Tuesday, April 17, 2012
渡辺豪
米国は在沖海兵隊のグアム移転を先行し、米軍普天間飛行場の辺野古移設が頓挫しても支障のない戦略にシフトした。日本側は引き続き血税を投入し、米国が実質的に見限った辺野古移設の実行責任を負う。財政危機が叫ばれる日本で、なぜこんな不合理が通用するのか。
米国の戦略転換は米議会の軍事費削減圧力が作用しているが、日本では「政治」が機能していない。対米従属一辺倒の官僚主導の交渉、「米国につき従い、経済さえ順調であればいい」という主要メディアの不変の世界観が普天間返還のハードルを上げている。
対談シリーズ「国策を問う」~沖縄と福島の40年~は、3人目のゲストとして慶応大の小熊英二教授(歴史社会学)に登場してもらう。「安保と原発」という利権構造の「最後の聖域」が瓦解(がかい)していく過程を見据え、転機の回路を探る。
Labels:
Japanese way
日本共産党女性委員会
日本は、平均寿命、教育、所得水準などを算定した指数では世界10位、ところが女性の社会進出度では109カ国中57位で、先進諸国では最低です。06年42位、07年の54位、08年58位と、低下・停滞を続けています。こうした日本の現状に、国連の女性差別撤廃委員会からは、きびしい批判と差別の是正を求める内容の勧告がくり返し出されています。
Labels:
Japanese way
日本経済団体連合会 21世紀政策研究所 グローバルJAPAN特別委員会
グローバリゼーションの深化
- グローバリゼーションの進展により、ヒト・モノ・カネが国境を自由に超える時代に
- マーケットの拡大、生産性向上、安価な財・サービスの購入など、個人や企業がメリットを享受
- 国際的相互依存が深まる一方、特定国のショックがグローバルに伝播(例:リーマンショック、東日本大震災によるサプライチェーンへの影響など)
- TPPをはじめとするグローバルなルールの策定において国際協調が不可欠に
- 貿易財に関わる製造業の賃金水準が国際的な収斂圧力に晒される
Labels:
globalization
Susan V. Lawrence, Thomas Lum
According to many experts, China’s foreign economic assistance and investments have complicated U.S. and other Western efforts to curb human rights abuses and promote democracy in places such as Angola and Sudan in Africa, Burma and Cambodia in Southeast Asia, and Fiji in the Southwest Pacific. The United States government has taken preliminary steps to discuss and coordinate development assistance and projects with China, in order to promote “donor best practices” and convergence between Chinese foreign assistance practices and those of major bilateral and multilateral aid donors.
Labels:
information
WikiLeaks
Reading unenthusiastically from prepared remarks, MFA DG for North American and Oceanian Affairs Zheng Zeguang formally protested to the A/DCM DOD’s annual report to Congress on China’s military power. Zheng criticized the report as containing “erroneous and unfounded” accusations that have undermined U.S.-China relations. China will continue to pursue “peaceful development” and has legitimate needs to build its military for national security purposes, Zheng claimed. The Taiwan portion of the report triggered a recitation by Zheng of China’s standard talking points, followed by the assertion that China handles disputes through consultation and in accordance with international law. Zheng closed with a complaint that the report had come out when Washington and Beijing have a “stable and good beginning” for relations under the new U.S. administration, arguing that we need to “eradicate the negative impact” of the report to reduce the damage done to the bilateral relationship, particularly mil-mil relations. The A/DCM pointed out that the report is mandated by Congress, and encouraged China’s responsible participation in world affairs and increased military transparency. The A/DCM reiterated the U.S. commitment to our one China policy.
Labels:
information
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Ross Douthat
A man wakes up in a New York apartment, brews coffee and goes out into the world, and everything that can appear on a smartphone or iPad appears before his eyes instead: weather reports, calendar reminders, messages from friends, walking maps of New York, his girlfriend’s smiling face.
This is the promise of Google’s Project Glass, which released the video I’ve just described earlier this month, as a preview of a still-percolating project that aspires to implant the equivalent of an iPhone into a pair of science-fiction spectacles.
