This journey starts in China's Qinghai province, where Asia's life-giving Mekong River begins. Environmental threats put the future of the important river into uncertainty. Radio Free Asia's expedition captures some unique images of this remote region.This journey starts in China's Qinghai province, where Asia's life-giving Mekong River... more
SEOUL, South Korea — President Obama delivered a stern message on Thursday to North Korea and Iran that they risk further sanctions and isolation if they do not rein in their nuclear ambitions.
Appearing at a joint press conference with President Lee Myung-bak of South Korea, Mr. Obama singled out Iran, where leaders have apparently rejected an offer from the West to take Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium to another country to turn it into fuel rods, which would buy time for diplomatic negotiations.
“We’ve seen indications that for internal political reasons or perhaps because they are stuck in some of their own rhetoric, they are unable to get to ‘yes,’ ” Mr. Obama said. “As a consequence, we have begun discussion with our international partners” on sanctions, he said.
He said that over the next few weeks the United States would be developing a package of “potential steps we can take that will indicate our seriousness.”
Mr. Obama’s words were his strongest to date and seemed to signal that he was ready to move to sanctions.
On the North, Mr. Obama said he was sending his North Korea envoy to Pyongyang next month for talks designed to try to get the nation back to the bargaining table. But he warned that even getting the North back to the table would not be enough.
“I want to emphasize that President Lee and I both agree on the need to break the pattern that existed in the past in which North Korea behaves in a provocative fashion, then is willing to return to talks, and then talks for a while, and then leaves the talks and seeks further concessions,” Mr. Obama said.
Mr. Obama’s visit to Seoul is the last — and perhaps easiest — leg of an Asia trip in which he was forced to deal with a newly assertive Japan and an increasingly powerful China.
South Korea quickly proved true the predictions that it would be more accommodating to Mr. Obama, with whom Mr. Lee has been cooperating closely on key issues, including efforts to eventually halt North Korea’s nuclear program.
To the president’s critics, this week’s White House trip to Asia has largely failed because of excessive deference. Obama bowed to the Japanese emperor, and he metaphorically genuflected to the Chinese leadership by refusing to confront them publicly about human rights.
Yet the president’s biggest foreign-policy setback of the week—by several orders of magnitude—came on the other side of Asia. And its negative impact was worsened by an administration policy that started with public confrontation, not compromise.
More @ linkby Richard Wolffe
To the president’s critics, this week’s White House trip to... more
Newsweek reports that Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei will be the last Supreme Leader of the country, ever. Khamenei is only the second Supreme Leader the country has ever had, the first being Khomeini. His successor has proven to be less successful at being the most powerful voice in the country according to the clerical leadership.
From Newsweek:
"Khamenei's response to the massive election demonstrations this past summer reaffirmed a longstanding but secretive belief among a majority of Iran's religious teachers and scholars: supreme clerical rule, no matter who is at the helm, can lead only to despotism and should be abolished. There can be no absolute power because, as Khamenei showed, men are fallible. It's well enough understood outside Iran that those clerics have found common cause with the street demonstrators; what the rest of the world hasn't realized yet is that they also want Khamenei gone."
The Supreme Leader will hold the position until he dies at which point the decision to eliminate the title could be made. Whether or not the standing theocratic order will be around that long is an entirely different question. The street protests continue sporadically and Neda Agha Soltan continues to be a powerful global symbol of the Iranian regime's brutality (as we saw on the blog recently: Neda's boyfriend speaks after escaping Iran).
BEIJING — President Obama said Wednesday he was “very close to a decision” on a troop increase for the war in Afghanistan and would make his case to the American people for his Afghan strategy in the next “several weeks.”
“I am very confident that when I announce the decision, the American people will have a lot of clarity about what we’re doing, how we’re going to succeed, how much this thing is going to cost,” Mr. Obama told CNN in an interview at his hotel in Beijing. Most important, he said, was that he was asking “what’s the end game on this thing, which I think is something that, unless you impose that kind of discipline, could end up leading to a multiyear occupation that won’t serve the interests of the United States.”
Mr. Obama said that his “preference” on Afghanistan “would be not to hand off anything to the next president,” but did not indicate if that meant he planned to pull out most American troops by 2012. “We have a vital interest in making sure that Afghanistan is sufficiently stable, that it can’t infect the entire region with violent extremism.”
