In Asia: Weekly Insight and Features from Asia

In early October, the Timorese art collective Gembel launched its first major exhibition in Dili, with financial assistance from The Asia Foundation. The exhibit, Recovering Lives Across Borders, featured the print works produced from successful collaborations between Gembel and two unique art groups: Taring Padi from Indonesia, and Culture Kitchen from Australia. The collection of [...]

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Last Thursday, I had the privilege of attending a special dinner where Dr. Muhammad Yunus discussed topics ranging from the current global economic crisis to recommendations for the Obama administration. Yunus, the world-renowned founder of Grameen Bank, Grameen America, and recipient of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, was accepting an award for excellence in the [...]

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Last Wednesday morning, November 5th, I was leaving a gathering in Dhaka that featured big-screen television coverage of the U.S. election, when a cycle rickshaw driver drew up alongside me. I assumed that he had slowed to offer me a ride, but in turning toward him, I found his face lit with excitement. With a [...]

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It was after 1:00 on Monday morning when I made my way out of the airport in Male, the capitol of Maldives. There was a cool tropical breeze and the smell of salt water in the air. Across a stretch of sea from the airport, Male’s skyline had grown noticeably since my last visit in [...]

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“We feel that too often, we are floating with the tide, but we want to be more active, we actually want to learn how to swim,” explained H.E. Ung Huot, Chairman of the Cambodian Senate’s Commission on Economy, Planning, Investment and Environment. In the midst of what we can now call an international financial and [...]

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There is a phrase I hear over and over as I travel around the Irrawaddy delta in Burma (also known as Myanmar): “We have nothing left.” Six months ago, Cyclone Nargis made landfall in this region and roared across the flat and vulnerable lands of the delta, bringing with it a massive storm surge of [...]

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The mood on the street in Indonesia is probably more jubilant in many ways than in some parts of the U.S., with the news of the victory of Barack Obama as President-elect of the United States. Indonesians have long been overwhelming supporters of Obama.They say they feel a personal connection because Obama’s stepfather was Indonesian [...]

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Almost two months ago, at the time of the U.S. Democratic and Republican political conventions, I blogged here in In Asia about being the nonpartisan commentator on the local cable news channel, ABS-CBN News Channel (ANC ” seen in the United States on The Filipino Channel).  I was delighted to be asked back to analyze [...]

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Now that the U.S. presidential election is over, the incoming Obama administration will begin a reconsideration of American foreign policy.  Numerous urgent issues will compete for attention, including Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, North Korea, and the parlous state of the global economy.  But consideration of these urgent matters should not come at the expense of issues [...]

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Participants at a forum held last week in Seoul want you to steal their ideas. Organized by The Asia Foundation, and supported by KDI School of Public Policy and Management and the Korea Business Council for Sustainable Development, the group gathered from countries across Asia to discuss how to address local and regional environmental threats [...]

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