· April, 2007

Stories about International Relations from April, 2007

Bangladesh: Water Bully

  30 April 2007

The 3rd World View on the Farakka Barrage. “Construction of the Farakka Barrage was started by India in 1960 unilaterally violating the international norms of any construction for diversion of water on any international river. It was completed in 1974 to divert Ganges River water into the Bhagirati-Hooghly River in...

Japan: Media has its eyes wide shut

  30 April 2007

Ampontan posted a detailed and scathing attack on American media (notably CNN and AP) for their failure to catch the “story staring them in the face”: “In the past two days, Prime Minister Abe and the government of Japan just issued its Declaration of Independence from the legacy of World...

Japan: Interview with Sankei Shimbun Editor about Comfort Women Issue

  29 April 2007

Trans Pacific Radio reports on an interview with Sankei Shimbun Editor Yoshihisa Komori, conducted in late-March for the PBS series Foreign Exchange with Fareed Zakaria, on the “Comfort Women” issue. TPR notes that “three things struck me [about Komori]: He looks off camera quite a bit, he brings up every...

Iraq: Why are the Democrats Doing This?

Iraqi blogger Omar doesn't mince his words when addressing the Democrats. “Why are the Democrats doing this?” he rants. Instead of trying to come up with ideas to help they try to halt the sincere effort to stabilize Iraq and rescue the Middle East from a catastrophe. I am Iraqi...

Estonia: “A Russian Rebellion”

  27 April 2007

As Tallinn seems to have entered the second night of rioting over the removal of a Soviet war memorial, here's a blogger's recap (with photos, RUS, by LJ user mrprophet) of what happened the previous night: A Russian rebellion Today I've been to a true Russian rebellion, senseless and relentless....

Nepal: The Diplomatic Act

  27 April 2007

Nepali Netbook attempts deciphering diplomatic due processes. “The fact that Chinese Ambassador Zheng Xianglin became the first foreign envoy to present his credentials to Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala contained much symbolism. The normally reticent official Chinese media, too, highlighted how this development broke the tradition of ambassadors presenting credentials...

Korean bloggers on Virgina Tech shooter Cho Seung-hui

  27 April 2007

Since the Virginia Tech massacre on April 16, 2007, it’s not hard to guess that the South Korea-born shooter, Cho Seung-hui, and what he did are among the hottest issues for Korean bloggers. As the visual shock of the mass murder is fading from the headlines, the angle from which bloggers are viewing the case has been changing.

Pakistan: Roadmap to Peace

  26 April 2007

At The Pakistani Spectator, an Indian living in Doha talks of the roadmap to peace. “In my conversations with both Pakistani and Indian taxi drivers is that both Indians and Pakistanis are fed wrong ideas about the others by their respective governments, My interactions with Pakistanis from Peshawar or Lahore...

African Journalists on Franco-African Relations

  26 April 2007

African journalists working in France are calling on the two remaining French presidential candidates, Nicolas Sarkozy and Segolene Royal, to begin a new chapter in Franco-African relations (Fr), according to the blog of the Alliance for Democratic Progress. “We have to reconsider everything, make a fresh start, a sort of...

Syrian Independence Day and Elections

Syria celebrated it's independence and Parliamentary elections with a lot of official fanfare, but very little excitement from bloggers as a reported two per cent of the constituents turned up at the polling stations. Yazan Badran sums up the reactions as bloggers debate the results and updates us about the jailing of a prominent human rights lawyer.

China: IPR is not a Real issue

  26 April 2007

Andrew has written a good analysis of the Intellectual Property Rights negotiation between U.S and China. The conflict is not so real as IP theft hurts Beijing's state-run media machine and control over internet media: Washington is pushing Beijing into reluctantly doing something it probably wanted to do anyway.

Japan: Abe apologizes to US media, not Asian people

  26 April 2007

On the apologies made by Abe in an interview last weekend with Newsweek, Amaki Naoto, a former Japanese diplomat who resigned protesting Japan's involvement in the U.S. attack on Iraq, comments that in apologizing about the Comfort Women issue Abe was “putting aside his political belief” in order simply to...

Arabeyes: Palestinian Jordanian Anyone?

Jordanian blogger Hareega is furious that people avoid discussing racism in his society. He is particularly angry about the discrimination Jordanians of Palestinian origin go through in a country he claims they have helped build and project to the level it is today. يبدو أن الناس بشكل عام تتفادى الخوض...