You are currently browsing the monthly archive for January 2008.
This is an interesting article about the role of age and fame in modern Japanese politics.
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Celebrity rises to power in Osaka
By Purnendra Jain
KYOTO – While celebrities-turned-politicians in Japan are nothing new (and prone to disgrace), an outspoken 38-year-old lawyer and TV advice show host recently elected as Osaka prefecture’s governor is raising hopes even beyond his electoral base.
Toru Hashimoto’s landslide victory this week with more than 1.8 million votes thoroughly trounced rival Sadatoshi Kumagai, who received a little less than 1 million votes. When Hashimoto takes office in early February after the four-year term of incumbent Fusae Ota ends, he will be the youngest of Japan’s 47 governors.
He also largely owes his success to female and young unaffiliated voters who frequently watch his TV shows where he discusses legal options for people with marital and financial issues.
-Ordinary citizens seeking a place at the decision-making table in China – This is a very interesting article about a grassroots political movement. The Chinese government response was interesting. It usually happens this way, if they can’t suppress the movement they negotiate. The problem is every time this happens they attempt to clamp down more to prevent this type of movement from every getting off the ground. The article seems to suggest it is a “democratic movement”, but I do not think so. These people were just trying to protect their capital investment.
-Ethnic violence spreads in Kenya, with no sign of respite - I’m not sure what to say about this now. The two opposing sides met and came to no conclusion. The solution is obvious. Have a new election with serious international monitoring, but Kibaki likely thinks he will lose so will not go that route. He figured possession is 9/10 of the law and he just needs to wait it out…while his countrymen continue to kill each other.
-Stock markets see another ‘black Monday’ – I wonder how many Chinese Billionaires are there now? From what I know most of them are rich off the stock market and for some reason centered around Wenzhou.
-Japanese sushi lovers shrug despite high tuna mercury levels – This is quite odd to me. Japanese people, IMO, are quite anal about freshness and purity of food. Tuna is a key stable of the Japanese diet and the dismissive response to mercury levels is quite odd. I am going to consult with my wife over this later.
-Military balance tilting toward China – An interesting article on the military balance between China and Taiwan.
This is not shocking, I’ve seen many test results that show Northern Chinese tend to group with North East Asians (Japanese and Koreans) and Southern Chinese tend to group more with Southeast Asians. The populations also have distinct (but often overlapping) appearances. Many of my Chinese friends have told me it is due to diet and climate. I do not think so.
The early genetic research (The History and Geography of Human Genes, 1996) of Dr. Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza showed that Northern Chinese could be grouped with other Northeast Asians (Koreans, Tungusic groups, Japanese) and that Southern Chinese grouped more with Southeast Asians, making the Han Chinese aggregate an intermediate population between the two, which matches their location geographic location. This new report gives us some detail as to the way this population cline occurred.
Based on what I know of Chinese history, Southern China was settled by the Han much later than the North and the people in the South were considered “barbarian” referred to as the various types of “Yue” (known as the 100 Yue) in later times. Eventually the people region that became Guangdong and North Vietnam were referred to as (Nan Yue, or South Viet). Most of these people were likely Austroasiatic speakers in origin (like present day Vietnamese and Cambodians). Since Northern Vietnam (Annam) was part of China on and off for over 1,000 years; and the south, by the end of Chinese colonization was controlled by Champa, a Malay people (Austronesian).
As far as I know there was a massive influx of Han Chinese into the region during the Song Dynasty due to Barbarian pressure in the north. I know assimilation was fairly complete by the Tang Dynasty as Cantonese speakers often call themselves “Tong (Tang in Mandarin) People” and talk of giving their children “Tong names”. They also still refer to their province and themselves as “Yue” to this day. I’m guessing by the Late Tang, the Sinization of the area was complete, but for Annam. Vietnam became independent from China after the disintegration of the Tang, since the “Viet or Yue” people lived in what is now Guangdong as well, I’m guessing by that time the people in Guangdong were mostly Sinized, and considered themselves Han Chinese, but most of the people further South did not.
