China and America

Understanding Mattel’s Mea Culpa:
Quick to blame its Chinese suppliers for a massive recall, the toy giant now apologizes for its own mistakes. Why Mattel—and other major American companies—must save face with China. Read more.

In Mumbai, one man's meat is indeed another man's poison

Cooking chicken has become a high-security, covert operation for Shailaja Hazare, an undercover meat eater... Read more.

China: Economics, and Politics

Western Australia reaps huge profits from Chinese boom.

Here in the capital of vast, mineral-rich Western Australia, a wave of prosperity unleashed by Chinese hunger for its metals and energy have sent property prices soaring so high that affordable homes became scarce.

...

While the resources boom has enriched the state, it is also increasing its political clout on the national and international stage.

Is it ethical to adopt a policy of non-intervention?

The UN's silence on Myanmar.

Chaos in Darfur on rise as Arabs fight with Arabs.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Following the atrocities of Nazi Germany, the United Nations saw the need to clarify what constitutes the rights of an individual, hence the drafting of the Universal Declaration for Human Rights. The declaration is a non-binding one, meaning it merely acts as a guideline for countries. Nonetheless, being part of international law, it is useful in affecting moral pressure on governments who violate the articles in the declaration. There are 30 articles, and here is a summary of the freedoms found within the articles:

1. All human beings are equal in dignity and rights
This addresses discrimation based on descent such as can be seen in the caste system of India. Dalits are viewed as below the caste system and are treated unfairly: they suffer from wage discrimination, do not own land, cannot use the same wells etc. They are the poorest of Indians.

2. All people are entitled to rights without distinction based on race, color, sex, religion, language, opinion, origin, property, birth or residency
This addresses rascism. It denounces the theory of racial superiority e.g. the Aryan race, or racial inferiority e.g. the Africans

3. Right to life, liberty and security
e.g. The indiscriminate use of land mines denies the right to life and security of civillians in India and Pakistan.

4. Freedom from slavery
e.g. The trafficking of children in West Africa. Traffickers usually approach impoverished families and offer them as little as US $15 to hand their son or daughter over to an employer. Many of the families who agree to sell their children hope that their child's employment will lead them to a better life filled with more opportunities. The children are then made to work without wages. Many are sold as prostitutes.

5. Freedom from torture
The term "torture" means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person. e.g. In 1970s Mexico, the government tortured left-wing activists.

6. Right to be treated equally by the law

7. Right to equal protection by the law
e.g. The Sharia law is accused of not protecting men/women and Muslims/non-Muslims equally. In Saudi Arabia, a women's testimony in court is worth half that of a man's testimony, according to a Human Rights Watch report in 2002.

8. Right for all to effective remedy by competent tribunal
This addresses domestic violence. The UN defines domestic violence as: "the use of force or threats of force by a husband or boyfriend for the purpose of coercing and intimidating a woman into submission. The violence can take the form of pushing, hitting, choking, slapping, kicking, burning or stabbing." These women are not able to seek effective remedy within the legal system.


9. Freedom from arbitrary arrest
e.g The Patriot Act in US. Increased powers to monitor and detain suspected terrorists without charge or trial. The excuse used is that the nation is in a state of public emergency following the September 11 attacks.

10. Right to fair public hearing by independent tribunal
e.g. The prisoners of Guantanamo Bay. The US imprisoned around 600 men from at least 43 different countries in a camp in a US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The aim was to interrogate them about their suspected involvement in the al-Qaeda terrorist network. However, none of the foreign nationals in US custody has been granted access to legal counsel.

11. Right to presumption of innocence until proven guilty at public trial with all guarantees necessary for defence
e.g. Legal proceedings in Malaysia. Anwar Ibrahim, the former Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia and leader of a popular pro-reform movement, was sentenced to a total of 15 years in prison a trial widely seen as politically-motivated. His right to be presumed innocent was undermined by statements by the Prime Minister, and his counsel was prevented from presenting a full defence by threats of contempt of court proceedings.

12. Right to privacy in home, family and correspondence
e.g. Privacy on the Internet. In the UK, the Regulation of Investigatory Powers (RIP) Act of 2000 allows a limited group of government authorities to demand private information about people's Internet and mobile phone habits from the companies that provide connections

13. Freedom of movement in your own country, and the right to leave/return to any countries.
e.g. Villagers internally displaced in Turkey. During the 15-year conflict between government forces and the armed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK), Kurdish villagers were forced out of their homes and off their land by Turkish security forces and paramilitary village guards with the aim of depriving the PKK of access to shelter, food, and recruits.

