Asia

With an average of 300 days of sunshine a year, India is a country where solar power can technically flourish. In an act of recognition and confirmation of this potential, the Government of India announced in November 2009 an ambitious nation-wide initiative to promote solar energy. The Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission is...
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Depends on who you ask. A few days ago several hundred people gathered in the Kazakh city of Almaty to protest against the country’s proposal to lease farmland to China. Interestingly enough, back in December when the media leaked reports of this news to the public, the Kazakh Prosecutor-General’s Office led an...
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The dispute over a fence going up on the Myanmar border continues.  As the fence is erected, Bangladesh border troops are being deployed to the common border.  This has an effect on the Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic minority from Myanmar, because they cross this border fleeing rape, forced labor, and property confiscation seeking refuge...
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There are long-existing points of tension between Bangladesh and Burma such as disputes over maritime boundaries and the movement of illegal goods. One of the most sensitive issued has been the  cross-border trafficking of drugs and the migration of refugees from Burma to Bangladesh. In the last couple of weeks tensions have been mounting...
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Summer is nearly officially over (and the weather here in New York shows it). This means the Perspectives on Global Issues blog is back from its sun-drenched hibernation. Our editors have already been churning out their thoughts and analyses on the latest breaking news in the world of international affairs — but just...
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In an earlier blog I wrote about the leaders in Bangladesh and Thailand that were beginning to put pressure on the Government of Burma to discuss the out-migration of the Rohingya to Bangladesh, Thailand, and Malaysia. It seems now that we may be beyond that point. Business Day recently reported that the...
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The Government of Bangladesh may have reached its tipping point hosting the Rohingya refugees in the southeastern part of the country.  In a recent report in Reuters, the Governments of Bangladesh and Thailand are reaching out to the Government of Burma to discuss the flow of the Muslim minority Rohingya into neighboring countries.  While...
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That a young man or woman might not choose whom they marry is contrary to modern, western thinking.  We typically marry whom we would, rarely with restriction.  Ours is a fiercely personal concept of marriage that way.  It might surprise some, then, that in many countries matrimony is not experienced...
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Given the Obama regime’s focus on diplomatic relations in South-Central Asia, a recent piece by Parag Khanna that appeared in Foreign Policy is timely and relevant. His analysis of the ‘Af-pak’ issue displays a detailed understanding not only of U.S. strategy toward the region, but also the strategies of the not so obvious...
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Related to my last post, La Nacion, an Argentinean newspaper, has just published a piece on Abu Bakker Qassim, one of the five Uyghur men sent to Albania in 2006. You can read the translated version here. It’s an interesting, brief article on conditions in Guantanamo and the Uyghurs’ views on Obama.
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