Asia-Pacific

A High-Optics, Low-Outcome Trump Trip to India

Viewpoint by Bharat Karnad *

NEW DELHI (IDN) — It's unclear what Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said to U.S. President Donald Trump when the former called the White House on February 11. Reportedly what sealed the presidential trip to India was Modi's promise that some 5-7 million people would be lining the route from Ahmedabad airport to the new stadium in Motera to greet him.

Ahmedabad is the largest city of Gujarat, the state where Modi ruled as chief minister for over a decade. For a showman like Trump, the prospect of dawn-to-dusk U.S. television coverage rich in colourful imagery featuring millions of Indians attesting his international popularity and exotic locales like the Taj Mahal must have been too intoxicating to turn down, especially in a year in which he is seeking re-election.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; OPINION; 23 February 2020

Photo: Baxter with her kids before they fell victim to the brutality of her husband. Source: Internet.

Epidemic of Domestic Violence Shocks Australia

By Kalinga Seneviratne

SYDNEY (IDN) —The gruesome murder of a 31-year-old mother Hannah Clarke and her three small children aged 6, 4 and 3 years, by her estranged 42-year-old husband Rowan Baxter, a former footballer, has shocked the nation and brought into the spotlight an epidemic of domestic violence in Australia that has gone largely unchecked for years. It has also got Australians questioning the attitude of men towards women with their greater tendency towards violence against women.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 22 February 2020

Photo: U.S. President Nixon shakes hands with Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai. Source: Wikimedia Commons

Incredible Obsession With China's Supposed Malevolence

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN) – In Munich at the Security Conference from February 14-16 the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, nailed her anti-Chinese colours to the mast. Despite being a liberal on many issues and the leader of the fight to impeach President Donald Trump, she has joined forces with Trump in preaching that the West must not allow itself to be penetrated by Huawei’s 5G phone technology (which is cheaper than any Western counterpart).

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 18 February 2020

Photo: Ambassador Kshenuka Senewiratne (right in the front) addressing one day debate at the UN Security Council titled "Peacebuilding and Sustaining Peace: Transitional Justice in conflict and post-conflict situations" on 13 February 2020 in New York. Credit: Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the UN in New York.

Sri Lanka at a Juncture of Transition From Separatist Terrorism to Era of Reconciliation

Viewpoint by Ambassador Kshenuka Senewiratne,
Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations

NEW YORK (IDN) — Sri Lanka is presently at a juncture of transition after near three decades of brutal separatist terrorism, to an era of reconciliation and sustaining the hard won peace. Sri Lanka's engagement today is in keeping with the Government's vision, for a country that embodies the universal values of human rights, justice, rule of law and good governance while ensuring economic dividends to its people.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 15 February 2020

Photo: Australian bushfires: Source: East Asia Forum.

Australia’s Exceptional Vulnerability to Climate Change

Viewpoint by Andrew Walter*

MELBOURNE (IDN) -- The bushfires now ravaging Australia’s flora, fauna and rural communities on an unprecedented scale underline the country’s exceptional vulnerability to global heating and its strong interest in global climate change mitigation and adaptation. Decarbonisation should be taken as an economic opportunity and it could elevate Australia’s leading role in Asia for years to come.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 10 February 2020

Photo: The session on climate emergency at Jaipur Literature Festival. (L to R Ms. Renata Dessallien, resident coordinator of UN in India; Ms. Namita Waikar, managing editor of online journal PARI; Ms. Shubhangi Swarup, writer and filmmaker; Ms. Dia Mirza, Actress and UN Advocate for Sustainable Development. Credit: UN India/Yangerla Jamir.

UN Avails of Famed Literature Festival to Achieve Global Goals

By Devinder Kumar

JAPIPUR (IDN) – As part of a Decade of Action for accelerating sustainable solutions to all the world’s biggest challenges — ranging from poverty and gender to climate change, inequality and closing the finance gap – the United Nations availed of a new tool end of January: the world’s largest literature festival in India’s eminent ‘pink city’ of Jaipur, the capital of the scenic, almost magical Indian state of Rajasthan. It is known as the Pink City due to the colour of the stone used for many of its glorious palaces and historic monuments.

: Devinder Kumar; SUSTAINABILITY; Climate Action; 04 February 2020

Photo: Last train of Wuhan metro before authorities lock down the city for the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak. CC BY 3.0

Why Shutting Down Chinese ‘Wet Markets’ Could Be a Terrible Mistake

Viewpoint by Christos Lynteris and Lyle Fearnley*

LONDON (IDN) – An epidemic of a new coronavirus, yet to receive a proper name by the WHO, has been developing in China and affecting other parts of the world over the past few weeks. So far, we know thousands have been infected, with nearly 200 deaths, with the virus having spread to numerous countries.

As anthropologists who have worked for a long time on diseases that spread from animals to humans (zoonotic diseases) in China, our research can provide insights into the unfolding crisis.

: Phil Harris; OPINION; 02 February 2020

Collage courtesy of Sri Lanka’s Daily FT.

Sri Lanka Committed to Non-Proliferation and Disarmament

By Jaya Ramachandran

GENEVA | COLOMBO (IDN) – In an exceptional move, Germany has granted funds to Sri Lanka’s Forum on Disarmament and Development (FDD) for the translation of the texts of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban-Treaty (CTBT) to the island state’s official languages Sinhala and Tamil. NPT and CTBT texts were until now available only in official languages of the United Nations: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.

: Ramesh Jaura; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 31 January 2020

Photo: Body temperature being checked at the exit of a railway station in Fuyang, Anhui province, China, January 29, 2020. Credit: AN Ming/EPA

Why China’s Strategy to Contain the Coronavirus Might Work

Viewpoint by Fei Chen*

LIVERPOOL (IDN) – On January 23, the authorities of Wuhan City, China, sealed off the motorways and shut down all public transport to stop the corona virus outbreak from spreading. Shortly afterwards, at least ten other cities in China were under quarantine orders, most of them located in the areas surrounding Wuhan.

It sounds unbelievable to quarantine a city of 11 million people, but it may work because movement within and between cities in China relies heavily on public transport infrastructure. Major cities in China are well connected by airports, express railways, motorways and long-distance buses.

: Phil Harris; OPINION; 31 January 2020

Photo: On May 30, 2016, former Chadian dictator Hissène Habré was convicted of crimes against humanity, war crimes, and torture, including sexual violence and rape, by the Extraordinary African Chambers in the Senegalese court system and sentenced to life in prison.Source: Human Rights Watch.

World Court Gives Myanmar 4 Months to Put Its House in Order

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN) – Let’s cut to the chase – there is no question, no doubt, that the government of Myanmar and the army which controls it have committed the most vile atrocities against the Rohingya people, a Muslim minority that lives in the West of the Buddhist-dominated country.

The International Court of Justice (the World Court) which ruled on January 23 against the Myanmar government, may not have concluded it was genocide as some say but it did unreservedly condemn the government for its atrocious sowing of violent mayhem against the Rohingya.