In The News

Put Movie Scenes Into Perspective

Rousseau Chen May 26, 2006
Like any other residents whose city is featured in a major film, the people of Shanghai have eagerly awaited the Chinese release of “Mission: Impossible III.” Some of the scenes shot in the metropolis, however, must be cut before the film’s release in China, according to a ruling by humorless censors in the Chinese Film Bureau. Images of drying laundry and criminal activity offended the bureau...

Extremism Isn’t Islamic Law

Kyai Haji Abdurrahman Wahid May 26, 2006
The Koran is clear: “Let there be no compulsion in religion.” (2:256). Yet the government of Afghanistan came close to executing a Muslim man who had converted to Christianity. Bowing to international pressure, the government ruled that the man was insane and called off the trial. The man’s life was spared, but using the Koran to justify the death penalty for apostasy in Muslim society remains...

“We the Japanese People” – A Reflection on Public Opinion

Hikari Agakimi May 22, 2006
For more than 60 years following its devastation in World War II, Japan has held onto an intense fear of militarism, renouncing the right to wage war and limiting its self-defense force. A side effect of such pacifist policies, according to scholar Hikari Agakimi, is a carefree people who struggle to find a national identity. In a 2005 survey of high school students, only 13 percent reported...

Next Wave of Camera-Wielding Tourists Is From China

Howard W. French May 19, 2006
When millions of Japanese began to travel abroad during their country’s economic boom in the 1980s, hotels around the world introduced Japanese-style slippers to their rooms while restaurants created menus adapted to Japanese tastes. More than 20 years later, the international tourism industry faces a similar challenge – this time catering to the rising number of Chinese visiting foreign...

Europe Faces Globalization – Part II

Bruce Stokes May 18, 2006
Free trade may offer macroeconomic benefits, but it also claims human victims – laid-off workers who are lucky to find new jobs for less pay. The developed nations of Europe, with established manufacturing centers and generous social benefits, employ a range of strategies to compete globally with nations that have lower wages and minimal social protections. The second in this two-part series...

L’Europe face à la mondialisation – Part II

Bruce Stokes May 18, 2006
L’économie de marché peut amener des bénéfices macroéconomiques, mais il fait aussi des victimes humaines- des ouvriers qui sont heureux de trouver un nouveau travail et moins bien payé. Les nations développées d’Europe, avec leurs protections sociales généreuses, tentent une série de stratégies pour entrer dans la compétition mondiale avec des nations dont la population a de plus faibles...

France Debates Downloads, With Teenager as Top Expert

Thomas Crampton May 17, 2006
At 18, Aziz Ridouan is a normal teen who likes to download music. But his adversaries compare him to a modern-day Robin Hood, and the French Interior minister gives him a note allowing him to skip school to meet with top government officials. Ridouan suggests that the internet is the library of the future and the entertainment industry must adapt. The teen started his own nonprofit –...