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amy wu

Rules aim to end exploitation of foreign students - 0 views

www.theage.com.au/...gn-students-20090819-eqmu.html

explotation foreign students Canberra rules international education

shared by amy wu on 27 Aug 09 - Cached
  • The move follows reports that training colleges have profited from recruiting hundreds of students into substandard courses as a fast track to gaining permanent residency here.
  • amy wu on 27 Aug 09
     
    IN A major step to restore confidence in the quality of Australia's international education industry, Canberra is introducing tougher rules to protect foreign students from exploitation by rogue colleges.
amy wu

India retreats from Australian study - 0 views

www.theage.com.au/...alian-study-20090730-e31k.html

foreign student safety Australia racism Indians

shared by amy wu on 27 Aug 09 - Cached
  • AUSTRALIA’S elite universities are set to pay a high price for the foreign student crisis, as middle-class Indian parents concerned for the safety of their children opt for universities in Britain, New Zealand and North America instead of Australia.
  • The agents have experienced falls of up to 50 per cent in inquiries by students wanting to study at Australia’s top tertiary institutions since the controversy began.
  • amy wu on 27 Aug 09
     
    AUSTRALIA'S elite universities are set to pay a high price for the foreign student crisis, as middle-class Indian parents concerned for the safety of their children opt for universities in Britain, New Zealand and North America instead of Australia.
glen donnar

China steps up film festival row - 0 views

www.theage.com.au/...estival-row-20090801-e58v.html

china nationalism international relations australia miff nation states protest

shared by glen donnar on 02 Aug 09 - Cached
  • A DIPLOMATIC row between Australia and China
  • with Australia’s ambassador called to a dressing-down by China’s Foreign Ministry.
  • Vice-Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun told Mr Raby that Australia must ‘‘immediately correct its wrongdoings’’ and cancel Ms Kadeer’s visa
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • the documentary The 10 Conditions of Love, about Ms Kadeer
  • Ms Kadeer will take part in the screening of the documentary next Saturday.She will also meet members of Australia’s 2000-strong Uighur community.
  • Her involvement in the festival led to seven Chinese-language films — from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan — being withdrawn.
  • ‘‘This latest attack is just extraordinary,’’ the festival director said. ‘‘What’s happened is that this has become a question of Chinese nationalism where it has almost become people’s official duty to register a protest.’’
xinning ji

China to appeal WTO ruling on book, movie imports - 0 views

news.theage.com.au/...vie-imports-20090817-ens6.html

shared by xinning ji on 18 Aug 09 - Cached
  • Beijing is boosting demand for pirated products by limiting access to legitimate goods
    • xinning ji
      xinning ji on 18 Aug 09
       
      it is the biggest issue in China. copyright is illegal in West but the law in CHina is not strict and not enough to exhibit it. Also pirated products are everywhere in CHina, not only in capital city. THe government tried to exterminate them but the copyright market is large, so it is a difficult thing to work out.
  • The WTO said Beijing should allow foreign companies to import and distribute master copies of books, magazines and newspapers and to receive the same conditions and charges as Chinese companies for distributing reading materials.
  • The WTO said Beijing should allow foreign companies to import and distribute master copies of books, magazines and newspapers and to receive the same conditions and charges as Chinese companies for distributing reading materials.
Rika Ninomiya