14. Right to political asylum in other countries
e.g. Asylum seekers in Australia. Australia prevents illegal immigrants from entering its shores.

15. Right to nationality
e.g. Issue of Nationality in Cote d'Ivoire. In the 1990s, Ivorian political leaders adopted a series of measures which denied the possibility of citizenship to immigrants and their children and have resulted in the arbitrary arrest, deportation, and even murder, of some foreign nationals.

16. Right to marriage and family, and to equal rights of men and women during and after marriage
In South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, girls under 18 are forced to get married for economic and cultural reasons.

17. Right to own property
e.g. Land reform in Zimbabwe. The government seized 35m acres of land from rich, white farmers for redistribution to poor, landless black Zimbabweans.

18. Freedom of thought, conscience, religion

19. Freedom of opinion and expression

20. Freedom of assembly

21. Right to take part in and select government

22. Right to social security and realization of economic, social and cultural rights

23. Right to work, to equal pay for equal work, to join trade unions

24. Right to reasonable hours of work and paid holidays

25. Right to adequate living standard for self and family, including food, housing, clothing, medical care & social security

26. Right to education

27. Right to participate in cultural life, and to protect intellectual property rights

28. Right to social and international order permitting these freedoms to be realized

29. Each person has responsibilities to the community and others as essential for a democratic society
e.g. The use of guns in the US. Given the right to bear arms, 66% of murders in 2000 were committed with firearms.

30. Repression in the name of rights is unacceptable
e.g. The concept of Asian values. The notion of 'Asian values' has been used by various governments in the region to argue that a western style free press is not appropriate for Asia.


Full text here.

"Liberty, Equality, Fraternity."

Managing Civil Disobedience: Calibrated Coercion"

Legalism

Rule of Law

Uses of a freer media.

China, the Olympics and the press.

On Liberty

On Liberty by J S Mill

United Nations

Some background info:
A brief history of United Nations
Founding of the United Nations


Current Affairs:
The U.S Relationship with the United Nations
China-Taiwan-UN relationship

FOX News: Oil-for-food Scandal
Myths and Facts: Oil-for-food


Related to Singapore:

1. UN Urges Singapore Not to Execute Nigerian for Drug Trafficking
   The United Nations has called on authorities in Singapore not to go ahead with the planned execution of a Nigerian sentenced to death for trafficking in heroin.

   The UN expert on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Philip Alston, says the planned execution of Iwuchukwu Amara Tochi on Friday would violate international legal standards on the use of the death penalty.
   Alston says “the standards accepted by the international community is that capital punishment may be imposed only when the guilt of the person charged is based upon clear and convincing evidence, leaving no room for an alternative explanation of the facts.”

2. Singapore "too ruthless" to be asked into Eastern Timor UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, when asked whether he would pressure Singapore to contribute troops along with Australia to alleviate suffering in East Timor, was hesitant. “Singapore troops are simply too ruthless,” the Secretary General’s office insisted. “Singaporeans are known throughout the world as extremely courageous and honourable, ever since they fought so bravely in intense battles with Malaysia for their independence a few decades ago. But we simply don’t need such skill and precision in our operations with East Timor. We are also worried that the Singapore troops will frighten the local population and this might work to our detriment.”

Using rape as a weapon.

Iraq's diverse cultures share a way of understanding the family, "patriliny," in which identities ranging from religion to ethnicity to clan are conferred by fathers alone, not mothers. Understanding patriliny can help shed light on inter-group conflict in Iraq, specifically on the inter-sectarian rapes and killings that take place every day.

Global poll shows wide distrust of United States.

Global survey shows rejection of U.S. idea of democracy.

Economists estimate inflation hits 20,000% in Zimbabwe; prices rise by the hour.

Mugabe floats new plan to 'empower' Zimbabwe.

Media in Singapore.

SINGAPORE: 'Light touch' on new media, but government alert to radical websites;
Government to restrict access to websites that might pose a threat to Singapore.

