27 December, 2005

inside the myanmar times

Via Far Outliers, a look at the strict censorship that exists at the Myanmar Times, Burma’s only English-language paper, from Australian journalist Peter Olszewski.:

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I discover censorship defines life at the Myanmar Times and depletes the buzz and excitement that’s generally a feature of good newspaper offices where ground-breaking stories are regularly broken. Censorship at the Times is absolute and total, but the system itself is quite simple. All articles selected for possible publication are faxed to Military Intelligence and are either accepted in their totality, completely rejected, or partly censored, with words, paragraphs and sections removed. Such information is relayed to the editor, Goddard, usually by an officer named Wai Lin. Sometimes the Brigadier General himself rolls up his sleeves and pitches in, and if big issues, especially political issues, are discussed in an article, Wai Lin will pass the material to him for ‘instruction and guidance’.

Inside page layouts and story placements are mostly left to the staff to determine, but the front-page layout is carefully scrutinised and stories approved for publication might not be approved for front-page publication, or the emphasis of such stories might be downplayed.

At times, there can be dialogue about decisions. I am told a story about breakdancing becoming a fad among trendy Yangon youth was axed by MI because they only want to promote traditional dancing. A query, asking if there was any way the story could be saved, resulted in a new ruling that it could be used if breakdancing were not defined as a dance but instead as an American fitness regime.

AsiaPundit briefly - very briefly - considered a job at the paper, but in the end just decided that such restrictions would drive him nuts. While state censorship and editorial interference do make the paper a mouthpiece, its editors seem well intentioned. Ross Dunkley, the Australian CEO and managing editor, acknowledges the censorship but says the paper helps educate Burma’s young journalists.:

Mr. Dunkley said despite strict laws against freedom of the press, he taught his journalists and editors to perceive the real situation and report news the best they can.

“I talk to them about ethics, about the law, about corruption and about what a fucked up government this is,” the blunt Mr. Dunkley said, drawing a burst of laughter from the audience of journalists, diplomats, business people, activists and others.

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by @ 1:15 pm. Filed under Asia, East Asia, Myanmar/Burma, Southeast Asia, Media, Censorship

26 December, 2005

happy birthday you murderous bastard

While today is the anniversary of the tsunami it’s also the anniversary of another tragic event. Mao Zedong was born 112 years ago today:

MaoOutside the country, many Chinese around the world say Mao gave China back its dignity. Yun Shi, 31, who grew up in Shangdong province and now lives in California, recalls the poet, hero and liberator who rescued the Chinese from a "century of humiliation" - the 100 years of foreign domination following the Opium Wars. In founding the people’s republic in 1949, "[Mao] annoucned in Tiananmen Square that the Chinese have stood up," Shi said.

China did not ’stand up’ with Mao’s declaration. Mao kept China in a starved fetal state for decades. It did not begin to learn how to crawl until Deng Xiaoping took the reins :

Those who inhabited China’s vast countryside can truly appreciate Deng Xiaoping’s greatness. In countless villages lived four-fifths of the hundreds of millions of Chinese, most of them in abject poverty. An entire family might share a single pair of trousers. If lucky, they might live in a small thatched roof hut with a hole at the top to let out the smoke from the open hearth fire. Peasants transported their ducks and geese to markets along rivers and ancient canals; there were few roads. This was not the Middle Ages, but China, circa 1976, the year Mao Zedong died. The country was in the depths, its people depressed and devoid of hope for their lives.

By changing the way peasants live, Deng recast China, and in many ways altered the world we live in. He did this through the simple expedient of giving the land Mao had originally confiscated from the landlord class back to the peasants. Through the contract responsibility system, farmers were free to grow any crops they wished, so long as they delivered a specified amount of staple crops to the central government. Soon money was beginning to course through the system. Two-story brick houses rose where thatched huts used to be. Some 200 million Chinese - more people than all of Indonesia - escaped destitution.

AsiaPundit won’t write more, it would be redundant in light of an essay posted elsewhere. Visit Simon now.

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by @ 10:52 pm. Filed under China, Asia, East Asia, Northeast Asia

north korea makes money

Although its economy has collapsed, the North Korean state still makes money. Lots of it.. And South Korea’s government doesn’t care.

NorkwonThe National Intelligence Service, in a 1998 report … said North Korea forges and circulates US$100 bank notes worth $15 million a year, and that the counterfeiting is carried out by a firm called February Silver Trading in the suburbs of Pyongyang. The NIS said in reports … the same year and the next that the North operates three banknote forging agencies, and that more than $4.6 million in bogus dollar bills were uncovered in circulation on 13 occasions since 1994. “That North Korea is a dollar counterfeiting country was common knowledge among intelligence officials,” said a former senior NIS official.

