Focusing on Asia in the 4Q of 2021

Philippine President #RodrigoDuterte announced his retirement from politics which came as quite a surprise to many folks thought he would  pull a "Putin" and run for VP to circumvent the constitutional limit of a single six-year Presidential term. His withdrawal paves the way for a possible presidential run by his daughter, Sara Duterte, mayor of Davao city, who has topped independent public opinion surveys on who should lead the country next.

Earlier blog  Asia-in-2018

Oct 6, 2021

Bongbong Marcos, whose father Ferdinand was chased from office in a  revolt in 1986 and died in exile in Hawaii three years later, is running for President in PI.

Nov 3, 2021

India’s Defense Ministry ran a successful test launch of the Agni-5, the country’s longest-range missile, which is capable of reaching Beijing, China,  It appears the June 2020  bloody Himalayan clash  hasn't been forgotten. 

Nov 26, 2021

Riots in the Solomon Islands over a switch of allegiance from Taiwan to China that occurred two years ago. A bipartisan delegation from the US House of Representatives visited Taiwan this week.

Possible boycott of the Beijing Olympics looming.  Can any of this make a dent in the power of Communist China?

Dec 22, 2021

The citizens of Taiwan don't want to be the next Hong Kong. Yesterday they backed the DPP, the ruling party, on four referendum questions and rejected the Nationalist Party which wants closer ties with Communist China. Let's hope Biden is paying attention and stops his habit of forgetting our friends.

Jan 25, 2022

Who needs guns?

 Two gangs from rival ethnic groups in the province of West Papua used machetes, arrows, and Molotov cocktails to settle a quarrel. The fighting sparked a fire killing 12 in a nightclub.

Feb 5, 2022

Mynamar(Burma), military junta will likely repress its country despite how bad things get and resemble a non -nuclear version of North Korea. Child begging at traffic lights has proliferated to the level that drivers are afraid to stop at traffic lights.

Feb 25, 2022

Filipino police said about 1,100 protesters gathered on the same Manila highway where millions assembled 36 years ago to end the Ferdinand Marcos' dictatorship. They had a clever chant

"Bring back the loot, not the thief" and held a banner "No to Marcos/Duterte2022" asking voters to not elect Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr.

March 17, 2022

A Japanese maritime patrol detected Russian amphibious warfare ships, which can carry dozens of tanks, other military vehicles, and hundreds of troops, and monitored them as they passed west from the Pacific Ocean to the Sea of Japan through the narrow Tsuruga Strait. Possible destination Europe!

April 11, 2022

 Brain-drain continues in Hong Kong . Executives continue to depart while admission rates in several international schools have tumbled.  The European Chamber of Commerce's latest survey showed that nearly half of the businesses were considering moving elsewhere next year. 

Many market traders are moving to Singapore which is pushing up residential rental costs there.

April 15, 2022

Philippine President  Duterte vetoed a bill that would require social media users to register their legal identities and phone numbers. For now, so much for all those who say Duterte is a dictator.

April 23, 2022

Hong Kong will allow international travelers for first time since 2020.

Ok, hurry up and visit! Keep your mouth shut and restrain yourself online, and you may be able to leave without being imprisoned.

May 3, 2022

 Cambodia's PM Hun Sen urged Myanmar's top general to allow a special Southeast Asian envoy access to ousted and imprisoned leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

May 10, 2022

Thank you, President Reagan : Biden's State Dept has not backed off the Six Reagan-era security assurances(1982) given to Taiwan, which the United States declassified in 2020. Two key items:

USA has not set a date for ending arms sales to Taiwan, nor agreed to prior consultation with Beijing on such sales.

June 7, 2022

For anyone who has followed Japan's defense spending post WW2, this is a remarkable step. In an annual economic policy document Japan for the first time mentioned a time frame of five years for a large defense expenditure increase and a concern about threats faced by Taiwan.

June 21, 2022

I had to re-read this a few times. Protesters stormed a stadium in Maldives where more than 150 people were taking part in an event celebrating International Day of Yoga, They brandished placards proclaiming that yoga was against the tenets of Islam.

Islam is the state religion in the Maldives, a group of islands in the Indian Ocean.

