| A Nigerian man has been charged after he allegedly took a flight attendant hostage aboard an airplane preparing to depart Narita airport, near Tokyo, when he was to be deported in January, according to an indictment document. The 46-year-old man allegedly grabbed the flight attendant around the neck on the plane Jan. 27, poked her with a key and demanded his release, the document says. The man was immediately overpowered by an immigration officer and was arrested, the police said. (AP) |
Friday, April 9, 2010
JAPAN: Man takes flight attendant hostage at Narita airport during deportation
JAPAN & N. KOREA: Fee row shines spotlight on Japan's pro-North Korean schools
The framed portraits of North Korea's past and present leaders, the "two Kims", gaze down solemnly from the wall as 30 pupils hunch over their desks in a slightly decrepit classroom. The boys are dressed in dark blue school blazers, and the girls in traditional chima chogori costumes. A map of the Korean peninsula hangs on the wall, and the teacher talks about its troubled history. At first glance, this school could be in Pyongyang. In fact, it is in Japan, where a row over school funding has put a spotlight on this Tokyo school and nine others like it, operated by Chongryon, the pro-Pyongyang organisation that serves as North Korea's de facto embassy. (AFP)
TRAVEL: How I Became a Better World Traveler
Published Apr 9, 2010 (From the magazine issue dated Apr 19, 2010)
By Seth Stevenson | NEWSWEEK
The joy of travel is to let different cultures seep into your identity. It's not to bring your own culture with you so you can inflict it on the native populace.
Recently, while circling the earth for a travel book, I experienced one of my greatest thrills as a globe-trotter: I was mistaken for a German. Don't misunderstand. I am no Germanophile. It's just that wherever I journey, I try hard to blend in with the locals. So when a German woman stopped me in the town square in Cologne and asked me for the time—in German! clearly assuming I was also German!—I couldn't help but congratulate myself on a job well done. I'd successfully melted into my surroundings, shedding my Americanness the way a snake sheds a sheath of dead skin.
Now, I can hear you asking: Seth, why would you want to pretend you're not American? Are you ashamed of your country? Far from it. I adore America. The reason I disguise my nationality is mostly anthropological. Think about those nature photographers in the wild who camouflage themselves, not wanting their presence to alter the behavior of the animals they're observing. Now imagine me, people-watching from a table at a café in Antwerp, or Quito, or Cape Town. If I've got my NFL jersey on and my white tube socks pulled up to midcalf, I turn myself into an object of curiosity for the locals. Their behavior changes as their eyes are drawn to my blinding white hosiery. I'm no longer the watcher, but the watched. Remember, as you shake out your duffel bag for a summer on the road, the great joy of travel is to let different cultures seep into your identity. It's not to bring your own culture with you so you can inflict it on the native populace.
So how do you avoid coming off American? In general, you should shun corporate logos, stick to blandly neutral colors, and—I can't emphasize this enough—don't ever wear white tube socks. In particular, don't wear them with knee-length shorts and a pair of overdesigned running shoes. That outfit is a dead giveaway that you hail from the land of the free and the home of the brave. (Also known as the land of the baseball cap and the home of the baggy khaki trousers. Better ditch those, too.)
Of course, no matter how you dress, you will still bear indications of your nationality. Your haircut. Your jewelry. Your American-flag tattoo. Perhaps the biggest tip-off is the way you walk. We walk big—swinging our arms, letting our legs amble wide—in a manner that's fitting for folks from a country with plenty of empty space. Citizens of densely populated Europe exhibit a far more compact posture, with elbows and knees tucked tight and arm swings restrained.
The longer you're on the road, the easier it becomes to disappear into foreign environments. It just happens naturally. If you've packed light—as you always should—you'll end up buying a new shirt or two somewhere along your journey. Maybe a new pair of shoes. Probably some socks. Eventually your wardrobe turns into a hard-to-identify collage of the places you've visited. Over time you'll lose track of what's going on back home and instead start following the local news. And then one day you'll stroll through the town square and a woman will ask you the time in German. But since you don't speak German, you'll just hold your watch up to her face.
Stevenson, a contributing writer for Slate, is the author of Grounded: a Down to Earth Journey Around the World.
TAIWAN: Boyle has a Taiwan equivalent
AS a younger man, Taiwan's Lin Yu-chun sang for hours on end, trying to get his mind off the sneers he endured because of his portly figure. The round-faced soprano with the bowl haircut never imagined his voice...
S. KOREA: Birthday Preparations
| A South Korean worker decorates lanterns to celebrate Buddha's upcoming birthday on May 21 at the Chogye Temple in Seoul, South Korea. |
CHINA & JAPAN: China executes three Japanese drug smugglers
China executed three convicted Japanese drug smugglers on Friday, just days after another Japanese citizen was put to death for the same offence -- prompting concerns in Tokyo that ties could suffer. The trio were executed in the northeastern province of Liaoning, Xinhua news agency reported, citing an announcement from China's supreme court. The Japanese foreign ministry confirmed it had been notified by the Chinese side. On Tuesday, China executed 65-year-old Mitsunobu Akano -- the first Japanese citizen to be put to death in the country since diplomatic ties were re-established in 1972. (AFP)
JAPAN: Right-wingers vow to block 'The Cove' in Japan
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Dozens of right-wing activists protested Friday outside the office of a Japanese distributor of the Oscar-winning "The Cove," demanding that the gory portrayal of dolphin hunting in Japan not be shown in the country. "The Cove" won this year's best documentary Oscar with its depiction of dolphin hunts in Taiji, a small fishing village in western Japan. The protesters Friday accused the distributor of betraying Japanese national pride by supporting the film, which they see as insulting to traditional village culture of which dolphin hunting is part. (AP)JAPAN: Japan's students slacking off, study finds
Japan's high school students, once renowned for their diligence and self-discipline, are slacking off and falling behind their peers elsewhere in the world, a study has found. The Japan Youth Research Institute, a non-profit group, said it found that Japanese students study less regularly and sleep more often in class than those in China, South Korea and the United States. "Japanese students are happy with the status quo and lack vision about their future," the institute's head, Tamotsu Sengoku told AFP Thursday. "Among all the nations studied, Japan is particularly bad." (AFP)
Thursday, April 8, 2010
TRAVEL: Interview with Seth Stevenson: ‘Grounded’
04.08.10 | 10:18 AM ET
The author's new book chronicles his surface journey around the world. Frank Bures asks him about it -- and why he thinks air travel isn't really travel.
Seth Stevenson was coasting into his 30s when he began to get that feeling many of us get. You know, the one that makes you want to take your life by the lapels and shake it, to heave all anchors weighing you down. It’s the urge to get out on the road.
Stevenson and his girlfriend gave notice. They tied up loose ends. They turned in the keys to their apartment. Then they packed two backpacks, went down to a harbor on the Delaware River, and got on a boat to begin a circumnavigation of the earth—without leaving its surface.