Yet suddenly, when the U.S. brings up the question of North Korea’s counterfeiting activities, our government says there is insufficient evidence. That has prompted American officials to accuse our government of lying. The reason for the volte-face is that Seoul is afraid of antagonizing Pyongyang while six-party talks aimed at denuclearizing North Korea hang in the balance. But what if the shoe was on the other foot? If a country hostile to South Korea forged a huge number of our banknotes and circulated them around the world, what should our government do? And if an ostensible ally of ours defended that counterfeiting country, what would we think of that ally? …

And it’s not just the Supernotes, as Nomad points out the North Koreans have also been forging Thai baht, Chinese yuan and other regional currencies.:

One U.S. government official said in an interview, “I read an internal report produced by the U.S. intelligence agency. And you may want to think about why a Thailand diplomat was invited to the symposium on counterfeit currency hosted by the U.S. State Department on December 16.” The symposium on counterfeit currency hosted by the State department was attended by diplomats from countries participating in the six-party talks including South Korea, Japan, China, Russia, some EU member countries, Thailand and Singapore. He added, “If North Korea can forge U.S. dollars, which are known to be the most safeguarded from counterfeiting, perfectly, why wouldn’t it want to do the same for other currencies of neighboring countries.” He made clear that currencies of neighboring countries including Thailand have been counterfeited. To the question, “Does that mean that South Korean won have also been forged?” He answered, “Please, don’t ask more. You can just think about which countries North Korea might feel closer to, and which currencies it would think would be easier to circulate.”

As noted in the originally cited New Economist post, counterfeiting can be considered an act of war. AsiaPundit suggests all offended nations consider it such.

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by @ 10:19 pm. Filed under South Korea, China, Money, Asia, East Asia, Economy, Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, Thailand, North Korea

tsunami remembered

One year ago today roughly a quarter of a million lives were washed away:

Tsunami1

Sculptures are displayed on Patong beach during a ceremony to mark the one year anniversary of the tsunami in Phuket southern of Thailand. (AFP/Pornchai Kittiwongsakul)

Photo and text via Thai Blogs:

DesiPundit notes the role blogs played in putting out information and aiding in fundraising and relief and requests that the effort be repeated:

The blogosphere played an important part in disseminating information, collating resources, and offering avenues for fund raising. The team that brought you the SEA-EAT blog has now joined forces and rebanded to form the World Wide Help blog [disclaimer: I am also one of the contributors]. On the dark anniversary of the tsunami tragedy, we refocus the need to keep the relief work going and keeping hope alive for those who are still waiting for our help.

The Worldwide Help Blog has sent out a call for observing the Tsunami Remembrance Week from December 26th-January 1st. Write about it on your blogs. List your favorite charities or better still, make that last year-end donation. Use the Technorati tag - Disaster Remembrance Week [HTML code:
rel=”tag” rel=”tag”>Disaster Remembrance Week
]

More at IndianWriting, Jakartass, Brand New Malaysian,

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by @ 10:04 pm. Filed under Blogs, Malaysia, Indonesia, Asia, East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Thailand, Weblogs

25 December, 2005

merry christmas

Merry Christmas from Mr and Mrs AsiaPundit. There will be reduced posting for the holiday season, but AP is cheered that he can present an assortment of good Christmas news from the region:

Nothing blew up in Indonesia:

Good news from Indonesia tonight. Despite serious warnings of terrorist attacks against Christian churches — and perhaps due to a general heightened vigilance, along with robust security measures that included participation of many Muslim social organisations — the many Christmas Eve services and Masses have taken place without reports of trouble. This is an extremely important good sign for the country. If there was ever an occasion for that old aphorism, "No news is good news," tonight was the night.

(UPDATE: Nothing blew up thanks, in part, to Santa:

Santabomb

Santa isn’t just filling stockings in Indonesia. He’s also checking
packages for bombs in the world’s most populous Muslim nation where
authorities are gearing up to prevent possible militant attacks.

More than two dozen hotel security men dressed like Santa Claus in red
outfits with white trims used metal detectors to inspect cars entering
a five-star hotel in the heart of Jakarta, where malls and hotels are
all dressed up for Christmas.)

 

From Japan, Santa’s ability to deliver gifts to billions is explained - he is assisted by time-travelling cat Doraemon:

Santanarchy2

China’s environmental record is improving. In Shanghai, Christmas decorations will be recycled for use in traditional medicines:

Tree

Shanghaiist assumes that this “tree,” covered not with the traditional pine needles, but with antlers torn from the still-warm skulls of disobedient reindeer, is a stark reminder: Santa Claus ain’t nuthing ta f’ wit.

In South Korea, despite Dr Hwang’s fall from grace, advances in human cloning do seem to have been made:

Merry Christmas

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by @ 12:05 pm. Filed under Japan, South Korea, China, Indonesia, Asia, East Asia, Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia

23 December, 2005

sensual internet lips

Christmas gift idea #5: USB sensual talking lips:

Talkinglips

“Talking Lips” is a funny speaker for your computer, TV or phone. The lips open and close according to outgoing sounds or voice. It could be ideal for voice chat sessions and hands-free telephone conversations.

