Indonesia Executes Drug Smugglers

I was surfing the Internet and found this interesting article titled, "Australia recalls ambassador after Indonesia executes prisoners," by Hilary Whiteman, Mariano Castillo, and Kathy Quiano. The article starts off with the Australian government recalling its ambassador form Indonesia back to Australia. The Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbot did not approve the execution of the smugglers he believed that it was "cruel and unnecessary," but I believe that any killing of human life is cruel and unnecessary. The Prime Minister does not know what action they will take against Indonesia, but it is believed that relations will be yet again restored because of their dependent markets. The president of Indonesia said, "Our legal sovereignty must be respected. We also respect other countries' legal sovereignty". This means that he believes the executions were necessary.

Synthetic Drug Trade Asia

I was looking for an interesting article on the Internet and I found one published by Voice of America, and the article is titled, "UN: Little Progress Against Asia's Booming Synthetic Drugs Trade," by Ron Corben. This article is about the illegal drug trade in Asia, and the growth of drug trade in Southeast Asia. The United Nations had a conference in Bangkok about this issue and how drug dealers are using the internet to sell drugs now. East and Southeast Asia drug trafficking has risen in the past year. The UN believes that if these countries make it more difficult for the drug dealers to get the chemicals needed to create these drugs then the production will slow down. The country with the most trafficking, and production problem is Burma. So if anyone wants to go to Burma do not go wondering off in the forest by your self thats how people end up dead. China is having an issue with consumers that are using these drugs because all the drugs made in Burma end up in China and Thailand.    

Rubber

I found this article titled, "Expanding Rubber Plantations 'Catastrophic' for endangered Species in Southeast Asia," by Physic.org. The first thing that i found interesting is that rubber comes from a plant I thought it was an element or mineral. The plants are also not dark as a traditional rubber product looks like. The research was done by University of East Anglia and it estimates that 8.5 million of hectares will be needed by 2024 to keep up with the demand. People this means that more things will be made out of rubber. Hectares are a metric way of measuring land like acres, but in a metric system hectares is the way to measure. If rubber planters thing that they can just expand their plantations its going to be difficult because planting rubber causes negative effects on the natural environment. Rubber plants are almost similar to the oil palm, which apparently is bad as the article says. But, big companies like Goodyear and Michelin want the rubber to produce tires for cars and airplanes. In order to plant these rubber plants trees need to be cut down meaning that companies are just destroying Southeast Asia's natural resources.  

North Korea is at it Again!!!

Surfing the internet with my mighty mouse I found an interesting article titled "US research; Hundreds of NKorea missiles threaten Asia," by Matthew Pennington. this article says that North Korea can be a threat to the United States of America if it can get its hands on technology needed to guide the missiles to the US. The United States of America also says that North Korea will be fully nuclear on 2020. But, this of course is an estimate what if it goes nuclear sooner then what. I feel like they are slowly trying to sell us this war. In a couple of years we will be invading North Korea. Iran should not be concern to the United States of America because they are not conducting atomic test explosions like the North Koreans are. The US has put missiles radars in Japan just in case if any missile wants to go toward the US and the United State of America plans on putting defense systems in South Korea. The US's greatest concern is a long range missile called KN-08 this missile can be launched from any road at anytime. North Korea is developing nuclear weapons what does it plan to do with it. If they attack any country they will be invaded by the UN. I feel like this is just a dumb cause for North Korea they should just stay low key. As soon as they develop nuclear war heads the US, China, South Korea, Europe, and Russia will go in to disarm this country.

Vietnam is Becoming a Powerhouse

I found an article on Bloomberg Business they published an article titled "Meet Asia's New Manufacturing Powerhouse: Vietnam". The article says that Vietnam is becoming a power house because they have a young population and have low wages. I can't imagine this wages in China are low how much are they paying the people in Vietnam empanadas are payment. Vietnam is going to compete with China, South Korea, and Thailand. The article also shows that Vietnam is borrowing more money from HSBC and is manufacturing a lot of products. Last year Vietnam became one of the biggest exporters of products to the US. Companies that are in Vietnam are Intel, Siemens, and Samsung. They also have a lot of shoe apparel companies yet again the article says that Vietnam has cheap wages lower than China. This is great for Vietnam, but its not great for the common people who have to work these horrible hours and conditions. But, Vietnam does not like Chinese factories in Vietnam they protested and had Chinese companies closed they do not want anything to do with China.  

