Is India serious about getting rid of corruption? The government is certainly using a much heavier hand. Suresh Kalmadi, the chief of the scandal-ridden 2010 Commonwealth Games was arrested yesterday in New Delhi on charges of conspiracy. India’s Central Bureau of Investigation alleges that he manipulated the bidding process for the …
Asia
No End in Sight for China’s Food Safety Scandals
One of the most disheartening things about food safety problems in China, aside from the harm they do to human health, is the regularity with which they occur. That thought came to mind as news of the latest tainted food scandal emerged this week. Nearly 300 villagers in Hunan were hospitalized over the weekend after eating pork at a …
World Bank to East Timor: We Messed Up
East Timor was supposed to be the poster child for nation-building. In 2002, after two centuries of Portuguese rule and two decades of Indonesian occupation, this tiny half-island became the century’s first country. Its path to nationhood was paved by a host of international organizations keen to make the fledgling state a model of …
Why Americans Care More Than Brits Do About the Royal Wedding
A quick glance at the news from the real world and it’s not hard to see why the media-consuming public of the United States appears willing to lose itself in the fantastic miasma created by saturation coverage of the Disney-for-adults spectacle of a British royal wedding.
There’s nothing new about the decline of the erstwhile empire …
An Ally in Gitmo: the Story of Sufian bin Qumu
On Battleland, Mark Thompson rightly says that the leaked tranche of documents detailing interrogations with detainees in Guantanamo Bay contains “no bombshells.” We’ve known for a while that methods of interrogation deployed there were suspect, if not in violation of international conventions, and that dozens of inmates were seized and …
After Petraeus: Why Starting Over Isn’t a Good Thing in Afghanistan
When asked about the lessons of Vietnam, military historians often quipped that ‘we didn’t fight one war for ten years, we fought ten wars for one year each.’ The same could be said of Afghanistan. Troops come in, learn the lay of the land, and leave, oftentimes within the span of six to fifteen months, depending on which country …
In Chongqing, A Rare Win for the Defense
The odds didn’t seem good for Li Zhuang. A defense attorney who had already once fallen afoul of the law, Li was back on trial this week in Chongqing, the southwestern Chinese megacity that has been waging a very public campaign against organized crime. In 2009, as the anti-gang campaign was starting, Li briefly represented Gong …
Thailand’s ‘Topless Teen’ Scandal and the Sexual Politics of Southeast Asia
During last week’s Songkran festival, three Thai teenagers danced topless in front of a crowd in central Bangkok. The footage was uploaded to the Internet and went viral, sparking a nation- and region-wide scandal. The police promised a crackdown and politicians denounced the incident as an affront to Thai culture and a national …
On Stage at the Sri Lankan ‘Theatre of the Absurd’
In a piece appropriate to the “theatre of the absurd that passes for governance” in Sri Lanka, Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu of the Centre for Policy Alternatives offers up a take on recent events that moves seamlessly from earnest policy analysis to a wry disquisition on President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s upcoming appearance in a new version …
Fukushima: Residents of Evacuation Zone Make Last Runs Home
Wasabi peas. It’s not the first thing one might think of salvaging from the wreck of a slightly irradiated house, but then again, they hadn’t been opened. Reiko Nakashima deposits the snacks on the bed of a mini truck next to plastic bags crammed full of clothes and other miscellany she’s spent the morning picking from the mud of …
A River’s Fate: Battles Loom over the Mekong
The Mekong River is one of the world’s most evocative waterways, a crucial channel that begins in China and runs through five other countries: Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. Nations downstream, in particular, consider the river a lifeblood. But upriver in China, recently built dams have constrained the Mekong’s force, …
Will Facebook Censor for a Shot at the Chinese Market?
The story is headlined “Facebook Seeking Friends in the Beltway,” but one quote seemed destined to make the social-networking giant a few enemies. In a story today about Facebook’s efforts to expand its lobbying efforts in Washington, the Wall Street Journal quotes a lobbyist saying the company may censor some content
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With a Month to Leave, a Japanese Village Weighs Options
IITATEMURA — Spring got off to a something of a false start this year in Iitatemura. On Tuesday afternoon in the farming village in Fukushima prefecture, cherry blossom petals fell to the ground with flurries of snow. Roadside bursts of daffodils hung heavy under white slush, and fields of rice, flowers and strawberries, dusted in …