MEDIA IMMEDIACY: ASIA ONLINE

The Asia Observer www.asiaobserver.com/
Large index of high quality sites with an emphasis on news, discussions, politics, economy and general background intended for use by "journalists, researchers, politicians, students, business people, government officials and others who in their professional or personal capacity try to keep track of the rapid developments in Asia." The search engine incorporates 1.9 million web sites indexed by the Open Directory Project, but there are also daily news updates with links to asian media sites, an active discussion network (the Burma discussion is particularly dynamic) and a well-chosen site of the week.

 It is NOT primarily a comprehensive list of links about Asia. There are many others who do that much better, including search engines like Yahoo and Alta Vista and Asian Portals like Asiaco. It is meant to be a starting point with easy access to selected high quality web sites that provide reliable information about this exciting region. In short it is the web site I myself would like to have as a start page in my work as a journalist covering Asia.

    — John Einar Sandvand, compiler, former Hong Kong-based Asia correspondent for the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten

Sonni Efron, Tokyo, June 21, 2000: Japanese politicians can dispatch loudspeaker trucks to peaceful neighbourhoods, begging for votes at decibel levels that would ensure defeat in any Western country. They can use telephone banks without restrictions to harass voters at dinner time. But what politicians in Japan may not do during an election campaign is the least invasive form of politicking yet invented: they may not post their campaign literature on the Internet.

        Technically, Internet campaigning is not illegal, but under election law anything not explicitly permitted is banned. Four years ago the bureaucrats at the Home Affairs Ministry decided that since home pages usually contain photographs and text, candidates' home pages are the equivalent of neon signs or billboards, which are not permissible campaign tools. The Home Affairs Minister, Mr Kosuke Hori, recently told parliament that candidates were free to canvass for votes by dialling mobile phone numbers but may not send written messages to the 18.4 million Japanese whose mobile phones can display text messages or email.
        Although Japan has been slow to go online, partly due to steep access charges, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications estimates that 27 million Japanese were using the Internet at the end of 1999, out of a population of 126 million.

Asia Times atimes.com
Online daily news magazine, good editorials, draws from local writers & news services all over Asia.

Some may think of the renewed threat to the East Asian economies as resulting simply from a combination of more or less honest policy mistakes, global conjunctural factors, and plain bad luck. But that is not so. Nowhere has there been a coalescence of political forces to effect in-depth reform. The outlook for early economic recovery to self-sustaining levels of business activity is bleak. (Dec 22)

Asian Human Rights Commission www.ahrchk.net/
Independent NGO founded 1986, sponsor of the Asian Human Rights Charter, declared in Kwangju, Korea in 1998. AHRC's Statement on Human Rights Day, December 10, 2000 is comprehensive, well-written, and well worth reading:

The semi-human conditions of the nearly 200 million Dalits in India and Nepal remain a central human rights concern for Asia. Forced into employment that destroys their human dignity, for the lowest pay and under very harsh conditions, or as bonded labourers; they are deprived of the right to own land; are denied the right to real education and health; and are constantly subjected to torture and degrading treatment. Dalit women are frequently raped and exposed to other atrocities, including mutilation and murder, as punishment for attempts to assert their rights.

                                   —www.ahrchk.net/2000HRDay.htm

Asian Studies World Wide Web Virtual Library
http://coombs.anu.edu.au/WWWVL-AsianStudies.html
This huge, university based index of academic and research sites on Asia is put together by volunteer "virtual librarians" who are either "scholars, postgraduate students, or networked-information specialists employed by universities, libraries, and research institutes." While somewhat inconsistent in approach, with a few too many broken links, it is difficult not to love this wonderful, non-commercial resource. It offers access to over 10,000 Internet resources from around the globe, including archives, library catalogs, documents, bibliographies, electronic-journal registers and mailing lists. Search is by country, region and subject.

Our collaborative philosophy enables individual editors to focus on his or her area of specialization, to build on colleagues' expertise, and to avoid redundant web monitoring and web cataloging. Unlike general purpose Web searching tools such as Yahoo, InfoSeek, or Altavista, the ASWWWVL allows scholars to locate and access research-orientated online publications and resources. The ASWWWVL is a decentralized, distributed online resource catalog which consciously avoids hyperbole and "infotainment", aiming instead at the narrow and selected audience of academics, librarians, journalists, and graduate students.