Iran's Cheap Oil

Upon surfing the internet I found a very interesting article published by Bloomberg Business an article titled "Asia Readies for Iran Oil Bargains on Potential Nuclear Deal," by Sharon Cho, Debjit Chakraborty and Yuji Okada. The article is about how Asia is excited to hear that maybe the sanctions on Iran will be lifted and they are ready to buy cheap oil. Six Asian refiners want the oil form Iran and cannot wait to get the deal cheap oil from Iran. Asia has to pay top dollar for Oil because they have to import the oil as far as Colombia. The U.S. is currently negotiating with Iran to lift the sanctions that limit Iran's economy. Iran can produce 2.5 million barrels a day meaning that gas prices could drop even more if sanctions are lifted. But, Asian countries will benefit the most of Iranian crude oil the top countries are Japan, China, South Korea, and India. Although the sanctions did not prevent oil trade between Iran and Asia, but it does limit how much oil they can purchase. India's Mangalore Refinery said that it would help the country of India.  

No More Cheap Chinese Labor

I found an article online that caught my attention titled "A Tightening Grip," by Jiaxing and Yangon. The article starts with some obvious facts that China is one of the largest manufactures of the world and they have the best machinery and tools that only China has to develop products. They can make steering wheels and major car parts. The article also states that cheap Chinese Labor has helped the development of China to the power that it is today. Then, we go into some historical facts about Asia and its development of becoming the manufactural power it is today. It began in the 1960 the leader of this movement was Japan it began to export electrical goods. By the 80's Japan began to open up plant in South East Asia, but when China got involved in the game China became the top manufacturer in the world real quick. China today accounts for 46.5% of everything that is exported from Asia. The issue is that since 2001 the wages for Chinese workers have rise 12% and this is supposedly bad for Chinese people. This means according to the article that Chinese days of manufacturing are limited.    

Large Imports of Firearms are going towards Monsoon Asia

According to DW it states that Asia is accounting for 30% of global arm imports. Even in the title of the article "Asia Accounts for "Nearly a third' of Global Arms Imports". The country in Monsoon Asia that has the most significant growth of fire arms is India that has increased its imports of weapons by 34 percent. China in the other hand has decreased its military spending and does not import firearms. The drop of importing firearms to China does not mean that they are not amping their military they actually are it means that China is making their own firearms now. Furthermore, China does not need to import arms when it can produce them cheaply. China is also the major supplier of firearms. China has surpass Germany in being the greatest weapon manufacturer; it supplies mostly to Myanmar, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. India has imported weapons at a high number I wonder what are they about to do with all those weapons. The article also states that North Korea is also purchasing a lot of weapons. When the article talks about weapons it actually means weapons that can cause damage assault weapons, tanks, rockets, and aircraft carriers. The major suppliers to Monsoon Asia are Russia and the United States of America.  

U.S. Ambassador Attacked in South Korea

I found an article online titled "South Korea Probing US Envoy Attacker's Visits to North," by Channel News Asia. In this article it talks about an attack on the US Ambassador to Seoul being attack by a Korean man. I find this article interesting because according to our readings people who live in monsoon Asia the residents to not commit crimes because it is shameful for the family, but this guy is an exemption. The U.S. Ambassador is named Mark Lippert who was attacked and needed 80 stitches on his face. The attacker says that he wanted to protest US and South Korean military exercise and decided the best way of protesting this is to cut the U.S. Ambassadors face with a knife. According to the news reporter the attacker by the name of Kim Ki-Jong has gone to North Korea seven times from 1999 through 2001. This is interesting because it is impossible for people to cross over I remember that it is impossible to cross between the borders because of heavily military presence from both sides. North Korea called the action the knife of freedom not claiming responsibility for the action committed by Kim Ki-Jong.    

China and its neighbors don't get along

I found a very interesting article titled, "China's Neighbors Bulk Up Militaries." This article is interesting because what would the world do if the worlds biggest producer of things goes to war? Who will produce our cheap parts, and who will construct the cheap labor force? China and Japan do not get along this has been going on for years and years, but now even Vietnam is building up their military to be able to fight against China. Not only Japan feels that China is a threat. According to the article Vietnam just wants to upgrade their defense system. India and Japan want China to see them as military equals.They want to show that they also have military to attack and will not be intimidated. I did not know that India has a conflict with China. Apparently China has mobilized a lot of their military personal to the Himalayan boundaries. India has missiles that range over 3,000 miles that has the possibility to strike China because they are building them in the Himalayan boundaries. Japan has also bought 42 F-35 Lightning II Stealth Fighters.  The United States of America has told his allies to build up its military especially Japan. The U.S. benefits from this because it has a huge weaponry industry. China has disputes with Vietnam over islands this is why Vietnam keeps updating its military. Not only Vietnam, India, and Japan are building their military the Philippines spent 410 million on fighter jets and 1.8 billion on new naval frigates, Malaysia spent 2.8 billion on military and bought submarines, and Indonesia is planning to buy U.S Apache gunships and Korean submarines.

