Asia-Pacific

Photo: Puay Kim Teo speaking at the 1st Asian Buddhist Media Conclave in Delhi in August about the festival.

What is Buddhist in a Buddhist Film Festival?

By Kalinga Seneviratne

This article is the 25th in a series of joint productions of Lotus News Features and IDN-InDepthNews, flagship of the International Press Syndicate.

SINGAPORE (IDN) – The just concluded 5th edition of 'Thus I Have Seen Buddhist Film Festival (THISBFF)' in Singapore attracted a large non-Buddhist audience according to its organisers, but still it grappled with the question of what constitutes "Buddhist" in a film festival.

Festival director Puay Kim Teo of ‘Dhamma in Action’, reminiscing at its origins 10 years ago, recalls “we were looking for an outreach platform to share Buddhist teachings and Buddhist culture with the wider community in Singapore, beyond the normal temple grounds and society premises”.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 07 October 2018

Photo: In Tiananmen Square protests Beijing in 1989 the hopes of a mass democratic movement and the possibility that it would generate a workers' and people's movement of the Solidarność type were massacred. CC BY-SA 3.0

On 'Socialism with Chinese Characteristics' – or Mask of Capitalism

Viewpoint by Michele Nobile*

This is the second of a four-part series. Click here for Part 1

ROME (IDN) – "Socialism with Chinese characteristics" is described by the regime in the following terms:

"A historic transformation from a highly centralised planned economy to a dynamic socialist market economy has been achieved in China. A basic economic system in which public ownership takes the lead and different economic ownerships grow side by side has come into being. The market plays an increasingly important role in allocating resources, and the system of macroeconomic regulation is improving. A social security system covering both urban and rural residents is taking shape, and culture, education, science and technology, health care, sports and other social programs are flourishing."

: Phil Harris; OPINION; 07 October 2018

Photo: Chang'an avenue in Beijing. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

On 'Socialism with Chinese Characteristics' – or Problem of Epochal Social Transformation

Viewpoint by Michele Nobile*

This is the first of a four-part series.

ROME (IDN) – The "peaceful rise" or "peaceful development" of China is one of the most remarkable processes marking the world economy between the twentieth and twenty-first centuries ... and perhaps the most important.

Over four decades of the era of economic reforms, per capita product growth, industrial production and export rates have been impressive. The Chinese government can proudly show that since 1978 its gross domestic product has multiplied, that China's share in world production has increased fourfold, that China is the number one exporter in the world and that it is the country with the largest currency reserves (mostly in dollars).

: Phil Harris; OPINION; 06 October 2018

Photo: Mike Pompeo, then Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, meets with North Korea dictator Kim Jong-un over the Easter weekend (March 30 to April 1, 2018). Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Pompeo Heads to Pyongyang in Quest of Denuclearization

By Kelsey Davenport & Alicia Sanders-Zakre

Kelsey Davenport is director for nonproliferation policy and Alicia Sanders-Zakre is research assistant at the Arms Control Association. This article first appeared in the Inaugural Issue: The North Korea Denuclearization Digest on October 3, 2018. It is being reproduced courtesy Arms Control Association. – The Editor

WASHIGTON, D.C. (IDN-INPS) – After a long pause in U.S.-North Korea talks on denuclearization and peace, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will travel to Japan, China, North Korea, and South Korea October 6-8. He will visit Pyongyang October 7 and is expected to meet with Chairman Kim Jong-un.

: UN Bureau; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 05 October 2018

Photo (front l to r): High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, Sri Lanka's Permanent Representative Ambassador A.L.A. Azeez serving as Chairperson-Rapporteur, Human Rights Council President Vojislav Šuc, Permanent Representative of Slovenia. Credit: Sri Lanka Permanent Mission to UN in Geneva.

Sri Lanka Chaired UN Forum Focuses on Sport to Promote Human Rights

By Jamshed Baruah

GENEVA (IDN) – The Social Forum of the UN Human Rights Council serves since 2008 as a unique space for open and interactive dialogue between civil society actors, representatives of Member States, and intergovernmental organizations, on a theme chosen by the Council each year. The 2018 Social Forum, with Sri Lanka's Permanent Representative Ambassador A.L.A. Azeez as the Chairperson-Rapporteur, distinguished itself in more than one way.