Stevenson writes about the trip in his new book, Grounded: A Down to Earth Journey Around the World, a great read and a fascinating look at the globe from a perspective few people see it nowadays: from freighters, ferries, bikes, buses and trains.
“We’ve forgotten the benefit of surface travel,” Stevenson concludes. “It forces you to feel, deep in your bones, the distance you’ve covered; and it gradually eases you into a new context that exists not just outside your body, but also inside your head.”
Stevenson is a contributing writer for Slate, has received multiple Lowell Thomas Awards from the Society of American Travel Writers and has been included three times in the “Best American Travel Writing” anthologies. I interviewed him via email.
World Hum: You say in the book that for you, riding in an airplane isn’t really traveling. What do you mean by that?
Seth Stevenson: Flying is like teleporting between two points. The flight itself is an empty, meaningless interlude. Once the flight is over, you never think or speak of it again—unless it’s to complain about the turbulence or the shrieking child sitting behind you. By contrast, being on a ship or a train moving between point A and point B is a journey unto itself, full of ground-level scenery, local culture and moments of quiet contemplation. A surface voyage is often memorable, and on occasion transcendent.
Freighter travel seems to me like a great way to go. Aside from it taking a long time, why do you think so few people travel that way?
The time factor is a major stumbling block. Not everyone can spare nine days to cross the Atlantic on the way to a European vacation. There’s also no internet access on freighters, no casinos, no trivia contests, no gourmet restaurants, no Broadway shows—all things of interest to the average cruise ship passenger. Above all, though, most people simply aren’t aware of freighter travel as a possibility. It’s not particularly well publicized, and only a few travel agencies and shipping companies can book you passage aboard a freighter.
Still, I’ve been recommending freighters to anyone who’ll listen. It’s an amazing experience to be out on the open ocean on a working ship, chatting with the officers on the navigation bridge, eating with the crew in the mess room, feeling like you’re riding on one of the stallions of the global economy.
What’s the difference between arriving at a place by boat or train, versus through the airport?
Airports are generally built outside cities, as separate holding pens contributing to sprawl. You’re not really in the city until after a taxi ride (sometimes a long one). By contrast, train stations are often built in the middle of thriving city neighborhoods. You arrive as a part of the community. As your train rolls into town, you also frequently get a ground-level introduction, through your seat window, to the look and feel of the place and its inhabitants.
As for arriving by ship: Some cruise ship terminals are actually quite a bit like airports—with duty free shops, clothing boutiques and fast food restaurants. But container ship ports don’t cater at all to passenger arrivals. You get dropped off in a remote, industrial part of a city, and wind up walking past container stacks and rusty machinery. We had to ask the freighter crews how to get anywhere on land. Once, we found a city bus depot next to a port and flagged down an empty bus headed downtown to begin its scheduled route.
I was surprised how, when you got to Japan after going overland from Russia, you said that the world felt smaller than you thought it would. Why was that?
We think of Japan as an impossibly distant place. The other side of the world. Taking a 14-hour flight to Tokyo gives us little understanding of the true distance. But taking a ship across the Atlantic, and then trains across Europe and Asia, makes the distance a comprehensible thing, fixed and finite in your mind. You can feel how far away Japan is, and it turns out to be not nearly as far as you’d imagined. You can roll from the cobblestone streets of Europe to the steppes of Siberia to the glass skyscrapers of Tokyo in not much more than a week. And when you watch each scene melt into the next, they feel more connected and part of the same small world—less like dots on a map to hop between as you sit inside the hermetic cabin of a jumbo jet.
What parts of the journey do you remember most fondly?
There are countless wonderful memories, but here’s one that comes to mind: Driving across the Australian Outback, we stopped for the night at a tiny roadhouse about a million miles from civilization. There we ended up drinking with a trio of jackaroos (Americans would call them “cowboys”) who delighted us with their stories about rounding up cattle on motorcycles, wrestling bulls to the ground, and shooting kangaroos for meat. It was a funny, serendipitous interlude in the dead center of a barren wasteland.
And do you feel now like you know how big the world is?
When I look at a spinning globe now, and trace my finger along its curve, I see myself moving along its surface. Floating on freighters across vast oceans. Rolling on trains across Russian expanses. Road-tripping across the Outback. I have made myself part of the map. I do feel I understand the scope of the world—and the interconnectedness of its civilized outposts—in a way that I never could have before.
CHINA: Geithner's China Visit May Narrow Currency Difference
April 8, 2010
By Anthony Kuhn and Steve Inskeep
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is in Beijing for talks about economic affairs. Thursday's visit is being interpreted as a sign that the U.S. and China are resolving their contentious dispute over China's currency and that Beijing might allow the yuan to rise against the dollar, as the U.S. has requested.
TRANSCRIPT
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
The American Treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, stopped in Beijing today, on his way home from India. There are signs that China may be willing to let its currency strengthen against the dollar. In theory, at least, that would help cut the U.S. trade deficit, it would raise the prices of Chinese goods that are sold to the United States, lower the prices of American goods sold in China.
NPR's Anthony Kuhn is following the Geithner visit from Beijing. He's on the line. Hi, Anthony.
ANTHONY KUHN: Hi, Steve.
INSKEEP: One wonders why Geithner would stop in China now. Does this suggest that they really are close to a breakthrough?
KUHN: Well, a lot of people think that Geithner is trying to give the Chinese room to do something on this issue. He's taking a very low-key approach. He's not talking to the press. What Treasury spokesmen have said is that he wants some face time with Wang Qishan, who is the Chinese top official on economic and financial issues.
And Wang and Secretary Geithner are going to be meeting in May at Cabinet-level talks, and these would be the talks that would address bigger issues, which could really help on the currency issue and on the bigger trade imbalance. So, he's trying to, I think, set the stage for further talks down the road.
INSKEEP: Well, let's remember: American officials have complained about China's currency for years. The accusation is that China's currency has been kept artificially low, which makes Chinese goods artificially cheap in the United States and hurts the trade deficit. That, at least, is the accusation. And Secretary Geithner, just a few days ago, could have officially accused China of being a currency manipulator, but he didn't.
KUHN: That's right. He's under big pressure from congressmen and industry people to label China a currency manipulator. And if he doesn't want to do that - he deferred a decision on that, which was originally going to be on April 15th - then he has to show that China is moving on this issue.
Now, a problem with the April 15th deadline for this currency manipulator label, is that Chinese President Hu Jintao will be in Washington and he's going to meet with President Obama. And they're going to discuss the issue, and they didn't want to snub him.
Now, when people start accusing China of manipulating currency, China feels backed into a corner and it cannot back down. So, I think Secretary Geithner has been saying, well, it's in China's interest to do this anyway and it's ultimately China's choice. He knows that people inside China, including, for example, at China's Central Bank, are pushing for this currency appreciation. So, I think he's trying to give them some room to do that.
