There is an unusual sight that can be found if someone was to enter any cathedral nowadays, at the time of the mid-term elections, somewhere on the Philippines. The eye is caught by huge red and black banners asking the faithful Catholic community to choose between “Team Life” and “Team Death”. It was Bishop Vicente Navarra of Bacolod City in the central Philippines who coined the terms. The Catholic priest says the very soul of the nation would be at stake since a birth-control law was passed last year making it possible for the population to receive state subsidized contraceptives.
Condemned by the Catholic Church: Contraceptives and sex education
The issue at hand has is that in the past the church has through the Catholic teachings and a great impact on political decision making prevented thus far a law lake this. Bishop Navarra said that birth control was only the beginning and divorce, euthanasia, abortion and homosexual marriages will follow. Any politician who voted for the reproductive health legislation in the Philippines, known as the RH bill, was put on the list of “Team Death” by the church and every one voted against it belongs to “Team Life”. In fact the church has before 2012 successfully for a decade prevented the government from passing such a law. Read the rest of this entry »
On April 15, 50 Chinese soldiers were stationed in the Western border region to India, the Depsang valley in the region Ladakh. Both countries claim to be the right owner of the disputed area. According to Reuters, China agreed now, a few weeks after the incident to withdraw troops again, but the conflict is not yet over and both countries insist to annex the region officially to their own country.
Already in 1962, the two countries fought about the ownership of the region, as stated on GloablSecurity. Tension arose between the two after India promised the Dalai Lama asylum in 1959, which might have its influence to the outbreak of the Indo-China War in the region three years later, as the website describes. 2,000 people died during the 1-month war. As a result the Line of Actual Control (LAC) was established, a border, which both sides however to not totally accept but respect for now. According to Aljazeera, India and China held 15 meetings so far, but did not make significant progress yet on how the dispute can be solved.
Both, the article of Reuter and the one of Aljazeera consider contiguity to Pakistan of the disputed region to be China’s main interest for their claim of the Depsang valley. Pakistan is a major trading partner of China, especially as a customer of Chinese weapons. Read the rest of this entry »
Self-immolation is the most severe form of protest and displays deep beliefs and dedications of its performer. In this case people are willing to die for something they strongly belief in, as it showed in the case of Tibetan Monks suicides on February 24, 2013 in the Qinghai province, in eastern Tibet´s Amdo region. As remarked by Kate Saunders, Communications Director of the International Campaign for Tibet, over 107 Tibetans have killed themselves for conscience sake and their conviction that Tibet should be free. The issue whether Tibet belongs to China or should be an independent state has raised conflicts since decades. Still, today China claims sovereignty over Tibet and does not accept an uprising of its population. It is important to resolve this conflict in a diplomatic way in order to guarantee for more stability and peace among China and Tibet.
Location of Tibet
Looking back at the history of Tibet it can be pointed out that Britain as well as China made attempts to claim Tibet. Finally in 1913 Tibet reasserts independence after decades of invasions made by those two nations. However, in 1950 China enforces a long-held claim to Tibet and Tibetan leaders are forced to sign the so called, “Seventeen Point Agreement” in 1951. As stated by BBC News, this treaty guarantees Tibetan autonomy but at the same time also allows the establishment of Chinese civil and military headquarters at Lhasa. Since the 50´s conflicts and protests against Chinas policies continue and a concrete agreement on terms has not been established ever since. Read the rest of this entry »
In the twenty-first session of the ASEAN summit, ASEAN leaders agreed to establish the ASEAN Community at the end of 2015. However, there are only less than three years before the deadline until now. Base on the blueprint of ASEAN Community, it should be possible to build a prototype of the community for ASEAN in the next 3 years, according to Liu Ming, Deputy Director of Institute of International Relations of Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. Nevertheless, although ASEAN has its own competitive advantages and opportunities, it is unpractical for ASEAN to establish a high integrated union like EU in a short term if the challenges cannot be dealt with properly
The ASEAN Economic Community goal consists of five aspects: accessibility of trade and investment, regional trade interdependence, economic related laws and a unified political system, the formation of the single market and production base, and to establish economic authority beyond its members. In fact, AEC can be considered as an upgraded version of free trade area, namely in the foundation of zero trade tariffs, which will make the freedom of movement about goods, services, investment and technology workers possible. However, there is still a long way for ASEAN to establish the political, economic and social – cultural community goals. Whether ASEAN can achieve the goal on schedule in 2015, in particular to found economic community, is still have a lot of questions. Read the rest of this entry »
The global economy is slowing down since the financial crises in 2007 and 2008, which still has a major impact on labor markets, financial institutions and currencies. Recently Cyprus´ economy had to be rescued by the European Union, as it was facing issues that the country could not overcome on its own anymore. Not only banks but also entire countries fail on meeting their financial obligations which frightens economist and the global community. Japan has been always known as a strong economy even though they faced trade and currency issues in the past. However, even Japan struggles to find its way out of its current economic situation which is dominated by slow growth, strong yen, slumping productions and export. It has to be asked if the economic reforms by the new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, called “Abenomics” will lead Japan out of its current recession. Read the rest of this entry »
In about a month it will be known what the Malaysian population put on these papers.