NZ undoes $1m whale case against Japan | The Australian - 0 views

www.theaustralian.news.com.au/...0,,23662989-16953,00.html

Japan Australia

shared by Rika Ninomiya on 14 Aug 09 - Cached
  • AUSTRALIA is likely to abandon its $1 million attempt to take Japan to the international court over whaling after New Zealand gave up its plans to use legal action to stop the annual cull.
  • using aircraft and ships to gather evidence against Japanese whalers in the Southern Ocean.
  • But the New Zealand Government has since discovered "significant difficulties" with taking Japan to the international court and has abandoned the tactic.
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • The hunt for evidence against Japan in its "scientific hunt" for whales became highly contentious when the crew of the environmental crusader ship Sea Shepherd was accused of piracy and violence after activists threw bottles of "acid" and boarded a Japanese whaling ship.
  • Tokyo wants to ensure Mr Rudd's first trip to Japan as Prime Minister is positive and concentrates on climate change and potential joint regional aid projects rather than whaling and the perceived snub in his failure to include Japan on last month's 17-day world trip, which included four days in China.
  • In December, Australia issued a demarche, or formal diplomatic protest, on behalf of numerous nations over Japan's plans to cull about 900 minke whales and 50 fin whales.
  • It is estimated that Australia's "evidence gathering" to form a case against Japanese whalers in an international court, which included the voyage of the Oceanic Viking and aerial surveillance, cost taxpayers more than $1 million. The Rudd Government has been "considering" the evidence for three months and has still not made a decision.
  • pro-Chinese to the point of being anti-Japanese.
  • "agree to disagree on whaling".
  • The Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister have signalled they want an end to the diplomatic row with Japan although they still vigorously oppose whaling.
  • Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Andrew Robb said yesterday Mr Rudd had to calm relations between Australian and Japan. Mr Robb said Mr Rudd's perceived "China bias" had caused concerns in Indonesia, Japan and India.
  • Mr Robb said the Prime Minister had sent a "gun boat" after Japanese whaling ships without picking up the phone to Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda.
  • Rika Ninomiya on 14 Aug 09
     
    Very very interesting article on the relationship between Japan and Australia. Especially, after reading an article I posted previously on Okasa and Melbourne being Sister Cities. Apparently Australian government is against whaling done by Japanese and trying to gather evidence, spending over $1million, to bring Japan to an international court. And the article also mentioned how Mr Rudd is seen as Pro-China but Anti-Japan, Indonesia and India, making these countries worry.
Rika Ninomiya

QANTAS eyes Malaysia | The Australian - 0 views

www.theaustralian.news.com.au/...0,,24824650-20142,00.html

globalization cultural imperialism hybridization Qantas

shared by Rika Ninomiya on 22 Aug 09 - Cached
  • QANTAS may pursue Malaysia Airlines following the demise of the Australian carrier's $8 billion merger plans with British Airways.
  • Qantas had wanted majority ownership in the deal, reflecting its bigger market value, but BA was not prepared to become a junior partner.
  • faced a number of significant hurdles
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • Malaysia Airlines, run by savvy ex-petroleum industry executive Idris Jala, appeared the most likely partnership option in Asia
  • merger with Singapore Airlines, often touted as a good match, was unlikely because of questions of control and potential competition issues
  • He believed another possibility often raised, Cathay Pacific, was also unlikely, as were Thai Airways, Garuda, Philippine Airlines and the Chinese carriers.
  • However, he did not rule out a possible partnership with another European carrier or Japan Airlines in the longer term.
  • Rika Ninomiya on 22 Aug 09
     
    The article talks about Qantas's pursue of Malaysian Airline and other foreign airlines to merge with them. By merging with other major airline, Qantas is hoping to operate in more places which would help increase their market share in the world.
fiona hou

Fury over attacks to greet Brumby - 0 views

www.theage.com.au/...reet-brumby-20090916-froe.html

racist attack India Australia

shared by fiona hou on 17 Sep 09 - Cached
  • A TRIP to India next week to promote Melbourne as a safe city has turned into a monumental challenge for John Brumby after another racist attack that has attracted fresh headlines and anti-Australian fury across India.
  • Two Indian men and another two of Indian origin say they were racially taunted and told to ''go back to your country'' before being kicked and punched by attackers who were part of a large birthday celebration at Legends Entertainment Centre. The Indian Government increased pressure on Australia last night over the ''recurring attacks'' on its citizens. It called on authorities to ''take all necessary steps towards the safety and security of Indians''. Indian consular officials in Melbourne were also ordered to investigate.
  • One of the victims, Sukhdip Singh, 26, had been in Australia just one month. A relative said he had suffered head and facial injuries and wanted to return to India immediately. His uncle, Mukhtiar Singh, 45, also a victim, said Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard's recent assurance to India's Foreign Minister that Australia was safe for Indian students rang hollow. ''I used to say the same thing … now I would say Melbourne is worse than a Third-World country, violence-wise,'' Mr Singh told The Age. Recalling Saturday's incident, he said his nephew was taunted with verbal abuse and racial slurs in the bar before they were later set upon in the car park by about 20 people. ''I have lived here for 22 years,'' Mr Singh said. ''I've got my own business here, my own house, my kids have grown up here. Why should I go back? We all come from somewhere.''
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • headline on the front page of the Asian Age said: ''Oz mob of 70 attacks 3 Indians'', while The Times of India ran a timeline of attacks under the heading ''No end to hate?''. Mr Brumby said such incidents would make his mission to India all the more difficult. ''Some of the events of the last few months have damaged our brand and the Australian brand in India,'' he said. He said the Government was committed to fixing the problem, and raised the possibility of giving police more resources to deal with it.
  • Education for foreign students is Australia's third-biggest export earner, bringing in more than $16 billion a year.
Adinda Silitonga

