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 ...
Anwar verdict resets Malaysian politics – Asia Times
January 10th, 2012
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/NA11Ae01.html
Leader of Malaysia's Islamist party PAS Abdul Hadi Awang arrives at the court Monday morning (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
KUALA LUMPUR – A not-guilty verdict in a sex scandal case against Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim could prove a game-changer in the run-up to elections due by 2013 but thought by many analysts to be held this year.
After months of railing against what he deemed trumped-up and politicized charges, Anwar cut an understandably cheerful and relieved dash on Monday morning when speaking to perhaps 3,000 supporters outside the Kuala Lumpur court where he was acquitted of charges of sodomizing a male party aide in 2008. Sodomy is a criminal offense punishable by 20 years in prison in Malaysia, where Muslim citizens are subject to sharia law. (more…)
After sodomy acquittal, Malaysia’s Anwar pressing for power – Christian Science Monitor
January 10th, 2012
Opposition supporters outside Malaysia's High Court on Monday morning (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
In an unexpected conclusion to a two-year trial, a Malaysian court acquitted opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim on sodomy charges that he insisted were politically motivated.
KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA
Monday’s surprise acquittal of Malaysia’s opposition leader in a sodomy trial that many viewed as politically motivated eases the prospect of unrest in the multi-ethnic country, one of southeast Asia’s largest tourist draws
The potential for trouble was highlighted by three small explosions near the courthouse on Monday morning, injuring several people, while a jubilant Anwar Ibrahim mingled with a raucous, fist-pumping crowd of several thousand supporters. (more…)
Burmese Abroad Welcome Tax Break, but More Reforms Needed – The Irrawaddy
January 10th, 2012
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22805
Burmese migrant Ko Saw at work at Puchong 12, Kuala Lumpur (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
KUALA LUMPUR – The decision by the Burmese government to end the practice of collecting income tax from migrant workers abroad has been welcomed by Burmese across Southeast Asia, but some say that more needs to be done to make life easier for millions of Burmese working across the region.
In late 2011, the Burmese government announced that workers abroad would be exempt from Jan. 1, 2012, from paying a 10 percent salary levy, deemed by many to be an onerous and unjustifiable burden given that workers paid taxes in the country where they lived and worked.
In interviews last year, Burmese migrants in Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand all railed against the levy, which had to be paid if Burmese nationals wished to renew their passport at the country’s embassy. (more…)
A decommissioned inquiry on Myanmar – Asia Times
January 9th, 2012
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/NA10Ae01.html
UN envoy Tomas Ojea Quintana pictured at Thailand's Foreign Correspondents Club (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
KUALA LUMPUR – When United Nations human-rights rapporteur Tomas Ojea Quintana recommended that the UN consider the establishment of a Commission of Inquiry (COI) into alleged crimes against humanity committed by the country’s military rulers, the proposal was widely supported by Western countries, including the United States, that maintained economic sanctions against the country.
Depending on the proposed commission’s findings, Myanmar’s former ruling generals and current governing ex-generals could some day be tried in some form of international tribunal or at the International Criminal Court. The proposed COI would determine whether or not charges should be brought against Myanmar’s rulers and would likely focus on the Myanmar army’s well-documented abuses in the ethnic minority-populated borderland regions.
The establishment of a COI seemed a remote possibility at the outset, given that UN Security Council unanimity would likely be needed to authorize it. (more…)
China’s new European trade hub: An Irish town of 18,000 – Christian Science Monitor
January 7th, 2012
Central Dublin, December 2011 (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
ATHLONE, IRELAND – As China’s government readies to buy up European infrastructure, a trade hub slated for the Irish midlands could prove a showcase for the world’s second-largest economy in a struggling continent and provide much needed jobs in debt-addled Ireland.
In December, local authorities gave the go-ahead to a trade hub that would give Chinese business an anchor in Europe. Backers say the 1.4 billion euro ($1.8 billion) project “will become the largest European source of Chinese-branded goods in Europe.” With the World Bank’s growth forecast for China reduced, partly because of the reduction in European demand for Chinese goods, a revived Europe is in China’s interest. (more…)
Irish Continue to Struggle Over Abuse Fallout as Nuncio Takes Up Post – National Catholic Register
January 7th, 2012
DUBLIN — As Archbishop Charles Brown takes up his new post of papal nuncio to Ireland, he will face what some see as unprecedented difficulties for the Church in Ireland.
