About two weeks ago, the civilians of Egypt experienced their first real taste of democracy; freely electing their presidential leader. On 18 June 2012, The Muslim Brotherhood declared their candidate, Mohammed Morsi, as being the first Islamist to be named head of state in the Arab World
Canes International
University of Miami International Studies Journal
Sunday, July 1, 2012
Egypt: Setting the Precedence for Change
About two weeks ago, the civilians of Egypt experienced their first real taste of democracy; freely electing their presidential leader. On 18 June 2012, The Muslim Brotherhood declared their candidate, Mohammed Morsi, as being the first Islamist to be named head of state in the Arab World
Thursday, December 2, 2010
India: A Potential Member for U.N. Council
President Obama recently took a three-day visit to India in order to endorse India's seat to the United Nations Security Council. With United States vacillating, troubled economy, Obama claims this partnership with India will be beneficial to the United States because India is one of the largest democracies in the world that is growing at an astounding exponential growth rate. According to Obama, "Anything that would stimulate the underlying growth and policies of entrepreneurship in the United States would help the cause of global prosperity [1].” Nonetheless, this is not all that simple for United States present relations with different countries and India's historical ideology behind allies. As history unveils, India has relied on strategic autonomy [2]. India has been wary and quite neglectful towards forming allies because India feels other countries' politics and international relations will impede its strong and growing democracy. The United States relations to other nations such as China and Pakistan exacerbates India's acceptance to the U.N. council. According to U.S. authorities, China would feel threaten with India’s fast paced economic society, even though China’s economy is growing at an ever-lightning rate. Another reason India and China’s relationship is troubling is because India has a contentious relationship with China and has alarmed the U.S. about China’s rising power. Further causing India to be wary about the U.N. Security is Pakistan is seen as a perilous force for India. This is due to the fact that India has traced back attacks at the Taj Hotel in Mumbai, India allegedly to the Pakistani government. They believe they were in some covert operation linked to terrorists organization allegedly Al-Qaeda.
According to my opinion I feel this is a real great opportunity for India because it can now secure its homeland territory with its previous terrorist attack on the Taj Hotel at its financial capital, Mumbai. In addition, it can now also invest in new relationships for trade with other countries that are also part of the U.N. Council. India should turn to a new page and examine this offer to the U.N. Council as a mean to ease and solve conflicts with Pakistan through the United States. I also think this is a great chance for China to mitigate its deflation problems and perceive India as a potential new import source for it also has a rapidly expanding economy. Nonetheless, I don’t think India should be too intimately close with the U.N. Council since WikiLeaks has posted classified information about many countries’ international affairs. After this, United States relationship with countries such as Iran and North Korea has been even more complex and I definitely do not think India should be tied to these conflicts. Hence, India should seek the U.N. Council for security benefits and international trade for its expansive economy. If India were to take this route, it shouldn’t get too close with the U.N. Council.
[1]-New York Times. Countering China, Obama Backs India for U.N. Council.
[2]-India: History, Geography, and Government. http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0107629.html.
Sunday, November 21, 2010
From Lemons to Lemonade: How Israel can benefit from a nuclearized Iran
Thursday, November 18, 2010
OxfamUM and Poverty Alleviation
Poverty is an important international issue that affects billions of people around the world, and the United States is not excepted from poverty’s global reach. In an effort to help combat poverty, OxfamUM in conjunction with More than Art Group (MAG), a local organization that networks emerging artists in South Florida, is hosting "Reveal the Unseen", this Saturday, November 20, from 8-11pm in the Communications Courtyard. They will be featuring artwork including paintings and photography from over 10 different artists; 5 local bands will be performing, Mangrove writers will be reading their poems, and there will also be 2 artists doing live art. The artwork will draw attention to those affected by poverty, hunger and other social issues that are perhaps unknown, or at least ignored by many. The theme of this event has to do with remembering those who live in poverty during a time that we give thanks. All proceeds from “Reveal the Unseen” will support Re Hope Foundation and More than Art Group, two organizations dedicated to supporting local arts and the less fortunate.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Pros and Cons of Smart Systems
Source: http://www.briansolis.com/2009/08/breathing-new-life-into-virtual-worlds/ |
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Tibetan Culture and Students
On Tuesday, October 23rd, His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, visited the University of Miami to speak on “The Quest for Happiness in Difficult Times.” Students and attendees lined up hours before the event in front of the University of Miami’s Bank United Center in order to secure good seats that were given on a first-come first-serve basis. Although the event was broadcasted live via the web, traffic was backed up that morning around US-1. Thousands of students as well as visitors from out-of-town came to see the Dalai Lama speak in person filled the venue. This is the Dalai Lama’s first visit since 2004, when he spoke on “A Human Approach to World Peace”. [1]
Throughout the week prior to the Dalai Lama’s visit were on-campus programs sponsored by the University of Miami’s Department of Religious Studies to educate the students on the subject of Tibet, Buddhism, and what the Dalai Lama represents. These included a lecture on China, Tibet, and the Dalai Lama relations from Stephen Halsey, assistant professor in the UM Department of History, lectures on aspects of Tibetan Buddhism by Geshe Tenzin Dorje, a speech by Tsering Yanzo on her experiences as a Tibetan Buddhist nun, as well as a showing of “The Little Buddha”.