July 8, 2022

 Tetsuya Yamagami told police he was dissatisfied with Shinzo Abe, a former PM of Japan, and wanted to kill him. He accomplished that using a home-made gun while Abe was campaigning for a seat in Parliament. Japan has some of the strictest gun laws in the world.

July 18, 2022

Biden "handed" Afghanistan to the Taliban in August, 2021 and girls above the sixth grade have yet to enter a classroom again. Not a word from AOC or Pelosi! 

Aug 13, 2022

While Nepal tries to maintain diplomatic neutrality and /or remain non-aligned, its nationals are allowed to be recruited into the armed forces of India and the United Kingdom. 

Sept 9, 2022

 U.S. Army's Pacific commander, General Charles Flynn, said he is in no rush to withdraw rocket launchers and other equipment from the Japanese Ground Self Defense Force base on Amami Oshima at the edge of the East China Sea. It will remain there until the next joint drills. I'm sure the Commies in Peking ain't smiling.

Dec 19, 2022

Hostage talks start after Pakistani Taliban militants seize interrogators and demand safe passage to Afghanistan. Let's go Brandon!

Dec 21, 2022

The Taliban released two Americans detained in Afghanistan on the same day its officials banned Afghan women from attending universities.

Dec 22, 2022

Nepal is set to release Sobhraj, the Serpent, who began traveled the world in the early 1970s, befriending, robbing, and killing young backpackers as he made his way along the Hippie Trail from Europe to Southeast Asia. In prison in 2008, he married Nihita Biswas, who is 44 years his junior and the daughter of his Nepalese lawyer. His health is shaky, but I wonder if other countries will pursue charges against him.

Nothing is true, everything is permitted Part2

  Jan 14, 2020: I mentioned this here.   https://vaporvents.blogspot.com/2013/05/nothing-is-true-everything-is-permitted.html Watch out folks! A Swiss judge, Judge Philippe #Colelough, said due to the imminent danger of the climate crisis the students ,who played tennis inside a Credit Suisse branch in 2018 in protest of fossil fuel investments, were not guilty of resisting arrest and refusing to pay fines. Yep, everything is permitted.

 Today September 24,2020 Swiss Judge, Christophe Maillard, reversed  that ruling. 

 Sept 25

You can bet this is headed for a court challenge. Anyone who violates the Boulder County, Colorado Health Dept order: whether indoor or outdoors, anyone aged 18 to 22 years old will not be allowed to gather for two weeks and can be fined up to $5,000 and sentenced up to 18 months in jail.

Nov 5

 #robertfisk , a highly praised journalist who interviewed Bin Laden three times, died yesterday. He received a great deal of criticism for denying that Assad used chemical warfare on his own people in Syria.  I continue to wonder about a guy who said there's a misconception that journalists can be objective. I guess trying to be objective wasn't worth the effort. 

And later said a foreign correspondent needs to be neutral and unbiased on the side of those who suffer, whoever they may be. That's a curious way to define neutral. It appears he liked to pick and choose which powerful people or groups to monitor and which to befriend. 

Nov 6

#OliviaPierson 's , a New Zealand author, book was pulled from Moby Ape, an online store, after she tweeted criticism of Mahuta's, the FM, traditional facial Maori tattoo. She didn't back down and added,  facial tattoos were ugly on "anybody, white, brown or black". Censorship rolls on!

Nov 30

At least eight prisoners were killed and more than 50 injured in clashes with guards over the rise in Covid-19 infections at #Mahara prison in Sri Lanka. I guess some the inmates wanted to die faster???

Dec 21

If you're still not convinced that  mainland China  intends to put the clamps on #hongkong . Hong Kong's top court  ruled that  it was legal for the city government to invoke a colonial-era law to ban face masks at demonstrations and public meetings during the height of the 2019 pro-democracy protests. This mean they can ban masks now during Covid-19 ,even though they have mandated mask wearing in public in 2020. Wrap your brain around that!!!!!!

jan 5, 2021

Singapore has admitted data from its Covid contact tracing programs can be accessed by police which reverses earlier privacy assurances. So much for maintaining public trust during a pandemic. The app name #tracetogether is laughable. How about jailed together?

