Glyn Ford - The Japan Times

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Glyn Ford

For Glyn Ford's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:

COMMENTARY

Nov 23, 2005

Neocons absconded with round five

BRUSSELS -- The six-party talks, which initially began in August 2003 to resolve the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula, reconvened in Beijing on Nov. 9, then adjourned three days later inconclusively. Defeat was snatched from the jaws of victory.

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 31, 2005

Believe what you will in the new Tibet

BRUSSELS -- Any visit to Tibet is liable to leave you breathless. At Tibetan altitudes, oxygen is only 60 percent of what it is at sea level, with the result that it takes several days to acclimate. Yet it is clear from the start that Tibetan reality, at least on the surface, is very different from its image in the West. Towns and cities are grids of paved streets lined with multistory blocks with Chinese and Tibetan labels. In the countryside, Tibetan two-story courtyard houses cluster among monasteries and temples.

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 23, 2005

Coming in from the cold

BRUSSELS -- In a vital move toward securing greater stability, North Korea announced last week it would return to the six-party talks in Beijing with the United States, China, South Korea, Japan and Russia to try to resolve the nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula. The breakdown in negotiations had been triggered most recently by U.S. claims that North Korea had a secret enriched-uranium program to produce nuclear weapons.

COMMENTARY / World

May 30, 2005

A tale of two constitutions

BRUSSELS -- On Sunday the world watched as the French electorate voted on whether to approve the new European constitution, and it will watch once again Wednesday when Holland holds a similar referendum. Both results will help determine the future direction and role of the European Union in the world.

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 17, 2005

Pyongyang under EU's wing

PALO ALTO, Calif. -- The European Union is increasingly showing a new independent stance on foreign-policy issues as the logic of its industrial and economic integration plays out in the international arena.

COMMENTARY / World

Feb 7, 2005

Forging an alternative to U.S. hegemony

BRUSSELS -- At a series of meetings around the left-leaning World Parliamentary Forum (WPF) held late last month in Porto Alegre, Brazil, there was a strong case made for the necessity of building a new economic and political partnership between the European Union and South America.

COMMENTARY / World

Jan 27, 2005

Foggy North Korean shuffle

BRUSSELS -- Recent events in North Korea have been interpreted in various ways and, generally, the wish has been father to the thought. The truth is difficult to discern, but indications are that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has placed himself firmly behind a reform program that may finally bring the country in from the cold. The fact that Pyongyang is considering applying for observer status at the World Trade Organization supports this contention.

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 5, 2004

EU frittering away influence in Korea

BRUSSELS -- One of the last best hopes for securing a solution to the current crisis on the Korean Peninsula is being killed by U.S. politicking and EU penny- pinching. U.S. neoconservatives are determined to drive North Korea into a corner, while the European Union bickers over "small change"' rather than take the initiative in providing an alternative vision for Northeast Asia.

COMMENTARY

Nov 11, 2004

China pushes for new order

LONDON -- A new Chinese diplomacy is emerging from Beijing. Traditionally reactive to global events, China now sees itself forced to take on a proactive role in world affairs. The revolutionary phase of Chinese foreign policy is dead; now pragmatism has taken center-stage.

COMMENTARY

Sep 27, 2004

Election shows Indonesia has come of age

BRUSSELS -- All the appearances are that Indonesia, the world's third largest democracy and largest Muslim state, has come of age, with the consolidation this year of a democracy that was reborn after 44 years in 1999.

COMMENTARY / World

Sep 11, 2004

Slow progress for Pyongyang

BRUSSELS -- In July 2002, North Korea instituted wage and price reforms that officially introduced the market into the economy. Such change had been on the horizon since the famine of the late 1990s, driven by a certain inevitability as the distribution system started to creak and stutter. Informal -- but tolerated -- farmers markets had been slowly growing as farmers traded food for consumer goods or cash in cities and towns across the country. The increasingly normal was to become formal.