This is a very tacky gift, but AsiaPundit can think of other applications. These probably won’t exist until version 2.0, but AP still endorses this gift idea.

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by @ 10:27 pm. Filed under Japan, Asia, East Asia, Web/Tech

pla memo: don’t mention the nuking the us

The Chinese general who told Honk Kong journalists that China would use nuclear weapons if there were a conflict with the US over Taiwan has been censured.:

StfuReuters reports that Chinese General Zhu "I think we will have to respond with nuclear weapons” Chenghu received an “administrative demerit” recently from the National Defense University, barring him from promotion for one year.

An administrative demerit is the second lightest punishment on a scale of one to five, but still potentially damaging to an officer’s career. The lightest is an administrative warning, while the heaviest is expulsion.

“His chances for promotion in the future are extremely slim,” another source said.

I’ll actually want to check this with some folks at the Guofang Daxue.

Stephanie Lieggi has a perfectly reasonable discussion of Zhu in a CNS Issue Brief entitled, Going Beyond the Stir: The Strategic Realities of China’s No-First-Use Policy:

Despite some media reports touting Zhu as a “top general,” Zhu is not considered to be a significant figure in the policy-making apparatus that controls military planning and nuclear doctrine. In making his comments, the general—dean in charge of international fellows at China’s NDU—is therefore commenting from outside of the policy-making system. In this context, Zhu’s remarks could be seen as an illustration of China’s public determination regarding its “break-away province.” It is not, however, an indication of a dramatic shift in policy, nor—as was true in the often misquoted “Los Angeles” statement—a direct offensive threat to the United States.

by @ 10:09 pm. Filed under Uncategorized

mortal kombat viral

:

Mortalcombatviral

Mortal Kombat viral ad glorified violence, says ASA

An online video ad for computer game Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks has been slammed by the Advertising Standards Authority as condoning and glorifying violence. It is the first time that a complaint over a viral ad campaign has been upheld by the watchdog.

The ad, entitled Blood on the Carpet, was created for games developer Midway Games by London-based Maverick Media. It features a boardroom scene in which a Mr Linn, the mysterious trouble-shooter at a sales meeting, instructs two men to fight.

Punches lead to a pen being stabbed into an arm; then a water jug is smashed over an executive’s head – before his heart is ripped from his chest. Mr Linn concludes proceedings by decapitating another executive with his hat.

The ASA received one complaint over the ad, alleging that it was offensive, violent and unsuitable to be viewed by children.

(Via theory.isthereason, even more disturbing is the Passion of Benny Hill)

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by @ 9:46 pm. Filed under Japan, China, Asia, Games

the manga offensive

Japan has decided to launch a public-relations offensive against anti-Japan nationalism in China by promoting manga and j-pop.:

IkkyusanTo polish Japan’s tarnished image in China, the Foreign Ministry plans to start a new program aimed at spreading Japanese animations and J-pop in the giant neighbor.

It is the first time Japan has set aside money to promote Japanese animated programs in China. The overall budget for China-related PR will be 3.11 billion yen in fiscal 2006, up 1.16 billion yen over the fiscal 2005 budget.

The move is meant to forestall further deterioration of Japan’s public image in China following an upswing in anti-Japanese sentiment sparked by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s visits to Yasukuni Shrine.

Under the plan, the Foreign Ministry will financially support distribution of selected animated series and songs to provincial broadcasters in China.

Japan’s animated TV shows already have many Chinese fans. "Ikkyu-san," a story about a novice Buddhist monk, and "One Piece," a comedy adventure series about a group of young pirates, are just two popular examples.

That’s roughly $26.6 million Japan is going to spend on promoting good relations, not an inconsequential sum. AsiaPundit would ordinarily question such spending purely from a fiscal perspective. However, Northeast Asian relations have deteriorated to such a dangerous level that a bit of excess spending is not a bad thing.

Besides, they can just cut something else from the budget to make up for it.:

PM Koizumi has firmed his stance not to include funds to survey the possibility of a national war memorial (to replace the Yasukuni shrine) in the national budget draft, a move seen to be caused by a lack of public interest.

Government sources explained that the “environment has not been prepared to include survey funds in next year’s budget,” which will be formally decided on Dec. 22. The funds were not included in the MOF’s budget recommendations, released the same day.

Another part of the decision, say government officials, was that including the funds would not likely have contributed to repairing relations with China and South Korea.

The govt plans to continue deliberating on the merits of including the funds while “carefully watching public opinion.” There is momentum within the “Group to Consider a National [War] Memorial,” which crosses party lines to include members from the ruling LDP and New Komeito as well as the main opposition DPJ, to demand the inclusion of such funding in next fiscal year’s revised budget or reserve funds. However, it is unlikely to be included in a budget during Koizumi’s tenure.