He said that Afghan President Hamid Karzai “has served his country in important ways,” but added that he has some weaknesses.
Mr. Obama’s comments came as part of a series of interviews he conducted with the major American television networks from his hotel in Beijing on his last day in China. He arrived in Seoul, South Korea, the final stop on his Asian trip, on Wednesday afternoon.
Before leaving Beijing, he met with Prime Minister Wen Jiabao.
Mr. Wen said China did not seek a trade surplus with the United States and wanted to balance flows, striking a conciliatory note but avoiding public comment on currency rifts, Reuters reported. Mr. Wen’s comments during the meeting were posted on the Chinese Foreign Ministry Web site.
“China does not pursue a trade surplus,” Mr. Wen said, adding that his government wants “to encourage a steady balancing of bilateral trade,” according to Reuters. “Lively global trade and investment will help to overcome the international financial crisis and accelerate global economic recovery.”
China has come under heavy pressure, not only from the United States but also from Europe and several Asian countries, to revise its policy of keeping its currency, the renminbi, pegged at an artificially low value against the dollar to help promote its exports. Some economists say China must take that step to prevent the return of large trade and financial imbalances that may have contributed to the recent financial crisis.
BEIJING — Whether by White House design or Chinese insistence, President Obama has steered clear of public meetings with Chinese liberals, free press advocates and even ordinary Chinese during his first visit to China, showing deference to the Chinese leadership’s aversions to such interactions that is unusual for a visiting American president.
Mr. Obama held a “town hall” meeting with students on Monday. But they were carefully vetted and prepped for the event by the government, participants said. And the Chinese authorities, wielding a practiced mix of censorship and diplomatic pressure, succeeded in limiting Mr. Obama’s exposure to a point where a third of some 40 Beijing university students interviewed Tuesday were unaware that he had just met in Shanghai with their colleagues.
Some students who were aware cast him in terms rarely applied to American leaders, such as “rather humble,” and “bland.” “Is America being capricious because their economic difficulties force them to be nicer to China and other countries, or is this a genuine change?” asked Liu Ziqi, 18, a freshman at the University of International Business and Economics. “I don’t know.”This is no longer the United States-China relationship of old, but an encounter between a weakened giant and a comer with a bit of its own swagger. Washington’s comparative advantage in past meetings is now diminished, a fact clearly not lost on the Chinese.
A state media report says a massive landslide in northern China partially has buried a village and killed at least 23 people, and that rescuers are seeking survivors.
The official Xinhua News Agency says the landslide occurred Monday in Zhangzishan Township, near Luliang city in northern Shanxi province.
Xinhua said Tuesday that rescuers have recovered 23 bodies from the debris so far, and that two people have been pulled out alive.
Most of those killed were migrant workers who worked at a nearby coal mine.
Xinhua quoted the local Communist Party chief, Nie Chunyu, as saying that most of the victims were from the southwestern Yunnan province.A state media report says a massive landslide in northern China partially has buried a... more
BEIJING — President Obama and President Hu Jintao of China met in private off Tiananmen Square here on a frigid Tuesday morning to discuss issues like trade, climate change and the nuclear programs of Iran and North Korea, in a session that signaled the central role of China on the world stage.
The leaders told reporters afterward that the United States and China were in agreement on a range of issues, but they spoke only in general terms.
At a news conference where both presidents appeared, neither took questions from reporters, staying in line with the minutely stage-managed atmosphere of Mr. Obama’s first visit to China. They said in separate speeches that the two nations would work together to stabilize the teetering world economy, contain the dangers of climate change and prevent nuclear proliferation.
The public pronouncements were full of familiar rhetoric. At the start of their first meeting, Mr. Obama told Mr. Hu: “We believe strong dialogue is important not only for the U.S. and China, but for the rest of the world.”
HONG KONG — President Barack Obama held a town hall meeting with university students in Shanghai on Monday afternoon, but unlike previous such gatherings with other American presidents, Mr. Obama’s question-and-answer session was not broadcast live on China’s official state network.
Instead, according to the official Chinese news agency Xinhua, the live broadcast inside China was to be on the agency’s Web site, Xinhuanet. Edited portions were expected to be available later on Central China Television, or CCTV, the state network.
Mr. Obama greeted the crowd in Chinese, and apologized to the audience that his ability with the language was not as good as their English. He then recounted the last three decades’ of warming ties between the two nations.
