Noda must pursue diplomacy that will enhance nation’s presence

It has been pointed out for years that Japan’s diplomatic standing is deteriorating, a condition likened to “ground subsidence.” With the prime minister being changed annually for six years in a row, international awareness of this country’s existence has further declined.Last year, we received heartwarming help from all over the world after the country suffered the disastrous Great East Japan Earthquake. This international bond made us recognize afresh the importance of diplomacy.This year, Jap

Jan. 13, 2012

Let Musharraf stand in court of public opinion

That Pervez Musharraf’s rally in Karachi on Sunday wasn’t much of a success goes without saying. Television showed the reality, and flags and buntings failed to hide the lack of popular enthusiasm. Coming after Imran Khan’s much larger rally last month, the small crowd must have been embarrassing for the former president-general. But this was his first Karachi rally, so let us wait for more such episodes of “enlightened moderation.” Addressing the people from Dubai via telephone, the former pres

Jan. 13, 2012

A well-timed visit by President Lee Myung-bak

The ongoing visit to China by the president of the Republic of Korea, Lee Myung-bak, has come at an important time. In a few months, the two countries will mark the 20th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations and they have designated this year one of friendly exchanges. Flourishing trade and people-to-people exchanges have been the most impressive areas of Sino-ROK cooperation. The Sino-ROK trade volume now exceeds the ROK’s trade volume with the United States and Japan combine

Jan. 13, 2012

Verdict on Anwar takes both sides by surprise

Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim arrived at the Jalan Duta High Court Monday morning convinced he was going to be found guilty of committing sodomy.Two hours later, he left the court cleared of the charge of sodomizing his former aide Saiful Bukhari Azlan.The judgment left both sides of the political divide stunned as the two opposing sides had been equally convinced that Anwar would be pronounced guilty.The Pakatan Rakyat side could hardly believe their ears after years of slamming the

Jan. 13, 2012

Obama turns attention to where the money is

Of all the realizations Barack Obama has made in three years in the White House, this may be the most crucial: The U.S. is a Pacific nation. Odd as it sounds, the U.S. spent the past decade forgetting a fact that’s obvious from consulting a map or tracking container ships. When George W. Bush’s administration bothered with Asia, it was all terrorism all the time. Quite odd, considering how reliant the largest economy became on Asia’s money during his tenure. The region became America’s banker. O

Jan. 12, 2012

No heroes in the fight over a consumer czar

President Barack Obama has established that he’s done with Congress for the rest of his term. Feeling chumped after Republicans wouldn’t reach agreement with him on a broad deficit-reduction agreement, Obama has decided it’s time to campaign against GOP leadership of the House and Senate.Thus the dubious move to ignore the law and appoint a head of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau without the consent of the Senate.We can’t really blame Obama. Republicans have been playing gotcha with

Jan. 11, 2012

Obama’s modest proposal on defense budget

As he unveiled his administration’s new blueprint for U.S. defense strategy last week, President Obama sought to vaccinate himself against charges that he was gutting the nation’s military.Even after the strategy is fully implemented, he said, “the defense budget will still be larger than it was at the end of the Bush administration.”So it seemed a little odd when, an hour later, the second-ranking official in Obama’s Pentagon presented what sounded like a rebuttal.“You have, over the next four

Jan. 11, 2012

Putin stymies protesters with subversion strategies

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s reaction to Moscow protesters perfectly illustrates how the former Soviet spy chief can masterfully leverage classic subversion strategies typically found in espionage to undermine the opposition and even ridicule the concept of democracy.In the wake of the Russian parliamentary vote in early December, a Russian opposition leader far more radically communist than Putin was jailed, and protesters hit the streets to protest what they considered electoral fra

Jan. 11, 2012

How Wall Street turned a crisis into a cartel

Almost 65 years ago, in 1947, the U.S. government sued 17 leading Wall Street investment banks, charging them with effectively colluding in violation of antitrust laws. In its complaint ― which was front-page news at the time ― the Justice Department alleged that these firms had created “an integrated, overall conspiracy and combination” starting in 1915 “and in continuous operation thereafter, by which” they developed a system “to eliminate competition and monopolize ‘the cream of the business’

Jan. 10, 2012

My name is Beezow Doo-Doo Zopittybop-Bop-Bop

Mr. Beezow Doo-Doo Zopittybop-Bop-Bop, a 30-year-old American national from Wisconsin, was recently arrested for drug and firearms offences (The Daily Mail, Jan. 7, 2012). Prior to October 2011 this individual was known as Jeffrey Drew Wilschke; however he legally changed his name as he is fully entitled to do. Not only is he entitled to change his name, he is not in fact required by law to tell the authorities about it unless he is subject to certain control orders, a point usually ignored by c

Jan. 10, 2012

Name-calling on Internet is a serious business

More than 5 billion additional people will connect to the Internet in the next 20 years, and most of the newcomers will not speak English. This next generation will use the Internet in ways we cannot imagine, and its innovations will change the world. But if the debate in Washington over the creation of new domain names goes the wrong way, Internet policy won’t help the free flow of speech online. The U.S. can help by having the courage to stay the course. At issue is the Internet’s crabbed nami

Jan. 10, 2012