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 3, 2004

Kashmir ripe for a solution

BRUSSELS -- The dispute over Kashmir has soured Indo-Pakistani relations since 1947 when, with the partition of India, the Hindu ruler of a mainly Muslim principality dithered his way to war. By the time he finally chose India, after having signed the formal accession, Indian tanks and troops were driving through Kashmir to take on a proxy Pakistani army composed of tribesmen from the Northwest frontier who invaded, burned and looted to save their victims.

CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF

Jun 27, 2004

North Korea's likely arsenal

NORTH KOREA'S WEAPONS PROGRAMMES: A Net Assessment, by International Institute for Strategic Studies staff. Palgrave Macmillan, 80pp., 2004, $90 (paper). To America's hard men of the right, North Korea harbors a full and fearsome array of weapons of mass destruction, or WMD, and the willingness to sell them to any passing "ne're do well" terrorist.

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 26, 2004

Few surprises in EU elections

BRUSSELS -- The European parliamentary elections June 13 turned out largely as forecast. Despite a sharp fillip in Britain's voter turnout, spurred by the rise of the anti-European U.K. Independence Party, or UKIP, voter turnout as a whole continued its generation-long decline across Europe, with less than half the electorate bothering to participate. There were almost no trends to speak of. Voters did not swing to the left or the right; instead, they churned -- voting against incumbents.

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 13, 2004

European Parliament signals right turn

LONDON -- This weekend the European Union faces its five-year parliamentary makeover as voters across an enlarged union go to the polls. Results will be shaped by three impulses:

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 20, 2004

Changing a regime beats regime change

BRUSSELS -- North Korea is changing, embracing the market. Colorful stalls that sell all manner of mundane goods, from food to flowers, are blossoming along Pyongyang's streets. The local Tong-Il market is thronged with customers haggling and buying a cornucopia of products. Another new market in central Pyongyang is under construction and scheduled to open in May. Each city has been promised its own. Marx's slogan from "each according to his ability to each according to need" is being substituted by "from each according to his productivity to each according to his pocket."

COMMENTARY / World

Feb 8, 2004

Resist the attempts to recognize Taiwan

TAIPEI -- The Cold War may be over in Europe, but it is very much still with us in Asia. The North-South division on the Korean Peninsula is still possibly the world's most dangerous political stand-off. Not far behind is the tension between China and Taiwan. A civil war between the two was frozen just short of completion more than a half century ago because of U.S. political interests and military might.

COMMENTARY / World

Jan 3, 2004

Chance to defuse Kashmir

LONDON -- The last dispute left from the end of the British Empire -- the Kashmir question -- may finally be en route to resolution. The unilateral cease- fire declared by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in November along the de facto border, the Line of Control (LOC), and then seconded by India, has held firm. At the same time, Pakistan has responded positively to Indian proposals to begin bus service between Muzzarafabad, the capital of Azad Kashmir (Pakistani territory) and Srinigar. Talks are under way, and both sides seem to be looking at how to really make something happen rather than simply score political points.

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 27, 2003

A chance for Europe to stand on its own

LONDON -- Disneyland, the Kennedy Space Center and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush were all on the agenda during the NATO Parliamentary Assembly's visit to Orlando, Florida, this month. Missing were members of the U.S. Congress. They weren't in Istanbul 12 months ago -- apparently because of problems with their plane -- and they weren't in Prague last spring, which was too close to the Iraq war. Excuses are now running out as they remain conspicuous only by their absence.

EDITORIALS

Oct 25, 2003

N. Korea: down but not out

BRUSSELS -- In the middle of Pyongyang, a new building attracts attention and customers. The Tong Il market is thronged with thousands of North Koreans haggling and buying from an extensive array of products. Fresh meat and dried fish, Spanish oranges and North African dates, suits, skirts, shoes and a range of electrical goods from light bulbs to computer parts.

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

A young restaurant leads the way in Karuizawa

A young restaurant leads the way in Karuizawa

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