“Look how far we have come,” Mr. Obama said, highlighting growing trade and political ties between the superpowers. “ We do not seek to contain China’s rise,” he added. “More is to be gained when great powers cooperate than when they collide.”
And, in pointed remarks, Mr. Obama repeatedly stressed certain sensitive themes, saying the United States would push for freedom of expression, political participation, respect for ethnic minorities - a particularly touchy topic now in China - and empowering women in society.
The White House offered live streaming of the event on its Web site, which is not blocked or censored in China, and a simultaneous Chinese translation was offered. The feed also was available through the White House page on Facebook.
Previous town hall gatherings with visiting American leaders were shown live on CCTV: Bill Clinton spoke at Beijing University and took questions during a visit in 1998, and George W. Bush met with students at Tsinghua University in Beijing in 2002.
Xinhua said Monday that it had received 3,200 questions over the Internet for Mr. Obama’s session, held at the sprawling Museum of Science and Technology in Shanghai.
Some questions were about sober policy issues: bilateral cooperation in combating the global financial crisis, U.S. import duties on Chinese products and the sale of weapons to Taiwan.
C-PROJECTS : Bon Dye Jere Hood La : New Video Coming Soon : New Album Coming Soon, previous albums can be bought on iTUNES and AMAZONC-PROJECTS : Bon Dye Jere Hood La : New Video Coming Soon : New Album Coming Soon,... more
Thailand's fugitive ex-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra arrived Tuesday in Cambodia following his appointment as economic adviser to the government, fueling tensions between the neighboring countries.
Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said he would seek Thaksin's extradition and announced that his Cabinet had approved ending talks with Phnom Penh on disputed maritime borders.
The toppled leader was to deliver a lecture Thursday to more than 300 economists while in Phnom Penh.
Government spokesman Khieu Kanharith said Thaksin flew into the Cambodian capital's military airport aboard a private plane. State televison showed that Thaksin arrived with a party of less than 10 people and was driven into Phnom Penh under very tight security provided by bodyguards of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen.
Thaksin's surprising appointment by Hun Sen has soured already poor relations between the two neighbors, which have had small but sometimes deadly skirmishes over their land border in the past year.
Thailand responded to the appointment by withdrawing its ambassador from Phnom Penh, and Cambodia retaliated in kind.
Abhisit said that if Cambodia did not extradite Thaksin, Thailand "will be ready with the proper response." He did not elaborate.
A Little-Known Secret was that Albanian Muslims Hid Jews from the Nazis; Now a Survivor Reunites With Her Savior
Tomorrow night marks a painful anniversary for many who survived the run-up to World War II - Kristallnacht. It also provides an opportunity to remember the bravery of the Righteous . . . the citizens of a tiny country who risked their own lives to shelter the most desperate of refugees. Jim Axelrod tells a pair of remarkable stories:
Johanna Neumann is on a journey more than 70 years in the making . . . a journey that started in Germany. She left Hamburg when she had just turned 8.
She remembers it because, she says, "this was such a dramatic experience."
Her life changed in the violent darkness of November 9, 1938, during Kristallnacht - the Night of Broken Glass. It was when the Nazis launched a vicious assault on Jewish communities - looting homes, destroying businesses, burning synagogues. It was an ominous preview of the horrors to come.
Her father feared where his country was headed, so he began preparations to flee. Young Johanna tagged along with him on a devastating errand in the basement of their apartment building:
"He had all of this correspondence and photography, photographs and so on of his youth, of his life," she said. "And he had made arrangements with the superintendent of the house that he could burn his things in the furnace. And you know, like every piece that he burned was like a piece of his life being thrown away. It's a whole life that you're putting on fire."
A few months later, little Johanna and her parents were gone, leaving Germany for good.
But on this day, Johanna's journey won't take her back to Germany. Instead, she's returning to an unlikely safe haven . . . and a reunion with her improbable family.
Edip Pilku is anxiously waiting to greet the woman he hasn't seen in about 62 years, but he clearly hasn’t forgotten her: "Memories are forever."
"Will we cry or not? Will we kiss or not?" he pondered.
You could say Edip is Johanna's brother . . . at least, that's what they told the Nazis.
"The families surrounding us didn't know that we were sheltering Jews," Pilku said. "My mother had spread the word that they were her relatives from Germany."
That was the cover story?" Axelrod asked.