Nearly eight thousand attended the Dalai Lama’s speech.[2]
While the Dalai Lama and Tibetan culture was warmly received in Miami, news from Tibet were not as pleasant. The Dalai Lama was expelled from Tibet in 1959. The week before the Dalai Lama’s visit, thousands of Tibetan students took to the streets in protest. Some were advocating for a free Tibet, some against the ruling Chinese government, and some simply for the sake of their disappearing culture.[3]
The Chinese government had instituted the “patriotic education” campaign, an educational reform, upon the Tibetan monasteries and students since 1996. It has been a cornerstone of Chinese religious policy against Tibet’s religious leader, the Dalai Lama. The principle and underlying message of the campaign was to “vehemently oppose the Dalai ‘clique” and “to expose the true nature of ‘Dalai clique” and the ‘March 14 riot” through propaganda. [4]
In 2008, China’s Public Security Minister Meng Jianzhu called for a renewed launch for a broader and stepping up of the campaign. [5] Tibetans students claim that “their culture is being wiped out” due to China’s control over classroom curriculum and limiting the use of Tibetan in schools. In fact, secondary education is taught only in Mandarin and the university entrance exams are in Chinese, keeping the Tibetans disadvantaged.
The group Free Tibet claims that “The use of Tibetan is being systematically wiped out as part of China’s strategy to cement its occupation of Tibet.” [3] A major conflict between China-Tibet relations is the argument over China’s rights to the ownership of Tibet. The Beijing government claims that Tibet has historically been part of China, while Tibetans say China invaded their country in 1950.[6] The 49th anniversary of the exile of the Dalai Lama coincided with the year of the Beijing Olympics and the world media are still remembering the pro-Tibet protests that resulted in the violence against many Tibetans and Tibetan monks and the deaths of hundreds of people.
For more information about Free Tibet, visit http://www.freetibet.org/
[1] “The Dalai Lama to Visit UM This Fall”. 26 August, 2010. UM News Releases. http://www.miami.edu/index.php/news/releases/the_dalai_lama_to_visit_um_this_fall/
[2] “His Holiness the Dalai Lama”. http://www6.miami.edu/dalailama/index.html
[3] Hong, Helena. “Tibetan students protest, say China is wiping out their culture.” 21 October, 2010. CNN World. http://articles.cnn.com/2010-10-21/world/tibet.student.protest_1_tibetans-free-tibet-tibet-autonomous-region?_s=PM:WORLD
[4] TCHRD. “China launches renewed “Patriotic Education” Campaign across all sections in Tibet.” 24 April, 2008. Phalyu.com. http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id=20881&t=1
[5] Fan, Maureen. “China Moves to Tighten Control Over Religion in Tibet”. 26 March, 2008. Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/25/AR2008032501665.html
[6] “2008 Protests in Tibet”. http://www.freetibet.org/newsmedia/2008-protests-summary
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Nationalism Past and Present: the future of Sino-Japanese relations
The nationalist outcry to the detention of the Chinese boat captain in Japan after fishing off the Senkaku/Diaoyutai islands and the subsequent ban on exports of rare earth materials demonstrates the willingness of China to defend its interests beyond its national borders and defend territories which it believe it has the right to govern[1]—something Japan and many other countries in Asian Pacific are increasingly concerned. For it has been almost a century and a half since the Middle Kingdom was the great imperial it once was.