INSKEEP: Why would the Chinese push for a currency appreciation if they seem to be gaining so much from a cheap currency?
KUHN: Well, they're, you know, the opponents of it, for example, are in the commerce ministry. They're afraid that if Chinese exports get more expensive people will be thrown out of work. But in the Central Bank, for example, they're worried about monetary policy. They're worried about hot money inflows, betting that the Chinese currency will go up.
So, China has said that in the long run, for sure, the Chinese currency is going to get stronger against the dollar; they just don't want it to happen all at once. Now, we've been seeing some signs that China is going to move on this fairly soon. What's most likely, analysts say, is that China will allow the renminbi, the Chinese currency, to trade within a wider band.
INSKEEP: Which means they're still controlling it, but maybe not quite so strictly?
KUHN: That's right. There would be a small appreciation and there will be wider play for market forces.
INSKEEP: But not totally free market. You wonder if this really will help the deficit in a couple of seconds - the trade deficit.
KUHN: Well, that requires a larger rebalancing of consumption and production in both countries, and that takes big changes for both countries. It's not easy.
INSKEEP: Okay, Anthony. Thanks very much. That's NPR's Anthony Kuhn reporting today, from Beijing.
KUHN: Thanks.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
JAPAN: Japan’s players booed after 3-0 loss
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Japan's players were booed off the pitch Wednesday after losing 3-0 to Serbia in a World Cup warm-up match. Dragan Mrda's two first-half goals gave Serbia a comfortable lead and midfielder Nemanja Tomic put the game out of Japan's reach on the hour mark with a free kick from 30 meters. Japan coach Takeshi Okada and Serbia counterpart Radomir Antic used the game to give younger players a chance to make their case for World Cup selection. But Japan's fans were not pleased with their team's efforts, jeering the players as they walked off at the final whistle. (AP)JAPAN: 2 Japanese in space together for 1st time as shuttle docks at ISS
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The space shuttle Discovery docked at the International Space Station on Wednesday, delivering Japanese astronaut Naoko Yamazaki and six other crew members. On the ISS, Yamazaki, 39, met up with Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi, 44, whose six-month mission comes to an end in June. It is the first time that two Japanese astronauts have worked together in space. The shuttle, which lifted off Monday as scheduled from NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center, is taking some 8 tons of supplies and experimental equipment to the space station during its 13-day mission through April 18. (AP)CHINA: Chinese hacking of Indian security data raises alarm
April 7, 2010
By Mark Magnier and Anshul Rana, Reporting from Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and New Delhi
Researchers find no evidence linking the hacking to China's government, but their discoveries may suggest a wider problem of growing espionage in cyberspace.
The world is in a cyber arms race and needs to take steps to reverse it, said the authors of a report released Tuesday that detailed the extensive theft by Chinese hackers of Indian national security information, 1,500 e-mails from the Dalai Lama's office and other sensitive information.
Canadian and U.S. researchers at the University of Toronto monitored the hacking of a "shadow" spy network over eight months, tracking it to computer servers based in China and to individuals in the city of Chengdu in central China.
"The relationship between the Chinese state and the hacking community is quite unclear," said Nart Villeneuve, chief research officer at Canada's SecDev Group, a private think tank, working with the university's Munk Center for International Studies.
"I don't doubt that the information may just find its way to the Chinese government," Villeneuve said in a global webcast for reporters, "but as of now we have no hard evidence to prove that the hackers were backed by the Chinese government or were working for them."
China denied any role, dismissing the report's content as unsubstantiated and little more than rumor.
"I do not know what evidence these people have or what their motives are," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu. "We resolutely oppose all forms of cyber crime, including hacking."
The authors of the report, titled "Shadows in the Cloud" and involving the Information Warfare Monitor and Shadowserver Foundation groups, said that they weren't surprised by China's reaction but that the evidence speaks for itself.
The report describes a world in which governments are racing to militarize cyberspace, creating an environment ripe for crime and espionage.
The authors said about 700 documents marked restricted, secret or top secret were stolen from India. China's neighbor is one of many developing countries that have not paid enough attention to security in their headlong embrace of new technologies, said Ron Diebert, another member of the team that unveiled the hacking activity.
Among the compromised documents found were presentations in India on the Pechora surface-to-air missile system, the Iron Dome mobile missile defense system and Project Shakti, an artillery combat command and control system.
Researchers said the Dalai Lama allowed the team to carry out its inquiry after his e-mail system was hacked.
They said that neither the Chinese government nor the Chinese hacker community is monolithic, and the researchers are trying to work with that part of the government that wants to fight hacking.
"The attacks we uncovered were not random but very targeted, and it suggests to us that there is a shift from an industrial espionage to political espionage not necessarily backed by a state," Diebert said.
Rana is a special correspondent. Times Beijing Bureau chief Barbara Demick contributed to this report.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
TRAVEL: Expensive Language Lessons? Doesn't Translate
April 6, 2010, 11:00 pm
By MATT GROSSAt the beginning of this year, I made a resolution to learn to speak Spanish and Mandarin Chinese, two of the most commonly used languages on the planet and the keys to travel over a great swath of the world.
For a couple of weeks, I thought it might actually happen — I was going to San Francisco, after all, and staying in the heavily Latino Mission District. But since my traveling companion was my 1-year-old daughter, Sasha, conversation was generally pretty limited, and though I sang her nursery rhymes in Chinese, I can’t say my language abilities improved at all.
From there on, things have gone downhill. Next I went to Italy, where I had to dredge up all the Italian I’d forgotten in the year since I’d last been there, and as I write this I’m traveling through Austria, Slovakia and Hungary — countries where I hardly speak a single word of the local languages. For the first couple of days in Vienna, I answered everything with “Si” — yes in Italian. But by the time I started walking across the Slovak countryside, I found myself wishing everyone would speak German.
Sure, I have a phrasebook or two, not to mention access to Google Translate — which I’ve used in hotels to plan out phrases I might need later — but what I really need is a dedicated course of study, whether online or in person, to bring my tongue up to speed. Oh, and it has to be frugal, of course.
Unfortunately, learning a new language takes time and, usually, money. Classes, textbooks, tutoring — these add up quickly, and over the months it can take to achieve proficiency, you’ll spend even more. But there are a few ways to learn a language that can save you both time and money.
The most seemingly modern way to learn a language is through one of the CD- or software-based language courses, like Pimsleur, which was recommended by many of my readers, and probably the most famous, Rosetta Stone. They’re not necessarily frugal, but they are popular, so here’s a look at what they do.
