The scale of grief in China’s Sichuan Province is almost unimaginable as the region struggles to come to terms with the catastrophic earthquake.
In many cases, that grief is now leading to tough and embarrassing questions for Communist Party officials.
By Steven O'Hern, Reader Advisory Panel 2008
The sad news of the 7.8 magnitude earthquake in China should be a warning to business leaders seeking to invest in China. Low quality manufacturing and lack of regulation in China resulted in toys contaminated with lead that had to be recalled. Since the toy recall, more dangerous products from China were uncovered including tainted heparin that resulted in 81 deaths in the United States. The same business practices that disregard safety are likely to be present in building construction in China.
International aid has begun arriving in Myanmar, but the country’s military junta has inexcusably stalled the entry of aid workers and needed supplies. The United Nations and neighboring countries should press hard for greater access and faster visa processing.
China’s typical response to criticism at home is to douse the message and rough up the messenger.
Those methods don’t work in Democratic nations. Chinese leaders have no way of quelling the dissent that has accompanied the Olympic torch’s raucous warm-up lap around the world.
With its recent presidential election, Taiwan has once again shown that its democracy is firmly established.
Voters approved a peaceful shift of power from one party to another — a process routine on Taiwan, but unheard-of in China.
It's not every day I feel inspired at 7 a.m., but I loved this morning's news coverage of the New York Philharmonic's performance in North Korea. (And thanks to my local YMCA for putting TV screens on the exercise equipment--it makes that half hour on the eliptical trainer go by so much faster.)
Bravo to the orchestra for playing the U.S. national anthem in one of the world's most isolated and worrisome nations. The musicians found the perfect way to give North Koreans a sense of America's greatness. Listeners were obviously moved.
Bravo, too, to ABC's Bob Woodruff, who reported on the news from North Korea. He's the former anchorman injured by a roadside bomb in Iraq two years ago. Woodruff suffered a traumatic brain injury which sometimes impairs his ability to come up with the right words. But he did a fine job describing the symphonic performance.
I'm seeing a lot of commentary by writers who knew Benazir Bhutto as a classmate at Harvard and/or Oxford. Needless to say, these pieces are largely complimentary of her personality and progressive views.
But here's another view. Ralph Peters of the New York Post points out that Bhutto, though known in intellectual and diplomatic circles as a well-educated feminist, did nothing to better the lot of women or schoolchildren during her two stints in power in Pakistan. He calls her "a splendid con."