After the publication of a series of reports outlining gruesome cases of sexual abuse by priests in Ireland over recent decades, coupled with a falloff in Church attendance, and less quantifiably, a perceptible decline in religious belief and practice, it’s little wonder that Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin predicted that his archdiocese faced its toughest challenge “since Catholic Emancipation,” the 1829 changes to British law that removed many of the discriminatory provisions against Catholics in the United Kingdom, of which Ireland was then a part.
Archbishop Martin was commenting on a drop in Mass attendance in Dublin to 14% and declining priest numbers, but the remarks were seen by many as appropriate to the wider Church in Ireland, which now operates within what Irish writer John Waters described to the Register as “the most anti-Catholic country in Europe.” (more…)
Conflicting signals on reform in Burma (Myanmar) – Christian Science Monitor/RTÉ World Report
January 6th, 2012
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2012/0105/Conflicting-signals-on-reform-in-Burma-Myanmar
9/1/12 radio report here http://www.rte.ie/news/av/2012/0108/worldreport.html#
BANGKOK – Burma’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi says she believes that her country will hold full democratic elections in her lifetime, a good sign for the country, which has long been notorious for its oppressive military rule.
Ms. Suu Kyi’s remarks came on the heels of three high profile visits to Burma (Myanmar): Both Hillary Clinton and billionaire businessman George Soros, longtime funder of exiled opposition groups, made the trip last month, and Britain’s Foreign Secretary William Hague arrived in Burma earlier today. (more…)
Calming ‘irrational exuberance’ over Burma – The Irrawaddy
December 22nd, 2011
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22700
Burma President Thein Sein pictured at the 2010 ASEAN/EAS summit in Hanoi, when he was Prime Minister under the military junta (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
ABU DHABI – Three weeks after U.S. Sec of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to Burma, the U.S. says it “will be prepared to take further steps” provided the Burmese Government “keeps moving in the right direction”, according to a U.S. State Dept. spokesperson.
During her visit to Burma, the first to the country by an U.S. Sec. Of State since Burma was made a military dictatorship in 1962, Sec. Clinton announced a number of initiatives that the United States plans in Burma. These include increased assistance for civil society programs to support microcredit and health programs; a resumption of counternarcotics cooperation and operations to recover missing U.S. military personnel from World War II; and support for an expanded UNDP mandate in the areas of health, education, and micro-finance, as well as assessment missions by international financial institutions such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
“We are currently taking steps to move forward on all of the actions that Secretary Clinton noted during her visit”, added the spokesperson, in an emailed response to questions about U.S. policy after the Clinton visit. (more…)
Inflation a concern as Vietnam’s small businesses struggle – The Diplomat
December 13th, 2011
Trang Hoang Yen (seated) checks over new t-shirt sample (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
http://the-diplomat.com/2011/12/13/vietnam-facing-economic-crisis/
HO CHI MINH CITY – With the streetlights warming to a low glow outside as dusk turns to dark, Trang Hoang Yen is still running t-shirts through a sewing machine as most of her staff leave for home.
“Normally we have a lot more workers, but the past year has been very hard for our sector,” she says, stopping work for a few minutes to talk.
Trang Hoang Yen’s small factory, on a side street in Ho Chi Minh City, has seen better days. Down from 30 to 14 staff year-on-year, she says the company’s input costs “have gone up, and production costs have doubled.” (more…)
Kachin conflict set to intensify – The Irrawaddy
December 9th, 2011
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22630
BANGKOK — The conflict in Kachin State is set to get worse after already displacing tens of thousands of civilians, many of whom rely on support from local aid groups desperately in need of international assistance, according to a leading advocacy group for refugees.
“Tensions between the government and KIO [Kachin Independence Organization] have reached boiling point,” said Lynn Yoshikawa of the US-based Refugees International (RI), who recently concluded a fact-finding trip to the war-torn state. (more…)