The hook for Pimsleur’s CD-based audio courses in more than 40 languages is the so-called Pimsleur Method — the discovery that, according to Pimsleur.com:
“if his students were reminded of new words and information at gradually increasing intervals within a set amount of time, each time they would remember the word or information longer than the time before. Dr. Pimsleur documented that the word would actually move from short-term into long-term, or permanent, memory.”
In other words, while other methods also teach new foreign vocabulary, Pimsleur supposedly helps you remember it better.
I can’t say if this method is more effective than any other, but the prices seem fair enough. An introductory Hungarian course with 10 lessons costs a reasonable $24.95. Shorter courses in other languages can be $11.95, while comprehensive courses are a stretch at $345.
But why pay at all? There are hundreds of free language-lesson podcasts floating around the Internet. There are dozens on iTunes alone: Italian, Japanese, Arabic, Thai and so on. Of particular note is SurvivalPhrases, which offers 3- to 5-minute episodes that cover basics like “Where is the bathroom?” in 19 languages, including Vietnamese, Russian, Greek and Brazilian Portuguese.
Of course, SurvivalPhrases’ free iTunes downloads, which offer 15 phrases, are there partly to hook you into paying $25 for 45 more at SurvivalPhrases.com.
Another podcast, the nearly five-year-old ChinesePod, has another, more innovative selling point. While many of its 1,300 podcasts are free, access to all of them costs $14 a month, and $249 gets you three months of access to all of them, plus a virtual classroom where you and three other students have — via Skype — weekly hourlong lessons with a Chinese teacher.
That price doesn’t sound too bad, since you’re interacting with someone who can listen to and correct your pronunciation, an aspect missing from most of the other online or audio-based language courses. Praxis Language, ChinesePod’s parent, offers similar courses in Spanish, French, Italian and English.
The close cousins of the language-lesson podcast are the iPhone-based phrasebooks and dictionaries. From Lonely Planet’s Mandarin ($9.99) to the 99-cent Klingon phrasebook, not to mention a ton of free versions, they help you through the basics of a new language, with sections on things like counting (yi, er, san —1, 2, 3 in Mandarin) and food (“nuqDaq yuch Dapol?” is how a Klingon asks where you keep the chocolate). Often, they have audio components to aid you in pronunciation, and some of the Chinese dictionaries let you practice writing characters.
I’ve been traveling with a couple of these on my iPhone for a while, and frankly, I don’t use them all that often. It’s so much easier to whip out a real, printed phrasebook and flip through it for the words I need. Right now I’m carrying Lonely Planet’s German phrasebook and also its Czech one. (I wanted a proper Slovak one, but Lonely Planet doesn’t produce one and I couldn’t find another at either my local Barnes & Noble or the independent book store.)
Why Lonely Planet when I could also have chosen Rough Guides or Berlitz? No particular reason. Most of them are pretty similar — they’re all covering the same details —and the prices are uniform, too.
Third graders in Ridgewood, N.J., learn Spanish using Rosetta Stone. Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times
Ideally, though, you’ll do your language study before you hit the road. And the biggest name in language learning these days is Rosetta Stone, which combines a unique educational philosophy (it purports to immerse you in a foreign tongue as if you were a child) with high-tech software. That is, its packages come equipped with a microphone headset that lets the program evaluate your pronunciation. Of course, this isn’t cheap. An elementary Spanish course is $229, while a full five-level course costs $699, so I haven’t tried it yet.
And for that amount of money, you could learn a language the old-fashioned way – by immersing yourself in a foreign county. For the price of Rosetta Stone’s five-level course, you could do two or three weeks of “super intensive” study at the Casa de Lenguas in Antigua, Guatemala, one of many schools around Latin America that arrange both language lessons and home stays with local families ($85 a week via Casa de Lenguas).
Still, frugal language travelers should pick their destinations wisely, as learning Italian in Florence, or Russian in Moscow, may not be quite so affordable. The Russian courses organized by places like Globus International and Liden & Denz run upward of 260 euros a week, or about $345 at $1.32 to the euro, and that doesn’t even include accommodation, visa fees and the inevitably higher cost of getting to Moscow.
If you don’t want to travel, but are still seeking one-on-one language lessons, try Craigslist. A recent search on Craiglist’s New York City pages for “language exchange” pulled up a Taiwanese music student looking to trade Mandarin for Italian lessons, and a guy in Chelsea named Tino who wants to improve his heavy accent in exchange for Spanish lessons.
Just the other week, in fact, I found a woman — she teaches Chinese at CUNY, actually — who wants to exchange Mandarin instruction for help with her written English. Since I think I may know a thing or two about writing, I got back to her, and while we’re still working out the details, I have high hopes that I can fulfill my New Year’s resolution without spending a cent. Wish me luck — or, as they say in Chinese, 金榜提名!
N. KOREA: North Korea Sentences American To 8 Years
April 6, 2010
by The Associated Press
North Korea said Wednesday it has sentenced an American man to eight years' hard labor and a fine equivalent to $700,000 for entering the country illegally and unspecified hostile acts.
Aijalon Mahli Gomes was fined 70 million won after acknowledging his wrongdoing during a court trial Tuesday, the North's official Korean Central News Agency said in a brief dispatch.
South Korea's Unification Ministry said the official exchange rate in North Korea is 100 North Korean won to $1, which means the fine would equal $700,000.
Representatives of the Swedish Embassy in North Korea, which looks after U.S. interests in the country, witnessed the trial at their request, it said.
The North said last month that it arrested Gomes, 30, of Boston on Jan. 25 for trespassing after he crossed into the country from China.
Gomes is the fourth American detained in communist North Korea on charges of illegal entry in little over 12 months.
Two American journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, were arrested in March last year near the Chinese border and sentenced to 12 years of hard labor for illegal entry and engaging in hostile acts.
They were freed in August after former U.S. President Clinton made a high-profile humanitarian visit to Pyongyang to negotiate their release.
On Christmas, American missionary Robert Park strode into North Korea from China on a self-proclaimed mission to draw attention to North Korea's human rights record and to call for leader Kim Jong Il to step down. He was released in February after more than 40 days in custody.
It was not immediately clear why Gomes, a graduate of Bowdoin College in Maine who taught English in South Korea, went to the North.
The State Department has said the U.S. wants to make sure he is returned to the United States as soon as possible.
JAPAN: Japan Airlines to cut 16,500 jobs
A passenger (R) tries to use a Japan Airlines' ticket machine as an airlines employee assists him at New Chitose airport, northern Japan January 19, 2010. REUTERS/Issei Kato
Tue Apr 6, 1:56 pm ET
(Reuters) – Japan Airlines Corp (JALFQ.PK) plans to reduce its workforce by a third within the fiscal year to lower labor costs by 81.7 billion yen a year, the Nikkei business daily said.
The restructuring proposal compiled by the carrier and the state-backed Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corp of Japan suggests to cut 16,500 jobs.
