Nightmare for 2 journalists jailed 12 years for doing their job ✍

Laura Ling and Euna Lee

After Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi, who was recently detained for three months in Iran, it is now Laura Ling and Euna Lee who are jailed, this time in North Korea, convicted of a grave crime against the nation, for illegally crossing into North Korea, and sentenced to 12 years in labor prison. These two American (Chinese and Korean origin) television journalists Ling, 32, and Lee, 36, were arrested March 17 along the China-North Korean border after top officials in Pyongyang said they had encroached on North Korean soil while reporting a story on human trafficking by Kim Jong Il's regime.

After their arrest, Ling and Lee were initially accused of "hostile activities". The two journalists, who work for the California-based web television station Current TV, had approached the border from inside China in order to cover the trafficking of North Korean women across the border, a dangerous border as one can testify with heavily armed armed DPRK soldiers, "including Dragunov Russian rifles equipped snipers", according to reporters from Tokyo.

The sentence to 12 years of hard labor increased mounting tensions between the foreign community and the reclusive Asian state. Laura Ling and Euna Lee were sentenced by the top Central Court in Pyongyang as U.S. officials demanded the release of the two women.

The state-run Korean Central News Agency reported that the court "sentenced each of them to 12 years of reform through labor" but gave no further details and because the pair were tried by the nation's highest court, we are told that there can be no appeal. Ling's sister, Lisa Ling, said: "I will say with absolute certainty that, when they left US soil, they never intended to cross the border into North Korea. If at any point they did, we are truly sorry and we know the girls are too."

Their guide is being held by the Chinese authorities.

Reporters Without Borders

Reporters Without Borders is appalled by the sentences of 12 years of "reform through labour" which a North Korean court passed today on American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee after convicting them in a sham trial of an unspecified "grave crime" and illegally entering the country.

"These 12-year sentences are a terrible shock for all those who have repeatedly insisted on their innocence," Reporters Without Borders said. "The sentences are much more severe than anything we had imagined. The authorities in Pyongyang must urgently reverse this decision and allow Ling and Lee to rejoin their families."

The sentences were clearly designed to scare journalists trying to do investigative reporting in the border area between China and North Korea, which is ranked as Asia's worst country in the Reporters Without Borders press freedom index. To access Reporters sans Frontieres comments click here http://tinyurl.com/nq5kf3

Investigation

Crossing a border without being invited is a natural methodology act for investigative journalists. I did it several times especially in S.E. Asia (Cambodia, Laos, Burma). It is at such dangerous price that facts and truth can be discovered by journalists from secretive or war states where brutality is a method to rule, oppress, jail and murder their people turned preys.

Quotes: "Human rights groups, basing their estimates on defector testimonies, believe that about 200,000 prisoners are in North Koreas gulag system. Many are family members imprisoned for the crimes of their relatives, especially when the crimes are political." (The W. Times)

Current TV founder is former USA Vice President Al Gore. At this point, commentators speculate it is unlikely the two will serve time in a gulag. Instead Euna Lee and Laura Ling were expected to become negotiating pawns as the North tests the Obama administration by steadily escalating tensions with the United States.

North Korea just said it banned vessels from traveling in a designated area off its northeast shore between Wednesday and June 30, raising speculation that another rocket missile is to be launched adding to the destabilization of North East Asia.

☞ The interesting thing I see here is about the never ending DPRK own contradictions: I know of some foreign journalists and photographs who have been arrested in the past in North Korea while crossing the PRC - DPRK border, and were, later on, freed with apology and, even more amazing, were invited by North Korean officials to stay in the country for their reports. No arrest and no jail then at that time. So, one question: Were the two reporters blackmailed, manipulated or kidnaped after treacherous plan? And what about the allegations that there were 4 journalists actually trying to report on the border. Where are the two others?

Kidnapping is a trend in secretive North Korea. In 2002, Pyongyang admitted that it had systematically kidnapped Japanese citizens in the 1970s and '80s, using them to train its spies, who were then filtered back into Japan. It kidnapped hundreds of South Koreans over the years.