Also, “South,” in China is the area from Shanghai down to the border of the Southeast Asian nations of Laos and Vietnam.
-Rice Rebukes Bush Envoy Who Criticized Policy on North Korea – Jay Lefkowitz, President Bush’s special envoy on North Korean human rights said the current Bush Admin policy will not solve the nuclear issue in North Korea before Bush leaves office. Well, he is right, that is obvious to someone of the meanest intelligences.
-Roadblocks on the Great Asian Highway – Interesting article about overcoming infrastructural barriers between Thailand, Laos, and China to create more efficient trade; and some immediate negative externalities for the local Laotian people.
-Corruption-fighting Vietnamese granny gets award – Transparency International awards Vietnamese grandma for fighting the good fight for 25 years against death threats from local government officials. This woman is 150 cm (4′11″ inch) tall and 40 kilograms (88 lbs) and has more “balls” than 99% of the politicians in Washington D.C., unfortunately for us Americans.
- China closes 44,000 pornographic websites in 2007 – The Chinese government is not fond of “adult entertainment”. This is part of the increasingly common crackdown on various facets of the sex industry in China. I’m sure shutting down 44,000 websites has kept the thought police quite busy.
-Science with Africa: Accelerating Science and Technology in Africa – Information on a conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from 3 to 7 March. The themes of the conference will be science and innovation policy, science themes and innovation and will consist of plenary sessions and workshops.
-Africa: ‘U.S. Recession a Threat to Third World Exports’ – There has been a recession fear going through North America, Europe, and East Asia lately but any economic downturn for the United States will also significantly effect some of the world’s poorest nations, which are already on the margin. This will not just hurt trade but also aid revenues.
Reforming the university system in S.Korea is a good thing, especially as it relates to research and development; as economic issues have long been on the mind of South Koreans, due to stagnant wages and weak aggregate growth. Technological innovation could lead to Korea developing lucrative specialized niche markets.
This kind of jumped out at me: “When I was a student here in the mid-1980s, some students stopped before the national flag at the library in the morning and observed a moment of silence, vowing to dedicate ourselves to the nation’s industrial development,” said Cho Byung Jin, a professor of electrical engineering.”
The underlying problem, as pointed out, is that the same Confucianist work ethnic and respect for hierarchy that helped South Korea develop at such a rapid clip has now brought them to a point of diminishing marginal returns. To reach a higher level they must be creative enough to innovate. “Outside the box” thinking and military style conformity for big “push” initiatives usually do not mix well. This has been a problem in Singapore and Japan in recent years, as both nations have tried to promote creativity and “relax” cultural constraints, to varying success.
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South Korean science prepares to take on the world
DAEJEON, South Korea: In Professor Cho Dong Ho’s laboratory at Kaist, South Korea’s top science and technology university, researchers are trying to develop technology that could let you fold a notebook-size electronic display and carry it in your pocket like a handkerchief.
It’s too early to say when something like this might be commercially available. But the experiment has already achieved one important breakthrough: it has mobilized professors from eight departments to collaborate on an idea proposed by a student.
This arrangement is almost unheard of in South Korea, where the norm is for a senior professor to dictate research projects to his own cloistered team. But it’s only one change afoot at this government-financed university, which has ambitions to transform the culture of South Korean science, and more.
-Desperately seeking students (Japan) – What is interesting about this is that Japan’s government is fully aware of the increasing student shortage and will allow the market to decide which schools stay open. This is something Americans should let happen with HBCUs.
-Bloggers push China to prosecute beating death – What is most interesting about this is that the Internet was instrumental in pressuring the government to adhere to the rule of law. This is a powerful tool for public outcry, that despite government efforts; they really can not effectively control.