The proposed cuts include 5,405 workers from cargo and other peripheral operations, 2,460 flight attendants, 2,043 sales representatives and 775 pilots. Staffing at Kansai International Airport and Central Japan International Airport will be slashed 70 percent to 642 employees, reflecting reduced flight schedules, the Nikkei added.
Japan Airlines is currently soliciting 2,700 volunteers for early retirement, with two more rounds slated in the coming months, the newspaper said.
The airline had planned to cut 15,700 jobs over three years under the rehabilitation plan submitted with its bankruptcy filing in January. But operating losses of up to 1 billion yen a day have forced the faster restructuring, the Nikkei said.
(Reporting by Vinay Sarawagi in Bangalore; Editing by Don Sebastian)
CHINA: A man's home is his castle-in-the-air in China
Created: 2010-4-7, Updated: 2010-4-6 22:34:04
Author:Jacob von Bisterfeld
"AN Englishman's home is his castle," or so the saying goes. For many Chinese people, these days, their coveted future home appears to be priced like a castle, totally out of reach for most young people under their own steam.
Sure, some young couples do manage to move into new digs but more often than not with gargantuan efforts from both parents and/or grand parents who had been lucky enough to raise substantial mortgages on their continuously appreciating real estate.
In China, private property ownership became the norm, albeit hesitatingly, in the 1990s, when the majority of work unit-owned housing was sold for a token sum to all workers who had been employed for a lengthy period of time.
In 2002, it was possible to purchase a nice, new and modern 120-square-meter apartment at the perimeter of Century Park in Shanghai's Pudong for around 200,000 yuan (US$29,300). Newly built apartments in the same area of the same standard now cost easily 2 or 3 million yuan or more.
A more than 10-fold price increase in a mere eight years. Monthly salaries for most office workers in 2002 were about 2,500 yuan and are now, when pushing it a bit, 4,000 yuan.
A less than doubling of income and a 10-fold increase in apartment prices do not match. Building material increases amounted to about 30 percent in the same period. So, what went wrong? Well, a lot, actually.
The economy needed a boost, so bank loans became easy. Besides, there was quite a bit of cash sloshing around, both legitimate and money from the black and gray markets that was looking for investment projects.
And looking for investment projects they came, spearheaded by ultra-wealthy syndicates from the leather and shoe city of Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, who bought up entire apartment blocks comprising 120 flats of 120 square meters in one fell swoop and, yes, with truckloads of 100 yuan notes (90 euro cents) which, much to many investor's chagrin, is still the largest currency note around.
A most appalling and sickening revelation in Shanghai Daily a few weeks ago showed a picture of some giant circular tower blocks with around 1,000 apartments standing empty since they were constructed in 2006. This calls into doubt that there actually IS a housing shortage. Far from it.
There may well be a frightening oversupply of apartments and houses. This abomination is repeated over and over again in most major cities in China. The result was (and still is) that the market is thus starved of new apartments for sale, driving up the market price beyond any investors' wildest dreams and becoming every prospective house buyer's nightmare.
Especially in the past five years, every man and his dog were buying new and second-hand real estate that was sure to double in price every three years or thereabouts. Several of my colleagues, and they are by no means wealthy people, own three or more (highly leveraged, with easy bank money) empty new houses, and they are awaiting the next doubling in property prices.
Is it thus more than likely that China is in for a repeat of the recent US burst housing bubble, probably only worse? Let's see.
In many Western countries, the income level of the average young couple is such that, with a minimal deposit, a mortgage and decorating loan can be paid off comfortably, within a period of 10 to 15 years.
In China, such repayments would not only consume the lion share of the couples' aggregate earnings, but also require a huge deposit and take 25 years or more to repay or, in many cases, beyond retirement age. China is a people's republic, but some real estate tycoons have spoken loudly that they will never build apartments for the ordinary people, they serve only the rich. What an irony.
No easy solution appears to be in sight yet. There are simply too many vested interests that would be hurt with any drastic change.
What can be done?
Clearly, the land-right sales price should be capped at 2002 levels or below. Taking cognizance of the fact that material prices and salaries have increased only moderately in the past eight years, new property prices resembling those of 2002 should be relatively easy to achieve.
Possessing more than one dwelling house or apartment, in most cases, is obviously for investment purposes and should be subject to progressive tax increases (the more properties, the higher the taxes). The tax structure should be such that affordable rental accommodation remains adequate.
Real estate profits, both for developers as well as individuals should be taxed at prohibitive rates to discourage speculation. En-block sales and sales of more that two units to the same buyer or extended family should be prohibited.
Banks should lower the minimum deposit rate for people with a steady job to 5 percent or 10 percent to make owning a property for most newly married couples a reality, rather than a pipe dream.
(The author is a freelancer in Shanghai. The views are his own.)
JAPAN: Japan hoping 'endless discovery' catchphrase attracts foreign tourists
| The government has decided on a new logo and catchphrase -- "Japan. Endless Discovery." -- to promote tourism in the country, with the aim of more than quadrupling the number of foreign tourists to 30 million at some point in the future, tourism minister said Tuesday. The slogan is aimed at encouraging repeat visitors, while the logo is a red-and-white design evoking the sun and cherry blossoms. The catchphrase replaces "Yokoso! Japan" which some said lacked sufficient impact, as the Japanese word for welcome is not widely recognized by non-Japanese speakers. (AP) |
TOKYO, JAPAN: Tuna auction at Tsukiji market to shut out sightseers for a month
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Tokyo's Tsukiji fish market will shut out sightseers from its popular frozen tuna auction from April 8 to May 8 as the excessive numbers of visitors to the auction area obstruct business transactions, market officials said Tuesday. The touring section of the auction is scheduled to reopen on May 10, which falls on Monday. Wholesale sections and eating areas in the market will remain open, they said. On Monday, more than 500 sightseers, mostly foreign, swarmed the visitors' section which has a capacity of only 70 to 80 to see the tuna auction and the excessive numbers disrupted the hauling of tunas, according to the Tokyo metropolitan government. (AP)JAPAN & US: Japan says it has no plans to ease US beef restrictions
Japan said Tuesday it has no plans to ease long-standing trade restrictions on US beef imposed over mad cow disease, two days before talks in Tokyo between the two on the issue. US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack was travelling to Japan Tuesday for a four-day visit in a renewed attempt to settle the long-running dispute that has created friction between the allies. But Japan's Agriculture Minister Hirotaka Akamatsu said he "has no plan to ask the government's food safety commission to review US beef", even if Vilsack demands it during their meeting scheduled for Thursday. (AFP)
JAPAN: Toyota Prius tops Japan's March auto sales
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Toyota's Prius hybrid was Japan's top-selling car in March for an 11th straight month despite global recall woes, an industry group said Tuesday. Toyota Motor Corp., reeling after recalls over issues that included braking problems with the Prius, sold 35,546 units of the gas-electric vehicle in Japan last month, according to the Japan Automobile Dealers Association. Consumers were choosing the Prius with the help of tax breaks and government subsidies for environmentally friendly vehicles, Miyake said. (AP)Monday, April 5, 2010
CHINA: Big Mess
MARITIME SAFETY QUEENSLAND / EPA
A Chinese registered coal tanker went aground on a reef off of Australia. The boat was carrying about 65,000 tones of coal from Gladstone and had 950 tones of oil on board spilling an unknown amount into the environmentally protected waters.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
CHINA: Dozens found alive in flooded Chinese mine
9:54 PM PDT, April 4, 2010
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
Rescuers cheer as some of the workers trapped for more than a week are brought to the surface.