(Via East Asia Watch, Marmot and Mutant Frog)

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by @ 8:52 pm. Filed under Japan, China, Asia, East Asia, North Korea

hwang woo-suk deathwatch

Seoul National University is putting the nails into the coffin of Hwang Woo-suk, formerly South Korea’s most renowned scientist and cloning researcher, saying that he personally fabricated results. The Marmot is running with the story here.:

WoosukA panel from South Korea’s top university investigating the veracity of the country’s cloning pioneer’s past study said Friday stem cell expert Hwang Woo-suk fabricated the results of his human stem cell research, calling it "damaging to the foundation of science."

The internal panel of Seoul National University (SNU) issued an interim report saying he produced two stem cell lines and used them to claim the production of 11 stem cell lines.

The report, announced in a press conference, said, "Hwang’s team had reported it had 11 patient-tailored stem cell lines but there were only two such stem cell lines on March 15 when it submitted its paper to the journal Science."

The panel launched its investigation Monday on the authenticity scandal surrounding the country’s landmark stem cell research by Hwang which emerged last month.

It’s damn certain that his career is over, the question remains how much longer he will be with this world. As Kushibo, Jeff, sickboy and others have noted, this sort of scandal typically ends in suicide.

AsiaPundit is now accepting bets on the likely date and time of Hwang’s demise. The person with the closest guess will receive a year’s free subscription to AsiaPundit including all premium content.*

That said, while suicide may be a traditional Korean way to react to a career-crippling scandal, AsiaPundit hopes Hwang can start fresh.

AsiaPundit recommends that Hwang follow in the Anglo-American footsteps of Nick Leeson or Michael Brown and start a consulting business on bio-ethics.

(*Offer may be voided by Internet censorship)

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by @ 1:23 pm. Filed under South Korea, Asia, East Asia, Northeast Asia

oooh, look at asiapundit, he reads the economist!

Economist
AsiaPundit is a loyal reader of the Economist, as are Will at Imagethief and Younghusband at Coming Anarchy, and he experiences near withdrawal when the magazine newspaper takes its annual Christmas/New Year’s publication break.

Thankfully, they always produce a brilliant double-sized feature-filled Christmas issue to tide loyal subscribers over. In this year’s edition, the Economist has provided several excellent features of interest on Asia.

First, a study of the sex toy industry in China.:

The Communist Party grudgingly opened its doors to private entrepreneurs only three years ago. But it remains uneasy about the age-old practice of keeping businesses under patriarchal control and handing them down through the male line.

And it is just as uneasy about sex, although the visitor to the Wu showroom in Wenzhou, run by the 36-year-old eldest son, Wu Wei, might not believe it. Mr Wu pauses only briefly in the first section, adorned with reproductions of antique Chinese paintings of copulating couples. He points to one showing women in classical attire buying dildos from a street merchant. “Look, they used them in those days”, he says, as if to justify with historical precedent what comes next.

Mr Wu ushers the visitor into the main exhibition: row upon row of sex toys in a rainbow array of rubber, plastic, leather and—he proudly asks your correspondent to squeeze this one—a sponge-like material designed to simulate the texture of female flesh. Hung on one wall is a macabre line of near life-size inflatable dolls, their rouged mouths agape as if in horror at the implements before them: the Vertical Double Dong, the Occidental Vagina, the Waterproof Warhead Vibe (“Bathtime was never this fun”) and a variety of black leather and metal goods for fans of sadism and masochism (for overseas markets, that is; the Wus see S&M potential in China too, but party cadres do not).

To follow, a feature on the increasing humanization of robots in Japan:

RobotHER name is MARIE, and her impressive set of skills comes in handy in a nursing home. MARIE can walk around under her own power. She can distinguish among similar-looking objects, such as different bottles of medicine, and has a delicate enough touch to work with frail patients. MARIE can interpret a range of facial expressions and gestures, and respond in ways that suggest compassion. Although her language skills are not ideal, she can recognise speech and respond clearly. Above all, she is inexpensive . Unfortunately for MARIE, however, she has one glaring trait that makes it hard for Japanese patients to accept her: she is a flesh-and-blood human being from the Philippines. If only she were a robot instead.

Robots, you see, are wonderful creatures, as many a Japanese will tell you. They are getting more adept all the time, and before too long will be able to do cheaply and easily many tasks that human workers do now. They will care for the sick, collect the rubbish, guard homes and offices, and give directions on the street.

