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Desperation
fuels North Korea's leniency
 North
Korea's release of American missionary Robert Park comes as the debilitating
effects of a botched currency reform raises fears of famine and as a power
struggle erupts among Pyongyang's elite. With the North reportedly reeling from
rice riots and inner-party purges, Seoul and Washington see the perfect chance
to turn the screws on Pyongyang over its nuclear weapons program.
- Donald Kirk (Feb 5, '10)
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Okinawa call to shape new US-Japan era
Washington is pressuring Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama to stick to a
2006 agreement on the relocation of US Marines stationed on Okinawa, saying
that any other call risks bilateral ties and Japan's national security. Even if
the dispute ends in compromise, Hatoyama's defiant stance may signal the end of
the asymmetric US-Japan alliance. - Axel Berkofsky
(Feb 5, '10)
Nepal trying to march in step
Nepal, striving for lasting peace after a decade of insurgency, has two
standing armies: a state-funded military and 20,000 Maoist combatants living in
United Nations-monitored camps. Divisions over how they should be integrated
into one force have the power to disrupt preparations for a new constitution
and even draw the involvement of neighbors. - Dhruba Adhikary
(Feb 5, '10)
Darwin and illusory pigeons
The works of Charles Darwin and the 19th-century pioneers who opened ancient
Asia to the West will be the focus of an upcoming seminar at Kolkata's
path-setting Asiatic Society. These include the efforts of a remarkable museum
curator, Edward Blyth, who gave Darwin much of the voluminous information he
sought on living creatures and specimens to study directly. - Raja Murthy
(Feb 5, '10)
DISPATCHES FROM AMERICA
30-second warnings
Super Bowl Sunday is about as close as America gets, without a presidential
election, to taking the pulse of the nation. From Iraq to Afghanistan,
Mississippi to the West Coast, Americans and others gathered around television
sets will witness snapshots of the national zeitgeist in the game's
multi-million-dollar advertising slots; these will include voyeuristic
horndogs, flatulent slackers and a pro-life message delivered by a quarterback.
- Robert Lipsyte (Feb 5, '10)
 BOOK
REVIEW
Look who's come to dinner
Superfusion by Zachary Karabell
This insightful book examines the alternatives to fearing China's inevitable
rise as a super-economy and global political force and asks whether American
hostility to making room at the table for an upsetter of the old economic order
is more a reflection of its own lost confidence. - Benjamin A Shobert
(Feb 5, '10)
US fires off new warning in Pakistan
With its biggest drone attack to date in 
Pakistan - nine unmanned vehicles firing 19 missiles in one evening - the
United States has underscored its invigorated desire to wipe out Taliban and
al-Qaeda sanctuaries in the Pakistan and Afghanistan border areas. The efforts
are backed by a new intelligence-gathering network tapping into Afghan
tribesmen. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (Feb 4, '10)
Iran launches new phase in nuclear
crisis
Tehran's acceptance of a "fuel-for-fuel" deal that would defuse concern over
its nuclear program comes as the United States announces plans to encircle Iran
and introduce tougher new sanctions on the Islamic Republic. Iran says its
gesture is an unclenching of its fist, while skeptics dismiss it as a ploy to
buy time and garner international support. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi
(Feb 4, '10)
THE ROVING EYE
Staring at the abyss
On Indonesia's tropical island of Bali, everything is about sekala and niskala,
ritual and the occult. In the United States, the Pentagon has its occult as it
continues its descent into the ghostly abyss of its "long war". When President
Obama visits Indonesia next month, he'd do well to do some soul-searching on
Bali if he is to avoid being permanently engulfed by hungry ghosts. - Pepe
Escobar (Feb 4, '10)
Dalai Lama firm on Obama meeting
A United States rebuttal of warnings from China against the Dalai Lama meeting
Barack Obama adds to the growing list of tensions between Washington and
Beijing. The issue has spilled over into talks between Beijing and envoys of
the Dalai Lama, who stressed that a meeting between the Tibetan spiritual
leader and the US president was a tradition unbroken since 1991, one of the
envoys tells Asia Times Online. - Saransh Sehgal
(Feb 4, '10)
Shanghai wishing on a fading
Disney star
China's financial center, Shanghai, may be losing its warm, fuzzy feelings over
getting the third Disneyland theme park in Asia, scheduled to open in 2014. As
the city’s politicians look south to the magic kingdom in Hong Kong, where the
reality of losses mock the expectations of a bonanza for the economy, they see
a warning of what their dreams may bring about. - Olivia Chung
(Feb 4, '10)
Anwar trial another black eye
for Malaysia
To many, Anwar Ibrahim is not the only defendant in the dock in a sodomy trial
that is the talk of Malaysia. Amid explicit language and allegations, everyone
from the prime minister and the political establishment to the police and
