Asia

International Women’s Day – March 8, 2011 – is a special day meant to remind everyone that women continue to have particular disadvantages even today, despite general emancipation, owing to the unnecessary restrictions in our male-dominated societies. More than that, womens’ rights continue to be severely curtailed in many places.

Living in Germany one tends to view the world from a European perspective, and focus only on the lessons Europe has learned from the Second World War in the last sixty-five years. Visits to East Asia, however, not only help to adjust one’s lenses but also provide new insights. Japan is a distinguished example of a country that has been undergoing a bottom-up process of change.

The success of popular movements in the Middle East has raised the apprehensions of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which has been reminded of its own weakness and soft underbelly.
President Hu Jintao has issued orders to party officials to “solve prominent problems which might harm the harmony and stability of the society.”
By Gunjan Singh*

*Mass Protest Rally held 28 February 2011 by the Peoples’ Campaign for Right to Water (PCRW), against anti-people Water Laws and Policies of Karnataka and the US Water Trade Mission. Urban development Minister subsequently reiterates opposition to Water Privatisation and distances Government from US Mission. Another people-power success story, so far…*

Recent satellite images show that North Korea has completed a launch tower at its new missile base, a key step in efforts to test a missile which could eventually reach the United States, experts say.
An image taken on January 10 of the Tongchang-ri base on the west coast shows a moveable launch pad and swing arms along with the tower.

14 February 2011 marked National Domestic Workers Day in Indonesia that has around 2.6 million domestic workers. As in Hong Kong, these workers play a vital role in the household and overall economy. Yet Amnesty International has received many reports of domestic workers in Indonesia being subjected to physical and psychological abuse, as well as economic exploitation.

“Getting rid of dictators is not enough. Building a civic participatory society is not easy – Europe’s enlightenment did not come just from removing a few dictators,” a Palestinian friend said to me recently. “People’s expectation raised for change will dash against the reality that it will take decades to create systems of governance, accountability, economic justice…”

Zubin Mehta, renowned Indian conductor of western classical music — who commutes between the major music centers in Europe, the United States and Israel — remains emotionally attached to the country of his birth, particularly the diversity of its nature.
He conducted Europe’s first charity concert in Berlin to promote nature conservation in north-eastern Himalayan region.

Thousands of people have rallied in the northwestern Pakistan zone in order to protest for the ongoing United States drone attacks that killed scores of civilians. On last Sunday, thousands of demonstrators at the Pakistani city of Peshawar, blocked a main road and several small ones helding a vigil to mourn drone attack victims.

Nose-flute player and human rights activist Dom-an hails from Sagada, Mountain Province, in the Cordillera Central mountain range of north central Luzon, Philippines. November 28, 2005, her husband Pepe was killed by rogue elements among the military. Transcending her plight she has opened her search for justice to similarly distressed people.