In Asia: Weekly Insight and Features from Asia

Just yesterday, on November 15 in Kabul and Washington, D.C., The Asia Foundation released the results of its 2011 Survey of the Afghan People. The annual Survey of the Afghan People is the most comprehensive and credible nationwide poll of public opinion on topics related to national mood, governance, security, and development in Afghanistan. In 2011, the survey polled over 6,300 respondents from all 34 provinces of Afghanistan.

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Last week I was a guest at a modern Afghan wedding – the wedding of the younger brother of one of my colleagues. Summer is the season for weddings in Afghanistan. The ceremony was held in one of the very large “wedding palaces” that line a highway just outside Kabul’s central district.

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In the aftermath of the global food price crisis of 2007-08, world food prices have been steadily rising, reaching an all-time high in January since the United Nations began recording in 1990. Coupled with cries from the Arab world for “bread and freedom!” food security has at last penetrated mainstream debate and high-level policy making. While food security has until recently been classified as a “non-traditional security” topic, current discussions have been prominent, loud, and often vehement enough to take on the visibility and attention…

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Recently, while in transit in Denpasar Airport on my way to Timor-Leste’s capital, Dili, I met a trio of young Chinese entrepreneurs. At first glance, I thought they were tourists – two women and a man, mid-to-late 20s, dressed in T-shirts and shorts, sporting the latest cell phones and lots of bling. In halting English, [...]

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One year ago in this blog, Asia Foundation chief economist Bruce Tolentino expressed “cautious optimism” about the prospects for global recovery and Asian growth in 2010. His positive prediction for Asia was more than fulfilled, in spite of a dispiriting lag in U.S. recovery and severe economic crises in the Eurozone. In 2010, Asia’s diverse [...]

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In May 2010, the U.S. Government unveiled Feed the Future (FtF) as its global initiative to combat hunger and food security. And, at last week’s Millennium Development Goals Summit in New York, President Obama declared better agriculture production as a way to help developing nations on the long-term path to prosperity. Thus, President Barack Obama [...]

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Despite tremendous economic growth achieved over the past two decades, hunger continues to beset much of Asia. Estimates show that there are 850 million hungry people globally. Of this total, at least 550 million are in Asia, indicating that some 16 percent of all Asians are in a state of hunger. This is a stubborn [...]

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As tantalizing hints of recovery from the global financial crisis pop up in international economic statistics, a curious dichotomy of narratives about the status of various Asian economies has emerged in the international media: China Dominant First, there is the big story, related with relish and surprise, of unexpected and robust economic recovery in most [...]

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On Earth Day 2010, Asia has much to be thankful for. While the recent global financial crisis hit Asia hard, most of Asia’s governments acted swiftly and decisively and succeeded, against prevailing expectations, to limit the impact of the financial debacle. They had learned the hard way from the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Intertwined with [...]

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With four-fifths of its export income dependent on mining exports, Mongolia was hit particularly hard by the recent international economic crisis. A recent New York Times article goes so far as to say that Mongolia is arguably Asia’s hardest hit country. For a nation experiencing a period of rapid growth averaging 9 percent per year [...]

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