Live Radio and Television from Asia http://broadcast-live.com/asia.html
This page allows you to watch television and listen to radio broadcasts from China, India, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Thailand and elsewhere in Asia. A wide selection of live broadcasts including music, news and sports. Transmissions are available in RealAudio and Windows Media Player formats. Also lists various newspapers.

The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) www.roap.unep.org
The Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (ROAP), a partner of UNEP, exists "To provide leadership and encourage partnership in caring for the environment by inspiring, informing and enabling nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations." Their 'About the Region' link provides a broad array of information about the major environmental issues, policies, events and agencies of the Asia Pacific region. 'Programmes' provides information about ROAP's activities, including 'Environmental Assessment', 'Law and Conventions', 'Education and Training', and 'Technology, Industry and Economics'. (See also Environment Assessment Program, www.eapap.unep.org, and Network for Environmental Training at Tertiary Level in Asia and the Pacific (NETTLAP), www.roap.unep.org/nettlap)

Global Environment Outlook 2000 www.unep.org/geo2000
An exhaustive report prepared by UNEP, featuring both Asia and the Pacific and West Asia,  providing detailed, well written accounts in categories such as Social and Economic Background, Land and Food, Biodiversity, Freshwater, Forests, and Urban areas. Excellent maps, graphs and tables

Rapid industrialization and economic growth have changed virtually every dimension of life, especially in East and South East Asia. Yet by many measures - of health, education, nutrition, as well as income - the quality of life within the region remains poor for most people.

    Seventy five percent of the world's poor live in Asia, where sixty percent of the world population depend on thirty percent of its land area. At least one in three Asians have no access to safe drinking water and at least two in three have no access to proper sanitation.

Project Underground www.moles.org/index.html
Uniquely links environmental, human rights and indigenous rights movements against their shared nemesis, "abusive extractive resource activity." Exposes marauding corporations, empowers networking among victim communities. Investigates, provides information, and actively campaigns. Online newsletter too ("Drillbits and Tailings"), with stories rarely covered elsewhere:

PROTESTERS SHOT AT UNOCAL REFINERY IN INDONESIA

October 20, 2000:  A violent clash occurred between protesting community members in East Kalimantan, Indonesia and the Indonesian Mobile Police Brigade (BRIMOB) on October 8. Seven protesters were shot, 16 were seriously wounded, and two were declared missing. The violence brought an end to the peaceful, 14 day blockade of UNOCAL's Tanjung Santan oil refinery. The air and water pollution caused by the refinery has long plagued the local communities.
           Local residents blockaded Unocal's transportation routes in an effort to get compensation for the company's environmental  degradation of surrounding waters and farmlands. Unocal first responded to the blockade by stating that the Tanjung Santan Terminal would temporarily stop production. Instead, company spokesperson M. Ramli asked 60 police and BRIMOB officials to break up the blockade. The troops brutally attacked the protesters by firing shots, kicking, and beating them with rattan sticks.
           M. Ramli justified calling in the troops by explaining his concerns about lowered production levels: "If fuel production stops then the function of the Santan Terminal will stop, and as a result Unocal oil and natural gas production will stop because the oil and natural gas which is drilled offshore will be prevented from going to Badak Liquid Natural Gas Refinery in Bontang. Oil and natural gas will pile up in the Tanjung Sanatan terminal, and the terminal will soon reach maximum capacity."

The South Asia Citizen's Web www.mnet.fr/webparticulier/a/aiindex/
An independent space promoting dialogue and information exchange between and about South Asian citizens initiatives [located in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and in their diasporic communities]. Covers all of Civil Society, Peace (especially Kashmir/India/Pakistan ), Democracy, Secularism, Social Movements, the Women's Movement, Environmental Campaigns, Labour Movement activism, Human Rights groups and campaigns, citizens action against Communalism and Religious Fundamentalism (also links to sites of "the Religious Right of South Asia" — with the proviso that "Some of you may take strong objection to such links here, but we feel that it is very important to monitor and read what these guys are doing"), plus news, films, journals contents pages, research projects and book catalogues..

Women's World Summit Foundation (WWSF) www.woman.ch
WWSF, "an international coalition for the future of women and children, is a humanitarian, non-governmental, non-confessional, not-for-profit organization with a commitment to a new development paradigm with and for women and children," founded 1991.