XIANGNING, China - Dozens of Chinese miners were pulled out alive after being trapped for more than a week in a flooded coal mine, sparking cheers among the hundreds of rescue workers who had raced to save them and had almost given up hope.
A live state television broadcast counted off the number of survivors -- now up to 35 -- as miners wrapped in blankets were hurried to ambulances that sped to nearby hospitals.
State television said rescuers were preparing to pull as many as 70 to 80 miners out of the mine, though conditions underground remain complicated. A total of 153 workers had been trapped, and there was no word on the fate of the rest.
"A miracle has finally happened," a rescue headquarters spokesman, Liu Dezheng, told reporters Monday morning.
The first rescue early Monday morning had seemed beyond hope for days before crews heard tapping from deep underground Friday.
Some of the soaked miners had hung from shaft walls by their belts for days. Hundreds of rescuers were underground with hopes that glimpses of swinging lights and new tapping sounds meant even more survivors could be found.
Liu said the first batch of nine rescued miners, who were pulled out Monday morning shortly after midnight, were in stable condition. The state-run New China News Agency said all nine were conscious and could say their name and hometown, but their bodies had suffered from being soaked for so long. Television footage showed at least one miner was brought out barefoot.
China Central Television said some miners managed to attach themselves to a wall with their belts when the water rushed in, and they hung there for three days before getting into a mining cart that floated by.
The miners had been trapped since March 28 when workers digging tunnels broke into a water-filled abandoned shaft.
Before rescuers heard tapping noises from below Friday, they had feared this would be China's deadliest mine disaster in more than two years.
CHINA: The Tour, It Is A-Changin’
Published: April 4, 2010
Arts, Briefly, Compiled by RACHEL LEE HARRIS
Bob Dylan canceled a leg of his Asian tour after the Chinese government refused him permission to play scheduled performances in Shanghai and Beijing this month, Agence France-Presse reported.
Brokers Brothers Herald, Mr. Dylan’s Taiwan-based promoter, said the Chinese culture ministry gave Mr. Dylan “no alternative” but to cancel subsequent shows in Hong Kong and Taiwan. “The chance to play in China was the main attraction for him,” Jeffrey Wu, Brokers’ chief of operations, told The South China Morning Post of Hong Kong. “When that fell through, everything else was called off.”
The ministry did not respond to telephone calls from Agence France-Presse on Sunday, but Mr. Wu said that the Chinese government had become more selective about performances by foreigners after Bjork’s 2008 concert in Shanghai, where she shouted “Tibet, Tibet!” while performing her song “Declare Independence.” Later that year China imposed rules on such concerts, including one that said, “Those who used to take part in activities that harm our nation’s sovereignty are firmly not allowed to perform in China.”
JAPAN: Transfer of 'whale meat' blocked
Cutting the supply chain: Greenpeace activists chain themselves to the mooring ropes of container ship the NYK Orion and display banners in Rotterdam on Friday in protest over an alleged attempt to transport fin whale meat to Japan. AP / GREENPEACE
Sunday, April 4, 2010
AMSTERDAM (AP) A ship unloaded seven containers believed to contain meat from endangered fin whales bound for Japan on Friday after Greenpeace activists chained themselves to its mooring ropes to prevent it from leaving Rotterdam harbor.
Greenpeace spokeswoman Arja Helmig said the organization had acted after receiving a credible tip that the ship, the NYK Orion, was carrying meat shipped by whalers from Iceland to a Japanese customer.
The 15 activists unchained themselves after the contested meat was unloaded.
NYK Lines spokesman Robin de Pauw said the company was preparing a statement about the incident.
Rotterdam police spokeswoman Tine De Jonge said the NYK Orion had proper permits to transport the meat, and nobody was arrested Friday.
She said NYK had voluntarily agreed to unload the containers.
"It's an absurd situation," said Greenpeace's Helmig. "It's illegal to import this meat into the Netherlands, but the authorities turn a blind eye when it passes through."
It was unclear what will happen with the meat.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
THE KOREAS: S. Korea ends search for sailors
Hopes have faded for sailors who went down with the corvette
Page last updated at 20:28 GMT, Saturday, 3 April 2010 21:28 UK
South Korea has called off a rescue operation for more than 40 sailors missing since a warship sank last week.
A navy spokesman said the operation will now focus on salvaging the wreck, Yonhap news agency reported.
Earlier, the South Korean military said that it had recovered the body of one of the crew.
The corvette Cheonan exploded and sank in unexplained circumstances off Baengnyeong Island, near the disputed maritime border with North Korea.
Families of the lost sailors asked the military to suspend the operation for fear of additional casualties, Yonhap reported.
"We called off a rescue operation... at 11pm [1400 GMT Saturday] following the request from the relatives," the navy spokesman said.
"From Sunday we will focus on salvaging the wreckage."
Rescue teams had hoped survivors could have been trapped in watertight sections of the vessel.
Officials have said the salvage effort could last a month.
Rescuers lost
A total of 58 people were rescued from the bow of the ship soon after it started sinking but efforts to find the missing 46 have been hampered by bad weather and strong currents.
In a subsequent tragedy, one person has died and eight others are missing after a fishing boat taking part in the search sank late on Friday, officials said.
One report said the boat appeared to have collided with a freighter.
Last week a navy diver died while taking part in the rescue operation.
The South Korean press is full of speculation about the possible causes of the explosion that sunk the Cheonan, says the BBC's John Sudworth in Seoul.
Theories include a deliberate attack by North Korea - a possibility not yet ruled out by the South.
On Friday, South Korea's defence minister renewed speculation that a torpedo could have caused the blast that sank the ship.
Kim Tae-young, who had previously said a sea mine could have caused the blast, called it a "likely possibility" the Cheonan had been hit by a torpedo.
Shortly after the sinking, Seoul said it did not believe North Korea had fired on the ship.
Pyongyang has made no official comment about the incident.
Friday, April 2, 2010
CHINA: China's Currency Distortion Affects U.S. Workers
April 2, 2010
In two weeks, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will deliver a report to Congress, in which he will say whether the Chinese government is manipulating its currency. Lawmaker from both sides are calling for Geithner to label the Chinese manipulators. Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) says the currency distortion puts "a lot of Americans out of work."