For centuries, the Middle Kingdom created a vassal state system in East Asia, with leaders from Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and other nations paying tribute by performing the koutou to the Chinese emperor in exchange for aid and protection. However, by the mid-19th century the Manchu Qing dynasty was bankrupt both economically and politically. The Opium Wars in 1840-42 opened Chinese markets to British and other Western nations giving them large territories. Japan took a different route when Matthew Perry sailed into Tokyo Harbor in 1853 by emulating and eventually surpassing Western military tactics and strength. Gregory Moore notes that “Japan’s rise as a power coincided with China’s decline. In the first half of the twentieth century China became known as the ‘sick man of Asia”[2] while the militant ultranationalists in Japan became so proficient at war as to defeat China in 1895 and take control of Taiwan, Russia in 1905, Korea in 1910, China again to a devastating extent between 1931 and 1945, and eventually taking control of Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, and other Asian regions, and ultimately performing a daring surprise attack on the United States at Pearl Harbor in 1945.
This last move ended up being the Japanese downfall, for the United States would defeat Japan in August 1945, and with the advent of the Cold War, the US realized that it was geo-strategically important to keep Japan under the its security umbrella. Although Japan never remilitarized and sought economic development instead, the tensions between them and the mainland never abated. The war crimes committed against the Chinese people during the occupation included such atrocities as ‘comfort women’ (Chinese and Korean women who were forced into prostitution for the Japanese soldiers on the front line), chemical and biological warfare, and the “Rape of Nanking in which over 300,000 Chinese were murdered and an estimated 20,000-80,000 women were raped in the course of the invasion.”[3] While the Japanese claimed to have atoned for their sins by pursuing the democratic and liberal economic model of development, China does not see this as sufficient apology, especially when former Japanese Prime Minister Koizimi visited the Yasukuni Shrine which is a shinto shrine in Tokyo dedicated to the memories of those lost serving Japan. Normally it should be no issue because it is a place to honor the spirits of people such as Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia; however, the difference of Arlington and Yasukuni is that names of 14 Class-A war criminals including former Prime Minister Hideki Tojo are inscribed at the shrine.[4] Japanese textbooks that whitewash the criminal nature of the occupation are other examples of contentious issues, and China will increasingly assert itself economically and geo-politically in matters that could potentially cause the People’s Republic to lose face.
China’s usurpation of the second most productive economy in the world from Japan signifies much in the way that Sino-Japanese relations will be conducted in the upcoming future. No longer will China have ‘little brother’ status diplomatically or financially. In fact, China proved one of the most stabilizing factors in East Asia during the financial crisis of ’97-’98 and the global financial crisis of ’08. With respect to its recent success, there has been a proposition by Suisheng Zhao of a Beijing Consenus, in evident to contrast to the Washington Consensus, which first coined in 1989 and contained 10 ‘rules’ in a one size fits all package for economic development in Latin America.[5] The apparent failure of the Washington Consensus after the failure of the Argentine and Brazilian economies in the late 1990s made many look to China as a model of liberal economic development with a political party that could retain a firm grip on government, the courts, the army, the internal security apparatus, and the free flow of information.[6] The past few years have indeed been telling about China’s desire to become an important player in the international arena; the real question is how China will integrate and what it will do to change the rules of the global system in its favor.
[1] Amako, Satoshi. ‘ The Senkaku Islands Incident and Japan-China Relations.’ East Asia Forum. 25 Oct 2010.
[2] Moore, Gregory. ‘History, Nationalism and Face in Sino-Japanese Relations.’ Journal of Chinese Political Science. 4 June 2010. Page 285
[3] Ibid. 2010:285
[4] ibid 2010:293
[5] Suisheng, Zhao. ‘The China Model: can it replace the Western Model of modernization?’ Journal of Contemporary China. June 2010. Page 420
[6] Rowan, Callick. ‘How long can economic freedom and political repression coexist?’ The American, The Journal of American Enterprise Institute. Nov/Dec 2007.