China can be less “hurried” on the Iran nuclear question, a scholar with a key PRC think tank wrote last week. Writing in an op-ed for the Party mouthpiece Global Times, Gao Zugui argued for calm in the face of Western pressure over Iranian sanctions and to “be less rushed, more independent, less tied-up.” This […]
The Guardian published an op-ed by Simon Chestertman and Kishore Mahbubani today. Though a run-down of the pragmatic way countries in Asia have dealt with global challenges, the article features Brac and Grameen Bank prominently. “Asia has emerged as a leader in social entrepreneurship. The successes of social businesses such as Grameen Bank and Brac in Bangladesh have contributed […]
The Bangladesh Rifles, the unit of the military that revolted against its own military officers will be changing its name to the Border Guards Bangladesh. As the BBC reports: “It is not clear how much the changes will cost. Several trials are under way of thousands of border guards accused of taking part in the […]
How did Commodore Matthew Perry convince the Tokugawa bakufu to accept his terms and conditions, and open up Japan? A persuasive Power Point presentation, according to Hayashi Yuuji. This is just too good to keep to myself – apologies to non-Japanese readers.
Just as quickly as Japan watchers fell silent on Futenma, they’ve picked it back up. This is nothing if not expected: it wasn’t until PM Yukio Hatoyama and his party offered up a policy proposal for the protracted re-negotiations that much else could be said on the topic. They promised an answer by May, and […]
I have realized that whenever I need ironic humor, I look up Pakistani papers and almost always, there is something that puts a smile on my face. For example, I was looking at Dawn today and read this mind boggling headline: ‘Demand for Pakistani weapons increasing rapidly.’ Imagine, a country like Pakistan that is entirely dependent […]
It seems that though I rail about the dearth of international media coverage on Bangladesh, nevertheless, I often miss important pieces that speak to Bangladesh’s opportunities–missed opportunities, perhaps–to make of itself a model, inclusive Muslim democracy. (For all my equivocations, I cannot reject the reality that both leading parties in Bangladeshi politics have long ceded […]
The latest IMF report on the health and stability of the Bangladeshi economy is, on the whole, quite positive. The IMF analysts claim that with respect to Bangladesh’s economy “financial contagion was contained by low levels of financial integration. Growth, estimated at 5.9 percent for FY09, decelerated only modestly from the pace recorded in recent years and […]
The International Crisis Group (ICG) recently published a report on Jamaat-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB). I’ve been writing about the group and their wider ties to Harkatul Jihad al Islam, Lashkar-e-Taiba and the rightist Jamaat-e-Islami party in Bangladesh. The connections, ferreted out and mapped already, span the Indian Subcontinent and have now begun to spread, taken […]
Indonesia: As an update to the growing backlash in SE Asia over the China-ASEAN FTA, the Berita Jakarta is already blaming the FTA on a decline in exports from Jakarta: It can be seen from the decline in the city’s export value by 4.80 percent or US$ 2.828 billion in January this year, from that […]
Underscoring the depth of the problems Chinese leaders face at home, a recent report by an authoritative state think tank says domestic law and order will face serious challenges in 2010. The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences’ “China’s Rule of Law Development Report No. 8” shows that in 2009 the number of criminal and public […]
Writer Zainab Jeewanjee comments on the promise of Aman ki Asha, Geo T.V. & the Times of India’s bilateral initiate for South Asian peace. She argues that Indo-Pak relations have been dominated by military/economic interests without ample direct input from the people. Hence the value of Aman ki Asha.
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