Stop provoking the people, Foreign Ministry tells media | The Jakarta Post - 0 views

www.thejakartapost.com/...eign-ministry-tells-media.html

Indonesia Media

shared by Adinda Silitonga on 08 Sep 09 - Cached
  • Nora Ibrahim on 10 Sep 09
     
    I agree that media at times could work as the devil's advocate in stirring up animosity amongst the people and in this case between Indonesia and Malaysia. It is sad though because these two countries are very much similar since historically the native malays in Malaysia are from Indonesia itself. The national language of Malaysia which is Bahasa Malaysia (Bahasa Melayu) is historically from Bahasa Indonesia as well. How can there so much animosity when there is so much similarity that is ignored or intentionally over looked.
amy wu

China rebuts report of violating India airspace - 0 views

www.chinadaily.com.cn/...content_8643508.htm

China India airspace violate

shared by amy wu on 02 Sep 09 - Cached
  • amy wu on 02 Sep 09
     
    China does not encroach on other countries' airspace, said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu Tuesday at a press conference.
  • xinning ji on 08 Sep 09
     
    i am not sure when the relationship between India and CHina becomes bad. I can find online news recently, there are a lot of issues about the war prediction in the future between two nations. I wouldn't believe it can be the truth because if so, I cannot imagine how many innocent people will be dead.Please do not forget, both India and CHina are the first two countries with the largest number of world's population.
Christoph Zed

Terrorists in the Making?: Egypt Pursues Europeans Taking Arabic Classes - SPIEGEL ONLI... - 0 views

www.spiegel.de/...0,1518,651318-2,00.html

islam multiculturalism terrorism egypt usa faith

shared by Christoph Zed on 26 Sep 09 - Cached
  • It is not the first time the Egyptian security service claimed to have rounded up a cell of jihadist European students.
  • After just over a week of questioning, they were deported. There was no evidence. Back in Europe authorities saw no reason to hold the students.
  • the Egyptian security service often keeps surveillance on specific foreign students at the request of European secret services.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • The West often accuses Egypt of being a breeding ground for fanatics, but in actuality we are getting extremists from Europe.
  • Agents treat the foreign students who are arrested terribly." He says this has an adverse effect. "This way you create an enemy you might not have had before."
glen donnar

Chinese hack into film festival site - 0 views

www.theage.com.au/...stival-site-20090725-dwvx.html

communication international china australia film festival

shared by glen donnar on 25 Jul 09 - Cached
  • CHINESE hackers have attacked the Melbourne International Film Festival website in an intensifying campaign against the screening of a documentary about exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer.
  • The hackers replaced festival information with the Chinese flag and anti-Kadeer slogans
  • "It is obviously a concerted campaign to get us because we've refused to comply with the Chinese Government's demands."
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Last week, three Chinese directors withdrew films, with two denying they were forced to do so by Chinese authorities. Director Tang Xiaobai, who withdrew her film Perfect Life after being phoned by the Chinese Foreign Ministry and the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, said it was her decision to boycott the festival."I do not want to see my film screened on the same platform as a film about Kadeer," Tang told the official English-language newspaper China Daily.
Tony Sullivan

