Asia-Pacific

Photo: Panellists discussing UAE initiative to enhance access to justice for foreign workers. Credit: Geneva Centre.

UAE Lauded for Enhancing Access to Justice for Foreign Workers

By Jaya Ramachandran

GENEVA (IDN) – Labour law experts have praised the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for launching an initiative to facilitate access to justice for foreign workers, and expressed the hope that this initiative would be replicated by the other five Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman.

In doing so, they would be helping achieve Goal 16.3 of the Agenda for Sustainable Development endorsed by the international community in September 2015.

: Jaya Ramachandran; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 22 March 2018

A New Book Shows Ways to 'Decolonize' the Minds of Asian Communicators

By Kannan Salazar

Mindful Communication for Sustainable Development: Perspectives from Asia
Edited by: Kalinga Seneviratne - Lecturer, Faculty of Communication Arts, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok. February 2018 | 372 pages | SAGE Publications Pvt. Ltd. Electronic version: £38.00
https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/mindful-communication-for-sustainable-development/book261649

BANGKOK (IDN) – The book tries to wean away the reader from the old paradigm of development communication, which was designed to "educate" the peasants to abandon their traditional ideas – such as subsistence farming – and embrace a consumerist lifestyle. With its subtle promotion of sufficiency economics and the use of modern communication tools with a traditional leaning to spread the message, this book in fact tends to go back to tradition, but make it relevant to the 21st century.

: Asia Editor; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 21 March 2018

Trump Plans a Treaty with North Korea, Abandon One with Iran

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – Like it not we find that we’re having to get used to the paradoxes, contradictions and confusions of the Trump era.

None is more apparent than his attack on the landmark Iran de-nuclearisation agreement, fashioned by the Obama Administration and the Iranian government. President Donald Trump wants to unwind it, even though it has the 100 percent support of the UN Security Council which in an unanimous vote enshrined the agreement in international law.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 20 March 2018

Photo: Australian High Commission in Pretoria. CC BY 3.0

White Australians Debate Fast-Track Visas for Afrikaners Fleeing Land Reform

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Australia’s national security minister has proposed fast-tracking immigrant visas for white South Africans facing "horrific circumstances" under Cyril Ramaphosa, the country's President since February 15, 2018. He was elected head of the African National Congress in December 2017.

Barely a month into his presidency, Ramaphosa vowed to speed up the seizure of land from white owners and turn the properties over to blacks. "This original sin that was committed when our country was colonized must be resolved in a way that will take South Africa forward," he declared.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 20 March 2018

Economic Cooperation in the Indian Ocean Region and the One Belt One Road Initiative: A Threat or an Opportunity?

Viewpoint by Dr Palitha Kohona

The writer is former Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations and former Foreign Secretary. – The Editor

COLOMBO (IDN) – The Indian Ocean region is experiencing a fondly anticipated luxury. Almost every one of the economies of the region is expanding at a rate that gives hope to the entire region, especially to its poor and marginalised. The promise of prosperity enthusiastically proclaimed at independence from colonial rule, so many decades ago, may at last become a reality. India is powering ahead with an anticipated growth rate of 7.3% and now is ahead of China.

: Dr. Palitha Kohona; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 19 March 2018

Photo: John Bob Ranck, Chief Executive Officer and President at Orbis International. Credit: Naimul Haq | IDN-INPS

Why Eye Care is Important – for Bangladesh and Other Countries

By Naimul Haq

DHAKA (IDN) – John Bob Ranck, also known as Bob, Chief Executive Officer and President at Orbis International, recently visited Bangladesh on a special mission. He travelled to some of the hospitals where Orbis as a partner has been supporting Bangladesh’s efforts in addressing avoidable blindness.

Bob, a retired United States Air Force Brigadier General, came to Bangladesh a few weeks after the memorable visit of the teaching hospital or better known as the Flying Eye Hospital’s (FEH) training programme in Bangladesh.

: Naimul Haq; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 16 March 2018

– 15 March 2018] Photo: Some of the shops that were set on fire at Katugastota near Sri Lanka’s Kandy city on March 7, 2018. Credit: Meera Srinivasan | The Hindu

Sri Lankan Academics Abroad Condemn Violence Against Muslim Community

By Shanta Roy

NEW YORK (IDN) – A group of Sri Lankan academics teaching in educational institutions abroad – and numbering about 50 – has written to condemn ongoing violence against Sri Lanka’s Muslim community, especially the “brutal attacks” perpetrated early March.

In a letter published by 'Groundviews', they say: “We are outraged that the government has failed to act speedily and decisively to stop the violence and bring those responsible to justice. The government must act firmly to prevent more destruction and bloodshed.”

: Thalif Deen; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 15 March 2018

Photo: Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder and first President of the Turkish Republic, visiting Istanbul University after its reorganization in 1933 as a mixed-gender institution of higher education with multiple faculties. Wikimedia Commons | Public Domain

Reflections on Turkey: From Mustafa Kemal To Recep Erdoğan

Viewpoint by Pier Francesco Zarcone*

ROME (IDN) – Has Turkey changed under Erdoğan? The question may seem absurd due to the habit of considering Turkey a secular and Westernised country before Recep Erdoğan came to power.

However, this consolidated image turns out to be false. There has been a change, but not in substance: what has changed is its exteriority. In fact, albeit with periodic recourse to elections, the country has always been governed in an authoritarian way, and today this feature is only more evident and its quality is more pronounced.

: Phil Harris; THE WORLD; EU & Europe; 14 March 2018

Photo: Vocational training centre for women in Faizabad, Bakakshan province. Credit: UNAMA | Fardin Waezi

UN Pushes for Gender Equality in War-Torn Afghanistan

By Devinder Kumar

NEW DELHI | KABUL (IDN) – The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has documented that, in 2017, 359 women were killed – five per cent more than in the previous year – and 865 injured. Altogether about 10,000 civilians lost their lives or suffered injuries in 2017.

It is against this backdrop that the UN in Afghanistan marked International Women’s Day on March 8, recognizing the global movement for women's rights and the work of activists who have been central to the push for gender equality.

Afghanistan ranks 154th in the UN Gender Inequality Index, and this year’s Women's Day – under the theme 'Time Is Now: Rural and Urban Activists Transforming Women’s Lives' – sought to draw attention to rural and urban women who are left behind in many areas of development.

: Devinder Kumar; UN INSIDER; 12 March 2018

Photo: The House of Peace on the 38th parallel, likely to be the venue of the Trump-Kim summit by May 2018. Source: lifeinkorea.com

Surprise Trump-Kim Summit by May with Global Repercussions

By Jayantha Dhanapala

The writer is a former Sri Lanka Ambassador and UN Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs. He was also President of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs for ten years until August 2017. Click here for his previous stimulating contributions for IDN. – The Editor.

KANDY (IDN) – Donald Trump has always had the capacity to surprise us. Amidst the actions to fulfil his Presidential Campaign promise to "Make America Great Again" by slapping tariffs on friendly allies and having declared Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel, he has now signalled a dramatic volte-face on talks with Kim Jong-un of the Democratic Republic of Korea (DPRK) whom he had frequently taunted as the "little rocket man".