So.....Asia news update thread (X-posted to mine own LJ)....

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090514/ap_on_re_as/as_sri_lanka_civil_war;_ylt=Apqx_H8O9WB79epqxkB3cKhvaA8F

Presuming the Sinhalese manage this right, they might actually end this ethnic war. Not sure if this is necessarily going to be a pleasant end, but any limit on the endless violence that mars parts of the world is a good one.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?sectionName=HomePage&id=ed4bb249-5980-42e1-83b8-4ae233db2127&Headline=Political+crisis+in+Nepal+shows+signs+of+easing

For once the Commies are trying to negotiate in terms of power instead of doing what totalitarian movements do. Good on the CPN.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=a3fOpnohjVL4

Japan and Russia may negotiate a deal to harness Siberian oil fields. That's better than shooting at each other, I guess....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090514/wl_nm/us_japan_politics_1

The Japanese parliamentary election is heating up.....

And lastly....SE Asia...

http://mt.m2day.org/2008/content/view/21867/84/

The Perak controversy appears to be veering to a solution.

How do you like them apples? A post that's chock-full of links, and not one focusing on the US distraction issue of the day! ^. -

Edit-The point I wanted to make is one for each article:

1)  How do you foresee the Tamil-Sinhalese war ending?

2)  Will the Communist Party of Nepal end up acting like other Maoist regimes? Or will its more-or-less peaceful rise to power avert that?

3)  How important will Siberia be until (if) we switch to our alternative form of energy?

4)  Who do you support in the Japanese parliamentary race?

5) How do you see the Perak controversy being resolved? Bribery or murder?

Comments

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Small world, eh?

The Sri Lanka war is nasty business all the way around. It's a real pity, too, that's a part of the world with a long and distinguished history of civilized behavior....:(

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

You somehow call an association in me about elderly bearded gentlemen with lots of PhDs who sit in a smoked room, playing bridge over a cigar and a whisky, and philosophizing at length about the cruel big world that is out there, throwing judgements all around those poor little souls who have been fortunate enough to pass across your range of interest at the moment. Do you even have an opinion as to what solution any of the problems that you discuss should have? Ever?
No offense, but I call this empty chitter-chatter just for the sake of the numbers of posts and comments. And there are actual fates unfolding in all those places which you so generously and exhuberantly unravel day in, day out.

[abomvubuso.livejournal.com]

Hey, we all know underlankers is an eleeteest of renown. Just chill.

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

Oh...does his history lecturing annoy you? I find it amusing :-))

[abomvubuso.livejournal.com]

I find it educating.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Yes....I do.

1) I expect that the Tamil-Sinhalese War will end very bloodily and will likely resume in the future, once these two warring peoples feel ready to start this again.

2) I foresee that the Nepalese Maoists will behave like totalitarians the more comfortable they feel at it and that they will soon begin persecuting the Buddhists and Hindus of Nepal. I don't see any effective solution to this short of invasion, and the only potential powers to do that besides the US are India or China, neither of which are really appropriate for the job.

3) Right now, Siberia is the only thing keeping the Russian Federation afloat, and the oil price depression is biting them in the ass, like it is my state, which is an oil state. Until the major economies find a rival source, as supplies in the Middle East dwindle, Canada and Russia will gain increasing economic pull.

4) I support the Democratic Party of Japan due to its continuation of Japanese disarmament.

5) I see the Perak situation as being resolved by both bribery and murder, and there's damned little that can be done about that by the Great Powers and the Superpower at present.

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

Thanks but I wasn't talking about forecasts. Nevermind.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Well....define it for me, then, and I will answer.

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

Solutions to the problems, please. At least to one of them. Or half. Otherwise, it's just chitter-chatter.

But if you insist, and since you altered your post, fine. Here are mine:

1) In blood.

2) The former.

3) Very.

4) No-one.

5) Bribery.

Happy?

I'm giving you a break now :D

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

All righty....