Quotes: "But it's not always some twisted policy goal that drives Pyongyang to kidnapping; Kim has also resorted to abduction to satisfy his personal whims. The North Korean dictator has long had a passion for movies, but he evidently believed North Korea's cinema wasn't up to his standards. In the late '70s, when his father Kim Il Sung was running the country, Kim apparently ordered the abduction of Shin Sang-ok, then perhaps the most famous film producer in the South, and his wife, Choi Eun-hee, a famous actress. Shin was imprisoned for four years, then forced to make a socialist-friendly version of Godzilla. He and his wife eventually escaped during a business trip to Vienna in 1986. Shin died in 2006 at age 80." (Time magazine)

Quotes from agencies, Time, W Times, RSF, Diary.

Yes, We Ca(e)n, in Normandy !

President Nicolas Sarkozy, Barack Obama, the Prince of Wales, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper attend a memorial service June 6th, 2009 at the American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy, west of France.

7.000 participants and VIPs seat facing the Memorial, in half-circle, composed of a colonnade and a large bronze statue of 7 meters in its center. It symbolizes the Spirit of American youth s' raising from the Flood.

France First Lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy is greeted by Caen citizens in front of the Hôtel de la Préfecture de Normandie. -Private portraits collection-

On 6th June 1944, from dawn to dusk, the Allied liberation of Western Europe began with the D-Day landings that brought Allies troops on five beachheads in Normandy. The majority of troops who landed on the D-Day beaches were from the United Kingdom, Canada and the US. However, troops from many other countries participated in D-Day and the Battle of Normandy, in all the different armed services: Australia, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, France, Greece, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway and Poland. Following the invasion, the whole of northern France was liberated from the Nazis within three months. Caen and Normandy paid a heavy price for the bombing that accompanied this last chapters of World War II, in loosing over 21.000 souls.

"Operation Overlord", http://tinyurl.com/lagdp7 the most complex assault ever attempted, since the invasion of England by the Duke of Normandy William the Conqueror, has been memorialized in books and movies, including accounts of the "greatest generation" in popular films, like "The Longest Day" http://tinyurl.com/q6pnyb "Band of Brothers" and "Saving Private Ryan," as well as in blowout 50th and 60th anniversary celebrations, local officials have feared that the exploits of the men might fade. To take Caen, the Allies bombed the city of Caen with terrific force, killing several thousand of French residents, the strongest price to re-gain liberty.

"Yes, We Caen!"

The US president and the First lady Barack and Michelle Obama and the First Couple of France Nicolas and Carla Bruni-Sarkozy walked the streets of CAEN, Normandy, where a good portion of the history of western civilization was formed more than 1,000 years ago. "Yes, We Caen!" is a common witted sentence from the Caennais citizens and, I hear, "a patented phrase of Alexia de St. John's, a young French woman originally from Martinique who has now lived in Paris for many years. St John's has allowed the city of Caen to use her phrase this year as a token of good will to the city as well as a show of her support for Obama's visit."

On the eve of France's participation in the European Parliament election, US President Obama joined French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Caen and gave a speech at the American War Cemetery at nearby Colleville-sur-Mer. (A French land concession to the USA after WWII)

"Sixty-five years ago, June 6th 1944, the liberating drama of D-Day shook Nazi occupied ravaged France. Surviving veterans were showing family members the paths their lives as soldiers took. On the 65th anniversary of the Allied invasion of Normandy to free Europe from the Nazis, President Barack Obama saluted the elderly veterans who once stormed the beaches and achieved an "improbable victory" in World War II."

Calls for cooperation instead of unilateralism, and diplomacy whenever it is possible, ran through the remarks at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial by Obama, French President Nicholas Sarkozy, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

On the Normandie coastal area, at the Colleville-sur-Mer American cemetery, designed by Markley Stevenson, overlooking Omaha Beach, before the graves of 9,387 soldiers, President Obama told thousands of veterans and family members that "we live in a world of competing beliefs and claims about what is true," and "it is rare for a struggle to emerge that speaks to something universal about humanity. But all know that this war was essential."

"The ideal of the United Nations was born from the struggle of the free peoples against Nazism," Sarkozy said in a serene and strong speech, adding that their collective duty "is to give life to that ideal." Noting that Obama's grandfather and a great uncle had served in World War II, president Sarkozy told the visiting president: "You are therefore twice over, by the office you hold and by the blood which flows through your veins, the symbol of the America that we love."

"Obama also spoke of the need to apply the lessons of the past to the future. As we face down the hardships and struggles of our time," he said, "and arrive at that hour for which we were born, we cannot help but draw strength from those moments in history when the best among us were somehow able to swallow their fears and secure a beachhead on an unforgiving shore." Moments later, canons fired a 21-gun salute, and the French Air Force flew 12 jets in three tight formations over the graves of 9,000 Americans whose lives are memorialized above the sands of Omaha Beach. A military band played Taps as four of the worlds leaders stood on in silence."