judiciary itself could be dragged through the mud if, as in Anwar's first
trial, the courtroom drama turns into a high-stakes soap opera stretching out
for months. - Anil Netto (Feb 4, '10)
India's awards lose honorable luster
India's highest civilian awards are increasingly being distributed to those who
have friends in positions of power. Adding to a string of questionable choices
in recent times, this year's top award-winners include a former militiaman and
an alleged crook. - Sudha Ramachandran (Feb
4, '10)
US's strike threat catches China off
guard
The United States' plans for a "Prompt Global Strike" system that could launch
a conventional weapons attack on anywhere in the world within an hour are
unsettling China. The US combat strategy has traditionally relied on nuclear
might, and this change is seen by Beijing as a maneuver in America's quest for
domination of the world and of space. - Peter J Brown
(Feb 3, '10)
Pakistani Taliban has its work cut
out
If Hakeemullah Mehsud, the leader of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, did indeed
die in a United States drone attack last week, there is a ready replacement for
him in a young battle-hardened commander with a set agenda: to continue the
relationship that Mehsud's group forged with al-Qaeda as a component of its
regional plans. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (Feb 3,
'10)
US ups the ante in Iran nuclear
game
By expanding its missile defense systems in the Persian Gulf, the United States
is sending its strongest message yet to Iran over the stalemate in talks over
Tehran's nuclear program. The move can also be seen as a sign that
neo-conservative voices are being heard in Washington. - Mohammed A Salih
(Feb 3, '10)
Obama expectations revised in
Indonesia
Confirmation that United States President Barack Obama will make a much-awaited
visit to his childhood home of Indonesia has had a mixed reception. Fading
hopes that Obama will upgrade Jakarta's strategic importance in Washington
mirror discontent with Indonesia's own president, raising doubts whether
Obama's visit will benefit the Indonesian leader. - Sara Schonhardt
(Feb 3, '10)
Brinjal a political hot potato in
India
The battlelines are drawn in India's 
brinjal wars between proponents of the introduction of a variant as the
country's first commercial genetically modified vegetable, who say it will cut
pesticide use, and those who say it is harmful. The government stumbled late
into the debate over the crop, also known as eggplant, and has a tough decision
to make. - Neeta Lal (Feb 3, '10)
Bernanke who?
China's efforts to cool its economy are already having an impact elsewhere -
notably on export-related stocks in the United States, such as those involved
in steel, shipping and natural resources. The most important monetary official
in the world may now be based, not in Washington, but in Beijing. - Julian
Delasantellis (Feb 3, '10)
The Iraqi oil conundrum
Dreams nurtured in the United States that the overthrow of Saddam Hussein would
be quickly followed by oil revenues flowing into the coffers of US-based
companies have long turned sour. Now, even the involvement of China has failed
to get the black gold flowing. - Michael Schwartz
(Feb 3, '10)
Taliban take on the US's surge
The Taliban, rather than demand that all foreign troops be pulled out of
Afghanistan before negotiations begin with the United States or any other
country, have proposed that if the US stops its surge of 30,000 troops,
dialogue can start immediately. In addition, the Taliban say they will take
measures to reduce hostilities. The dilemma for the US is how desperate is it
to take the Taliban's word. - Syed Saleem Shahzad
(Feb 2, '10)
South Korea marks a painful centenary
Northeast China, March 26, 1910. 
A Korean nationalist is executed for pumping four bullets into Hirobumi Ito,
architect of the Meiji Restoration and Japan's colonial administrator for
Korea. The shots fired by Ahn Jung-geun ushered in a 35-year Japanese
occupation of Korea marked by killings, "comfort women" and a merciless
"Japanization". They also rang out across Northeast Asia, raising questions of
Pan-Asian unity that remain unanswered to this day. - Ronan Thomas
(Feb 2, '10)
Turkey changes course on Armenia
Though there has been much criticism of the Turkish government wanting to
initiate a commission to look at the evidence relating to the 1915 killing of
more than one million Ottoman-Armenian civilians during World War I, it's an
important step as Ankara tries to move away from the country's traditionally
dogmatic view of its official history. - Caleb Lauer
(Feb 2, '10)
Tomb warriors battle in China
The battle between ancient warlords Cao Cao and Liu Bei has been renewed in
death. As archaeologists seek recognition that they have identified their final
resting places - the one in Henan province, the other in Sichuan - truth and
authenticity are being overshadowed by officials' hunger for increased tourism
revenue. - Kent Ewing (Feb 2, '10)
Temasek and Thaksin lost in
space
A corruption case against exiled former Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra is
overshadowing Shin Satellite, which he sold before being ousted from power.
