Corruption hobbles Russia’s Far East
Moscow is looking to Russia’s Far East as a region poised for better times, and a building boom aims to make Vladivostok an investment hub. But young residents are still leaving the city in droves.
Fraying at the seams
Cambodian garment workers uneasy as factories shift to shorter-term contracts that increase pressure, while a labour standards group reports excessive hours and banned solvents that contribute to fainting
North Korea-Run Restaurants Spread Propaganda and Kimchi Across Asia
TGI Friday’s meets DPRK propaganda center, the state-owned Pyongyang Cafés provide kitschy entertainment and much-needed revenues for the regime back home
Japan’s nuclear troubles extend into Russia
The Russian used auto industry relies on used car shipments from Japanese companies that have dried up since the March earthquake and problems at the Fukushima plant.
$1.1 billion pledged in donor aid
INTERNATIONAL donors have pledged a record US$1.1 billion in development assistance for the upcoming 18-month period, following a two-day government-donor forum that wrapped up in the capital Thursday. At the close of the third Cambodia Development Cooperation Forum (CDCF), Minister of Economy and Finance Keat Chhon hailed the outcome of the talks.
Sand exports go on unabated
A RECENT boom in sand exports from Cambodia to Singapore, fuelled by a “complete lack” of transparency and government regulation, could severely damage the country’s riverine and coastal ecosystems, according to a report released on Monday by international anticorruption watchdog Global Witness. The 40-page report, titled Shifting Sands, argues that exports to Singapore, where the...
Cambodia balances East and West
PHNOM PENH – AT a ceremony last month marking the construction of the US$128 million Cambodia-China Prek Kdam Friendship Bridge in Kandal province, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said the growth in aid and investment from China was boosting economic development and strengthening his country’s “political independence”. “China respects the political decisions of Cambodia,” he...
Adjusting to life in China’s shadow
As the government accepts millions of Chinese aid and investment dollars, observers remain divided on whether Beijing’s meteoric rise will help or hinder the country over the long term.
The Moralities of Socialism
Recently, my good friend Jess sent me the link to an excellent essay from the New York Times magazine about evolutionary psychology and its possible link to the origins of human morality. Harvard professor Steven Pinker argues that humans may have a biologically-determined compass that underpins all of our moral and ethical impulses. Drawing on...
REVIEW: ‘The Collapse Of Globalism’, by John Ralston Saul
I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with the tenets of the anti-globalisation movement. Books like Naomi Klein’s No Logo deftly document serious socio-economic concerns, but then, when it comes to proposing solutions of their own, ride roughshod over their own arguments with an unsubtle blend of pie-in-the-sky utopianism and New Left sermonizing. Canadian philosopher John...
REVIEW: ‘Four Classic Quarterly Essays’
How are we to account for the overwhelming successes of the Liberal Party under prime minister John Howard? For a decade he has dominated Australian politics like no other leader in recent memory, using his electoral mandate to forge a new consensus on issues of national security, economic management and climate change. In frustration, some...