Labels:
information
M K Bhadrakumar
The Delhi Declaration makes an undisguised bid for strengthened representation of emerging and developing countries in the institutions of global governance”. This is no vacuous claim. Because, BRICS also has a special experience to share – having “recovered quickly from the global crisis.” The West has not heard this sort of idiom before. This is not the global South asking plaintively for “more”. This is an open demand for “power sharing”.
The West has never been spoken to like this before in all these centuries since the Industrial Revolution. The tides of history are, clearly, turning.
The West has never been spoken to like this before in all these centuries since the Industrial Revolution. The tides of history are, clearly, turning.
Labels:
globalization
D. Aurobinda Mahapatra
One of the most important achievements of the summit is the agreement among the members to foster trade in local currencies. This shows the rising prowess and assertiveness of member countries. The instability in global economy and vulnerability of hard currencies like dollar pushed these emerging economies to explore prospects of trade in local currencies. Such a development will definitely impact the role of dollar in shaping global economy, and likely shift the global economic centre of power from the West to the East. The BRICS countries have multilateral trade to the tune of $230 billion, which will likely touch $500 billion by 2015. All the countries of the grouping are developing faster despite the constraints posed by the global financial crisis. China has predicted to grow at the 7.5 per cent in the coming year, while India is likely to grow at the rate of 6.9 per cent in the coming year. The trade between these countries in local currencies will likely provide much leverage to the countries particularly in global economic matters.
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globalization
Council on Foreign Relations
The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an independent, nonpartisan membership organization, think tank, and publisher. CFR members, including Brian Williams, Fareed Zakaria, Angelina Jolie, Chuck Hagel, and Erin Burnett, explain why the Council on Foreign Relations is an indispensable resource in a complex world.
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american way
BRICS Summit
BRICS is a platform for dialogue and cooperation amongst countries that represent 43% of the world’s population, for the promotion of peace, security and development in a multi-polar, inter-dependent and increasingly complex, globalizing world. Coming, as we do, from Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America, the transcontinental dimension of our interaction adds to its value and significance.
We are concerned over the current global economic situation. While the BRICS recovered relatively quickly from the global crisis, growth prospects worldwide have again got dampened by market instability especially in the euro zone. The build-up of sovereign debt and concerns over medium to long-term fiscal adjustment in advanced countries are creating an uncertain environment for global growth. Further, excessive liquidity from the aggressive policy actions taken by central banks to stabilize their domestic economies have been spilling over into emerging market economies, fostering excessive volatility in capital flows and commodity prices. The immediate priority at hand is to restore market confidence and get global growth back on track.
We are concerned over the current global economic situation. While the BRICS recovered relatively quickly from the global crisis, growth prospects worldwide have again got dampened by market instability especially in the euro zone. The build-up of sovereign debt and concerns over medium to long-term fiscal adjustment in advanced countries are creating an uncertain environment for global growth. Further, excessive liquidity from the aggressive policy actions taken by central banks to stabilize their domestic economies have been spilling over into emerging market economies, fostering excessive volatility in capital flows and commodity prices. The immediate priority at hand is to restore market confidence and get global growth back on track.
Labels:
globalization
共同通信
政府と民主党は13日、著作権者の許諾なしにインターネットのサイトから音楽や動画を違法ダウンロードする行為に罰則を科す方針を固めた。政府が今国会に提出した著作権法改正案には盛り込まれなかったが、自民、公明両党が修正を議員提案することに民主党が同意。同改正法案は修正の上、今国会で可決、成立する可能性が高まった。
違反者に対する罰則は、自民党案の「2年以下の懲役または200万円以下の罰金」とし、10月1日施行となる見込み。
ただネット利用者の間では規制強化反対の声が強く、民主、自民両党にも慎重論があることから、被害者の告訴がないと起訴できない親告罪とする。
Labels:
information
Friday, April 13, 2012
Cameron Smith
… a Dallas-area volleyball coach and science teacher was fired by the Christian school at which she worked for becoming pregnant before being married.
Labels:
american way
有馬哲夫
指令:讀賣新聞社主ノ正力ト協力シ、親米世論ヲ形成セヨ。CIA文書が語る「対日情報戦」の全貌!