The time has come that the government of Malaysia has dissolved the parliament and new elections are expected be held in the end of April, according to The Guardian. What makes this year’s election interesting is that for the first time since Malaysia’s independency from the United Kingdom in 1957, the opposition has a real chance to win. The coalition nowadays known as the National Front won every election in the country’s history so far. But it seems as if the opposition has gained much more support over the past years. An example is a student from the University of Malay, quoted in an article in the Deutsche Welle: “I want change! I want a better future for me and my generation!” Read the rest of this entry »
After the Second World War the world seems more united and wars are less likely to happen because nations know what causes it can have on an entire population. As argued by Samuel Huntington in his book “The Clash of Civilization”, wars happen because it lies within human nature. This pessimistic worldview is part of the dominant realist school of thought within the realm of international relations and is based on the premise that war will happen in the future because nations differ in cultures, norms, values and beliefs. For many years now, North Korea and South Korea have been at war and have not been able to sort out their differences. Despite various diplomatic efforts such as the so called “Six Party Talks” which are aimed at ending North Korea´s nuclear program involving negotiations between China, the US, North and South Korea, Japan and Russia, no peace treaty has been signed yet.
North Korea seems to be on the path of war, as they recently on 30 March declared” state of war” with South Korea. The following video informs over North Koreas recent actions and the reactions of the United States, reported by BBC News.
Apple is “eating” China, or China is “invading” Apple
On March 15, World Consumer Rights Day, China’s national TV broadcaster CCTV exposed what it called Apple’s discriminatory warranty-repair policy in an investigative programme. In this programme it was claimed that Apple discriminates against Chinese Apple users by treating them as second-class citizens. People’s Daily, an official government newspaper, even accused Apple as a firm of “unparalleled arrogance.” It reported that Apple offers shorter guarantees than in other countries and escapes after-sale obligations. However, as a response, Apple posted an announcement on its official Chinese website stating that it providers a 90-day warranty on repairs, just like in the United States. This is longer than the 30 days required by Chinese law. Both sides have their own arguments. The citizens would consider it as one normal economic case. However, the experts seem think this issue is not as simple as the public thinks. Hence, what is behind the Chinese government’s public “sanction” of Apple? Read the rest of this entry »
After the global recession in 2008 most people may have thought that bail-outs were the end of things, but five years later banks and even entire countries still default on their financial obligations. In case of Cyprus´ recent economic failures have forced the Cypriot government to ask for a bail-out from the European Union in order to safeguard the country´s economy. On 25 March it was decided by the European commission, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Council of European Central Bank (ECB) to provide Cyprus with a bail-out package of € 10 billion euros. As recently reported by The Economist, Cyprus is one of the four euro-zone countries after Greece, Ireland and Portugal to receive a bail-out in order to save the economy and to protect the euro-zone. The institutions which are affected immediately are Cyprus banks which face major liquidity issues as a result of a general mistrust of Cypriot citizens. Read the rest of this entry »
The next-generation Chinese passport displaying a map with the China South Sea and Taiwan as part of China has caused diplomatic conflicts with Asian countries such as India, the Philippines and Taiwan.
A passport, an essential form of identification used for travelling abroad, can also be a symbol of a country’s power from a diplomatic perspective. Why is that? I still remember that in a movie named The Tear of Sun, an American female doctor, who did voluntary work in an African village, shouted to the soldier at the border, “I am an American, open the gate”, while holding her American passport. I still recall the earthquake in Haiti, when American troops took over the airport and affected areas and asked people for holding American passport to be evacuated first through green channel. Finally I remember that Chinese citizens with new Chinese passport were refused to entry the Asian countries such as India and the Philippines just because a map displayed in the passport. This map shows the South China Sea and islands in it in which China has territorial disputes with other Asian countries . Why Chinese passport and American passport have such huge difference in international society? Read the rest of this entry »