As well as the above, the issue features a fine report on Tibetans in exile and their concerns about the eventual passing of the Dali Lama.:

The fear that the Dalai Lama’s death will be a disaster for the Tibetan cause looks justified. His fame as a Nobel-prize-winning guru and friend of the stars has produced little concrete benefit: no government recognises his. But top politicians as well as private citizens are drawn to him. Because of him, Tibet is sand in the wheels of China’s drive to become a respected international citizen. And, under him, India has given Tibetans a home big enough to encompass the dream of cultural survival.

Do you think AsiaPundit is smarter than everyone else because he reads The Economist, or does AsiaPundit read The Economist because he is smarter than everyone else? Now, there’s a conundrum!

(UPDATE: All of that plus World in 2006 podcasts: Amartya Sen on India’s rising star, editor Bill Emmott on Koizumi’s legacy, China correspondent James Miles on the country’s leadership and more. (via World Bank PSD Blog) 

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by @ 12:33 pm. Filed under Japan, China, India, Asia, East Asia, Northeast Asia, Tibet

22 December, 2005

don’t download music/kill your maid

A Singapore woman faces a fine of S$250 (USD150) for alleged negligence leading to the death of her maid.:

Ngu Mei Mei who is charged with endangering human life - "killing" her domestic worker, faces three months in jail, a S$250 (US$150) or both. A domestic workers’ life is cheap in Singapore. Do we respect human life?

A Singapore woman has been charged with negligence for ordering her Indonesian maid out of a window from where she fell to her death, a court document and a press report said Friday, Dec 16 (2005).

Ngu Mei Mei, 37, is charged with ordering the maid, Yanti, to climb with laundry from a study room window to hang out the laundry, a court document said.

It said the roof "was not designed for such ordinary human access". The incident allegedly happened on December 20, 2003.

The Straits Times reported that Yanti fell to her death but the charge sheet says only that Ngu "did an act so negligently as to endanger human life."

She faces three months in jail, a S$250 (US$150) or both.

Measuring the value of a human life is a tricky business. Although most states and religions regard all men as equals, legal systems generally when considering compensation for wrongful death will look at such things as life expectancy; expected earnings, inflation and a range of other factors.

But beyond that, deterrence has to be considered. For a country as wealthy as Singapore a S$250 for for killing a maid is hardly a deterrent. That can typically just cover dinner and a night at the pub.

Singapore obviously does not care to deter this sort of behavior as much as it does other things. A first-time copyright piracy offense can, for instance, get you a fine of S$20,000 (USD11,900).

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by @ 10:50 pm. Filed under Singapore, Asia, East Asia, Southeast Asia

wordpress china shuts blogs

(UPDATE: Wordpress China is not affiliated with Wordpress.)
Whether this is because of state-mandated censorship or incredibly bad customer service remains to be seen, but blog service provider Wordpress.com.cn has been deleting blogs without giving advanced notice to their owners.:

Picture-4Many registered users of wordpress.com.cn found that their accounts have been deleted by the site without any notices. The deleted user name is available for re-registration. In blog of Zhuo Zuran, the domain name holder, he explained that inactive accounts will be deleted by system. But many users complaint that even for those who publish posts, the accounts have been deleted too. And an anomynous user said he got email from wordpress.com.cn, it is said that the site was set up by overseas Chinese in WordPress development team(is it true?) to target overseas Chinese, so they delete the registered users from mainland China.

I have no idea whether wordpress.com.cn has any relationship with Wordpress.com and don’t know the exact resons to delete the accounts, but to delete users accounts in such a short time after registration without any notice or reasonable explanation is really irresponsible and unacceptable.

Fons writes:

The relations between the Chinese edition and Wordpress.com remains unclear as are the reason to delete weblogs without any notification.

Fons also notes the shutdown of  the site of one of the first English-language native Shanghai bloggers, Wang Jianshuo, which currently remains inaccessible in Shanghai. AsiaPundit offers his wishes that the site will be restored quickly.

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by @ 9:31 pm. Filed under Blogs, China, Asia, East Asia, Northeast Asia, Web/Tech, Weblogs, Censorship

lee kwan yew vs jawaharlal nehru

Jeff Ooi made an interesting and persuasive argument on how South Korea beats Singapore (interpreted here as LKY vs PCH), but there was still lots of room for debate.

Not so in AsiaPundit’s second round of battles between the founding fathers of modern Asia; Atanu Dey’s  essays on how Lee Kwan Yew beats Jawaharlal Nehru really leave little room for argument. Read Part 1, Part 2: and Part 3 (part 4 pending):

NehruKly-2

LKY transformed a third-world mosquito infested swamp into a rich developed city state within one generation. An autocrat to the core, he sequenced the changes and orchestrated the development of his city without apologizing for what he had to do. Singapore is one of the least corrupt economies of the world. He made Singaporeans clean up their act, both figuratively and literally. No other dictator has been able to achieve that sort of transformation. It is a random draw from which dictators are drawn. India drew a lousy hand and got saddled with dictators that were incompetent to the core. And staggering from one calamity to another, the country got rid of the dictators and with only a brief break, got a government that is headed by a foreign-born rather reluctantly naturalized citizen of India and supported by a bunch of treasonous communists.