Background Briefing - 5 July 2009 - Cairo, a divided city - 0 views

www.abc.net.au/...2613439.htm

globalisation Egypt

shared by Tony Sullivan on 05 Aug 09 - Cached
  • Cairo
  • Mr Berry: When you walk in the gate it's nice. It gives you the impression that maybe you have a place in Australia maybe, maybe it feels like you in Australia, maybe somebody else, OK, maybe in Saudi Arabia, or anywhere else in the world, maybe in Italy, maybe somebody has the same feeling like Oh, this looks somewhere in Rome, somewhere in Greece
    • Tony Sullivan
      Tony Sullivan on 05 Aug 09
       
      Describes 'gated communities' for the affluent, being established in desert areas beyond the border of Cairo city.
  • Mr Berry: Golf, it's a very prestigious thing.
  • ...37 more annotations...
  • Not everyone back in Cairo is happy about the obsession with golf courses. Professor of Landscape and Architecture at Cairo University, Mohammad Refaat says they are a status symbol and the game doesn't come naturally to Egyptians
  • Mohammad Refaat: The first golf course that was created in these new developments was in Katameya Heights. It started - why is that? Because we started to have the Japanese in Egypt. The Japanese, they love golf, and we have several firms with Japanese managers, so it became a luxury to provide the service for them. But I believe that we're never going to be golfers as Egyptians, and I don't know, it's irritating now, because whenever you go, whenever you get a project, even in my private office, they say, 'Ah, the golf', and then we start doing the compound. The main idea of the golf from the owners' point of view is that to provide value for the people so that he can start to sell.
  • Mohammad Refaat: The thing is that I feel that we are Westernising ourselves. The thing is that due to the effect of the media, everybody wants to live in a Dallas, or in a Falconcrest or one of these things that we used to see when we're kids.
  • And they did not understand the Egyptian culture. If I speak about myself, I'd rather live in what we call the hara, or the alley, the old alley that we have, you know, when you have people all living in one street, of having all the services in the street, what we call the philosophy of the extended family. This is very, very Egyptian.
  • Anwar Sadat
  • opened up the country to the world, and very significantly, for the first time, all Egyptians could travel overseas.
  • Egyptians from all classes went abroad to get jobs in Gulf countries. They came back with money and with an appetite for things like shopping and luxury living. Some also brought back new ideas about Islam. It was more conservative and fundamentalist.
  • teachers, engineers, medical doctors, peasants, the large peasant migration
  • get passports, go and work in Jordan, in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, come back. Some of them also in Saudi Arabia perhaps never ever encountering women, right? And coming back with new notions of segregation, of headscarf, of Islamisation
  • Hagar Cohen: In Cairo today more and more women are segregated and wear the burqa, which is the full head and body cover. But everyone likes the shopping, and the new and glitzy malls are full of people in all kinds of dress
  • It can be uncomfortable now for women in western clothes, who don't wear scarves, because conservative men and women clearly show their distaste. This mix between consumerism and a very religious lifestyle is sometimes known as 'petro Islam'
  • Mona Abaza: They have different notions and variations of Islamic ideologies. There is a difference between a 16-year-old kid who is out of a family of 10 living in a slum, and a schoolteacher who lives long years in Saudi Arabia comes back, very much influenced by what I call the petro Islamic ideology, Saudi Arabian consumerists, very much into conservative accommodationist kind of religion, enjoying a shopping mall but at the same time dressing in Islamic code for instance. So marrying certain forms of consumer culture, but giving it a flavour that can look Egyptian, so that you convince yourself that you are different.
    • Tony Sullivan
      Tony Sullivan on 05 Aug 09
       