"That was the cover story: We're Germans from Germany, and we were her family."
(Left: Johanna Neumann is reunited with Edip Pilku, an Albanian Muslim whose parents protected Neumann's family from the Nazis during World War II.)
There are a number of extraordinary examples of people around the world who risked, and sometimes lost, their lives hiding Jewish families during the Nazi occupation. But the Pilkus were in Albania, a 70% Muslim country in southeastern Europe.
"The gem of this story is that Albania took in refugee Jews," said Deborah Dwork, who has written a book about Jewish refugees during World War II.
"Europe 1938, '39, '40, even '41, we see it as a totally closed universe," she said. "and Jews in that closed universe, they were looking for holes, for openings. People began to whisper: 'I hear if you get to Albania, you will be safe.'"
Safe, because of a cornerstone of Albanian culture known as Besa - the promise to treat strangers as if they were family . . . and guard them with their lives.
"It has to do with a certain sense of honor, an honor code that they take very seriously," said Dwork. "It's not simply to give someone something -a bed for a night, a hot meal. It's really to offer protection, full protection. They judged themselves by that code, and they also knew that their neighbors judged them by that code."
Like their neighbors, the Pilkus adhered closely to Besa . . . and to their Muslim beliefs that also emphasize the protection of others.
"The role of Albanian culture and traditions and the religious influence of Islam came together," Dwork said.
Story Continued at link.A Little-Known Secret was that Albanian Muslims Hid Jews from the Nazis; Now a... more
Miami based Poet, Asia, performs "The Waiting Hour" on Russell Simmons' HBO Def Poetry Season 6. He also host a weekly open mike called,"MellowMondays" in South Florida.Miami based Poet, Asia, performs "The Waiting Hour" on Russell Simmons' HBO Def Poetry... more
"Many international buyers recognize that real estate is an excellent investment and are drawn today by abundant inventory, low interest rates and favorable foreign exchange rates," said Gaylord. Aside from these short-term, but viable reasons, the U.S. offers a climate that suits all tastes and needs and is filled with tourist areas that provide a strong rental market. The U.S. is a secure and politically stable country, which means a transparent and straight-forward buying process, superior building standards and a high quality and standard of living, and it is easily accessible from anywhere in the world. Also, English is the official language international buyers readily understand.
According to Patrick LaVoie with The Westward Fund, "A U.S. real estate purchase is one of the most exciting investment opportunities available today, for both national and international investors. The focus of investors is always on the bottom line. The unprecedented buying opportunities that currently exist, combined with careful property selection, provide investors an opportunity for outstanding returns, particularly in the Sunbelt States."
In a survey of 200 members of the Association of Foreign Real Estate Investors (AFIRE) conducted in October 2008, 53% said the U.S. continues to provide the most stable and secure real estate investment environment, and with 37 % of the vote, the U.S. was ranked as the country providing the best opportunity for capital appreciation. Respondents overwhelmingly pointed to the U.S. as the primary target for their real estate investment dollars and said that an average of 45% of their portfolio is invested in the U.S.
Foreigners are good for business
According to the 2009 NAR Profile of International Home Buying Activity, 12.5% of U.S. realtors have seen an increase in foreign clients within the past year and 23 percent reported having at least one foreign client during the year. "People are looking to diversify their investments. Buying power has increased tremendously," says Rick Wohlfarth of Wohlfarth & Associates, one of New York's leading boutique real estate brokerage firms. Wohlfarth travels regularly to Brazil to link buyers to properties ranging in price from $5 million to $15 million. Foreign buyers make up about 20% of his sales.
The most popular type of property purchased by international buyers is single family homes, accounting for 69% of all purchases. Condominiums make up 18%. Townhomes and commercial properties account for smaller shares of international purchases, 9% and 4%, respectively.
In terms of motivation, according to NAR's Profile, 34% of international buyers purchased a U.S. residential property for a vacation home, while slightly more than 18% planned to use the property strictly for investment (rental) purposes. Nearly 25% of all foreign buyers purchased a U.S. property for both vacation and investment purposes.
Canadian snowbirds flock to USA for more than just fun in the sun!
Canadian buyers accounted for 18% of all international real estate purchases in the U.S. Nearly 60% of the properties purchased are in Florida and Arizona.