Normandy is a sweet bucolic region 220 kilometers north-west of Paris where, today, golden wheat fields brush the wind and rural families quietly parade. It is where, every weekend, the roads are lined with the cars of Parisians, who are making their way to country homes, Rouen, Caen, Mont-Saint-Michel, Giverny, Honfleur Deauville - Trouville, Cabourg, Pont-L'Eveque, Lisieux, not to mention a fair share of Americans, Canadians and British who have chosen to make Normandy their own home.

Quotes from Google news, Time, Miami Herald, Huffington, Epa, agencies, JL ©

To follow the Normandy Campaign from D-Day through the Liberation of Paris, access this interactive program and click here http://www.abmc.gov/home.php

Don't Twitt on Tiananmen Day ✘ ✉

Today on Beijing Tiananmen, Square of Heavenly Peace...

Paramilitary police officers in Beijing, China, on Thursday patrol the area around Tiananmen Square during a flag-lowering ceremony. Twenty years ago, Beijing Tiananmen looked like this:

"Tiananmen? I don't know..."

"Tiananmen? I don't know..." Young Chinese say they ignore what exactly happened there 20 years ago.

This happened 2o years ago, reported by

CBC, Tom Kennedy http://tinyurl.com/qsmlpz

BBC http://tinyurl.com/p6otdb

Censors in China have shut online services for days, mostly used by young web surfers, and placed prominent dissidents under house arrest less than two days before the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown. The first victim of the most sweeping action on the internet undertaken by China's cyber-police was the micro-blogging service Twitter, wildly popular as a platform for humor as well as for political comment.

A little while later China's increasingly tech-savvy population realized that the popular photo-posting service Flickr had vanished. That was followed by the disappearance of the Hotmail e-mail service and Microsoft's new search engine, Bing, only a day old. The blocks did not stop there: MSN Spaces also disappeared. Jeremy Goldkorn, founder of the popular English-language blog Danwei.org, said: "They have never blocked so many major websites at one stroke."

The timing is scarcely a coincidence. Tomorrow marks the 20th anniversary of the entry of the People's Liberation Army into Beijing on June 4, 1989, to crush seven weeks of student-led demonstrations centered in Tiananmen Square - a move that resulted in the deaths of hundreds. (Google has counted 794 articles on the Tiananmen story at this precise second when I blog).

Interesting report in the Korea Times: "China Haunted by Tiananmen".

http://tinyurl.com/o9ot6g

Quotes: "The regime officially dismisses the protesters who camped peacefully on the square for weeks as "hooligans", but it is still haunted by the fear that the Chinese people might some day demand their country back... Zhao Ziyang, then general secretary of the Communist Party, who was dismissed and put under house arrest for the rest of his life, believed that to the day he died: "Most people were only asking us to correct our flaws, not attempting to overthrow our political system."

Today, people are still in jail in China because they participated to Tiananmen Square demonstrations.

[Quotes: Radio France, The Australian, Korea Times, wire news agencies, Google, Twitter.]

✍✍✍ Update June 5th 2009

It appears that the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen events and brutal repression of democratization and reforms attempts were only followed and talked about outside of China! I would like to ask now to the China watchers and policy makers how about their idea to embed China* in a policy of accompanying the rest of the developed world? I noticed a few telex of agencies that I find quite symbolic of the headache ahead. (NB* "Memo to the next president China USA and A Global Imperative by Nina Hachigian, Michael Schiffer, Winny Chen, August 13, 2008. A Progressive Approach to U.S.-China Relations in the 21st Century")

On Tiananmen 20th anniversary, quotes of The New York Times on June 5th 2009:

"Throngs of men, women and children gathered at a park here in Hong-Kong on Thursday evening for a enormous, somber candlelight vigil to mark the twentieth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square killings. The organizers said that 150,000 people joined the vigil, tying the record set by the first anniversary vigil in 1990 and dwarfing every vigil held since then. The police had no immediate estimate for the crowd. The peaceful assemblage spilled out into nearby streets, shutting down traffic. Inside Victoria Park, thousands listened to songs and speakers who recounted the events on the night of the crackdown. A half-an-hour into the vigil, the lights in the park were extinguished and the attendees lit a forest of white candles in inverted conical paper shields."