TRANSCRIPT:
MARY LOUISE KELLY, host:
The United States government is also thinking about its financial relationship with China. Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are calling for Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner to declare that China is manipulating its currency. Geithner will deliver a report to Congress about two weeks from now.
In the meantime, lawmakers like Ohio Democrat Tim Ryan are saying things like Chinese currency distortion is putting a lot of Americans out of work. And if you're wondering what a decision by the Central Bank of China has to do with workers in Ohio, we have an explanation from Alex Blumberg of our Planet Money team.
ALEX BLUMBERG: To understand why American lawmakers are so upset about Chinese currency policy, it helps to follow the money. So let's start with someone pretty typical - an American businessman who gets stuff made in Chinese factories.
Here's one - a guy named Emron Kareem(ph).
Mr. EMRON KAREEM: My business is called Trophy Skin. We produce medical devices that treat skin conditions using light therapy.
BLUMBERG: Picture a medical-looking lamp with a blue light that kills acne bacteria. Kareem has his lamps manufactured in China at a factory he found online. Every couple of months he wires the Chinese factory money for a new order - American money.
KAREEM: They always quote in U.S. dollars. I found that across pretty much every supplier that I've worked with.
BLUMBERG: Okay, so this is the first stop in following the money, the first step in understanding what people mean when they say Chinese currency manipulation.
Kareem is not the only person in America wiring dollars to Chinese factories. No, no, no. Every day thousands of American companies send billions of dollars to Chinese suppliers. And what we're interested in - what happens to those dollars when they get to the Chinese factories?
To answer that question, you need an economist. I have one of those too: Paul Wachtel at New York University's Stern School of Business.
Professor PAUL WACHTEL (New York University): Those Chinese factories need to buy electricity. They need to pay their labor. Theyve got to pay for transportation. But if they're operating, obviously, in the Chinese economy, they need to do it with the local currency. So they take those dollars and they buy Chinese currency.
BLUMBERG: And this right here, this is a critical moment in our story. You have all these Chinese factory owners with billions of dollars. To pay their bills they need to convert dollars into the Chinese currency, renminbi. So they're all saying: I need renminbi. There's this huge demand for renminbi and therefore it should cost more dollars to buy it. The demand has increased, the cost should go up as we'll - at least if the supply of renminbi is constant.
Except that the supply isn’t constant, and this is where the manipulation comes in. Someone is increasing the supply of renminbi. Who has the power to do that?
Prof. WACHTEL: The Central Bank of China. Whenever it sees the value of the currency beginning to rise, they're ready and willing to supply the renminbi to make sure the price doesn’t increase.
BLUMBERG: So this is the charge: The Central Bank of China is creating additional renminbi for the sole purpose of keeping it undervalued. Manipulation.
Now, why would the Chinese want to do that? And why do Ohio congressmen want it stopped? Well, the Chinese do it because it makes their exports more attractive. It makes it cheaper for people here in the U.S. and all over the world, actually, to buy things made in China.
But the flipside is, and here's the problem: It makes our stuff more expensive in China, so Chinese people can't afford to buy as many iPods and Polo shirts and Kindles, and for that matter, acne lamps, from America.
Again, Paul Wachtel.
Prof. WACHTEL: China should be importing more, which would increase exports from developed countries like the United States, and the lead the robust growth evenly around the world.
BLUMBERG: Recently a new group came forward saying the Chinese government should let the renminbi rise in value - not the first group you'd expect to publicly question the Chinese government either. It was a group of Chinese business leaders.
One of them, the president of a Chinese computer company, said it wouldn’t be a bad thing if ordinary people in China had more purchasing power. He, like the rest of the world, wants to sell more stuff to China.
For NPR's Planet Money, I’m Alex Blumberg.
CHINA: Has China's Business Climate Cooled To U.S. Firms?
April 2, 2010
Google recently announced it is moving part of its operations to Hong Kong; and harsh corruption sentences have been handed down to China-based executives of the British-Australian firm Rio Tinto. Zachary Karabell, author of Superfusion tells Renee Montagne that the recent events don't mean the business environment is souring for foreign firms in China.
TRANSCRIPT:
MARY LOUISE KELLY, host:
This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Mary Louise Kelly.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
And I'm Renee Montagne. For foreign companies based in China, the last few weeks have been hard on morale. There was Google's high profile showdown with China and the company's decision to move part of its operations to Hong Kong. And this week a Chinese court handed down harsh sentences to executives of the mining giant Rio Tinto, who were convicted of bribery.
Some see this as a sign that business environment there is souring. Zachary Karabell is not one of them. He's the author of "Superfusion: How China and America Became One Economy."
Mr. ZACHARY KARABELL (Author): Look, I think Google is a fascinating story, but Google may be representative of Google. It's an unusual company. It has a moral mission that's woven into its corporate statement. Google also is immensely profitable. And Google wasn't doing so well in China. So you add all those things up and you have a company that can kind of afford to stand on principle and does so.
MONTAGNE: Do you think censorship, though, is something that companies other than Google, whose business it is, is information - do you think censorship is something other companies should be worried about in China?
Mr. KARABELL: Well, first of all, there are by some estimates at least 25 other countries in the world where Google and other companies that are in that information business globally accept levels of censorship, whether that's in large parts of the Middle East about certain type of moral content, certainly Iran. We know about North Korea. We know about - but the point is, censorship is not confined to China, nor are the issues of information companies dealing with that confined to China.
MONTAGNE: Let's turn to another event that's been in the news and had people wringing their hands about the business environment in China. And that's the sentences handed down for these Rio Tinto executives and managers. And Rio Tinto is this huge - second biggest, I think, mining corporation in the world. Is there any way not to see this as something political or at least a commentary on foreign companies being in China?
Mr. KARABELL: Look, none of us know whether or not the executives who were sentenced actually did accept bribes or engaged in some level of corporate espionage or not. It's an opaque court system. It's not like there's enough evidence out there that you and I can judge.
So a lot of the discussion then is - given that we don't know the facts here, and we never will - is this politically motivated or were these just four corrupt executives? If it was just four corrupt executives, then it signifies nothing other than four executives of a very large company immersed in the Chinese economy being caught red-handed.
Even if it's politically motivated, which it absolutely may be, that doesn't necessarily signify a cooling climate toward foreign businesses in China any more than when a U.S. spy plane went down in China and the Chinese took it apart and then sent it back in pieces after having copied the entire thing, or the Wen Ho Lee case - the physicist in Los Alamos who was accused of espionage. You know, there are crises that go on as part and parcel of a complicated relationship that do not then spell the end of this relationship.
MONTAGNE: Is it possible though that the perception that there are barriers there would make foreign companies look around for other options in Asia?
