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Gautaman Bhaskaran

For Gautaman Bhaskaran's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:

COMMENTARY / World

Feb 28, 2004

Rivalry threatens Sri Lankan ceasefire

COLOMBO -- There are growing fears that the recent political turmoil in Sri Lanka will seriously hamper the internationally supported effort to end the two decades of ethnic strife between the majority Buddhist Sinhalese and the minority Hindu Tamils.

COMMENTARY / World

Jan 10, 2004

Dialogue raises hope on the subcontinent

MADRAS, India -- Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee have met and shaken hands many times. But when they shook hands in Islamabad at the recent summit of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, the world heaved a sigh of relief. There was hope that India and Pakistan -- armed with nuclear weapons and having come dangerously close to conflict as recently as 2002 -- would resolve their differences over Kashmir through peaceful means.

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 9, 2003

Pressures push Pakistan toward ceasefire

MADRAS, India -- According to an old Persian proverb, the man who digs a well ends up at the bottom of it. Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, may well be such a gravedigger.

COMMENTARY / World

Nov 8, 2003

Double blow to peace efforts in Sri Lanka

MADRAS, India -- The Sri Lankan peace process is under serious threat. Worse, there is a constitutional crisis provoked by President Chandrika Kumaratunga's dismissal of three key ministers, including the island nation's defense chief.

COMMENTARY / World

Sep 18, 2003

India, Israel ally against Islamic terror

MADRAS, India -- India has now realized that it needs a new strategy for fighting terror on its soil. More importantly, it now understands that it requires new allies as well. When Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon flew into New Delhi recently, his visit signaled a turning point in India's foreign policy. It also indicated New Delhi's resolve to set aside traditional loyalties and forge fresh ones.

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 25, 2003

New Zealand struggles to stay nuclear-free

MADRAS, India -- One of the first things that strikes a visitor to New Zealand are the innumerable signboards that proudly proclaim the small Pacific island country to be nuclear-free. Even the common man on the streets of Wellington or Christchurch or Auckland will tell you New Zealand fiercely protects its nuclear-free status.

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 22, 2003

Let Sri Lankan premier deal with Tigers

MADRAS, India -- The Sri Lankan peace process is under serious threat. Fifteen months after the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's government began negotiations, differences between the two have snowballed into an ugly confrontation.

COMMENTARY / World

May 7, 2003

Vajpayee overture boosts hopes for peace in South Asia

MADRAS, India -- At a time when the world has given up hope of peace between India and Pakistan, essentially because of fighting over Kashmir, New Delhi sprang a surprise. Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee told Parliament some days ago that he was restoring diplomatic relations with Islamabad.

COMMENTARY / World

May 3, 2003

India: fertile ground for SARS virus

MADRAS, India -- The virus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome just loves crowds. And India has crowds. Although there have been relatively few cases of SARS so far, fears of a pandemic are real.

COMMENTARY / World

Apr 5, 2003

Pakistan ratchets up tension in Kashmir

MADRAS, India -- At a time when the world needs it the least, India and Pakistan appear to be inching toward armed conflict.

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 29, 2003

Bovine absurdity is taking India by storm

MADRAS, India -- The Indian cow is not mad. But it has enough clout to cause insanity among the country's political classes, and even the masses.

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 5, 2003

Sri Lankan president must grasp the olive branch

MADRAS, India -- The five rounds of talks in as many months between the Sri Lanka government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or LTTE, are perhaps the most significant development in South Asia in almost two decades. The discussions began after the two sides called a truce.

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 2, 2003

Ethnic cleansing by India's nationalists

MADRAS, India -- A homicide is the murder of an individual. A genocide is the murder of an ethnicity. The purpose of a genocide is beyond doubt: cleansing society of what the powers that be consider undesirable. History's most famous -- or infamous -- purge was carried out in Nazi Germany. Adolf Hitler sent 6 million Jews to the gas chamber in the evil hope of ridding his nation of an "inferior race." He believed in Aryan supremacy.

COMMENTARY / World

Feb 16, 2003

Profits perpetuate horrors of child labor

MADRAS, India -- There is Dickensian distress in India, where child labor persists despite a law and a court order. Fifteen million children below 14 continue to work in the most horrific of conditions in blatant violation of the Indian Supreme Court ruling, which had called for the enforcement of the Child Labor Act, passed a decade earlier.

COMMENTARY / World

Jan 29, 2003

Mother Teresa: a shining example for all of humanity

MADRAS, India -- In a time of harrowing sectarian strife, the Vatican has shown that there is an ocean of compassion and tolerance in the highest form of faith.

COMMENTARY / World

Jan 13, 2003

How long will U.S. ignore Pakistan threat?

MADRAS, India -- The world entered the New Year with a greater fear of a nuclear catastrophe. Adding to the alarm over North Korea's disclosure that it possesses atomic weapons was Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's assertion that he was ready to use them during heightened tension with India early last year.

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 28, 2002

BJP hardliners besiege Indian secularism

MADRAS, India -- Indian secularism is in danger. Last spring the western state of Gujarat, perhaps the most economically prosperous region in the country, was the site of the nation's worst communal carnage since the days of partition in 1947 when the British divided the subcontinent into India and Pakistan.

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 8, 2002

Fellow Tibetans threatening Dalai Lama

MADRAS, India -- Buddha taught peace to mankind, but his followers in India appear to have embarked on a path of violence. In the northern Indian town of Dharamshala, the headquarters of the Tibetan government in exile, posters now threaten to kill the Dalai Lama.

COMMENTARY / World

Nov 16, 2002

Indians starve while grain is exported

MADRAS -- Hunger still stalks India. Fifty-five years after the British gave the country its freedom, 200 million Indians -- a fifth of the population -- still go to bed hungry. What makes this situation even more tragic is the fact that the government plans to export million tons of rice and wheat.

COMMENTARY / World

Oct 17, 2002

Terrorist front in largest Islamic nation

MADRAS, India -- The bomb explosions that killed more than 180 people in Bali last Saturday night affirmed what Indonesia has long denied -- that terrorists are active in the country. For many months now, Indonesia's neighbors and Washington have urged Jakarata to get tough with extremists, particularly Abu Bakar Bashir, a Muslim cleric whose organization, Jemaah Islamiyah, wants to create an Islamic state. This group is said to have clear links with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda, one of whose members was arrested weeks ago in Indonesia.

From easily navigable train stations to the helpfulness of its municipal staff, Tokyo has earned high praise for its commitment to accessibility for disabled travelers.

[Rebroadcast] Japan is doing better on accessibility than you may think

Later this month, author Shogo Imamura will open Honmaru, a bookstore that allows other businesses to rent its shelves. It's part of a wave of ideas Japanese booksellers are trying to compete with online spaces.

The story isn't over for Japan's bookstores

By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Leading Japan’s sustainability from Tokyo

Leading Japan’s sustainability from Tokyo

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