By Santo D. Banerjee BANGKOK (IDN) — Ministers and heads of national space agencies endorsed the Jakarta Ministerial Declaration on Space Applications for Sustainable Development in Asia and the Pacific at the close of a high-level meeting co-organized by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and the Government […]
Manipulations at ‘World Fellowship of Buddhists’ Conference
Buddhism Is Losing Its Voice in Asia By Krishan Dutta BANGKOK (IDN) — The theme of this year’s 30th General Conference of the World Fellowship of Buddhists (WFB) was “Buddhism in the Time of Crisis”, but many disillusioned members of this premier Buddhist organization say it is the WFB that is in crisis. “The conference […]
Child Massacre Exposes Weaknesses in Thai Society
By Kalinga Seneviratne BANGKOK (IDN) — The massacre of 37 people, 26 of whom were preschool children taking an afternoon nap in their day-care centre, in a remote north-eastern township of Thailand on October 7 has shocked the nation, with many social media postings calling for the extrajudicial killing of those involved in the drug […]
Sri Lanka: Muslim Women to Take Up 50% Quota Demand in Political Bodies
By Sugeeswara Senadhira COLOMBO (IDN) — Though Muslim women have been considered a group that shunned politics for generations, in recent months, there has been a remarkable change in their awareness of political rights. Reflecting this new awareness, a group of Muslim women displayed their desire to take up the cause of Sri Lankan women […]
China and India Slug it out in Colombo
By Shastri Ramachandran NEW DELHI (IDN) — Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Myanmar are all contested sites with both Beijing and New Delhi competing for influence in these countries. There can be no denying the geopolitics involved in bilateral relations in the region. Time was when most of the South […]
Japan Doubles Down on Defending The Post-War Order
By Sheila A Smith The writer, Sheila A. Smith, is John E. Merow, Senior Fellow for Asia Pacific Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN) — Japan has gone all-in with the Western response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The strategic consequences for Tokyo are considerable. Japan’s long-running efforts to conclude a […]
China’s Efforts to Reel in Overfishing
By Hongzhou Zhang and Genevieve Donnellon-May* This article was first issued by East Asia Forum. SINGAPORE | OXFORD (IDN) — Global fish stocks are facing a crisis, with nearly all classified as either fully exploited, overexploited or significantly depleted. China is the largest contributor to this problem as a world leader in both fishery exports […]
The Politics of Misfortune in Sri Lanka
By Neville de Silva* LONDON, (IDN) — Never in Sri Lanka’s 74-year post-independence history has a democratically elected leader been forced to flee the country, running away from the economic shambles and social disarray he was largely responsible for creating. Gotabaya Rajapaksa with 6.9 million votes under his belt was elected president at the butt […]
Land Lease System Threatens Sustainability of Cane Farming in Fiji
By Kalinga Seneviratne SUVA, Fiji (IDN) — Though sugar cane is thought to be indigenous to the islands of the South Pacific, it was the British who started to grow it as a cash crop in Fiji in the later part of the 19th century. In 37 years, beginning in 1879, they shipped some 60,000 […]
Pacific Leaders Endorse ‘2050 Strategy of the Blue Pacific’
Pledge to Promote “Accountable” Development By Sera Tikotikovatu-Sefeti SUVA, Fiji (IDN) — The leaders of the Pacific gathering for the first time in three years endorsed the 2050 Strategy for a Blue Pacific at the 51st Pacific Island Forum (PIF) from July 11 to July 14. “The success of this strategy is down to two […]