1) I foresee the Tamil Tigers ultimately being defeated in a bloodbath. For a time there'll be an uneasy peace, and depending on how the peace works out, there'll be either a peace that continues to the point that it becomes normal, or the war will restart again. A good way to ensure that it won't restart again is to recognize use of the Tamil Language and avoid ethnic supremacism, which was the factor in the starting of fighting to begin with.

2) Already done below...

3) With regards to Siberia, Russian control over it is a given. An easy solution to things, but easy never means moral in politics, is to bribe the Russians and strong-arm the Canadians both into supplying the US with oil. A more difficult one would be to demand that a more liberal Russia ensure equitable spread of oil funds to all peoples in Russia, but that didn't work so well the last time the Russkies tried it....

4) As noted....the Left in Japan traditionally desires to continue staying disarmed. Japan re-arming would provoke a lot of nasty situations with other Asian powers who have still a lot of the raw scars that their adventures in the 1930s and 1940s produced.

5) The situation in Malaysia is....delicate, and needs to be handled in a way that ensures Malaysian minorities are recognized as well as the Moslem majority there. How that could precisely work I'm less sure of, but weakening the influence of political Islam would be one key factor. Stopping political Christianity or Hinduism from filling the void is another.

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

That's a lot better. You should've put it in your post in the first place. Lazy man :)

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

I'm giving you a break now :D

How generous of you :-))

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

You're right. I apologize for pressuring underlankers so much. There have been much worse posts after all. ;)

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes of course. Starting with mine of course. :p
At least I make some effort to write some. And put some personal opinion there.
And I appreciate that you jump to the aid of your cyber-lover :))

[abomvubuso.livejournal.com]

I've been browsing across her recent posts here and i cant find any example which could be categorised as "bad post". Do you?

[abomvubuso.livejournal.com]

Sorry. Elaborate, then :)

[abomvubuso.livejournal.com]

Oh. You're so mysterious :D

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

And this had something to do with me?

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

You are absent-minded today ;) To remind you...

This is my comment:
http://community.livejournal.com/talk_politics/123885.html?thread=6806765#t6806765
"You're right. I apologize for pressuring underlankers so much. There have been much worse posts after all. ;)"

And this is your comment:
http://community.livejournal.com/talk_politics/123885.html?thread=6821613#t6821613
"Funny you should say that."

You responded to me, remember? :S

Explain to me again please, because I'm kinda dumb.

[a-new-machine.livejournal.com]

Oh noes! People are discussing things they can't change! STOP THAT YOO GUYZ

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

At least propose some steps in what they think is the right direction to solving the problems?

A: "Do you like Nepal?"
B: "I like Nepal, it's cool"
A: "Yes."
B: "But there's some shit going on there."
A: "Alas..."
B: "Yeah."

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

The problem with the Nepalese situation is that you've got a very poor country that has been overtaken by totalitarians. It's neighbored by a very large semi-democratic society and an authoritarian despotism with a related ideology to that that has taken it over. The US can either ensure sanctions, which screws the masses, it can invade, which kills a lot of people and doesn't change much and may make the Maoists more popular, or it can have India invade, which means Nepal would be another Indian province.

What precise international steps could be taken would be mostly ensuring sufficient attention and aid and monitoring of the regime to ensure that it doesn't start outright persecution and massacre of its own citizens like the first such regime did.

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

That's very nice, but I'm missing your point. I don't know what to discuss. :-/

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

I'll edit my post to add in my point, then.

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

Haha! I was just kidding... (not) :-P

But let me be a nuisance to the end. You didn't add a point, just some questions ;-)

I'd rather see you answering your own 5 questions.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

I just did above in a response to DDstory....

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

Cool! See? It wasn't that hard.

[mijopo.livejournal.com]

Posting links to five articles that discuss apparently disparate things that happen to be occurring on the same continent and then asking some vague question about each doesn't constitute making a point, does it? If you're really keen on discussing issues in Asia, why not focus on one of these?

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

In part because all of these need a spotlight shined on them and I don't feel like posting spam about Asia today.

[mijopo.livejournal.com]

Very altruistic of you, but I'm pretty sure we're all quite capable of using search engines and news feeds and keeping up with what's going on in Asia.

