Asia

By Prerna Suri in Asia on May 15th, 2012

All Gertrude Ingerberg wants is to go back home. The 60-year-old German national came to India a few days ago on what she calls a "trip of a lifetime".

She saw the greatest tribute to love, the Taj Mahal in Agra, danced with famed musicians in Rajasthan's Thar Desert and braved the Delhi heat.

But nothing prepared her for a plane strike. And since May 15, Air India pilots grounded not just their planes but also her.

"I've been at the airport since Tuesday night and since then haven't received much information from Air India staff. They did offer to put me up in a hotel but right now all I want is a flight back home”, she tells me.

Gertrude will have to wait. Not only are the pilots still on strike, but there hasn't been much progress in talks between management and them. It's a scene being played out across airports in India.

By Nicolas Haque in Asia on May 11th, 2012
The threat of land loss and discrimination has caused many minorities to leave over the years

The Santals are the largest indigenous group on the Indian subcontinent. It was on my father's homeland; in the district of Noagaon in northern Bangladesh that I met a group of them.

They have always lived off of this land, cultivating rice and vegetables, hunting and fishing in the surrounding nature, but in recent years holding on to their ancestral land has become a struggle.

One of their leaders Bishwanath Hembrom says: "Local authorities have become greedy". 

I recognised the deep look in his gaze. This wasn't the first group of Santals I had met. Years ago, I was reporting on one of their communities in the Indian state of Orissa.  

There, they were fighting a corporation that was trying to evict them from their land to exploit bauxite. That battle is ongoing.

The Santals are the largest indigenous group on the Indian subcontinent.

By Andrew Thomas in Asia on May 10th, 2012

Stereotypes. Do you deliberately illustrate them, deliberately debunk them, or ignore them altogether?

It’s a tricky one. 

On TV, you have two minutes to tell often complicated stories. Sometimes pumping up a stereotype, if only to then beat it back down, is the most straightforward way to structure a story.

I was doing a piece about a new scheme to temporarily house refugees in Australians’ spare rooms.

The stereotype is that red-neck Australians are furious about a wave of grubby asylum seekers, ‘invading’ their shores.

The scheme is partly about debunking that myth to show there are Australians who care. But it’s also about changing attitudes in order to address what truth there is in the stereotype. 

Tags: Australia
By Jennifer Glasse in Asia on May 9th, 2012
Farhad Saffi, manager of Milli Boot company which faces closure [Jennifer Glasse]

I first met the Saffi family in 2010  I was in Afghanistan doing a series on building the Afghan military and NATO’s training mission was keen to show off the Milli boot factory.

Colonel John Ferrari, then the deputy commander for programmes of the training mission, said supporting the Milli boot factory was part of their Afghan First programme. 

"One of our goals is to make the Afghan security forces sustainable over time, and that means that the Afghan economy and the Afghan people can support their security forces," Ferrari said. 

Family patriarch Ihsan Saffi agreed. 

He first started making boots in Afghanistan in 1979. 

He and his family fled Afghanistan when the Taliban took over and they returned in 2002. His equipment and factories were destroyed. 

But, he decided to rebuild, and in 2010, he told me the reason was simple. 

By Sohail Rahman in Asia on May 8th, 2012
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton meets with Chief Minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata on May 7 [Reuters]

Was it just easier for Hillary Clinton to visit West Bengal in India on her way from the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka or was there more to this visit than just seeing the former British Colonial capital Kolkatta.

Meeting the state's Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was a masterstroke in diplomacy and economic necessity. Two strong women who’ve risen up through the ranks of politics over a long period of time and are making their mark domestically and internationally.

Clintons visit wasn’t so much an opportunity to swap notes with a political sister. It was a chance to meet the woman who routed the communists after their thirty five years of rule in a state thought of as never to welcoming change.

Change did occur a year ago and Mamata, 57 who spent years fighting for her vision, finally took power as the victor in regional state elections.

She aligns herself with the ruling Congress party in the coalition UPA government.

By Al Jazeera Staff in Asia on April 28th, 2012
Central Asian states have appealed for more help in securing the region's borders and cracking down on crime [AFP]

Latest events in Afghanistan as Afghan forces take control of the country's security ahead of the 2014 withdrawal date for foreign troops.

By Wayne Hay in Asia on April 23rd, 2012
Reuters photo

 

The no-show in the Myanmar parliament by the National League for Democracy was an embarrassment for all concerned.

It should have been a day for both the reformists in the government and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's party to celebrate. 

Instead, it was a flop and the people of this country are left with more questions, when what they really need are answers to their many problems.

The oath that new members of parliament have to take basically says that they must "safeguard" the constitution.

The NLD wants it changed to "respect" the constitution, because they want to amend the charter, which reserves a quarter of all seats in parliament for the military. It wants, among other things, all MPs to be democratically elected.

But relatively speaking, the oath is not new.

By Nicolas Haque in Asia on April 22nd, 2012
Photo by AFP

Human rights organisations say about 100 people, mostly political activists, have disappeared in the last year in Bangladesh.

Among them is Ilyas Ali, a former parliament member from the region of Sylhet. He was seen as a rising figure among the ranks of the opposition. Ali's wife is convinced security forces abducted him because of his political activities.

While her fears are not groundless, it is also true that local politicians are often linked to organised crime. Many of those who have disappeared had a criminal past. Ali, for example, had spent time in prison on suspicion of murder.

Adilur Rahman, a Dhaka-based human-rights lawyer, believes that the disappearances reveal the shortcomings of the justice system.

There is a two-three year backlog of cases in court and criminals often go unpunished.

"Many local politicians believe they are above the law," Rahman says. "These disappearances are a form of quick justice."

By Marga Ortigas in Asia on April 13th, 2012
PAC-3 land-to-air missiles units at the Defense Ministry in Tokyo after reports of North Korea's rocket launch [Reuters]

TOKYO, JAPAN - And just like that, it's over.  Before anyone outside of Pyongyang’s inner circle could even figure out what was going on.

At 22:39 GMT on Thursday, 7:39am local time on Friday in the Korean Peninsula and Japan, the North Koreans launched a rocket despite strong international opposition.  Or rather, it tried to launch a rocket.  

Within 30 minutes, the US was calling it a "failure", saying it had reports that the North Korean rocket broke apart almost immediately after lift-off.  It didn’t even make it past South Korean waters.

Compared to its allies the United States and South Korea, Japan took much longer to react to developments. A reality that has not gone down too well with many in Japan.

By Prerna Suri in Asia on April 13th, 2012

A typical day at the Wagah border, usually ends with a show of muscle. Giant, hulking soldiers stride defiantly on the ceremonial border separating India from Pakistan. 

With each menacing step, they  confront each other, while their citizens’ cheer on from the stands. It’s a sort of diplomatic haka dance played out in front of hundreds, finally culminating in the two countries flags being unfurled and folded. 

Today, April 13, it’s different.

Instead of a hyper nationalistic performance, there’s a whiff of hope - and yes, even peace - in the air. And what’s bringing this change is good old fashioned business.

Tags: Pakistan

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