      Also discussed in relation to Salafism, a quietist social current encouraged by Saudi Araba, in 'The fever under the surface', The Economist 25 July 2009, p11-12, part of a special report on the Middle East.
  • the gated communities inside. the more upmarket, the faster they're selling, and they have names like Beverley Hills, Hyde Park and Dreamland.
  • Another kind of cultural reference for all of this is old Egyptian movies from like the 1950s you know, black-and-white films, where the setting was very, very often the Pasha's villa, which always had a very grand staircase, and a very grand entrance. This is the sort of lifestyle that Egyptians haven't had access to since the 1950s because of the crowding and so on and so forth. So now it's sort of become a lifestyle option for wealthy Egyptians that wasn't really there. So you can now have your own Pasha's villa.
  • Hagar Cohen: Dina Hussanein says she isn't comfortable living in a place with a name like 'Beverly Hills'. Dina Hassanein: That's a very sad thing, because we have a remarkable history and civilisation and yet, you know, we can't think of any Arabic word of our own that we could use to name the places. So I can tell you, Beverly Hills Egypt is nothing like Beverly Hills California
  • Hagar Cohen: Dina Hassanein is a modern woman. She lives on her own, and has a fiancé who lives nearby. She is very beautiful and smartly dressed in Western clothes. She has a job which involves interaction with all sorts of people
  • Hagar Cohen: Dina Hassanein and other residents have to rely on Old Cairo for almost everything, including shops, restaurants, and health services. There are also no local street markets, little shops or stalls, or workshops. In some places, the rules even forbid them. Big supermarket chains can be found easily, but you have to drive to get to them
  • Said Sadek: And you have rulers who believe in gated communities. Mubarak himself, lives in Sharem el Sheik or Borg el Arab, isolated, always isolated. The ruling elite in Egypt are isolated. And so you can tell by this political orientation of the elite that this is what they want, an isolated community because they cannot meet the demands of the masses. There are 40% of Egyptians below poverty line, earning less than $2 a day. And so this abject poverty amidst people who have a lot of money, may drive people to be envious
  • Very poor quality housing found in slums and shanty towns is expanding in Cairo
  • r Cohen: What in terms of sewage and garbage services? Are they available? Manal Tibe: We are talking about no water, so don't talk about sewage and garbage
  • Hagar Cohen: Manal Tibe says that the government isn't doing anything to improve conditions in slums, but has been very generous to private developers of gated communities. The desert land is subsidised by the government as well as the price of fuel, electricity and water. And that makes expenses in gated communities very low.
  • Manal Tibe: More hatefulness from poor to rich people and also to the government. Now, poor people that they want revenge, and this is being interpreted in some crimes against rich people.
  • Hagar Cohen: Dina Hassanein is missing city life, but at the same time she says that she doesn't fit in there any more
  • Dina Hassanein: It's not that I don't want to live there, it's just that our realities are very different, the places that we go are very different. If I were to walk into a slum I might get torn apart. You can't just walk in wearing normal clothes like we do into a place like that. I can barely walk down the streets without getting harassed actually, because it's a much more conservative society, so it's just different, it's almost impossible for these worlds to intermingle.
  • Hagar Cohen: These two very different worlds are on display inside some of Cairo's shopping malls. Western music there is piped through just as it is in any Australian city. This shopping mall is in the suburb of Giza. It's one of the most exclusive ones in Cairo. There's a care there serving Caesar salads and cappuccinos. Just across the road is the Giza Zoo, which is a popular hanging out venue for poorer families
  • This shopping mall
  • It's only a few days before Christmas when we're here, and in this Muslim country, it's ironic that Christian carols are playing throughout the atrium. Mona Abaza: It's a mix of definitely well-to-do Egyptians, and lots of expatriates, foreigners coming. You can see the Christmas decoration. During Ramadan they make Ramadan decorations, tents and Islamic style, and in Christmas they put Christmas decorations
  • Mona Abaza: There is this idea that the old downtown city is now slowly being depopulated by its, let us say, middle class. It used to be a very important commercial centre. It is now losing out this significance, because the centres have been now little by little moving out. So the idea is to get out of the city, because as if it's the inside is rotten, and it's very interesting how the poor can easily look at the lifestyles of the rich. Now this is evidently a bit of a problem for the rich, so that is why they opted for the American Dream, which is getting out and walling off.
  • Mona Abaza: If you look at it just visually, the problem is slums. One can easily say that the view is that as if the whole of Cairo is consisting of slums. Now the past 20 years, the neo liberal ideology of the government is to try and handle the problem of slums, and the way they handle it is as if it's an evil, a cancer that has to be drastically eliminated, with violence, because they consider and they believe that in slums, that we have the breeding of terrorist ideology, Islamist, poverty, violence etc. Now all this is quite often very over-exaggerated. I mean it's a form of discriminating the poor, that's clear. But you have the issue also of the city now experiencing a new form of cleaning up geared towards of course the encouraging of tourism and sites of consumption. So the cityscape is taking place as a huge space for consumer culture and tourism
  • Hagar Cohen: The American University, where Professor Abaza lectures, has also moved out to the desert and is now based in a town called New Cairo. She says it's a bad move, because a whole generation of well-off young people will be isolated, away from historical Cairo or the old Egyptian culture
  • Mona Abaza: You might be astonished but my students, 18 years old, 19 years, have never for instance known anything about downtown, have never even gone to downtown.
  • You will find the American fast food and the Egyptian fast food, and Italian, Mexican. Upstairs there is a McDonald's and Kentucky
  • Towheid Wahab: There is a rule here in the University. There's no mosque, there's no church, there's no temple, there's no monastery. All the people here are equal to do their religion by their own
  • Max Roderbeck: There are good reasons why they want to move, because you get a nice amount of space, you can re-brand yourself with a new image of being something that looks very modern instead of something that's fitted into a shabby old neighbourhood. There's certainly a trend, I mean there are quite a lot of institutions that have moved out.
  • Max Roderbeck: The danger of Cairo being hollowed out is pretty real. And I mean, some of the things that a city needs to be vibrant, seem to be already been pulled out of the centre of Cairo. I've seen other places where downtown becomes either a hollow shell, or ends up just being a sort of transport hub, you know, a sort of junction of roads and things. And I think it's a very real danger with Cairo.
  • Hagar Cohen: Somehow, Cairo has always managed to function as a lively city, says Max Roderbeck, but this time around, things are different
  • These satellite towns were developed in this way because of the government's quick sale of the land to private hands. They wanted to make a return quickly, and big villas and golf courses were in demand. But they don't work as lively urban centres, says environmental architect, Abbas el Zafarany
  • Tony Sullivan on 05 Aug 09
     