There is sweet irony in LKY delivering the Nehru Memorial Lecture: a successful dictator lecturing the family members of a failed dictator who made a mess of the economy that was so full of promise. Just in case it is not entirely clear, Nehru was a dictator, never mind the fact that there may have been an election. The laws of the universe do not preclude the democratic election of dictators. Adolf Hitler was also elected, and he enjoyed the confidence of the majority just as much as Nehru enjoyed the confidence of the people of the newly minted republic of India. There was no opposition worth its name and Nehru did precisely what he willed.

Based on Nehru’s policy prescriptions, the Indian economy grew at a sorry 2 or 3 percent a year—the aptly named “Nehru rate of growth.” Per capita figures were even more dismal than that because the population grew rapidly. The Nehru dynasty continued to favor policies that kept India locked into the Nehru rate of growth until about 1991. Then economy grew at a more respectable rate but only compared to the Nehru rate of growth. In absolute terms, the “post-reform” growth rate was nothing to write home about. China had been growing for over a decade and at a much faster rate.

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by @ 8:58 pm. Filed under South Korea, Singapore, India, Asia, East Asia, Economy, Southeast Asia

hard gay kiki ippatsu

Christmas gift review #4: The Hard Gay Kiki Ippatsu game

AsiaPundit is torn on what sort of review he should give this toy, in which players poke plastic swords into a plastic barrel containing a doll of Japanese television celebrity Hard Gay (aka Razor Ramon, neither of which seem like his real name).

Hardgaykikiippatsu

For starters, as was the case with Wok ‘n Roll, AP is hesitant to endorse any game that may be offensive to minority groups, and this one has raised some ire.:

A sexual minority network has sent complaints to toy giant Tomy and Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) over a new version of Tomy’s Kurohige Kiki Ippatsu game that uses a character based on television personality Razor Ramon HG, alternatively known as Hard Gay.

The Kyoto-based sexual minority teacher’s network is demanding that Tomy halt sales of a version of the game titled “Kurohi-gei Kiki Ippatsu.”

In the game, which is scheduled to go on sale on Dec. 30, plastic swords are inserted into holes in a barrel until the character inside jumps out.

The game was planned by TBS, the channel on which Razor Ramon frequently appears, and Tomy is marketing it.

The complaints claim that selling a toy in which a gay or similarly associated person is put in a barrel and people ‘enjoy’ poking swords into it discriminates against homosexuals. They also raise fears that the game instills the impression in children that discrimination against gays is fine.

Surely as someone who is very sympathetic to the hard time gays get in much of the region, where many countries still outlaw homosexuality, AsiaPundit should take this complaint seriously. But as someone who appreciates kitsch, AP says this is brilliant!

Besides, Hard Gay has been know for doing hip thrusts behind , being crucified as a Yahoo! publicity stunt and thrusting his PVC-wrapped crotch at captive motorists. Essentially, it strikes AP as odd that the group’s complaint isn’t that the character portrays a ridiculous stereotype of gays.

That said, AP does not endorse this as a Christmas gift, if only because it isn’t released until five days after Christmas.

(via Tokyo Times)

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by @ 8:28 pm. Filed under Japan, Asia, East Asia, Northeast Asia

hong kong democrats possibly pyrrhic victory

Gateway Pundit has a decent roundup of press coverage and photos on yesterday’s rejection of government ‘reforms’ by Hong Kong’s LegCo, but it is far too optimistic (be sure to read the comments).

it very much remains to be seen whether this can be called a ‘victory’ in the longer term, without requiring the addition of the adjective ‘pyrrhic.’ Simon has one of the better pieces of analysis.:

YanThe democrats will enjoy the headlines and kudos for the next few days. In the actual vote they played a smart political game and ran rings around the government and pro-Beijing forces. But what have they achieved? They’ve rejected a positive step forward towards universal suffrage for the longer term goal of a timetable. They have reduced the chances of eliminating appointed district councillors; they have rejected a chance to expand the electoral college that elects the Chief Executive in 2007; they’ve rejected an expansion in the Legco for 2008 that would likely benefit them and remove the functional constituency veto. Perversely, the democrats have voted to stymie democratic reform and played into Beijing’s hands. Beijing and The Don can now say they offered progress and were rejected. Beijing has won thanks to the democrats. This game makes for odd bedfellows.

In short, they’ve gone for a double or nothing strategy, but with nothing looking the more likely outcome. It highlights the short-termism that pervades the democrats in Hong Kong. It is all well and good to be a purist and hope for an instant transition to full democracy. But politics is the art of the possible and as such it involves compromise and messy reality, not high ideology. The lack of courage and leadership from the democrats is as lamentable as it was predictable.

