"Islamism is Dead" Long Live Muslim Democrats

An op-ed in the New York Times (2 June 2016) explains why one of the Tunisia's Islamist party--Ennahda--is pushing to bring the politic out of the mosque in promoting Muslim Democrats.

Click here to read this article.

President Barak Obama's Speech at Hiroshima Peace Memorial

President Barak Obama visited Hiroshima Peace Memorial on 27 May 2916. He did not apologize for dropping Little Boy on Hiroshima and Fat Boy on 6 August 1945 and 9 August 1945, respectively. More than 200,000 people were killed by these two atomic bombs.

Although politic outshines emotion, President Obama calls for concerted efforts in making the world without nuclear weapons. He ends his speech by saying: "That is a future we can choose. A future in which Hiroshima and Nagasaki are known not as the dawn of atomic warfare, but as the start of our own moral awakening [sic.]"

Click here to read his speech.

Barak Obama's Speech in Prague

President Barak Obama's speech in Prague on 5 April 2009 earned him the Nobel Peace Prize. That was indeed a very well articulated speech.

Click here to read that speech.

Food Security in China

China Daily reported that China faces a shortage of 9.9 million tons of grains to meet demand every year. In 2015, China consumed 621 million tons of grains, and thus the total production is about 611 million tons. For details, read:

"China still faces bid food supply shortfall."

How much is 9.9 million tons of grains? Japan annually produces about 8.7 million tons of rice, and thus China's shortage is greater than Japan's yearly production of rice. From this perspective, achieving a balance in supply and demand of grains in China is indeed a herculean task, if not an impossible one.

Globalization 2.0: by Lionel Barber

After a lapse of almost two months, here is my first posting in 2016.

Mr. Lionel Barber, the editor of The Financial Times--now a Nikkei Company--shares his bird's-eye view on the past, present and future of Globalization. He coins the present Globalization trend as V2.0 because of more aggressive driving forces from the East, presently and in the future.

Indeed an enlightening view, a must read for anyone who is following international political economy.

Here is the link: Globalization 2.0, Lionel Barber