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Asia

Politicians Continue To Fail On Climate; We Must Fight For A Livable Future

May 9, 2022 Margaret Flowers, Clearing the FOG. , , , ,
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued its sixth report in three phases beginning in August, 2021 and concluding in April 2022. The first report declared that the climate crisis is unquestionably due to human activity and called the situation a 'Code Red for Humanity.' The second and third parts indicated that not enough action is being taken not just to mitigate the crisis but also to adapt to it. Clearing the FOG speaks with Professor Benjamin Horton of the Earth Observatory of Singapore about the gravity of the crisis, including that some impacts such as sea level rise are irreversible for the foreseeable future, the importance of activism by scientists to inform the public and push policy makers and how to keep fighting for a more livable future.

Cuba Remembers First Tricontinental Anti-Imperialist Conference

January 4, 2022 Telesur English. , , , , , ,
On Monday, progressive organizations celebrate the 56th anniversary of the First Tricontinental Conference, which gathered 500 delegates from Africa, Asia, and Latin America in Havana to adopt policies to strengthen the fight against imperialism and neo-colonialism. "This event was an exercise in diplomatic cooperation between anti-hegemonic forces of different origins that advocated peace and the self-determination of peoples,” German intellectual Jennifer Hosek stressed. Besides discussing the imperialism's smear campaigns against social revolutions, delegates founded the Peoples of Asia, Africa, and Latin America Solidarity Organization (OSPAAAL) to support countries that had recently liberated themselves from colonialism.

The Second Afghan War And US Retreat From Central Asia

September 12, 2021 Jack Rasmus, ZNet. , , ,
There were actually two Afghan wars. The first began within a few weeks of the 9-11 tragedy, when the US was attacked by Al Qaeda with the assistance of elements of the Saudi Arabia ruling elite. In the first war US forces invaded Afghanistan behind the excuse its mission and goal was to capture Bin Laden and deny Al Qaeda a base in that country, even though there is ample evidence the Taliban had offered to kick Bin Laden out in exchange for no US invasion. The Bush administration rejected the Taliban offer because its actual mission and objective was always greater than just capturing Bin Laden, or even occupying Afghanistan. The first Afghan war was over in a matter of a few months, when US forces drove the Taliban out of government in Afghanistan and into the countryside while sending forces of Bin Laden’s Al Qaeda retreating into the mountains bordering Pakistan

Empower Home-Based Workers By Investing In Co-operatives

August 8, 2020 David Browne, Equal Times. , , ,
South Asia is home to over 50 million home-based workers, most of whom are women. From agarbhatti incense stick rollers in India to piecework garment workers in Sri Lanka, they contribute immensely to national economies in addition to their families and local communities as working from home allows them to take on care responsibilities. Despite working long, irregular hours for low pay and often with no proper contract, home-based workers are often the only income providers in their households.

Scheer Intelligence: The ‘Mass Murder Program’ Behind America’s Rise To Power

May 29, 2020 Robert Scheer, Popular Resistance. , , ,
The Cold War–how it was fought and brutally won by the U.S. on global scale—has defined international politics for more than half a century. That is the central argument of journalist Vincent Bevins’ new book, “The Jakarta Method: Washington’s Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World.” Through meticulous research and extensive interviews with over a hundred people in more than a dozen countries and several languages, Bevins connects the dots between a U.S.-sponsored terror scheme that killed more than a million civilians in Indonesia in the 1960s, and the slaughter of leftists in Brazil, Chile, and elsewhere in the following years.  The connection the former Los Angeles Times foreign correspondent finds between these seemingly disparate national tragedies is not just a despotic goal shared by the likes of Augusto Pinochet and Suharto to seize power through the execution of any opposition.

Southeast Asia Was Hit By A Record-Breaking Disaster; It Was Called The United States

July 26, 2019 By Davidswanson.org , , , ,
In my town in the United States — as is not especially unusual — we have big memorials in prominent public places marking some of the most catastrophically immoral actions of the past. Unfortunately, all five of these major monuments celebrate and glorify these past horrors, rather than reminding us not to repeat them. The University of Virginia is building a memorial to the enslaved people who built the University of Virginia. So, we will have five celebrations of evil, and one cautionary remembrance thereof.

Weaponizing Water In South Asia: World Needs A Water Treaty

July 13, 2019 Conn Hallinan, Fpif.org , ,
The world has enough water for 7 billion people, but not if countries waste, hoard, or weaponize it. Ongoing tensions over Kashmir have transformed water into a national security issue for both India and Pakistan. During the face-off earlier this year between India and Pakistan over a terrorist attack that killed more than 40 Indian paramilitaries in Kashmir, New Delhi made an existential threat to Islamabad. The weapon was not India’s considerable nuclear arsenal, but one still capable of inflicting ruinous destruction: water.

Iran At The Center Of The Eurasian Riddle

June 20, 2019 By Pepe Escobar, Asiatimes.com , , , ,
President Rouhani blasts US leader Donald Trump as ‘a serious threat to regional and world stability’, offers preferential treatment to SCO companies that invest in his country. With the dogs of war on full alert, something extraordinary happened at the 19th summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) late last week in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Virtually unknown across the West, the SCO is the foremost Eurasian political, economic and security alliance. It’s not a Eurasian NATO. It’s not planning any humanitarian imperialist adventures. A single picture in Bishkek tells a quite significant story...