一九五四年の第五福竜丸事件以降、日本では「反米」「反原子力」気運が高まっていく。そんな中、衆院議員に当選した正力松太郎・讀賣新聞社主とCIAは、原子力に好意的な親米世論を形成するための「工作」を開始する。原潜、讀賣新聞、日本テレビ、保守大合同、そしてディズニー。正力とCIAの協力関係から始まった、巨大メディア、政界、産業界を巡る連鎖とは――。機密文書が明らかにした衝撃の事実。
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information
Peter Kuznick
When the US Embassy, US Information Service (USIS), and CIA launched their vigorous campaign to promote nuclear energy in Japan, they turned to Matsutaro Shoriki, the father of Japanese baseball, who ran the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper and the Nippon Television Network. After two years’ imprisonment as a Class-A war criminal, Shoriki had been released without trial; his virulent anti-communism helped redeem him in American eyes (see Tetsuo Arima, “Shoriki’s Campaign to Promote Nuclear Power in Japan and CIA Psychological Warfare,” unpublished paper presented at Tokyo University of Economics, November 25, 2006). Shoriki’s newspaper agreed to co-sponsor the much-hyped US exhibit welcoming the atom back to Japan on November 1, 1955 with a Shinto purification ceremony in Tokyo. The US ambassador read a message from Eisenhower declaring the exhibit “a symbol of our countries’ mutual determination that the great power of the atom shall henceforward be dedicated to the arts of peace.”
Labels:
information
Thomas Murray
Now, while the memory of Hiroshima and Nagasaki remain so vivid, construction of such a power plant in a country like Japan would be a dramatic and Christian gesture which could lift all of us far above the recollection of the carnage of those cities.
Labels:
information
The Economist
An extraordinary story is making the rounds among the hacks and other expats in Japan. A Canadian freelance journalist who has lived in Japan for years fell into the ugly whirlpool of Japan’s immigration-and-detention system. For years human-rights monitors have cited Japan’s responsible agencies for awful abuses; in their reports the system looks like something dark, chaotic and utterly incongruous with the country’s image of friendly lawfulness.
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Japanese way
Monday, April 9, 2012
国連UNHCR協会
2011年6月20日に発表された「2010年グローバル・トレンド」(UNHCR統計報告)によると、2010年末の時点で、世界では約4370万人の人々が、紛争や迫害によって避難を強いられています。この数は、難民1540万人(主にUNHCRの援助対象である1055万人と、UNRWA〈国際連合パレスチナ難民救済事業機関〉に登録されている482万人)、紛争や迫害によって難民と同様の状況におかれている国内避難民2750万人、庇護申請者83万7500人をあわせたもので、過去15年間で最多となりました。この内、2010年末時点で、UNHCRが保護・支援した難民(1055万人)と国内避難民(1470万人)を合わせると2525万人を越えました。UNHCRが支援する庇護申請者や帰還民、無国籍者などを合わせると、UNHCRの援助対象者は約3400万人に上がります。
Labels:
globe
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Frida Ghitis
The top three lessons from Europe are these:
- Deficits matter and sooner or later will have to be cut
- Trying to cut deficits in the middle of a recession makes the recession worse
- When the cutting starts, it will cause major social and political upheaval, as well as very real pain.
Labels:
perception
Pete Earley
Russia’s permanent representative to the United Nations, who held the same rank as an ambassador serving in an embassy overseas, was not expected to live in Riverdale. In April 1995, the representative was Sergei Lavrov, a seasoned diplomat who would later become the Russian minister of foreign affairs under President Putin.
“Ambassador Lavrov was constantly changing apartments in Manhattan, paying as much as $30,000 per month in rent, and moving from one part of the city to another,” Sergei would later recall. “He was required to alert the SVR each time he moved so our technical experts could make certain his apartment was free of FBI listening devices. But Lavrov was moving without telling us and I suspect he was more afraid and concerned about SVR bugs han he was about anything the Americans might hide in his apartment.”