Recognizing that women and children (boys and girls under 18) represent the world's largest constituency who have almost nothing to say in shaping the economic and political space in which they live, it is imperative that their thoughts and visions, intuitive skills, concrete and effective participation in development, and their deep aspiration for a more peaceful world be considered to help catalyze the necessary economic and political will for the transformation of world structures into pathways for equality, development and peace.

We are proud to announce that this year the Prize program has expanded with the launching of a partnership project, the "China-Prize for women's creativity in rural life", together with the Chinese Rural Women Knowing All magazine. In doing so we want to increase the number of outstanding Chinese rural women recognized, as China is the country with the largest number of rural women in the world.

Fish ponds bring prosperity. Ma Xuefeng (44), a poor woman from Hu Yuang Village (Shuang Jie township, District of Tianjin), noticing two waste ponds, had the idea to use them for fish farming. She approached the Aquatic Product Bureau to consult specialists for guidance obtaining technology and equipment to clean the ponds and produce fish for food. Her first successes inspired her to enlarge the ponds and invent new fish farming techniques, introducing new varieties of fish, establishing a policy of ratios between fish species, and controlling diseases with Chinese herbs. The high fish yields she achieved made her rich, enabling her to open a restaurant and a company. Having achieved prosperity she then turned to helping others, training them and offering them employment, guidance and capital and encouraging many to develop their own projects. As a result the land in Hu Yuang village has become a colourful garden divided into areas of trees, flowers, nursery stock, vegetable, fish and animal farms.

Mekong Info www.mekonginfo.org
Focusing on generation, exchange and dissemination of information regarding land use planning and forest management systems in upland watersheds and areas inhabited by ethnic minorities, this site is truly an "interactive system for participatory natural resource management" in Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Thailand. It also hosts other groups such as the Asia Forest Network, The Uplands Program, Concern Worldwide, Cambodia, and provides details of work with various partners in on-site projects such as developing a national community forest training program and a project focusing on exploiting non-timber forest products.

The unsustainable use and exploitation of natural resources in the Lower Mekong Basin is recognised as a serious problem that requires immediate attention. Many organizations and projects are working to address the factors associated with natural resources depletion - but often in isolation, developing their own approaches and tools without sufficient knowledge about other experiences and what has been sucessfully tried and tested elsewhere. Improved access to information reduces knowledge gaps and helps to prevent having to "re-invent the wheel" thereby saving time and resources.

An oasis of life, our planet Earth is the common home of humans and a vast range of fellow forms.  Living as we do in an anthropocentric society, our concern of the wider mosaic of life and our very conciousness of our place within it are often lacking. Psychologically isolated from nature and surrounded by an artificial web of modern culture and technology, we have become capable of casually inflicting damage on countless living things, often killing and causing great suffering in the process.

             ALIVE - Animal Welfare Group, Tokyo

If completed, China's Three Gorges Dam would be the largest and most powerful dam in the world. It will stretch two kms. across the Yangtze River, stand 185 metres high and create a 600 km. lake behind it But the destruction caused by the dam would be equally massive; almost two million people would lose their homes and livelihood, fertile agricultural lands would be destroyed and important cultural and historical sites would be forever lost under an immense inland sea.

    The 4,200 kilometre-long Mekong River is the tenth largest river in the world. Now, plans for more than 50 giant hydroelectric dams and diversion schemes threaten to destroy many species and millions of farming and fishing communities. Promoting these dams are the Canadian Government, the United Nations Development Program, and the World and Asia Development Banks.

The Human Rights Alliance www.hr-alliance.org/index.htm
An impressive set of organisations is listed on this homepage, including the Asian Regional Resource Center for Human Rights Education, the Asian Cultural Forum on Development, the Assembly of the Poor, and the Peoples Plan for the 21st Century, but some links and the on-site search no longer work.

 The slogan at the beginning of the 20th century was progress. The cry at the end of the 20th century is survival. The call for the next century is hope. Impelled by that hope for the future and with a keen sense of urgency, we began our concluding gathering of the People's Plan for the 21st Century in Minamata.

    One  of the words which has been stolen from the people and corrupted is the word "democracy." Originally, democracy meant  the autonomy, the self-determination, the empowerment of the  people. To many people in the Third World, however, it has come to be the label for a facade of "civilian government," disguising state terror and repression in a ploy to claim legitimacy for the state to serve the interests of the powerful. For indigenous peoples and other minorities, democracy has been the ideology of "majority rule" that has defined them as "minorities" who could  be legitimately ignored.
    On  the other hand, democracy is something millions of people in the Asia-Pacific region are fighting and dying for. We need to retrieve it to serve the people's struggle. We must begin with the premise that the state, and the institutions that it pretends constitute 'democracy,' cannot be relied upon to bring us peace, justice, a secure and dignified life, or an end to ecological destruction.