As Washington Vacillates, Asia’s Alliances Are Shifting

September 1, 2018 By Conn Hallinan, Fpif.org , ,
“Boxing the compass” is an old nautical term for locating the points on a magnetic compass in order to set a course. With the erratic winds blowing out of Washington these days, countries all over Asia and the Middle East are boxing the compass and re-evaluating traditional foes and old alliances. India and Pakistan have fought three wars in the past half-century, and both have nuclear weapons on a hair trigger. But the two countries are now part of a security and trade organization, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), along with China, Russia, and most of the countries of Central Asia. Following the recent elections in Pakistan, Islamabad’s foreign minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, has called for an “uninterrupted continued dialogue” with New Delhi to resolve conflicts and establish “peace and stability” in Afghanistan.

A Preview Of The Coming War On China

August 7, 2016 Maki Sunagawa and Daniel Broudy, www.fpif.org , ,
By Maki Sunagawa and Daniel Broudy for Foreign Policy in Focus. The film is also set in Okinawa, as you know. Part of the theme is to show the resistance to power and war by a people who live along a fence line of American bases in their homeland. The film’s title has a certain foreboding about it because it’s meant as a warning. Documentaries such as this have a responsibility to alert people, if necessary to warn, and to show the resistance to rapacious plans. The film will show that the resistance in Okinawa is remarkable, effective, and little known in the wider world. Okinawa has 32 US military installations. Nearly a quarter of the land is occupied by US bases. The sky is often crowded with military aircraft; the sheer arrogance of an occupier is a daily physical presence. Okinawa is about the size of Long Island. Imagine a bristling Chinese base right next to New York. I went on to film in Jeju Island, off the southern tip of Korea where something very similar has happened. People on Jeju tried to stop the building of an important and provocative base about 400 miles from Shanghai. The South Korean navy will keep it ready for the US. It’s really a US base where Aegis Class destroyers will dock along with nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers—right next to China. Like Okinawa, Jeju has a history of invasion and suffering, and resistance.

The Hague Ruling: A Dangerous Step Toward War

July 19, 2016 Staff, www.wsws.org , , , ,
By Staff of WSWS - In the wake of the Permanent Court of Arbitration’s sweeping ruling on Tuesday in The Hague, negating all Chinese maritime claims in the South China Sea, there has been a chorus of US-led condemnations of China’s “illegal activities,” demands that Beijing abide by the court decision and calls for US diplomatic and military action to enforce the verdict. A New York Times editorial entitled “Testing the Rule of Law in the South China Sea” declared that “the signs are troubling” that “Beijing has defiantly rejected an international arbitration court’s jurisdiction” and will not accept the “path-breaking judgment.”

Ash Carter’s Asian Folly

April 22, 2016 Peter Lee, www.counterpunch.org , , ,
By Peter Lee for Counter Punch - Ash Carter is on a mission: to convince Asia’s democracies that Asian security is synonymous with American leadership. Unfortunately for him, the two concepts are not theoretically or even empirically identical, as is revealed by a major clanger Secretary Carter dropped at the Council for Foreign Relations on April 8, 2016. During the Q&A, Carter stated that the PRC was screwing things up in the South China Sea, thereby promoting militarization and insecurity in “a region that has had it good for 70 years”…

‘Silk Road’ Revived As First Train Arrives In Iran From China With Goods

February 23, 2016 Staff, www.AFP.com , , ,
By Staff of AFP - The train, carrying 32 containers of commercial products from eastern Zhejiang province, took 14 days to make the 9,500-kilometre journey through Kazakstan and Turkmenistan. "The arrival of this train in less than 14 days is unprecedented," said the head of the Iranian railway company, Mohsen Pourseyed Aqayi. "The revival of the Silk Road is crucial for the countries on its route," he said at a ceremony at Tehran's rail station attended by the ambassadors of China and Turkmenistan.

More Than 1,000 Protesters Prepping For Obama Summit

February 11, 2016 Brett Kelman, Anna Rumer and Rosalie Murphy, www.desertsun.com , , , ,
By Brett Kelman, Anna Rumer and Rosalie Murphy for The Desert Sun - Protests have been planned over Obama’s aggressive deportation policy, the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement and the dreadful human rights records of some of the visiting nations, according to protest organizers, who estimated how many people will show up. The largest confirmed demonstrations will oppose the Cambodian and Vietnamese governments, but authoritarian leaders from other nations will likely be met with opposition also. Protester groups said they will stand united against the oppression and corruption that is rampant throughout the governments of Southeast Asia.

Asia-Pacific: TPP Backers Face Opposition Almost Everywhere

January 25, 2016 Chuck Chiang, www.vancouversun.com ,
By Chuck Chiang for The Vancouver Sun. Canada - In the world of inter-governmental trade agreements, the signing often gets the most attention. But it is the ratification by member states, required to make such agreements reality, that may be the most difficult part of the process. An agreement as large as the 12-member Trans-Pacific Partnership, signed last year by parties including Canada, remains very much a matter a public debate as it continues to face challenges from opponents to ratification in each member country.
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