Fairly typical of legislation and law enforcement in Singapore: the promise of liberality ("we will leave you alone") but with the right to use extreme measures held in reserve ("but we can and will shut you down if we want to"). Ministerial power is constrained not by stringent legislation but by ministerial discretion. The wording of the statutes grants ministers fairly broad powers to decide when certain freedoms should be curtailed. There has been few if any successful litigations against such exercises of ministerial prerogative.

The Constitution declares the right to free speech and then subsequently conditions the practice of the right.

(Read the whole article)

There is a similar interpretation of the government's simultaneous refusal to repeal the law that criminalizes "unnatural sex acts", and "assurance" that the law will not be actively implemented (i.e. homosexuals will be be persecuted). The government defends this schizophrenic stance with the usual claims of pragmatism: Singapore has to move with the times, but at the same time obey its conservative majority. Others suggest that the law is retained for political purposes (for example, in Malaysia, how Anwar, the political thorn in then PM Mahathir's side, was removed with trumped-up charges of sodomy.)

Differences between Civilisations

"The people of different civilisations have different views on the relations between ... These differences are the product of centuries. they will not soon disappear. they are far more fundamental than differences among political ideologies and political regimes. Differences do not necessarily mean conflict, and conflict does not necessarily, mean violence" - Clash of Civilisations

Putting citizenship to the test

3 Japanese Americans challenge U.S. detention of Muslims

Is Islam compatible with the West?

Democratic Systems

"The common experiences of European history - feudalism, the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Enlightenment, the French revolution, the Industrial revolution; they are generally economically better off than the peoples to the east, and they may now look forward to increasing involvement in a common European economy and to the consolidation of democratic political systems. the people to the east and south of this line are Orthodox or Muslim; they historically belonged to the Ottoman or Tsarist empires and were only lightly touched by the shaping events in the rest of Europe; they are generally less advanced economically; they seem much less likely to develop stable democratic political systems" - Clash of Civilisations

Now comes a new argument - that the demography of a country's population(age) is also a factor for the success of a democratic system:

Very young populations contribute to strife, study says

Africa's crisis of democracy, with Nigeria at forefront

Death to America.

The tension between the Islamic world and the West gets all the attention and press. However, this article will remind us the the US has been ruffling feathers elsewhere.

"Around the world, by every measure, America's reputation and image has never been so poor."

You can download the mp3 or podcast from the above site; alternatively, you can get it from tlnexus: "Death to America".

Nation or Corporation?

Not a long discussion, just an interesting question:
Singapore: When a country is no longer a country.

Why bond breakers left.

I made a point in class a few weeks ago, how the economic environment is changing.
1) Corporations now prefer to outsource jobs, instead of investing in training the employees they already have.
2) "Restructuring", "downsizing" (euphemisms for sacking people) mostly target older workers, whose higher wages make them by definition less efficient, ceteris paribus (a younger person can do the same job for less pay).
3) "Foreign talent" is imported to perform functions essential to Singapore's ambition to become a financial / biomedical / cultural hub.

I went on to argue that the economic environment shapes the social environment: people are conditioned to value utility over fidelity - both in the workplace and elsewhere, people are judged more for his or her usefulness than any other quality. This has an impact on interpersonal relationships, which could be the reason why families are getting smaller and more fragile.

(I noticed a quintessentially Singaporean argument in one of the essays:

Singapore's dependence on Malaysia for a key resource like water is politically disadvantages; Malaysia can use the threat of cutting off the water supply as leverage... As Singapore's industries is heavily reliant on a consistent water supply, cutting it off could be disastrous...

Um... PEOPLE DYING OF THIRST is also rather disastrous, imho.)


Mr. Wang independently corroborates the points about the economic paradigm.

Singapore's Relations with the Region.

Singapore and neighbors just can't get along (On the International Herald Tribune).

The Thai Junta and the Singaporean Government.

The uses and misuses of lèse-majesté. (lèse-majesté on the Miriam-Webster Online Dictionary)

Defending the national scripture.

Two sites for you to explore.

For those interested in focusing the Globalization essay question, check out Managing Globalization: the entries are usually very short and pithy, with links if you wish to explore the issues more. Each entry will also have erudite responses from readers. You might not know enought about world affairs to follow some of the discussion - DON'T DESPAIR. Just keep exploring past entries until you find something that interests you.

The Online Citizen is good for those who wish to focus on Singapore issues for GP.

I have also put the links for both sites in the sidebar ------->