Jan 26, 2021

I'm enjoying this while it lasts:  The UK is treating the EU delegation only as representatives of an international organization and not granting it the same status as diplomats representing sovereign nations.

Feb 6, 2021

A tiny bit of sanity crept into SCOTUS,  who gave some relief to California church attendees. Justice Gorsuch “If Hollywood may host a studio audience or film a singing competition while not a single soul may enter California’s churches, synagogues, and mosques, something has gone seriously awry.”

Then you have Justice Kagan in dissent : "the court had no expertise in public health and shouldn’t displace the judgment of elected officials and public-health specialists battling the pandemic."  Wow, she thinks elected officials and Fauci-like flakes are smart about medicine.

Feb 20, 2021

 Kouchner wrote that many in  #Duhamel’s (her step father) circle knew of his abuse of her twin brother, who was 14 at the time but said nothing. The brother didn't file a complaint in 2011 , but this case has shown a light on France  because  there is no presumption of coercion if a minor is involved.

“This silence wasn’t just cowardice. Some among them were delighted to keep quiet,” Kouchner wrote. “On the Left, like in the bourgeoisie, ‘we wash our dirty laundry in the family.’

March 14, 2021

Dear Nanny Pelosi: While you keep the National Guard  in DC to protect your gavel, environmentalists and Antifa members get violent and shout F the USA outside a federal courthouse in Portland , Oregon. Hey, but I get it Nancy, the folks in Oregon have more "legitimate" causes so  you're silent on their crimes and the work of the DHS police in containing those hoodlums. #pelosi

May 24, 2021

"This was a case of state-sponsored hijacking... state-sponsored piracy," Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary. 

Belarus (Air Traffic Control)  claimed a potential security threat on board Flight FR4978 and diverted it east to Minsk shortly before it reached the Lithuanian border. Police came and took a Belarussian journalist, #RomanProtasevich, away when passengers disembarked.

May 26, 2021

More on the sky-jacking: Belarus claims it acted according to international protocols after receiving correspondence from Hamas  that a bomb aboard was set to detonate over Vilnius, but Hamas hasn’t responded to requests for comment.

Meanwhile most of Europe is looking  to re-route all air travel to not fly in Belarus air space.

Feb 18, 2022

"It's a 2,500-year-old structure of violence. It's way older than white supremacy," #ShaistaPatel, a professor of Critical Muslim Studies at Cal responding to California State University system's recognition of caste within its nondiscrimination policy. However, some faculty fear that it could prompt discrimination against South Asian students, particularly Hindus. Another reminder that you can't solve complex cultural issues with a stroke of a pen. In the history of the world a lot of things have been tacitly permitted regardless of any existing codes of conduct.

Feb 21, 2022

And the hits keep coming:  Jean-Luc Brunel, a former modeling agent and associate of Jeffrey Epstein accused of supplying the financier with victims, was found hanging in his cell at the La Santé prison in Paris . Thirty months ago Epstein was found dead in his cell in a federal jail in New York.

July 16, 2022

Thus, in February 1911 the Bulgarians received the controversial church, which made it a historical symbol and proof of the Bulgarian ethnic character of Dojran and the entire region.

July 16, 2022

St. Elijah is a Renaissance Orthodox church in Dojran, North Macedonia that was destroyed during WW1 and recently renovated by the Institute for the Protection of Monuments of Culture and Museum in Strumica. It has not been consecrated and recently consented to onsite poetry readings and concerts of chamber bands performing classical music. What it got last month was a nude techno party that appeared on social media.

Sept, 26, 2022

Cardinal Joseph Zen and five other defendants are being prosecuted for the offense of failing to properly register the now-defunct 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund that helped pay medical and legal bills for arrested protesters during the 2019 anti-government demonstrations in Hong Kong. The Vatican's response was to express concern, and one could say it's hanging Zen out to dry.

July 8, 2023

Leslie Van Houten, a Charles Manson cohort who was convicted in the LaBianca murders in 1971, will likely be paroled in weeks. She was originally given a death sentence, and now she's just a nice, old lady.💢