It focussed on "the possibilities of using sport and the Olympic ideal to promote human rights for all and to strengthen universal respect for them". High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet emphasized at the opening the importance of sports as a tool for social and human empowerment.

: Jamshed Baruah; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; United Nations; 05 October 2018

Photo: The US$1.4 billion Port City project in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Credit: China Dialogue | Shehan Gunasekara

China Suspected of Going Green by Dumping Brown Through BRI

Viewpoint by Dokku Nagamalleswara Rao & Atmaja Gohain Baruah

Dokku Nagamalleswara Rao and Atmaja Gohain Baruah are research scholars at the Center for East Asian Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi India. This article first appeared in East-West Forum on 25 September 2018. – The Editor.

NEW DELHI (IDN-INPS) – The environmental impact of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has been fraught with contradictions. While there are efforts to finance and promote green development through some BRI projects, other projects are raising serious environmental concerns.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; OPINION; 04 October 2018

Turning Waste into Wealth for Growth and the Planet

Viewpoint by LI Yong and Hongjoo Hahm

LI Yong is the Director General of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and Hongjoo Hahm, Officer-in-Charge of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).

BAGKOK (IDN) – The business case for making our economy more sustainable is clear. Globally, transitioning to a circular economy – where materials are reused, re-manufactured or recycled – could significantly reduce carbon emissions and deliver over US$1 trillion in material cost savings by 2025.[1] The benefits for Asia and the Pacific would be huge. But to make this happen, the region needs to reconcile its need for economic growth with its ambition for sustainable business.

: J Nastranis; OPINION; 04 October 2018

Photo: The 11th Mekong-Japan Ministerial Meeting on August 2-3, 2018 in Singapore, with Taro Kono, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan serving as chair. Attendees included: Sok Siphana, Advisor to the Royal Government of Cambodia; Saleumxay Kommasith, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Laos; Kyaw Tin, Minister for International Cooperation of Myanmar; Don Pramudwinai, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Thailand; and Pham Binh Minh, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Viet Nam. Credit: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand.

China-Japan Rivalry Intensifies in Asia's New Growth Region

By Kalinga Seneviratne

SINGAPORE (IDN) – While China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has been in the news for a while – thanks mainly to negative reporting by the western media – Japan is slowly funding the building of supplementary trade corridors in the Mekong region projecting itself as not only interested in building infrastructure, but also trade facilitation through human capacity building in the region.

With a growth rate exceeding 5 percent and a combined population of over 240 million, the Mekong region, which was devastated by the Vietnam war in the 1960s and 1970s, has now emerged as a new growth centre of Asia. With the exception of Thailand, the population of the region – that also includes Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam – is young, with more than 20 per cent of residents below 15 years of age.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 02 October 2018

Photo credit: Transparency International

Right to Information a Mixed Success in the Asia-Pacific Region

By Sean Buchanan

LONDON (IDN) – Freedom of information is not only a human right, but also an essential tool to engage and empower citizens to demand accountability from governments and fight corruption.

Worldwide, around 120 countries have a right to information (RTI) act, indicating that most countries consider it important to spell out in detail how this right is exercised and to set obligations for public authorities to promote, protect and implement it in practice.

: Phil Harris; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 01 October 2018

Photo (from left to right): Ms. Kaoru Nemoto, Director of the United Nations Information Centre in Tokyo; Mr. Nobuharu Imanishi, Director of Arms Control and Disarmament Division, MOFA; Ms. Masako Toki, Education project manager at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey; Ms. Mitsuki Kudo, Nagasaki Youth Delegation 2018. Credit: Katsuhiro Asagiri.

Japan Considers Ways of Shedding the Straitjacket and Go the Whole Hog for Nuclear Abolition

The following is a revised version of the article posted on September 30, 2018.

By Katsuhiro Asagiri

TOKYO (IDN) – Japan's profound interest in the international community's efforts to help usher in a world free of nuclear weapons was underlined in the run-up to the commemoration of the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons on September 26, which was observed first time in 2014 in accordance with a decision of the UN General Assembly.

Two events marked the efforts of Japan's civil society to avail of the day to enhance awareness of the complete elimination of nuclear weapons, and enable the country shed the straitjacket of compulsions imposed by the North Korean threat, delicate relations with China and the U.S. nuclear umbrella.