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real
James M. Cypher
Chile is commonly portrayed as the great exception to Latin America’s long and difficult struggle to overcome economic backwardness and instability. In 1982, conservative economist Milton Friedman of the University of Chicago pronounced the market-driven policies of Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s military dictatorship “an economic miracle.” Friedman was hardly an impartial observer. He and other Chicago economists had trained many of the dictatorship’s ultra-free-market economic advisors, a group of Chilean economists who became known as the “Chicago Boys.” Other prominent U.S. economists, however, also tout Chile’s “economic miracle.” In 2000, Harvard economist Robert Barro asserted in Business Week that Chile’s “outstanding performance derived from the free-market reforms instituted by … Pinochet.” Even Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, a strong critic of the Chicago School, described Chile in his 2002 book Globalization and its Discontents as an exception to the failure of unregulated free markets and free trade policies in developing nations. Neoliberalism, a term first employed in Latin America, describes the experiment in unregulated capitalism that the Pinochet dictatorship embraced in the years following the 1973 coup that toppled the elected government of Socialist President Salvador Allende. Chile has seen three elected governments since Pinochet’s fall in 1990. None, however, including the present Socialist-led government, has broken sharply with the neoliberal economic model instituted by the dictatorship. For years, these post-Pinochet Concertación governments (a coalition of the Christian Democratic and Socialist parties) were content to administer the economic boom that had begun in the latter years of the dictatorship.
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american way
The Economist
Robert Lucas, one of the greatest macroeconomists of his generation, and his followers are “making ancient and basic analytical errors all over the place”. Harvard’s Robert Barro, another towering figure in the discipline, is “making truly boneheaded arguments”. The past 30 years of macroeconomics training at American and British universities were a “costly waste of time”.
To the uninitiated, economics has always been a dismal science. But all these attacks come from within the guild: from Brad DeLong of the University of California, Berkeley; Paul Krugman of Princeton and the New York Times; and Willem Buiter of the London School of Economics (LSE), respectively. The macroeconomic crisis of the past two years is also provoking a crisis of confidence in macroeconomics. In the last of his Lionel Robbins lectures at the LSE on June 10th, Mr Krugman feared that most macroeconomics of the past 30 years was “spectacularly useless at best, and positively harmful at worst”.
These internal critics argue that economists missed the origins of the crisis; failed to appreciate its worst symptoms; and cannot now agree about the cure. In other words, economists misread the economy on the way up, misread it on the way down and now mistake the right way out.
Labels:
knowledge
Paul Krugman
And in the wake of the crisis, the fault lines in the economics profession have yawned wider than ever. Lucas says the Obama administration’s stimulus plans are “schlock economics,” and his Chicago colleague John Cochrane says they’re based on discredited “fairy tales.” In response, Brad DeLong of the University of California, Berkeley, writes of the “intellectual collapse” of the Chicago School, and I myself have written that comments from Chicago economists are the product of a Dark Age of macroeconomics in which hard-won knowledge has been forgotten.
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knowledge
University of Chicago
Since 1969, when the Nobel Prize in economic sciences was first awarded, twenty-four recipients of that prize have been faculty, students, or researchers in the Department of Economics, Law School, or Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago, including Milton Friedman and George Stigler. Five Nobel laureates are currently members of the department: Gary S. Becker, Robert W. Fogel, Robert E. Lucas, Jr., James J. Heckman, and Roger B. Myerson. In addition, four of the six recipients of the American Economic Association’s Walker Medal were members of the faculty (J. M. Clark, F. H. Knight, Jacob Viner, and T. W. Schultz). The John Bates Clark Medal has been awarded to five Chicago economists: Milton Friedman, Gary S. Becker, James J. Heckman, Steven Levitt, and Kevin M. Murphy. Since World War II, the department has had, relative to its size, a larger number of faculty than any other serving as presidents of the American Economic Association. Former faculty members and students currently hold leading positions as economists inside and outside academic life.
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information
Andrew Leonard
It’s been a bad year for the University of Chicago Economics Department. And I’m not just talking about Alan Greenspan’s remark to Congress that he “made a mistake” about the ability of markets to self-regulate themselves. I’m talking hard, cold, quantifiable facts: Neither themost recent Nobel prize for economics nor the John Bates Clark award given to the best economist under the age of forty went to a card-carrying member of the “Chicago School.”
For any other economics department, missing out on the big prizes wouldn’t be such a big deal. You can’t win ‘em all, you know; any economist knows that down to the marrow of his or her rationally-expecting bones. And the John Bates Clark award, up until this year, was only given out every other year, which makes one’s chances of grabbing one even tougher. Still, for the University of Chicago, these awards have practically become a birthright. No other econ department has racked up nearly so many.
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american way
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