No progress on resolution of Mendoza hostage massacre incident; HK group not happy

After a year of "investigations" the Philippine Government has so far nothing much to show as far as progress in the resolution of the August 23, 2010 Mendoza hostage massacre tragedy. Tse Chi-kin, the older brother of tour guide Masa Tse Ting-chunn who died in the incident, was quoted in The Standard as observing how "It has been almost one year and the Philippine government has done absolutely nothing to settle this case".

USD23.6b in US securities held by PH downgraded from AAA to AA+

Philippine President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquinos III's "top economic advisers" are monitoring the effects of the downgrade of US debt from AAA to AA+ by rating agency Standard and Poor -- the first time in its history since the rating scheme was introduced. Impact of this on US consumers' disposable income (if interest rates increase as an outcome of the higher risk perception attracted by US debt) presents the obvious possibility that the volume of remittances sent by Filipino-Americans to their relatives in the Philippines will be hit hard.

China and the Philippines rattling sabres and playing the PR game over the Spratly Islands

In the dispute between the Philippines and China over the Spratly Islands, both sides are playing the victim card. According to the Inquirer.net Editor, Philippine President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III pleaded "no contest" to a possible confrontation citing China's "great advantage" over the Philippines in terms of military might.

For its part, Gong Jianhua writing for the China Daily highlighted China's being "not a formidable sea power" and that...

Breaking news: Osama Bin Laden killed in a Pakistan ground operation

United States President Barrack Obama went live on TV from the White House this morning and announced that a ground operation conducted last week in the outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan resulted in the killing of most wanted terrorist leader Osama Bin Laden. Bin Laden was reportedly holed up in a mansion (some reports say a "compound") when a "small team of Americans" conducted the assault acting on information based on US intelligence. They have taken custody of Bin Laden's remains. Contrary to a report coming from Al Jazeera, Bin Laden was not killed by a drone strike.

National Intelligence report: Philippines at risk of rice crisis

A rice crisis looms in the Philippines according to a report prepared by the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA). A shortage in worldwide supply of rice along with rising costs of essential commodities in the country are seen to be possible future sources of domestic unrest, according to the report.

No need to panic over nuclear meltdowns in Japan

The air is understandably thick with fear, as the on-going crises surrounding the damage sustained by Japanese nuclear power plants resulting from the recent monster earthquake unfolds. The prospect of a catastrophic reactor meltdown and the possible release, as a result, of radioactive material into the atmosphere was described in an early news report as a disaster that could possibly affect a large swath of the Asia-Pacific region. Images of the plight of survivors of nuclear disasters such as the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II and the 1986 Chernobyl disaster tend to come up whenever the word "radiation" is heard or read.

Philippines sends warplanes to investigate Chinese harassment of Filipino oil explorers

The Philippine military sent two warplanes to investigate reports of Chinese patrol ships harassing a local oil exploration ship in a region off Palawan near the disputed Spratly Islands known as Reed Bank. According to Philippine officials, Reed Bank is within Philippine territory. The warplanes were scrambled after the passengers and crew of the ship -- a team of oil explorers hired by the Philippine government -- radioed the nearest post of the Armed Forces of the Philippines' Western Command. According to field reports, the crew of the Chinese patrol boats had ordered the exploration team to leave. Deployment of the planes was described by Philippine military commander Lt. Gen. Juancho Sabban as a "surveillance" mission.

Doom and gloom for Filipinos: unemployable refugee OFWs and rising energy costs

So much poetry was waxed as Filipinos, harbouring presumptuous paternalistic sentiment, doted upon the supposedly fledgling "people power" revolutionaries making waves in the Middle East. Trouble is, reality crept into the picture beneath the lines-of-sight of the chattering classes. That the livelihoods of a horde of Overseas Foreign Workers (OFWs) deployed there were at risk was an obvious reality that simply flew over the heads of would-be Filipino poets. That reality is now bearing down on the hapless little islands nation of 100 million as it faces the virtually impossible task of absorbing an additional mass of tens of thousands of warm bodies into its flaccid domestic economy.

China film industry: more reliance on internal substance and less dependence on foreign intellectual capital

The Chinese film industry more than quadrupled in size from being worth $250 million in 2005 to an industry raking in $1.5 billion in revenues in 2010. This has left America's mostly cash-strapped Hollywood gearing up to cash in on the rapidly growing Chinese market. China's central government sees a well-developed film industry as an essential ingredient to building a consumerist society. It has so far invested in serious infrastructure to back that goal opening up to three new theatres everyday. At present there are 6,000 screens across China most of which are equipped with modern digital projection facilities.

Taiwan had always been a Filipino livelihood disaster waiting to happen

Just right after high-fives are exchanged by Philippine President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III and Vice President Jejomar Binay over the stay on the execution granted by Beijing on three convicted Filipino drug mules, the jobs of more than 80,000 law-abiding Filipinos in Taiwan suddenly come under an even darker shadow cast by an axe. Taiwan is reportedly stonewalling on a demand for an apology from the Philippine Government after 14 Taiwanese nationals were deported to Mainland China.

Vice President Binay's excellent Beijing adventure - what's in it for Filipinos?

Philippine Vice President Jejomar Binay gets a big fat media-exposure-building presidential high five for "successfully securing a reprieve for the three Filipinos facing execution in China". This is a pat on the back for an "achievement" that at best hopes that "the Chinese government would eventually grant the appeal that their sentence be commuted to a penalty lesser than death".

Taiwan top attaché recalled as Philippine Government continues to dither on diplomatic row

As the diplomatic row with Taiwan over the deportation of 14 Taiwanese and 10 Chinese nationals in December to Mainland China worsens, opening of any high-level communication channels between the Philippine and Taiwanese governments is yet to be seen. The deportees are all accused of being involved in a scam to swindle mainlanders out of millions of dollars. According to an Inquirer.net report, the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO), which represents the Philippines in Taiwan -- a country whose independence the Philippine Government does not recognise -- said that "[the] Taiwanese were deported to China because the victims were Chinese".

How China is making globalisation REALLY work to its advantage

Consider China's approach to development. It takes a long-term view -- a strategy that aims to effect a sustainable outcome. The cornerstone of this strategy is a concept that goes by the term "indigenous innovation". In the report "China's Drive for 'Indigenous Innovation': A Web of Industrial Policies" commissioned by the United States Chamber of Commerce, the scope and extent of industrial policies being formulated and rolled out by the Chinese Government to both fast-track and secure its rise as the dominant global economic and industrial powerhouse of the future is assessed.

Malaysian research institute releases dengue-fighting mosquitoes into forest

In an experiment aimed at finding a solution to the ravages of dengue fever, the Institute for Medical Research, a facility run by the Malaysian government, released into a forest 6,000 genetically-engineered mosquitoes. These were all male mosquitoes that would mate with female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes and either prevent them from having offspring or spawn shorter-lived offspring.

Egypt: the trouble with being too geeky about protest movements

A brewing protest movement in Egypt was reportedly "fueled by blogs and social media sites like Twitter and Facebook". Apparently, a perceived dependence on these sites to disseminate information vital to the cause -- and presumably underwrite its success -- is what is behind social media chatter expressing "indignation" over the shutting of the Net out of Egypt. Indeed, social media geeks make it sound like the shut down of the Internet in Egypt is such a rotten development for the brewing anti-government movement there.

Looks like governments are the same all over the world - big crybabies

Singapore political blog site The Online Citizen (TOC) had its wings clipped by the Singapore government after being reclassified ("gazetted") as a "political website" and therefore subject to "rules that govern other (normal) political organisations—like parties". The Economist reports in its AsiaView blog site.