"The double-whammy of falling U.S. real estate prices and a rising Loonie has created a once-in-a-lifetime bargain for Canadians looking for property in the U.S. Sunbelt States," says Bank of Montreal Chief Economist Sherry Cooper. She goes on to say, "I love the Canadian dollar at parity. We are truly richer, as the money we earn and the money we invest is worth more." (The U.S./Canadian exchange rate on October 23, 2009 was 1.0654.)
Mark Dziedzic, a former financial planner from Toronto, who now lives in Arizona says, "When (the Canadian dollar) hit $1.10, it really created a real buzz for Canadians, not only those looking to buy second homes but we're also seeing it from buying purely from an investment standpoint." Sixty percent of Canadians purchased a U.S. property as a vacation destination; 12% bought as an investment; and about 16% purchased a home for both vacation and investment purposes.
"The time is ripe, especially for private equity, to capitalize on the real estate opportunities at hand," states Patrick LaVoie, with Phoenix-based The Westward Fund. "Foreign investment has an undeniable presence in the U.S. real estate market, especially here in Arizona. Opportunities are abundant. Now is the time to buy and our Canadian friends clearly recognize this."
Only time will tell, but when it comes to foreigners investing in U.S. real estate, the focus is on one word only: Opportunity.In today's USA Today...... more
There are many men and women in the world who every day risk their lives, their freedom or both, simply because they try to tell the truth. Most people probably cannot understand why they do it. The problem is that the word journalist is not a good definition of the profession, because it includes three different behaviors that have nothing to do with each other.There are many men and women in the world who every day risk their lives, their... more
Ci sono tantissimi uomini e donne nel mondo che ogni giorno rischiano la vita, la libertà o entrambe, semplicemente perché cercano di raccontare la verità. La maggior parte delle persone probabilmente non riesce a capire perché lo fanno. Il problema è che la parola giornalista non è una buona definizione della categoria, perché include tre diversi comportamenti che non hanno niente a che fare l'uno con l'altro.Ci sono tantissimi uomini e donne nel mondo che ogni giorno rischiano la vita, la... more
This may only interest the Asian hands among Current users, but the Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has offered the fugitive Thai ex-premier, Thaksin Shinawatra a new home in Cambodia, just across the border from Thailand. This is described by the Cambodians as "extending the friendship shown during this Thaksin's 2008 visit to Phnom Penh." For the uninitiated in Thai politics, former policeman and multi-millionaire media baron Thaksin is a mirror image of modern right wing political media barons like Silvio Berlesconi, and Rupert Murdock, who used his preponderant ownership of national broadcast outlets to create a media "reality" that put him in power previously, and which he apparently hopes, perhaps with the death of the current King of Thailand, who effectively opposed Thaksin's corruption when Thaksin served as Prime Minister of Thailand from 2001 to 2006, to return to. When deposed in 2006, Thaksin first fled to England, and then Hong Kong.This may only interest the Asian hands among Current users, but the Cambodian Prime... more
A Goshiwon is a small, economic, and flexible place to stay while on an extended stay in Korea. In a Goshiwon you don’t usually need to put down any, "Keymoney" or a deposit. Typically, the prices run anywhere from 200,000 Won for a SMALL room to 400,000 Won for a nicer and cleaner SMALL room. I lived in, Dub-cell Goshiwon, located in the nice area of Seodaemun-gu and paid 340,000 Won per month. Mine was equipped with cable television, a small fridge, DSL internet connection, a community kitchen, community bathrooms, showers, and a washing machine. It also provided free laundry soap, toilette paper, cooked rice, and bar soap. Though, you might opt not to use the bar soap. One of the biggest perks is you don’t have to worry about utilities. The monthly rent it is all inclusive. I even negotiated with the owner to pay on a day-by-day basis because ear the end of my stay I was not sure how long I was going to stay exactly. Again, it is all depends on you and the Goshiwon owner.
The Goshiwon is supposed to be a quiet place and not a place for friends to gather. In fact, many university students either live in them or rent them during exams to study round the clock. Other people seem to be of low income status or in transition to something greater. Mine was very quiet for the most part. Occasionally I heard a faint TV in the background. Quite often I heard my neighbors "handphone" vibrating. The walls are usually extremely thin and even light talking can find its way around the building.
I have seen some that don’t allow foreigners and others that are girls only. Though, there’s usually another not too far away. One more thing don’t forget to negotiate the price!A Goshiwon is a small, economic, and flexible place to stay while on an extended stay... more
