In Asia: Weekly Insight and Features from Asia

Among the array of international television series aired by cable networks in Thailand, “CSI,” “Bones,” and other dramas that highlight the work of forensic pathologists are especially popular. While Thai audiences are exposed to the dramatized investigative techniques applied by forensic specialists working in cooperation with law enforcement agencies…

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While many nations limped into the new year under the weight of somber economic forecasts, strong GDP predictions gave Asia a reason to ring in the Year of the Snake on a more positive note. This is certainly good news, but also consider this: over half of Asia’s population is women who, according to UN estimates…

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South Korea’s new President Park Geun-hye took the oath of office [on February 25] as South Korea’s first female president, the first Korean president to have previously lived in the Blue House, and the first Korean president to have visited North Korea prior to her term in office.

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A delegation from The Asia Foundation, Electronic Information for Libraries (EIFL), and International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX) spent time in Burma (also known as Myanmar) last week to hear from citizens and representatives from government, civil society, and libraries…

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USAID honored The Asia Foundation’s in-house film “Visualizing Afghanistan: A Survey of the Afghan People  last week at its Social Media Week 2013 event, “#Popcorn + International Development,” held at USAID Headquarters in Washington, D.C. “Visualizing Afghanistan” allows users to interact with survey data digitally, exploring by region, year, or specific survey questions, and provides [...]

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This year, spring arrived a few days early in Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka, and its advent was a raging bloom. On February 5, a few Bangladeshi blogger-activists occupied the Shahbag intersection to protest against the mild sentence of life-imprisonment awarded to war criminal Abdul Quader Mollah…

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The dissolution of the Constituent Assembly (CA) in May 2012 has left Nepali politics in a deep impasse over the formation of an “election government.” The opposition has been refusing to go into an election until a broad-based government is formed under the leadership of Nepali Congress (NC), but the current prime minister…

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In a study I wrote a number of years ago, I quoted a peace activist in Mindanao lamenting the lack of success in ending the war between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). He was speaking in the wake of President Estrada’s 2000 “all-out war” offensive that overran fixed positions of the MILF.

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As the Philippines gears up for 2013 midterm elections in May, last week in Zamboanga city, persons with disabilities came out in full force to discuss achievements and challenges ahead of election day. Up until now, this group has been wholly underrepresented at the polls.

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Women make up more than half of the population in Asia, and the UN estimates that the Asia-Pacific economy would earn an additional $89 billion annually if women were able to achieve their full economic potential in these countries. To examine this disparity, The Asia Foundation, in partnership with the U.S. Department of State…

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