Unfortunately, Hong Kong is the loser.

In a related note, it’s great to see Hemlock again be cited in Slate.

Photo lifted from Mooncake Productions, the commercial site of Glutter’s Yan Sham-Shackleton.

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by @ 3:24 pm. Filed under China, Hong Kong, Asia, East Asia, Northeast Asia

seaman ship

Further on Asian militaries, while Japan’s SDF is not known for protecting agriculture their recruitment video is still truly fruity.:

Seamanship

(Via 3Yen)

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by @ 2:43 pm. Filed under Japan, Asia, East Asia, Northeast Asia

agriculture wars

AsiaPundit has no military expertise and is always on the lookout for good trusted sources and commentary on questions about potential military conflicts (i.e., how North Korea would react to a surgical strike on nuclear facilities or whether Taiwan or China would have an upper hand in a conflict).

Unfortunately, AP can find no sources of information on a question that is currently bothering him.: “In a conflict, which would have the advantage: the PLA’s lychee protection unit or Thailand’s newly formed rubber-tapping squad?”

Thai Rubber Soldiers

Thai soldiers are to be trained as rubber tappers under new plans announced by cabinet to help increase security for rubber farmers in the violence-plagued south of the country.

Deputy government spokesman Chalermchai Mahakijsiri said around 200 specialist troops would be sent to protect local farmers from possible insurgent attack. At the same time, they would be equipped to help the farmers in the routine tapping of rubber trees. He said the Agriculture Department and the Army had been ordered to cooperate in the training of the soldiers.

AsiaPundit is concerned that Western powers are gravely unprepared for future agriculture-related conflicts. On top of the two above examples of Asian advantage, North Korea’s KPA has gained a clear strategic lead over NATO forces in pig and duck farming.

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by @ 1:37 pm. Filed under Asia, East Asia, Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, Thailand, Terrorism

biodegradable phone

AsiaPundit Christmas gift suggestion #3.

Given the relatively short lifespans that mobile devices have in Asia, due to regular need for upgrading due to either prestige or technological advances, the biodegradable phone is a brilliant idea.:

Biophone

NEC’s N70i cell phone case is made from potatoes, corn and kenaf so it’s BIODEGRADABLE. Plus it tastes great with butter and a little salt.

(Via Japundit)

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by @ 8:09 am. Filed under Japan, Asia, East Asia, Northeast Asia

21 December, 2005

ju-on

Asian horror films were dominated by exceptionally bad B-movies until films such as the Ring and Ju-on hit the screens. Ju-on, later remade by Sam Raimi, of Evil Dead and Spider-man fame, was one of AsiaPundit’s first re-introductions to Asian horror… and it was darn creepy (Mrs AsiaPundit, who generally embraces Mr AP’s love of zombie films, couldn’t watch).

Why was a low-budget film so effective at scaring the Gaijin, those who were raised on the Exorcist and Prince of Darkness? Possibly because the Westerners couldn’t figure out why the ghost of a child would be so keen on killing everybody. Japundit explains.:

JuonIn many Western stories, ghosts are often motivated by the same things as living people namely the pursuit of justice for wrongdoings. The ghost of a murdered person will seek vengeance on the person or persons responsible for their death.

If a ghost is malevolent, it often turns out they were a bad person in life — as in the back-story to the main ghost character in the Poltergeist (1982-1986) movies.

To understand the nature of the supernatural entity of “The Grudge,” one has to understand Japanese belief in spirits and the supernatural.

In the book Ghosts and the Japanese: Cultural Experience in Japanese Death Legends by Michiko Iwasaka, there is a passage which is a direct echo of the opening lines of the movie:

“Anyone who dies under great emotional stress creates an energy which is not easily dissipated; these yurei [ghosts], thus, have an impact on the local environment. . .”

This type of spirit is called a goryo — vengeful ghost. A goryo, however, is less like a consciously aware ghost that plots revenge and would be more familiar to Western audiences. A goryo is more like the energy of the emotion created at the time of death. And to some degree it represents the unconscious mind free of the limitations and morals of the conscious analytic side.

Formal belief in goryo can be traced to the Heian Period (794-1185) when goryo were thought to be the angry spirits of political enemies that had died in exile or had been executed.

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by @ 9:54 pm. Filed under Japan, Asia, East Asia, Northeast Asia, Film

50 hypnotized japanese women

Brian David Philips, Taiwan-based American hypnotist, without a doubt maintains the weirdest site in AsiaPundit’s blogroll. Here, Brian offers a straight-faced review of, err, a Japanese erotic mass hypnosis video.

Imagine . . . if you will . . . fifty young women, well, mostly young . . . ranging in age from eighteen to fifty-five with the bulk of them in their very early twenties . . . most of them quite attractive and adventurous . . . from different walks of life . . . all of them stepping into an exciting new event they’ve never tried before . . . mass group erotic hypnosis.