Mr. KARABELL: Well, first of all, there are barriers there, and I don't want to be construed as suggesting that there aren't. But there are barriers to entry in any foreign market. But in terms of going elsewhere, there's really nowhere else to go where you have 10 percent growth, three to six hundred million emerging middle class consumers who want stuff and have the means to actually buy stuff, and an environment that is more porous than not, where the rule of law is increasingly at least adequate to enforcement of contracts, getting your investments out if you put them in. So in many respects that's what makes Google so exceptional. It's one of the only companies that could literally afford not to do business in China.
MONTAGNE: Zachary Karabell has managed money for the China U.S. Growth Fund, and his new book is "Superfusion: How China and America Became One Economy and Why the World's Prosperity Depends On It."
RUSSIA: Russia's Caucasus Region Ripe For Trouble
April 2, 2010
By David Greene and Renee Montagne
A Chechen militant group has claimed responsibility for Monday's double bombing on the Moscow subway that killed dozens. There were also attacks in Dagestan. Analysts say the bombings are part of the long-running campaign for independence by militant Muslims in Russia's North Caucasus region. It's an impoverished area that has become a battleground involving an Islamist insurgency.
TRANSCRIPT:
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
A pair of shocking suicide bombings in the Moscow metro has got us talking this week about the Caucasus, in particular the mostly Muslim north, which is part of Russia. It contains Chechnya and its troubled neighbor Dagestan, which was also hit this week with suicide bombings.
We'll be hearing more in the coming days, so we asked NPR Moscow correspondent David Greene to help us out with some background.
David, let's begin this primer, this lesson, if you will, on the Caucasus, with geography, because I imagine listeners are beginning to get lost in the Caucasus.
DAVID GREENE: Yeah.
MONTAGNE: In relation to Russia, where is this North Caucasus region that we've been hearing about?
GREENE: And that is really important, Renee, because a lot of people, when they think of Russia, I think, have a picture of eastern Europe and maybe traveling from, you know, Berlin or Ukraine into Russia. I want to take you to a totally different area. I want you to think more about Iraq and Iran, because the Caucasus are closer to those countries than they are to Moscow.
And it's been an area that has been one of the most diverse over the centuries. It has been fought over by different countries and different cultures for centuries. There are endless numbers of ethnic clans and languages. But now, in the world we live in today, it has all the ingredients for trouble.
It's very impoverished. Unemployment is incredibly high. There's a lot of anger at the world. And so it's become one of these real battlegrounds involving an Islamist insurgency.
MONTAGNE: Okay. So you've just came back from Dagestan and they've been fighting for independence from Russia for, as you say, centuries. What do the people there that you met in Dagestan say to you about the strive to escape Moscow's rule?
GREENE: We should say there are people even there who believe in Russia and who support Russian leaders, but there's also a lot of frustration among people who don't feel part of Russian society, if you will. There's complaints of workplace discrimination against Muslims. There's a feeling that Russia is not incredibly tolerant of Muslim traditions.
And, you know, one of the uneasy things to see, Renee, is when people from the Caucasus travel to Moscow and go to some other Russian cities up to the north. You know, you can see it in train stations. They're the first to be stopped and searched for documents.
MONTAGNE: But why are the Russians so determined to maintain their dominance of the region?
GREENE: Part of the deal current Prime Minister Vladimir Putin - who's former President Vladimir Putin. Part of the deal he made with the Russian people was, you know, we're going to make life better for you, but you have to accept some level of an iron fist, some level of control. I will keep you safe. We'll have a powerful government. I will protect you from terrorism. And so it's very politically important for Prime Minister Putin to keep control of that area. It's politically beneficial for him to show that, you know, he's sending Russian Special Forces down there to control the region. And so this is a big battle for Putin and his prestige.
MONTAGNE: After hideous wars in Chechnya, the school massacre in Beslan, the theater siege in Moscow where hundreds of people died, airliner, metro bombings - is there any sign of an end to the cycle of terrorist attacks and then state repression?
GREENE: The suicide bombings in the metro this week sadly are nothing new. I mean, it hasn't happened in Moscow for some time, but this is something that Russians have learned to experience. But the timing was interesting, because Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has tried to change the policy strategy in the last few months.
He said he wants to improve the economy in the North Caucasus. That's absolutely vital. Give people, you know, something to look to that is not, you know, joining an insurgent group. And now, you know, we have these two bombings. Medvedev, Prime Minister Putin both come out. They say we're going to go after, we're going to kill these terrorists. And whether Medvedev can return to that policy now in this current climate of actually focusing on the economy instead of just making this something very close to a war will be very interesting. I think people will be wondering right if that effort is going to go by the wayside.
MONTAGNE: NPR's Moscow correspondent David Greene, thanks very much for joining us.
GREENE: Always a pleasure, Renee.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
THE KOREAS: Islanders Aim For Normalcy In North Korea's Shadow
April 1, 2010
The South Korean military has suspended a rescue operation to find 46 missing sailors because of bad weather in the Yellow Sea. The missing crew members are thought to be trapped in a small navy ship that went down March 26 after a mysterious explosion split the vessel in half.
The base of rescue operations is Baengnyeong Island, which is about the size of Bermuda and is less than 10 miles from North Korea's west coast. On a recent afternoon, as South Korean recovery divers gathered around rubber boats on the beach, a bitterly cold wind blew.
Situated between the declared enemies, the island's residents try to live their lives as normally as possible — but are among the first to suffer when tensions rise.
On the island's main wharf, a deceptive tranquility prevails. Half of the 10,000 people on Baengnyeong are soldiers, and even the civilians — male and female — are trained to handle guns, just in case the North Koreans should attack. Fishermen must return to port by nightfall lest they be mistaken for the enemy.
But 22-year-old Kim Dong-joon plays down the danger.
"When the weather is good, you can see North Korea's Hwanghae province from Baengnyeong Island, but that doesn't mean that we think about North Korea all the time," he says. "We live normally like people everywhere else. It's not like we're afraid of North Korea or anything."
But these islanders are the first to suffer economic consequences whenever tensions rise between the two Koreas. Naval clashes in the Yellow Sea have disrupted fishing and discouraged tourists from making the four-hour boat ride from the mainland.
Locals take turns bringing coffee and tea to soldiers involved in the sailor rescue efforts. As U Pil-yeo hands a cup to an officer, her thoughts turn to the missing South Korean sailors.
"It's heartrending. These young men were working hard to defend our island, only to meet with an unfortunate event like this," she says. "When you think of the parents, it really hits home, and because this happened at sea and not on land, they can't even see anything."
On a windy observation deck, on a cliff overlooking the sea, local bed-and-breakfast owner Park Ji-young says some tourists think the islanders don't have any feelings.
"It's not that we don't have feelings, but there's nothing that we can do about it. If the military can't do anything, what can we do?" she says. "All we can do is to live our lives the best we can."
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