International and Area Studies Commons^™

Natural Resources And Wealth Of The Democratic Republic Of Congo (Drc): Of Benefit To Whom?, Nicola Colbran

Human Rights & Human Welfare

When asked to discuss the humanitarian tragedy in the DRC, the question really is where to start? The article by Adam Hochschild discusses some of the most horrific events and experiences imaginable: widespread killings of unarmed civilians, rape, torture and looting, the recruitment of child soldiers, and the forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of people. The immediate human response is who is to blame, how did it happen and how can the world apparently do nothing?

Human Rights Law On Trial In The Drc, William Paul Simmons

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The ongoing tragedy in Eastern Congo contains so many tragic lessons that it should shake to their very foundations all comfortable ideologies about human rights and politics. The atrocities in the DRC should implicate all but have so far resulted in almost limitless impunity. Here, I briefly put human rights law on trial for its role in perpetuating this tragedy.

Managing A Nation's Image During Crisis: A Study Of The Chinese Government's Image Repair Efforts In The “Made In China” Controversy, Peijuan Cai, Lee Pei Ting, Augustine Pang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The image of a nation is crucial in the conduct of international relations (Wang, J. (2006). Managing national reputation and international relations in the global era: Public diplomacy revisited. Public Relations Review, 32, 91–96). A favorable image plays a critical role in asserting one's influence (Benoit, W. L., & Brinson, S. L. (1994). AT&T: “Apologies are not enough”. Communication Quarterly, 42, 75–88; Wang, J. (2006). Managing national reputation and international relations in the global era: Public diplomacy revisited. Public Relations Review, 32, 91–96). Often, strategic communication tools like public relations and media diplomacy are used to enhance a nation's image …

The Networked Electorate: The Internet And The Quiet Democratic Revolution In Malaysia And Singapore, Hang Wu Tang

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This paper is intended to be a contribution to the literature on claims of the democratising effect of the Internet. The paper begins by setting out the arguments and also critiques of claims of the democratising power of the Internet. In order to test the validity of these arguments, the author will undertake a comparative study of the impact of the Internet on recent general elections in Malaysia and Singapore. The study will demonstrate that in the case of Singapore, the Internet has merely exerted some pressure on the pre-existing laws and state-imposed norms governing free speech; in contrast, in …

The Company And Its Directors As Co-Conspirators, Pey Woan Lee

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

In Nagase Singapore Pte Ltd v Ching Kai Huat and Lim Leong Huat v Chip Hup Hup Kee Construction Pte Ltd, the High Court of Singapore affirmed the proposition that a company may, like a natural person, conspire with its director to inflict harm on a third person even if the latter is its “directing mind and will”. In both cases, the courts’ focus was directed at a conceptual enquiry, ie, whether a company, whose “mind” is the same as that of its director, could properly be said to have “combined” or “agreed” to conspire. This article argues, however, that …

Void Contracts And The Applicability Of Choice Of Law Clauses To Consequential Restitutionary Claims: Cimb Bank Bhd V Dresdner Kleinwort Ltd [2008] 4 Slr 543, Adeline Swee Ling Chong

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This note examines the Singapore Court of Appeal’s judgment in CIMB Bank Bhd v Dresdner Kleinwort Ltd, focusing specifically on what role, if any, should be played by a choice of law clause contained in a void contract in relation to the restitutionary aftermath of voidness.

The Indian Mystique, Nirmalya Kumar

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The rise of global business means that Western companies will increasingly encounter Indians as customers, competitors and collaborators. The author profiles how best to collaborate with Indian business leaders.

Mencius: Contexts And Interpretations, Alan Kam Leung Chan

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Mencius: Contexts and Interpretations. Edited by Alan K. L. Chan. (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2002. 328 pp.) This is a collection of new essays by various authors. It includes a brief but good introduction to Mencius, the Mencius, and the essays in this collection. There is a general index and an index locorum.

Obama In China: Friendly Advice, Robert A. Kapp

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

After Barack Obama’s inauguration, we ran a series at China Beat of various China experts’ reading recommendations for Obama on China (See installments I, II, III,IV, V, VI). At the time, we assumed a trip to China would be one of Obama’s top priorities–as is now clear with last week’s announcement that Obama will visit China in November 2009. So we sent out a few emails to China watchers from a variety of backgrounds, asking if they had advice for Obama as he prepares for the summit in Beijing. Here, the first installment from Robert A. Kapp, former president of …

Kabul Times (Jul - Sep, 1966), Afghanistan

Digitized Afghanistan Materials in English from the Arthur Paul Afghanistan Collection

Kabul Times, July - September, 1966

Readings On Speech And Protest In China

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

1. Hu Jintao has made a trip to Xinjiang, his first since riots there in July. Xinjiang was in the news earlier this week as well, when international news organizations picked up a story, first reported in Monday’s China Daily, which announced that trials would begin shortly for more than 200 people arrested in connection with the riots. The regional government, however, quickly denied that any trials have been scheduled, and stated that only 83 people have been officially arrested to date. Over at the Wall Street Journal’s China blog, Sky Canaves writes on this story and what it reveals …

Reports On China Environment

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

The Wilson Center’s China Environment Forum has released two new research briefs, adding them to their growing archive of reports on issues ranging fromhealth challenges in Xinjiang to waste disposal in rural areas. Particularly notable is the collection of reports resulting from a collaboration with Western Kentucky University; the two newest reports are both part of this series.