    The complexities of globalisation evident in Egypt's largest city and its surrounds
glen donnar

Politics comes before lights and camera - Opinion - theage.com.au - 0 views

www.theage.com.au/...1248546628873.html

miff china australia international relations politics culture film nation states

shared by glen donnar on 02 Aug 09 - Cached
  • THE Melbourne International Film Festival has it all: dramas involving officials from foreign governments, larger than life characters sticking to matters of principles whatever the consequences and the struggles for liberation.
  • documentary about Rebiya Kadeer
  • subsequently three Chinese films were withdrawn.
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • Loach's
  • The role of political actors, and the nation state in particular, in the film industry is enormous.
  • the film appears as the product of an individual visionary. This view of filmmaking is about as realistic as the standard Hollywood happy ending. The reality is that films are rarely, if ever, the personal, unadulterated vision of a director. They are influenced or, depending on your point of view, compromised from the start by those who bankroll the films.
  • In some respects, the most surprising thing about these kerfuffles is not that they have happened, but that they don't happen more often. While most of us think of film festivals as cultural events, the truth is that they are also deeply political events.
  • what gets far less attention is the extensive role played by political actors in the filmmaking process.
  • most films would not be made were it not for generous state subsidies.
  • And in spite of nice-sounding claims about facilitating cultural dialogue, nation states don't fund films because they love a good story. They do so because film can be a highly effective means of spreading influence. Since they're footing the bill, it's understandable that they want a say in the content of the film and how it is positioned.
  • films and film festivals are the continuation of politics by other means. It shouldn't be imagined that this applies only to authoritarian states such as China or political organisations with clear political objectives. Nearly every Australian film is made with some public money, and so filmmakers are subject to similar, if far more sophisticated and subtle, forms of state influence.
  • China has miscalculated the extent of its reach and, in the process, provided both the Kadeer documentary and the film festival an avalanche of publicity. And Ken Loach, in remarkably poor political judgment, has effectively silenced himself by withdrawing his film.
sayaka uchida

