A few years ago, there were several high profile incidents of North Korean refugees "running the guntlet" to embassies in Beijing, especially the South Korean embassy. They scaled fences and walls, or tried to rush the local Chinese police, or tried to fake their way into the embassies under false pretenses. China was accused of roughing some of them up. South Koreans … [Read more...] about Face Saving in South Korea, and Piling BS at China’s Doorstep
Peaceful rise, the biggest international relations issue of our life time
In 1996, Samuel P. Huntington published his famous book, "The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order" where he posited after the Cold War, the world is more likely going to have major wars due to civilizational fault lines than anything else. He recognized that the Cold War was a competition between the Capitalist West and the Communist East. Huntington … [Read more...] about Peaceful rise, the biggest international relations issue of our life time
North Korea, and why no one really want to confront it?
There is an old saying: If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem. Corollary: If no one wants to be part of the solution, the problem never goes away, and only gets bigger. Apply to North Korea, it's a 50 year old "problem" for US, and while China might be easily scapegoated for that, the real reason is always about resources and money. … [Read more...] about North Korea, and why no one really want to confront it?
Nobel Peace Prize Award, and reactions from Russia
The 2010 Nobel Peace Prize award to Liu Xiaobo yesterday at Oslo made headlines in the West, and as expected, the Western media continued the same narrative. As I was hearing Thorbjorn Jagland over the radio presenting the award and then followed by Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann's reading aloud Liu's statements (written two days prior to his 11-year sentencing), I was … [Read more...] about Nobel Peace Prize Award, and reactions from Russia
PISA 2009 and Education in a competitive world
I remember an interview on Charlie Rose of Bill Gates about globalization few years ago. This was around the time when Thomas Friedman wrote his famous book, "The World is Flat." Gates made the comment that in a flat world, everyone will be competing for the right to work. There are no such jobs reserved for anyone. Certainly there are certain jobs reserved for within each … [Read more...] about PISA 2009 and Education in a competitive world