Russia influencing North Korea

The Week posted an article titled "Russia is Turning North Korea Into its Agent of Mischief," by Kyle Mizokami. In this article it states that Russian President Vladmir Putin communicate regularly with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. It looks like the two cold war allies are communicating again they both say they only talk about economic issues but in reality we do not know what they are talking about. This is bad because the Russian can tell the North Koreans what to do and they will do it because they have authority issues. When the Soviet Union went under North Korea began to ally with Chian under Kim Jong Il. But, now Kim Jong Un is turning towards Russia. Russia wants to sell natural gas and electricity, but i believe not a lot of people use electricity in North Korea. Then, the article goes off on how Vladimir Putin wants to expand the power of Russia and expand the Soviet Unions power again.  here is the link

China is Burying its History!!!!

According to World Crunch News China is moving so fast economically that they are expanding fast and forget that they are in historical land. China has lost tens of thousands of historical monuments have been pulverized into dust. This article estimates that 100 million Chinese residents will migrate to the cities leaving rural areas. The Chinese have been destroying traditional courtyards, palaces, tombs, and temples to be replaced with massive street blocks, industrial parks, multi-lane highways, shopping malls, and skyscrapers. The community in China is changing and it is changing fast the cities are no longer made for people to walk to places car are essential now. Cities are being built now to sit this new need. The article also states that 900,000 villages have disappeared in ten years meaning that they are industrializing fast, but are loosing a lot of history because of this.  

My New Post

My post is how the air in China's major cities are still not safe to breath in. I found this article online that says that 90% of the cities in China are polluted. This is very interesting because Asian religions are very in touch with nature and only western religions exploit nature. It seems that Capitalism has affected the way of life in China. China has declared the "war on pollution," but it is easier said than done not even the capitol Beijing can meet the standards that the Environmental Protection Ministry has put into action. I wonder is this Ministry is even a real ministry that follows the rule that are set forward they do not even talk about a heavy fine for cities or companies that do not meet their air quality control laws. Only five cities in China meet the standard, and 230 new environmental agencies have been made to regulate the new environment. The article talks about PM2.5 that Beijing has 93 micrograms per cubic meter this years, but it is down from last years 106. The Ministry set a standard of 35 micrograms per cubic meter, and the Ministry has stated that they will not reach this goal until 2030. Talk about a delay, furthermore, the cities are not the heavily populated areas Hebei province accounts for 60% of the pollution in China. But, there are no known air quality restrictions on this province or the fact that there will be any or anytime soon.         

Chapter 3

This article is about China and how they are going to get better at not convecting everyone they ever get meaning that they have a 100% conviction rate. This is very amazing meaning that everyone they get in the system is guaranteed a conviction. In the United States of America police officers would be happy they would get anybody convicted just on suspicion. But, the government run media has stated that they are going to get better at not convicting anyone. Their has been many reverse convictions one of a man who was executed, but the government just apologized and everything was fine. The way that the Chinese government conducts investigation is by torturing the person they have in custody until they confess of committing  the crime even though the person might of been someone who was walking near the crime scene or happened to be close. They will form a committee that will be run by the communist party, and they will try to convince judges to not be so strict with their verdicts. I do not think this is going to work the committee is formed by government personal of the communist party, so if they want frame somebody trying to cause a revolution they can. This will not solve the problem.    













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Asian Religions and their Countries

This chapter is about religions in Asia they start off with the oldest one called Hinduism. The word Hinduism actually means "Indianism" that the British probably were the ones to name it. They believe in the caste system a system that ranks people in social order the priest are on top and the untouchables are on the bottom of the scale. The cast system according to the book is loosing its use because India is becoming more industrialized. They believe in Reincarnation and that they will reach the last stage and not be reincarnated to reach Moksha it means to be one with the universe. The second religion they talk about is Buddhism and its spread from India to the East. The person who helped expand Buddhism was Emperor Ashoka who ruled from 269-232 B.C.E. it spread from India to Ceylon to Southeast Asia then Central Asia to China, Japan, and Korea. They also believe in reincarnation and they want to reach Nirvana the last point of reincarnation were people let go and be happy to Christians this would be like heaven their final destination. We have confucianism a very interesting religion that developed in China that keeps coming back up it is basically that everyone should follow the role that people are giving to. In China we have Daoism another religion that is different from confucianism this religion focus more on becoming one with nature. Then, we have Islam in Asia, but the book only talks about how it expanded through Arabian peninsula the middle east. We have Shinto a religion developed in Japan. http://tucson.com/lifestyles/faith-and-values/religion/pope-brings-message-of-religious-ethnic-dialogue-to-asia/article_941a4fd2-60c1-5e8d-aca8-fd3ee990b036.html This article that I found is on religious tolerance and how Pope Francis is helping Sir Lanka to forget the injustices that were committed and start again fresh. I choose this article because when christianity was in its mid evil stage it was not a religion that was tolerant of other religions and now it is changing.