[abomvubuso.livejournal.com]

Oh noes, please do! We likes linx dump. Thus, we can reach the next landmark (http://community.livejournal.com/talk_politics/120165.html) by tomorrow noon

[soliloquy76.livejournal.com]

I don't understand. What does this have to do with Obama?

[abomvubuso.livejournal.com]

Interesting idea, badlydrawnjeff calls this "a link dump".

[policraticus.livejournal.com]

1) How do you foresee the Tamil-Sinhalese war ending?

Badly for the Tamil Tigers. The Sinhalese are finally fighting to win and seem to be utterly destroying the Tamil insurgents ala Grant and Sherman in 1864. Good for Sri Lanka, I am thinking. Hopefully, they will use the ensuing peace to bring the country together, but that requires there to be a foresight and a magnanimity that is usually lacking in most parts of the world.

2) Will the Communist Party of Nepal end up acting like other Maoist regimes? Or will its more-or-less peaceful rise to power avert that?

I am tempted to say, "Maoist party is Maoist," and leave it at that. The Nepalese Maoists will act like other fascist totalitarians as soon as they feel secure enough to do so, which means when they have eliminated their rivals and jailed their critics.

3) How important will Siberia be until (if) we switch to our alternative form of energy?

We should be doing this kind of thing all over, ANWAR, off shore, etc. If nothing else we would do it without completely raping the environment which seems to be the Russian modus operandi. Barring a tech breakthrough of unprecedented scale fossil fuels will run the economy of the world for the next 50 years, we should face up to this and not bury our heads in the sand as we wait for a solar powered wind generator.

4) Who do you support in the Japanese parliamentary race?

I have no idea, nor do I care. Let us just say whoever is the most in favor of liberty and least in favor of invading Manchuria.

5) How do you see the Perak controversy being resolved? Bribery or murder?

This is an issue I have no knowledge of, no interest in and no opinion on. Call me provincial, my interest stops at Sri Lanka.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

1) Unfortunately, I have to say I agree with the latter part of your statement, and fortunately I agree with the former.

2) Not all totalitarians are fascist. There are very clear distinctions between Communist totalitarianism and Fascist totalitarianism, but otherwise....yes, I agree with this.

3) Again, agreed.

4) Again I say, agreed.

5) Fair enough.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

1) It will not end until the Tamil's are given self-determination.

2) The military will attempt to suppress the Nepalese Communists (of all the various factions), and war will resume.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

1) When the Tamil Tigers are all dead, that'll put as big a crunch on the war there as the defeat of the CSA did to Southern nationalism. The South never did rise again, after all. Brutality can be effective....

2) Gee....the Commies are always innocent, are they? Had Fascism taken over say, San Marino, somehow I don't see the Left as that gung-ho about it....

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

1) Even if the military wing of the Tamil independence movement are killed the separatist sentiment will remain. If you had any idea of the demographics of the region you would know this.

2) Who the hell is suggesting that commies are always innocent? We're talking about a military that is refusing to take orders from an elected civilian government.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

1) Sentiment =/= actual shooting. Otherwise the South from about 1866-1877 would have been in effect forcing the North to give it self-determination.

2) Considering what Maoism did to Nepal's northern neighbor, and what Maoist guerilla warfare is doing to its southern neighbor......

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

1) There was never any ethnic basis for self-determination for the Confederate states only a political desire for independence by a section of the population (and a minority at that). Soon after the Tigers are defeated shooting will start again, I assure you. I'd even put money on it.

2) The southern neighbour of Nepal? India? Anyway that's beside the point. The reality is whether you support an elected government or an unelected military; and in this particular discussion I support the former and I suspect that they will win as well if it comes down to a shooting war.

[ghoststrider.livejournal.com]

Oh come on, you can make more opinions than that, can't you?

But as for the Japanese election, I wish the DPJ will win if only because the country has been under the grip of the LDP almost continually since 1955. There needs to be change there, and while I may not agree with the DPJ's policy ideas, I think its better that they take a shot at governing while the LDP, uh, doesn't?