-Asia: ‘Internet forces’ in China and Taiwan step up cyber attacks – Last time it was Chinese hackers attacking South Korea, now it is Taiwan v China. This article is a little different from the one I read on the South Korean attack. It goes into a lot more detail about the nature of the attacks. The United States and German governments also appear concerned as well. The article also mentions that due to security measures Taiwan is less vulnerable to cyber attacks than Japan, the U.S., and EU.
-Japan asked China to tone down Nanjing Incident exhibits – This is somewhat shocking to be honest. I have said all I have to say on Japan’s WWII issues here, but I do not think it is wise for Japan to make statements like this. Instead they should demand for a international panel of historians from China, Taiwan, South Korea, and the United States to decides what occurred during WWII and in its aftermath once and for all and have high ranking government representatives sign it and agree to abide by the findings. As I said before I do not think China would ever agree to that, for reasons obvious to me.
-West Africa: Food Prices Still Climbing, Crisis Feared – This is not good at all.
-Chinese woman goes way off-message on the Olympics – Opps…someone had diarrhea of the mouth and now they are unemployed.
-For China, stability comes before democracy – This is an excellent editorial on the rise of Chinese democracy by Francis Fukuyama.
-Thousands march for democracy in HK – They do this every year, and as I said, the CCP believes it is in their interest to delay any form of real democracy in Hong Kong as long as they can. China says they are about 10 years away, but I would say 15 years. Do not expect any movement on this issue before the Mainland becomes a upper middle income country. By that time I believe the CCP will be less concerned with a democratic Hong Kong being able to politically destabilize the mainland. From what I understand, these type of demonstrations attract fewer and fewer people every year. I think many people still care; they just realize that the CCP is not going to be swayed.
There has been a lot of talk about the true state of poverty in China after the GDP (PPP) reevaluation. Henan is a great example of the challenges facing China. It is one of the most populated provinces in China (in overall people and density) and has a very poor and restless population.
I think the CCP is in a race to develop China before a serious uprising occurs due to inequality and the relatively uncontrollable spread of information. The more open China is, the more potential for economic uplift, but also the less control over information. As rural people know how people outside of their areas in China live and how foreigners live (like in the West or even Hong Kong and Taiwan) there will be more unrest. The CCP knows Chinese history well; they know many uprisings have come from rural areas, especially in bad economic times and from nongovernment controlled religious groups. All boats are rising, but not at the same rate, and the rate of change between them is increasing, not decreasing. This is why Hu Jintao spent so much time speaking about creating a “harmonious society” during the 17th Party Congress last year.
I think Western people often get the idea that China is a prosperous country, even a developed one, but in reality it is really a developing country with rural poverty on the same level of many sub-Saharan African nations, less than 2 or even 1 USD a day; there are 450 million of these people (35% of the total pop). This is equal to trying to lift 1/2 of Africa’s population out of poverty. I would qualify that by saying there are not many starving people in China, when I speak of African like poverty I’m not speaking of famine.
I am also highly skeptical of data coming out of China, especially from rural areas, as party officials are known to inflate their numbers and act like little emperors in their region. Stealing and misallocating public funds, creating local taxes by fiat are not uncommon. I have blogged about this before. So can China win the race. I’m very optimistic, but not “sold”.
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Grinding poverty defies China’s boom
Sunday, January 13, 2008
YANGMIAO, China: When she gets sick, Li Enlan, 78, picks herbs from the woods that grow nearby instead of buying modern medicines.This is not the result of some philosophical choice, though. She has never seen a doctor and, like many residents of this area, lives in a meager barter economy, seldom coming into contact with cash.”We eat somehow, but it’s never enough,” Li said. “At least we’re not starving.”In this region of southern Henan Province, in village after village, people are too poor to heat their homes in the winter and many lack basic comforts like running water. Mobile phones, a near ubiquitous symbol of upward mobility throughout much of this country, are seen as an impossible luxury. People here often begin conversations with a phrase that is still not uncommon in today’s China: “We are poor.”