Indian student 'flees Australia' after fatal crash - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting ... - 0 views

www.abc.net.au/...2662508.htm

shared by sayaka uchida on 20 Aug 09 - Cached
  • Australia and India agreed to an extradition treaty in June last year, but the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, it is not yet in force.
  • "Once the extradition treaty enters into force, Indian authorities would be bound to uphold and process the extradition request, and to seek to lodge an arrest warrant within India to seek out and detain this individual."
  • "In 2008 in addition to the extradition treaty, Australia also concluded a mutual assistance treaty dealing with matters of criminal interest between the two countries, and since then of course we've had the terrorist events in Bombay and no doubt the Australian Federal Police have got interests in matters that are occurring in India,"
  • sayaka uchida on 20 Aug 09
     
    International co-operation in relation to law. We would have "world police coorperation" thingie in the future...or we have it already?
xinning ji

Japanese pop culture isn't lost in translation - 0 views

www.seattlepi.com/...178161_virgin17.html

shared by xinning ji on 17 Aug 09 - Cached
  • If you have had any exposure to adolescent or teenage girls over the past decade, then you are all too familiar with the phenomenon known as Hello Kitty, the mouthless cartoon cat that decorates the paraphernalia (usually done in garish pink) that has made Tokyo-based parent Sanrio Co. Ltd. an 83-billion-yen-a-year company (about $795 million).
  • Why would Japanese cartoon characters appeal to American youth? Why stuff that is, to put it mildly and to use an American expression, cheesy?
  • What allows some products or concepts to travel around the world, while others can't get out of the house?
    • xinning ji
      xinning ji on 18 Aug 09
       
      the success of Japanese products is because they know what people like, what is the common ground of people around the world, and these products are really entertained, such as Hello Kitty, Ben 10, etc. Rather, these characters are well connected between Western and Asian social and cultural values. SO, they are global symbols.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • "In its imagery and style, derived from video games and comic art, Japanese culture seemed to ride the wave of postmodernism ahead of its American counterparts, It seemed 'foreign' and strange, which was part of its appeal."
  • The logical conclusion is that there is little logic to it, so marketers will have to keep trying the hit-or-miss approach, even for the most outlandish ideas.
xinning ji

China still interested in Asia-Pacific plan | The Australian - 0 views

www.theaustralian.news.com.au/...0,25197,25971687-16953,00.html

shared by xinning ji on 24 Aug 09 - Cached
  • China understood the proposal was a multilateral issue that would be considered separately from the present difficulties besetting the Sino-Australian relationship .
    • xinning ji
      xinning ji on 24 Aug 09
       
      I think what the decision China made is rational and considerable. this is because when the emergence of globalization, China begun to face up to criticizes from foreign countries, like human rights, democrcy, one party domination... finally, national issues quickly became international business. among these criticizes, some are honest but some are fake. With these pressures, nevertheless, China has changed even if it is slowly. During these days we can explore the tension on the relationship between China and Australia due to several issues. however, this article makes me happy to see the growth of China. the reason is that China learned to how to communicate to the world. although China would like to participate into the multilateral issue, it does not mean its compromise on other issues. As Chiese ambassador stated that a multilateral issue and the present difficulties are two different things. in other words, China still insists its own right on national sovereignty. what I trying to say is that every country has an obligation to build up a peaceful and mutual respect and understanding world. we can hold our own right, we respect each other, and we live together in one world.
  • anonymous on 25 Aug 09
     
    Rudd's proposal of an Asia Pacific Community akin to the European Union is a ridiculous idea. There already exists several organisations in the region (ASEAN, APEC, ASEAN + 3, etc.) which serve to achieve exactly which Rudd proposes an Asia Pacific Community will achieve. Not only is Rudd participating in "megaphone diplomacy" which will likely undermine Australia's relationship with many Asian countries but next to no thought has gone into how this organisation will operate or even what countries will be included.
Christoph Zed

