Uzbekistan Hosts Intl. Mass Media Meeting

TASHKENT--The Center for Political Studies (CPS) in Uzbekistan recently hosted an all-day international conference on mass media and civil society, which compared how the mass media is structured and functions in this Central Asian nation and other countries.  Delegates from the host country and nine other nations spoke.  Other Asian nations were India, Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Japan and China (represented by the government news agency Xinhua).  The rest were Germany, Russia, the U.S. and France.  CPS describes itself as “an independent, nongovernmental, nonprofit organization” which promotes the development of social and political science in the Central Asian country.  Mr. R. Makhmudov, head of the CPS Project Coordination Group, said one of the center’s main purposes is to “carry out applied research and work on projects in the fields of regional security, economic development and international cooperation,” and to “prepare proposals and recommendations for the Uzbek government and other institutions.”  CPS director Gulnara Karimova, daughter of Uzbek President Islam Karimov, opened and moderated parts of the conference. 

Krygyz Universities Get NGO Law Course, Text

BISHKEK—The Washington-based International Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ICNL) has introduced a new course on Non-Governmental Organization Law into the curricula of Kyrgyzstan universities beginning in 2004.  The center says the International University of Kyrgyzstan (IUK) and the Specialist Preparation Institution (SPI) were among the first universities in this Central Asian country to include the NGO law course in their academic curriculum.  This year, the course was taught at the Kyrgyz State Law Academy, the National University and the Kyrgyz Russian Slavic University.  Kyrgyzstan was part of the former Soviet Union until the USSR’s dissolution in 1991.  In addition to training teachers and developing curricula, the ICNL has also initiated the development of a textbook on NGO law, whose authors include Kyrgyzstan’s leading NGO law experts. 

Indian Bishop: Faithful Should be Peacemakers

AGRA—Monsignor Oswald Gracias, Archbishop of Agra and president of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India of Latin Rite, has told  AsiaNews (but not this one) that the International Day of Peace called by the United Nations “is an invitation to the global community to build peace day after day through practical action, not rhetoric.” Reporter Nirmana Carvalho reported that the bishop also said that, “Peace involves mutual respect and confidence between peoples and nations and goes hand in hand with justice.”  And in what could be taken as aimed at certain Islamic groups, he said, “From the point of view of religion, everyone who believes in God should be a peacemaker.”  India, he said, “has a particular situation.  It has a rich legacy of harmony among different religious and ethnic groups and this must be protected.”

WHO Hits Beijing for Failure to Report Health Emergencies

AUCKLAND—China has failed to organize itself to immediately report public health emergencies such as a pandemic flu to the World Health Organization (WHO) as 12 nations in the Western Pacific have done, according to a report from a conference here on Asia-Pacific Strategy for Emerging Diseases.   About 150 health ministers and officials from 37 WHO member states and areas in the Western Pacific attending the New Zealand conference were urged to submit the names of their national contact points.  WHO’s regional advisor for communicable disease surveillance and response, Takeshi Kasai of Japan, said Beijing has not done so.  Meanwhile, Hong Kong, a “special administrative region” of China, is demanding to be able to report such emergencies on its own, AsiaNews/SCMP reports.  Taiwan’s membership in the WHO has been repeatedly blocked by Beijing.  Under international health regulations adopted in 2005, nations are urged to designate a national “focal point” to communicate with the WHO to “ensure a more rapid global response” to public health emergencies.  Beginning in June 2007, these regulations will be enforced, making the guidelines legally binding on all member states.  How China’s communist government responds to this remains to be seen.  AsiaNews said that China “is one of the countries worst hit by the bird flu pandemic and has been repeatedly chastised the WHO for delays and providing partial information as well as for not allowing WHO experts to intervene immediately.

Suicide High in Buddha’s Birthplace; Catholics Want to Help

LUMBINI—In this Nepalese birthplace of Buddha, the apostle on violence, one person commits suicide every week, says Prakash Dubey of AsiaNews.  “Poverty, but also the decline in religious values, is the cause,” he reported, adding that “Violent Maoist ideology is taking their place.”  This trend is beginning to worry Nepalese religious leaders for whom poverty and illiteracy, but also the loss of spiritual values, “are at the root of a social malaise.”  A Buddhist monk, Bhante Abhinav, told the news service most suicidees, including women, are middle aged.  “It is shocking that people are committing suicide in the birthplace of Lord Buddha who preached peace and shunned every kind of violence against anyone,” he said.  But Father Gibbi, from the bordering Indian Catholic diocese of Gorakhpur who is involved in Christian-Buddhist interfaith dialogue, is not so sure poverty and illiteracy are the major causes of suicides in the region.  “The truth lies in the loss of Buddhist values which were the bedrock of life and culture in region,” the priest said.  He noted that in the past 10 years, the Lumbini region has become the “sanctuary of the Maoist ideology of violence” which has ripped apart the area’s age-old Buddhist social-cultural mosaic.  Buddhist leaders, Father Gibbi said, have been short-sighted before the eclipse of Buddhist values as the Maoist cult of brazen violence took over.”  And this, he added, has been made worse by the region’s prevailing “economic and social anarchy…”  Without faith and spirituality to help people cope with daily problems,” he added, people “fall into the vortex of suicide.”  But on the bright said, Father Gibbi said he was happy that “local Buddhist monks are now willing to tackle the problem” and that “The Catholic Church is ready to help them in promoting a culture of life.”

Word Bank: Less Poverty, Greater Inequality in East Asia

 MANILA—The Philippines and East Asia have “made progress” in the fight against poverty, according to a report released at the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank here, but  must still deal with “growing social inequalities, corruption and environmental degradation.”  The report, An East Asian Renaissance: Ideas for Growth, is signed by Homi Kharas, the World Bank chief economist for East Asia and the Pacific; and Indermit Gill, an economic adviser.  While they note that the region had “championed poverty reduction,” but still faces “urgent challenges like inequality, social cohesion, corruption and environmental degradation.”  The bank report estimates that 585 million East Asians are still poor---about 375 million in China, 100 million in Indonesia, 40 million in Vietnam, 35 million in the Philippines and about 30 million in the other countries of the region. 

Catholics Concerned about Violence in Sri Lanka

COLOMBO—Catholic church leaders in Sri Lanka are “increasingly alarmed” by the escalation in “killings, abductions, disappearances and other forms of violence” in the island nation’s northwest region, according to a news report.  The Archbishop of Colombo Oswald Gomis said in a statement that he condemns the many such incidents that have occurred in the last few months “with serious detriment to sacred human life, the peaceful co-existence between the various ethnic communities and the day-to-day living of the people.”  At a meeting of the                                       diocesan Council of Priests, members remembered with “deep regret” the disappearance of a fellow priest, Father Thiruchelvam Jim Brown, and his missionary assistant, Vimalathas.  The men disappeared August 20 in an area under the control of the Sri Lankan Navy and have not been heard of since. 

Taiwan President Meets American Diplomat in Guam

TAIPEI—The President of the Republic of China (Taiwan), Chen Shui-bian,  recently visited the American Pacific territory of Guam and met with Ambassador Raymond Burghardt, head of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), the U.S. unofficial embassy in the country.  Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported that President Chen said his administration’s “constitutional re-engineering” will improve Taiwan’s government.  He also told Ambassador Burghardt that Taiwan is committed to improving its defense capabilities, including upgrading its military arsenal.  China Reform Monitor, the American Foreign Policy Council review of Chinese government actions, noted that Washington has offered to sell Taiwan eight diesel-electric submarines, 12 P-3C Orion anti-submarine aircraft and six Patriot PAC II anti-missile batteries.