be a low-tax Anglophone gateway to Europe.
After meeting with a Politburo delegation in Dublin, Cowen said that China’s representatives had vowed to be “as helpful as they can to a friend like Ireland in the difficult times that we have.” That friendship appears to include a consortium of Chinese investors who are starting work on “an investment gateway to Europe” – an industrial park in central Ireland. (more…)