The Axis of Honour: Honour, Modernity, and al Qaeda « The Sensible Jew - 0 views

sensiblejew.wordpress.com/...-honour-modernity-and-al-qaeda

globalisation terrorism al qaeda values society capitalism pluralism secularisation colonialism moral honor

shared by Christoph Zed on 23 Aug 09 - Cached
  • So many scholars and commentators attribute suicide terrorism to such factors as poverty, foreign occupation, or religion, among many other things.
  • Over the past two hundred years, there has been a global, though highly uneven, shift within the values systems of various societies.
  • One particularly profound transformation has been the relegation of one’s religion to the private sphere, as a matter of purely personal choice.
  • ...15 more annotations...
  • So societies that have embraced modernity, have effectively “privatised” religion. Indeed capitalism has been the driving force behind secularism because it required the dismantling of the communalist society.
  • Replacing the old communalism is heterogeneity and pluralism. These have eroded not only religious monopolies, but their centrality in various societies. The end result of this is a society’s secularisation.
  • Globalisation, in which western technological and cultural products predominate, is often framed as a form of colonialism.
  • Ironically, the rise of transnational Islamist terrorism is also a product of globalisation.
  • As the power of the nation state diminishes, religious ideology’s mobility allows it to permeate shifting borders.
  • The current face of modernity is therefore ideally suited to –  and an ideal breeding ground for – the creation of suicide terrorist groups.
  • In order to fortify the in group, moral strictures must become ever more rigorous, while condemnation of transgression must become ever more vociferous – and violent, thus intensifying the demarcation between “good” and “bad”.
  • terrorism implies a crisis of legitimacy
  • But can we say that such a crisis of legitimacy applies to transnational terrorists such as al Qaeda?
  • modernity is an attempt to destroy community and communalism…, all those forces which created identity and authority
  • such threats to communalism result in feelings of humiliation amongst those who do not benefit from the new order.
  • humiliation therefore “links the concepts of honor and human rights in an enlightening way, providing a framework both for ideologies and for the transition between them.”
  • Scott Atran identifies the primacy of honour throughout Arab societies, noting that the Arab perception of being humiliated by outsiders is a prime motivator for suicide attacks.
  • There emerges from the collective sense of humiliation something of an obligation to demonstrate outrage and embark on actions – even if they have little chance of success – in order to avenge honour. Martyrdom is one such example.
  • Beit-Hallahmi writes, that under such circumstances, “contemporary martyrdom can be viewed as an uprising against the end of history and the final triumph of liberal capitalism.”
Christoph Zed

Terrorists in the Making?: Egypt Pursues Europeans Taking Arabic Classes - SPIEGEL ONLI... - 0 views

www.spiegel.de/...0,1518,651318,00.html

islam multiculturalism terrorism egypt usa faith

shared by Christoph Zed on 26 Sep 09 - Cached
  • Many deeply religious students from Europe come to Egypt to learn Arabic. The question is: are these European Salafists coming to study the language of the Koran or to prepare terrorist attacks?
  • Young men with downy beards, caps, kneelength a traditional Arab galabeyas and sandals sat chatting in a McDonalds' restaurant in Nasr City, a large middle class district in the eastern part of Cairo.
  • In the neighborhood Egyptians, the European Salafists - Sunni religious fundamentalists - are outsiders.
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • Ashraf, a 26-year-old Dutchman of Moroccan descent, came to Cairo a year ago. "To learn Arabic," he says, "the language of my religion."
  • "We aren't hurting anyone," says Ashraf, whose apartment was recently searched. "We only come to study and pray."
  • "Religious fanatics want to be taken seriously," says Walid al-Gohari, founder and director of the Al-Fajr institute, one of the many language schools in Nasr City. "But Salafists who don't even know Arabic are not considered credible."
  • The Egyptian security service is concerned about the situation. It therefore keeps a close eye on fundamentalist visitors with a European passport.
  • As a precaution, the security service picked up hundreds of foreign students in a few days time, among them a few from the Netherlands.
jung moon

South Korea aims to become Asia's new medical travel hub - 0 views

news.theage.com.au/...-travel-hub-20080430-29el.html

South Korea plastic surgery Korean Wave asia aims hub

shared by jung moon on 30 Sep 09 - Cached
  • the Seoul city government has launched a project to attract more foreign tourists seeking cosmetic surgery -- capitalising on the popularity of the "Korean Wave" of pop culture in Asia in recent years.
  • Cosmetic surgery is commonplace in South Korea. A Kyung Hee University survey in 2007 found that 47.3 percent of adults had experienced it.
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