A Onna E Onna Two (aka E Nu A Nu) is the sequel to the very popular preceeding piece, the first of the mass group erotic hypnosis videos. I’ve never seen the original piece (would love to have a copy, but haven’t found one readily available here) but the still photos I’ve seen stand out similar to the clip going around where a large group of girls were hypnotized so that loud sounds would make them orgasm then they’re sent on a crawling obstacle race with a buch of guys making loud sounds all around them. You can see that clip from (NSFW).

Picture 2

The sequel is equally as ambitious, albeit without the big name hypnotist and with perhaps more sexual content then the previous film.

Overall, it is an interesting video and worth having if you are particularly interested in hypnosis. The mass group erotic hypnosis element is very interesting in and of itself as there aren’t many examples of this sort of work outside the private videos of some of the folks who do ritual trance pieces for the likes of the Temple of Ishtar so it’s worth having for its curiousity value and to see some techniques for managing large groups for effects or experiential hypnosis.

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by @ 8:59 pm. Filed under Japan, Asia, East Asia, Northeast Asia

india’s sting season

Via Amit Varma’s India Uncut, six more Indian parliamentarians have been exposed as corrupt through a journalistic sting operation.:

Sting2NEW DELHI: Last week 11 MPs had to wrestle with Duryodhan. Now six others have been trapped in a Chakravyuh.

A sting operation, codenamed Chakrayvuh, conducted over six months by two former Tehelka journalists, Jamshed Khan and Mayabhushan Nagvekar, and telecast on STAR News on Monday showed six MPs striking deals to get projects implemented in their constituencies using funds from the MPs’ Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS).

The exposé comes exactly a week after Operation Duryodhan, conducted by another former Tehelka journalist, Aniruddha Bahal, and telecast on Aaj Tak, showed 11 MPs accepting bribes to raise questions in Parliament. In fact, Chakra-vyuh had to be wound up after Duryodhan because MPs had become wary of requests from unknown parties.

Under the MPLADS, Rs2 crore is sanctioned every year to all members of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha for carrying out developmental works of their choice in their constituencies. With nearly 780 MPs in Parliament, the annual budget for the scheme works out to Rs1560 crore.

Indian journalists seem far more willing to resort to entrapment than their Western peers. That’s not likely because of different ethical standards, it’s probably because none of us can afford to bribe a Western politician. We simply don’t have the budget to compete with the lobbyists.

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by @ 8:15 pm. Filed under India, Asia, South Asia

facebook identity theft

At one of the Pacific Epoch blogs, which are an invaluable resource on internet and technology businesses in China, Elias reports that Chinese site Xiaonei has produced a blatant rip-off of US social-networking site facebook.:

I said in the previous post that Xiaonei is an almost exact copy of the Facebook site. I included some screenshots below comparing the sites. This is the original Facebook website:

Facebook

This is Xiaonei’s site, taken Monday:

Xiaonei

The site has undergone a slight modification since the theft.

(Via the Stalwart, who has more to add.)

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by @ 3:49 pm. Filed under Blogs, China, Asia, East Asia, Northeast Asia, Web/Tech

india’s labor deficit

Although both India and China each boast populations of more than a billion souls, the two giants also face severe labor shortages in key areas. Via the New Economist, a Bloomberg column on the situation faced by Indian call centers.:

CallcenterTo maintain its global share of 65 percent in information technology and 46 percent in business-process outsourcing, the country will need 2.3 million professionals by 2010. According to McKinsey’s calculations, India may face a deficit of as many as 500,000 workers. As much as 70 percent of the shortage will crop up in call centers and other back-office businesses, where proficiency in English is the No. 1 prerequisite for landing a job.

People within the Indian outsourcing industry are aware of the problem: A number of executives cite high employee attrition and galloping wages as signs that the labor market for undergraduates in India is getting tighter.

It isn’t obvious why that should be so. In a country where millions of educated young people are unemployed, why do call centers feel compelled to give pay raises of 10 percent to 15 percent a year? Why don’t they boot out the highly paid workers and grab the eager aspirants?

And why do they offer their employees free dance lessons on top of a $4,000 annual wage — worth $36,000 when adjusted for purchasing power in the local currency — when they can’t pass on the increase in costs to the U.S. bank or the European insurance company that is paying for the call centers’ services?

The answers may have a lot to do with India’s education system. A labor shortage is bound to surface unless India’s colleges can produce more employable graduates.

McKinsey produced a similar item on China’s plight a few weeks earlier. While this may raise concerns on whether China and Indian have the human capital needed to sustain their booming economies, overall it should be seen as an amazingly good thing. The end result of this is a push for higher wages and improved education in both countries.

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by @ 3:33 pm. Filed under China, India, Asia, East Asia, Economy, Northeast Asia, South Asia

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