Forest Conservation Portal  http://forests.org/forests/asia.html
By Forests.org Inc, founded 1993. Individual directories for Indonesia & Malaysia and Papua New Guinea Rainforests. Good resource for related news stories from sources both locally and around the world.

Asia Pacific Press  www.asiapacificpress.com
Asia Pacific Press is a specialist publisher based at the Australian National University in the Asia Pacific School of Economics and Management. APP publishes on economics, development, governance and management, particularly on the Asia Pacific Region. Especially notable for recent book Losing Control:Freedom of the Press in Asia, from which Walter Hamilton's essay "The Warmth of the Herd" is excerpted in KJ's print issue, Media in Asia. Particularly useful for a diversity of on-line reports/analysis.

Asia Pacific Center for Justice and Peace www.apcjp.org/
"The Asia Pacific Center for Justice and Peace promotes the realization of the full range of rights, including economic justice, political freedom and genuine security, for the peoples of Asia and the Pacific." Three program areas: Peace, Human Rights and Democracy;  Alternative Security; Economic Justice, concerning Burma, Cambodia, China, East Timor, India, Indonesia, Korea, Okinawa (Japan), Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Vietnam.

In the last half century, U.S. political and military engagement has had a disproportionately powerful and far-reaching effect on the lives of people in Asia and the Pacific. Increased military presence does not create peace or security. Military systems are systems of violence that victimize women, children, the environment, and local economies. The Asia Pacific  Center’s Program on Alternative Security is empowering people and forming coalitions to  end this systemic military violence. For the first time this century, the ultimate goal of demilitarization, peace and security is now attainable in Asia and the Pacific.

South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre (SAHRDC) has started a news feature service, called Human Rights Features (HRF), in collaboration with Human Rights Documentation Centre (HRDC). HRF will provide detailed information on three main topic areas: human rights, democracy and good governance. The objective of HRF is to address the three main topic areas by providing the public with independent and accurate information. HRF will produce a minimum of one news feature per fortnight. The launching of HRF is one of SAHRDC and HRDC's endeavours to fight human rights violations, by building institutional checks and balances and by creating linkages with the media.

 

23 September 2000: India is one of the few countries in the world whose Constitution allows for preventive detention during peacetime without safeguards that elsewhere are understood to be basic requirements for protecting fundamental human rights. Specifically, under Article 22, preventive detention may be implemented ad infinitum. An individual can be detained — without charge or trial — for up to three months and denies detainees the rights to legal representation, cross-examination, timely or periodic review, access to the courts or compensation for unlawful arrest or detention in clear violation of Indiaí s obligation under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Hi, my name is Ian Duckworth and I'm the head honcho (well the only honcho actually) at "The Paperboy". It started out in November 97 as a hobby to satisfy my own craving for easy access to quality news and has grown from there (over 10 million page views in 2000!) After graduating from Law School in 1998 I now earn my living as a travel writer working mainly for Lonely Planet - great books for anyone wanting to travel on a budget. My specialty is cycle touring - I've worked on 3 titles to date, Indochina, New Zealand and Great Britain.

Pan Asia Networking www.panasia.org.sg/
An initiative of the IDRC International Development Research Centre of Canada which helps researchers and communities in the developing world find solutions to their social, economic, and environmental problems.

AsiaLinks Directory www.asia-links.com/directory/
"Linking the [business] world to Asia..." Asia-Links Media is based in Sunnyvale, California — “the heart of Silicon Valley” — and is privately funded by investors from the U.S., Japan, Taiwan and India. Extensive Asia Directory pages list 35 countries in Asia, right down to “China Sea Islands”... See Information and News

Asian Connections www.asianconnections.com
Also based on West Coast USA: this site's Asian "mission" is to become a "one-stop globalization center" to enable people to communicate on a personal level with each other, as well as conduct business in their own communities and across the world. So far it seems mostly business-oriented.
 
 

Local Asia Online:
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Thailand  |  The Philippines  |  Tibet  |  Timor  |  Vietnam