Singapore's Temasek Holdings, the present owner, faced with the prospect of a
canceled tax holiday, may find it best to get rid of its stake, but attracting
a buyer for the debt-burdened, loss-making unit could be tough. - Peter Brown
(Feb 2, '10)
 SPENGLER
Profits, not principals,
move the age
What brought United States and other Western banks down was not speculative
bets in volatile markets but the necessary pursuit of profit in what appeared
to be ultra-safe investments. The sources of the crisis remain unchanged: the
industrial world's need to fund the greatest retirement wave in history.
(Feb 1, '10)
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David P
Goldman
(Feb 4, '10)
Everything looks bad, so buy the less bad (and short the worst against it).
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 CHAN
AKYA
Hair of
Damocles' sword
United States Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's future in office might be
short, with a warning by Moody's Investors Service that the US is at risk of
losing its triple A credit rating giving more ammunition to critics of his
handling of the financial crisis. Whenever his successor takes over,
humiliating deals with China are likely to be part of a thankless work load.
Teves in race to fix
Philippines' economy
 Philippines'
Finance Secretary Margarito Teves is scrambling to control a ballooning budget
deficit while boosting revenues to pay for past pump-priming efforts. Selling
off state assets will help, but time is running out as he has only until
elections in May to sort out what he can. "It's been a very difficult period
for us," he tells Asia Times Online. - Jennee Grace U Rubrico
MARKET RAP
Friday blues come up trumps
End-of-week trading brought sell-offs across the region, with the largest
weekly declines in more than two months. Yet few indexes are technically highly
oversold, and further downward moves can be expected.
R M Cutler runs his eye over the ups and downs in the week's markets.
FROM THE BLOG
Not working
The world is discovering that the US government's attempts to pump up the
economy through spending simply won't work. The latest employment figures are
just the latest to bear this out. - David Goldman
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Re US's strike threat catches China off guard:
"[I]f you lived in a nation that spent such an insane amount of money on
killing people and blowing things up you'd inevitably try and come up with
something like this ..." - lemuel
"[In my opinion,] that Star Wars had some meaningful impact in the collapse of
the CCCP is a fairy tale spun by the campaign to deify Reagan. Yes Reagan did
contribute, by helping the Taliban against the Red Army, but Star Wars? Silly.
I don't think China will be shaken or stirred over one Pentagon 'review'. ..."
- ding73ding
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From Our Mailbox
Any Republican who shows even a hint of amity to President Barack Obama is
subject to excommunication and exile. The vilification of Obama in every aspect
of US culture is simply astounding; every position he has taken has been
distorted, twisted and mangled to reflect the willful demonization of "the
other".
Hardy Campbell
Houston TX USA
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to Letters to the Editor |
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ATol Specials
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By Syed Saleem Shahzad
(Jan '09) |
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VIDEO
Taliban's new breed of leader
(May '08) |
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The
Gates
Inheritance
By
Roger Morris
(June '07) |
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Syed Saleem Shahzad reports on
the Afghan war from the Taliban side
(Dec '06)
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How
Hezbollah defeated Israel
By
Mark Perry and
Alastair Crooke
(Oct '06)
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Mark
Perry and
Alastair Crooke
talk to the 'terrorists'
(Mar '06)
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China:
The
Impossible
Revolution
By
Francesco Sisci
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The Coming
Trade War
By Henry C K Liu
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A series
by Henry C K Liu
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Sinoroving
Pepe Escobar in China
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Money, Power
and
Modern Art
A series by Henry C K Liu
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Andre Gunder Frank on Uncle Sam and his
shrinking dollar
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By Pepe Escobar with
photographs by Kevin Nortz
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Nir Rosen goes inside the Iraqi
resistance
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Nir Rosen rides with the US 3rd
Armored Cavalry in western Iraq
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Office: Unit B, 16/F, Li Dong Building, No. 9 Li Yuen Street East,
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