Archive for category Asia
Hong Kong
Posted by Aaron in Asia, Photography on December 23rd, 2009
Two Talibans
The New York Times published this article by Scott Shane about a month ago, but I think it continues to be relevant now, as Obama just announced his new/revised Afghanistan policy of the “surge” (which another commentator mentioned is the war strategy formerly known as “escalation”.)
The article essentially lays out how there are two different groups called “Taliban” that the U.S. is fighting in Afghanistan, with quite different motivations and constituencies:
At the core of the tangle are the two Taliban movements, Afghan and Pakistani. They share an ideology and a dominant Pashtun ethnicity, but they have such different histories, structures and goals that the common name may be more misleading than illuminating, some regional specialists say.
Just finished: Chinese Lessons
Just finished reading John Pomfret’s Chinese Lessons. Suggested by my dad, it’s a wonderful book for those interested in how China is changing and has changed over the past three decades. Pomfret recounts the stories of his Chinese classmates when he was an exchange student at one of China’s top universities in the early 1980s. Stories of the Cultural Revolution can shatter the heart but also provide insight into the character of the Chinese people today. Pomfret, who was one of the first Americans to enter China after it normalized relations in 1979 and was among the first to be kicked out in 1989 for witnessing the Tiananmen incident firsthand, then travels back to China for a class reunion to catch up with his classmates and observes how the last 20 years have changed China and them.
Maybe now I’ll have time for some National Geographic magazine reading. The last issue I’ve finished is probably April.
“How Somali Pirates Could Take Obama Hostage”
As far as titles go, this one is pretty good. The notion of the president of the United States taken hostage by thugs on the open seas is too good to resist — how could you not want to read the article from the Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI)? It reminds me of the many events we hold here at the Center: we try to come up with provocative or unusual titles for what are often quite dry topics. Not necessarily boring, mind you…and sometimes very interesting. But they are often quite humorless. So I appreciate a good title when I see one.
Of course, the article is referring to how pirates can hostage Obama’s presidential agenda, not the person himself:
The notion that an American president cannot permit hostages or POWs to remain in captivity without suffering a significant political penalty is exceptionally dangerous—gravely injuring two presidencies in succession. … Otherwise, when a Somali pirate detains an American sailor and holds him captive in Mogadishu, Obama may find that his administration is also being held hostage.
Still, that title is pretty arresting.
U.S.-Asia facts
Did you know:
• 93% of Arkansas’s international students come from Asia
• Mississippi’s “Asian alone” population grew 87% during 2004-07, fastest in the nation
• Louisiana has exports to Asia of $2,547 per capita, fourth in the country
These are from the new brochure for Asia Matters for America. The brochure is coming soon, but the website is available now.
Balance of trade
Posted by Aaron in Asia, Infographics on December 24th, 2008
And now a sneak peak into a project I’m working on right now. This is my first attempt at showing balance of trade between the United States and Asia.
US-Asia balance of trade (click to enlarge)
I like the concept but I think it still needs some work. The data I have is only from one month but I’d prefer to have an entire year. I also want to be able to show some change over time. I could obviously have two stacked charts, but I’m thinking of other ways to show the change.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!
U.S. Exports to Asia
Posted by Aaron in Asia, Infographics on December 10th, 2008
This is an annotated map I produced for the Asia Matters for America website:
The lines in the map above represent U.S. merchandise exports to Asia, by U.S. state and Asian country in 2007. The thinnest lines represent exports of greater than U.S.$2.5 billion; mid-thickness lines, greater than $5 billion; thickest lines, greater than $10 billion.