U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is off to Asia this week to attend the 7th annual meeting of the International Institute of Strategic Studies’ Asia Security Summit in Singapore, better known as the Shangri-la “dialogue” on Asia-Pacific security issues.
His trip is generating fresh speculation Continue Reading »
By Justin Liang
On May 2nd, Cyclone Nargis exacted a tragic toll upon Burma, spawning a humanitarian crisis of unprecedented proportions.
Coming amid a controversial referendum vote on a new constitution drafted by the ruling junta, the havoc wrought by the storm—and the regime’s uninspired response to international assistance—has raised numerous questions about the challenges and opportunities of engagement with the isolationist regime.
I recently had the opportunity to ask some of these questions to Ambassador Priscilla Clapp, who served as Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy
in Burma from 1999-2002 and recently retired after a 30-year career with the U.S. government. Ambassador Clapp has written extensively on Burma and will be speaking at an upcoming program at the East-West Center in Washington (see details of that program, as well as on another Burma program in Honolulu May 21, below).
Clapp spoke candidly about diplomacy with the ruling junta, prospects for humanitarian assistance, and the road ahead in Burma. Continue Reading »
Even the best of times have to end some day.
So it was for a roomful participants who took part last week in the Center’s Ho’opuka Ceremony, a formal occasion to recognize the completion of various awards and programs sponsored by the Center.
Some 85 participants were on hand and another 28 — unable to attend — were undoubtedly there in spirit. Continue Reading »
Take economic tremors in the United States that quite possibly could spread to Asia, add a billion Chinese who are feeling a little disrespected by the rest of the world, stir in a new conservative prime minister in South Korea and a Mandarin-speaking Prime Minister of Australia and what do you get?
Just about the perfect time, in the thinking of Center President Charles Morrison, for the latest gathering of the U.S. Asia Pacific Council of the East West Center. Continue Reading »
Journalists like to get up close to any big story, but this one was closer than most.
A group of a dozen East West Center Jefferson Fellowship journalists are in China this week where their plans were to visit the “other China,” developing regions in the west beyond the coastal “boomtowns.” Their itinerary included planned stops in Chongqing and the Sichuan provincial capital of Chengdu, precisely where Monday’s devastating 7.9 magnitude earthquake struck. Continue Reading »
Between showers of that familiar Manoa rain, students and EWC participants gathered April 19 in the garden fronting Hale Halawai for a high-spirited cultural fair.
The students showed off their national dress (including a tres chic fashion show of Indonesian traditional attire), shared local foods and crafts, and enjoyed a bellydance troupe, a martial arts demonstration, a Thai new year’s ceremony, Indian singing, gong music from the Philippines and dances of Vietnam, Burma, Thailand and Samoa.
Click HERE for more photos from that delightful afternoon. Does it stir memories of your time at the Center?
By Teresa Wright
I recently returned from a 10-day stay in Shanghai and Beijing. I’d traveled to China many times, but I hadn’t been back to Shanghai and Beijing since 1990, my first visit to China.
My trip brought me face-to-face with China’s emerging elite as well as the consumerism and environmental headaches that have come with explosive growth. Continue Reading »
by Linda Kay Quintana
At a recent Research Program brown bag talk here at the Center, I was reminded that despite some ecologically minded choices, I’m no environmental super hero.
The idea that there is a per capita measurement for carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions is a stark reminder that every person’s actions count. Continue Reading »
A couple of years ago, Michael Schuster, curator of the East West Center Gallery, was at a conference in New Delhi where he briefed folks on the Gallery and its works.
He was approached by Dr. Arjumand Faisel, a physician, artist, gallery owner and — not coincidentially — an alum and President of the Islamabad Chapter of the East West Center Association. “Why not an exhibit on Parkistani contemporary paintings?”
And so, after several years of work and considerable logistics, the exhibit is ON. Continue Reading »
|
