Asia Weekly

Asia's for Obama, but for how long?

Foreign audiences don't care if the Democratic or Republican party wins the next US election because both parties are "war mongers" and "destabilizers...with their evil machine," writes L Jayasooriya in the Asian Tribune. It's the candidates who matter, and more specifically Barack Obama. For this reason, the second US presidential debate proceeded with the "largest jury in human history" watching. People in "oppressed nations" have it "firmly implanted" in their heads that Obama will be a vehicle for change around the world.

Money and the military

When it comes to ridding Indonesia's army of corruption, change comes slowly, says The Economist. A major obstacle is the military's involvement "in all sorts of businesses, legal and illegal." Under the army-backed Suharto regime, military officials were expected to self-fund many of their operations.

Into thin air

When Lhamo Tso's filmmaker husband told her that their family would have to leave Tibet, she never once questioned his thinking, says Dinah Gardner. And she never questioned him when he said he was going back to Tibet - alone. But she did wonder if her husband, Dhondup Wangchen, would ever return. He was secretly involved in a film project documenting Tibetan attitudes about China's hosting of the Olympics. Dhondup interviewed anti-Chinese Tibetans on the mainland and sent footage to Switzerland to be edited.

Sex and the city

This year's election for Bangkok governor was a sexy affair, says Surasak Glahan in the Bangkok Post. The controversy started when former massage parlor king Chuwit Kamolvisit announced his candidacy, and erupted when he elbowed a television reporter in the face after an interview that wasn't to his liking.

I read it in state-run media

"Lee is despicable human scum whom no one can trust or deal with."

‑ Korean Central News Agency on South Korean leader Lee Myung-bak

"China has achieved the basic human rights.

Subway do's and don'ts

Anxious to rein in harried salarymen and women, the Tokyo government is publishing a monthly poster series discouraging improper behaviour on subways.

Blood on the streets

Violent anti-government protests in Thailand left two dead, more than 450 injured, and the country's democratic prospects in jeopardy as opposition leaders struck another blow to the government. The worst...

Exploiting a suicide

Using actress Choi Jin-sil's recent suicide as justification to make "cyber insults" a crime is "crude and inhumane," says the Hankyoreh. The Lee Myung-bak administration has proposed expanding the current "real name confirmation" program to give authorities more Internet censorship power, drawing on allegations that Choi's suicide was provoked by vicious Internet comments.

Wall' of notes is killing Asian tourism

The travel advisory note, a "small [and] portable weapon of mass destruction," is the West's preferred method of inflicting maximum damage on Asian countries, says Nury Vittachi. The "deadly items" are constructed in "secret labs" by officials known as "risk assessment experts," quips Vittachi.