The first report is “Electric Cars: The Drive for a Sustainable Solution in China,” by Peter Marsters:

The CEO of Chinese automaker BYD has recently taken to drinking vials of his company’s battery fluid. The fluid, designed for use in electric cars, …

Tales From Taiwan: Mourning, Paul Katz

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Siaolin’s survivors are in the midst of grappling with three main issues: mourning the dead, coping with current difficulties, and planning for the future (see the online chats about these issues on Siaolin’s own website, the 甲仙鄉小林社區入口網). On August 21, I attended two meetings with Professor Chien Wen-min 簡文敏 and his colleagues (林清財, 吳旭峰, 段洪坤, 張東炯, 黃智慧, 潘英海, 簡炯仁, 謝世憲). The first meeting focused on the needs of Siaolin’s villagers, who were preparing a petition to present to President Ma when he attended mourning rituals the next day. Consensus was reached on three main points, namely requesting the government allow …

Nimby Comes To China Revisited

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Many things have happened in the PRC this year that echo phenomena discussed in China in 2008: A Year of Great Significance, including the recent renewal of Shanghai protests relating to train lines. As Associated Press reporter Elaine Kurtenbach notes in her valuable dispatch on the subject, the latest demonstrations have been on a smaller scale than the early 2008 ones discussed in our book. They have also been directed toward a more convetional kind of railway (albeit one that moves very fast) rather than a Magnetic levitation (Maglev) one.

Nevertheless, Kurtenbach’s summary of the situation (in this case regarding …

Kabul Times (Apr - Jun, 1966), Afghanistan

Digitized Afghanistan Materials in English from the Arthur Paul Afghanistan Collection

Kabul Times, April - June, 1966

Resource: Images Of 1972 China

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

I received a note on the H-Asia listserv last week from the Asian Studies WWW Monitor (which provides regular summaries of online teaching resources on Asia). The note flagged a fabulous archive of photographs of daily life taken by Wellesley Political Science Professor William A. Joseph in 1972. Below, a few images from this intriguing resource.

Better City, Better Life, Anna Greenspan

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Since in Shanghai Expo preparation is now ubiquitous, and because I share China’s love of numbered lists, here are my top 8 suggestions for how Shanghai could implement its promise–now posted everywhere–of a ‘better city, better life.’

I’ve deliberately not included things that are a) already underway (e.g. more subway stops), b) up to the whim of a single entrepreneur (e.g. a decent bagel shop) and c) too obviously political (e.g. a more open media).

As those of us who love the city know, there is much that Shanghai–with its safe, pedestrian friendly, tree lined streets and spectacular skyline–gets right. …

Readings: Expo Preparation, Food, Music, And Fashion

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

A variety of readings that piqued our interest this week:

1. In a New York Times story, Howard French takes a look at the ongoing preparations in Shanghai as next year’s World Expo grows closer. In addition to Expo-related construction in the city center, French notes, attention is also being paid to outlying neighborhoods, which are being spruced up in anticipation that some Expo-goers will want to explore Shanghai’s innumerable side streets and alleyways:

Shiny new aluminum facades are being hastily stapled onto grubby family storefronts, and fresh coats of paint and mortar are being applied, often for the first …

Siaolin Stands Up

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Bouncing over ruined roads washed out by Typhoon Morakot (some roadbeds have been transformed into river beds), a group of scholars (including myself) drove to the township of Chia-hsien 甲仙 (Kaohsiung County) on August 18 to attend a press conference marking the formation of the Reconstruction Committee for Siaolin’s Plains Aborigine Culture (小林平埔文化重建委員會). Arriving in Chia-hsien, one is soon struck by the roar of helicopters and generators, as well as the smell of flood debris and betel nut juice, which serve to cover up other odors. Power has been restored, but there is still no running water, which puts a …

Readings On Liu Xiaobo And Xu Zhiyong

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

News came today that legal scholar Xu Zhiyong was formally arrested last week, though he has not yet been charged, according to his lawyer (see recent China Beat posts on Xu Zhiyong here and here). Xu is one of several detainees whom netizens are seeking to free through a postcard campaign; another is Charter ’08 organizer Liu Xiaobo, who has been in custody since last December. Here are several readings related to Liu, and one on Xu, that have caught our attention:

1. Before Charter ’08, Liu Xiaobo was already well-known as a participant in the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations. …

Kabul Times (Oct - Dec, 1966), Afghanistan

Digitized Afghanistan Materials in English from the Arthur Paul Afghanistan Collection

Kabul Times, October - December, 1966

Kabul Times (Oct - Dec, 1965), Afghanistan

Digitized Afghanistan Materials in English from the Arthur Paul Afghanistan Collection

Kabul Times, October - December, 1965

Kabul Times (Jan - Mar, 1966), Afghanistan

Digitized Afghanistan Materials in English from the Arthur Paul Afghanistan Collection

Kabul Times, January - March, 1966

Readings

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

There are several recent pieces on China’s internet controls that are worth reading if you haven’t already looked at them. First, “How China Polices the Internet” atFinancial Times, gives an interesting account of what David Bandurski has called China’s “Control 2.0,” an increasingly adept deployment of online discourse on behalf (rather than at the expense) of the government. After vigorous online debate emerged over a Yunanese man’s suspicious death while in police custody, officials did not just cut off discussion:

Wu Hao, deputy propaganda chief for the area, put out an online appeal for “netizens” to help investigate the case. …

Fell Rains

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

The people of southern Taiwan are suffering the ravages of the worst flooding to hit the island in 50 years. This tragedy was brought about by Typhoon Morakot, which combined with a tropical depression near the Philippines to produce a blob of tropical moisture nearly 1,000 kilometers in diameter that dumped between 6-7 FEET of rain on Taiwan’s southern regions from August 7-9, 2009, with the most severe rainfall occurring on August 8 (Taiwanese Father’s Day or 八八(爸爸)節). The resulting floodwaters and mudslides have toppled buildings and buried entire villages. Current casualty figures stand at 103 dead and 45 injured, …

China’S Migrant Workers In The Wake Of The Economic Crisis: Unemployed, Undeterred, Robert D. O'Brien

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

After growing at double-digit rates for most of the last three decades, the Chinese economy is now in jeopardy of failing to achieve the eight percent GDP expansion benchmark widely considered necessary for the government to stave off social unrest. Although a fairly insulated and underdeveloped financial market allowed the PRC to avoid the first order effects of the global financial crisis, the drying up of China’s main export markets – the U.S., Europe, and Japan – has wreaked havoc on the manufacturing sector, leading to the unemployment of over 20 million migrant workers.

In the wake of the recent …

Rolling The Dice In Macau, Dustin Wright

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

It has been almost a decade now since China regained control of Macau, but the city’s present and future crops up in news coverage much less than Hong Kong, another reclaimed colony. We’re delighted, then, to be able to run this piece about Macau from someone who has been spending time there, meditating on not only whether or not Macau is democratizing but also how Macau’s relationship to the mainland and the world is changing its economy and society. For those interested in background information on Macau, see the reading list that follows the piece.

Sitting in a hip dessert …

Inflammation And Infection Do Not Promote Arterial Aging And Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors Among Lean Horticulturalists, Michael Gurven, Hillard Kaplan, Jeffrey Winking, Daniel Eid Rodriguez, Sarinnapha Vasunilashorn, Jung Ki Kim, Caleb Finch, Eileen M. Crimmins

ESI Publications

Background: Arterial aging is well characterized in industrial populations, but scantly described in populations with little access to modern medicine. Here we characterize health and aging among the Tsimane, Amazonian forager-horticulturalists with short life expectancy, high infectious loads and inflammation, but low adiposity and robust physical fitness. Inflammation has been implicated in all stages of arterial aging, atherogenesis and hypertension, and so we test whether greater inflammation associates with atherosclerosis and CVD risk. In contrast, moderate to vigorous daily activity, minimal obesity, and low fat intake predict minimal CVD risk among older Tsimane.

Methods and Findings: Peripheral arterial …

On The Web: Images Of China

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

China Beat readers looking for cool “new” desktop pictures for their computers might want to think old. More and more archives are digitalizing their collections of photographs and making them available online, so now finding that perfect snapshot of Old Beijing or the Great Wall couldn’t be easier. Here are just a couple of the many websites out there, and some sample photos that we found by searching for topics like “Shanghai” and “China.”

1. Friend of the blog Jeremy Friedlein (Program Director, CET Shanghai) pointed us to Life magazine photos available on Google Images. Adding “source:life” in the search …

China Behind The Headlines: Xu Zhiyong, Susan Jakes

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Earlier this year, a graduate of his country’s most prestigious law school with an impressive record of public service, a comfortable academic post at a major university, and a political office he’d won in a trailblazing election summarized his life’s mission for a local newspaper. “I strive to be a worthy citizen, a member of a group of people who promote the progress of the nation,” he told the reporter. “I want to make people believe in ideals and in justice and help them see that there is hope for change.”

Like a more well-known community organizer, Xu Zhiyong has …