Reuters ("CHINA PROTEST SHIFTS WITH ECONOMIC BACKDROP POST-'89", Beijing, 2009/06/03) reported that twenty years after the crackdown on pro-democracy protests centered on Beijing's Tiananmen Square, the PRC's economy has developed to the point that similar protests on the same scale are highly unlikely today. The students and workers at the core of that June 4, 1989 movement faced problems from rampant inflation to the dismantling of a centralized system of job appointments. But people today generally enjoy much better living standards across the board. With that increased affluence, many of the students, professionals and other groups who would be the most likely potential source of organized challenges to the Communist Party rule are generally more occupied with making a living and getting ahead than with political change.

The New York Times ("AUSTRALIA FEELS CHILL AS CHINA'S SHADOW GROWS", 2009/06/03) reported that since three state owned PRC companies said they would buy stakes in Australia's storied mining industry totaling $22 billion -- as much as the PRC's entire investment here in the last three years -- some of this nation's 21.3 million people have reacted with aggrieved nationalism. The government of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, which generally favors the sales, has been savaged as naïvely cozy with the PRC, a view some in his own military appear to share. Opposition politicians have flogged the specter of an Australian future more or less as a giant open-pit mine in which the locals toil, but Beijing takes the profits.

Agence France Press ("US CONGRESS CALLS ON CHINA TO FREE TIANANMEN PRISONERS", Washington, 2009/06/03) reported that the US Congress called on the PRC to launch a UN-backed probe of its crackdown in Tiananmen Square 20 years ago and to free all political prisoners. The House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly for the resolution offering sympathy to those who died on June 4, 1989 when Chinese troops crushed a pro-democracy uprising in Beijing's vast central square. A total of 396 lawmakers voted in favor of the resolution and only one opposed it. Thirty-seven lawmakers did not vote.

China had officially announced plans in 2005 to commemorate the birthday of deposed CCP leader Hu Yaobang, whose death prompted mourning that led to pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square in the Beijing spring events of 1989. What happened to the plan...?

Last quotes with James Fallows, in The Atlantic:

"Today in Beijing 03 Jun 2009 08:31 pm. I am guessing that you will see no real-time TV reports from the Tiananmen Square area today, and little or no photography. This is based on personal experience there last night, China time, which also leads to personal advice for anyone in Beijing thinking of going there today. During my time in Beijing over the past year and a half, I've often seen the square itself totally closed off to visitors, as it is at the moment. There are always plenty of security forces around -- soldiers in green uniforms, various kinds of police in blue uniforms, and "plainclothes" forces who are pretty easy to pick out, like strapping young men in buzz cuts all wearing similar-looking "leisure" clothes. But I have not seen before anything like the situation at the moment..."

The entire report of James Fallows: http://tinyurl.com/qpkcvq

Of the complexity of promoting human rights, democracy and the rule of law...

H1N1, un virus qui va frapper les plus démunis du Sud

Chaque jour, de nouveaux patients sont signalés, notamment dans des pays de l'hémisphère sud, confirmant les craintes de l'OMS d'une diffusion rapide du virus mutant à la faveur de l'hiver austral, propice aux épidémies grippales. 

Resté jusqu'à présent à peu près aussi meurtrier qu'une grippe saisonnière classique, le virus A(H1N1) pourrait se transformer en véritable fléau pour les populations plus vulnérables des pays pauvres de l'hémisphère sud

Le monde "se rapproche" ainsi de sa première pandémie grippale du XXIe siècle, déclare mardi l'Organisation mondiale de la santé (OMS), expliquant que le virus A(H1N1) commence à s'installer en dehors du continent américain. 

De "premières propagations" du virus A(H1N1) dans la population de pays situés en dehors du continent américain sont observées, a relevé le directeur général adjoint de l'OMS, qui a cité le Royaume-Uni, le Japon, le Chili et l'Australie. Au Japon, le virus touche aussi la préfecture de Yamaguchi. Le Japon compte aujourd'hui 392 malades.

"Cependant, nous attendons toujours une activité réellement répandue (du virus) dans la population de ces pays", a ajouté le Dr Keiji Fukuda. "Au niveau mondial, nous pensons que nous sommes en phase cinq, en vigueur depuis le 29 avril, signalant une pandémie "imminente", mais "nous nous rapprochons de la phase six" d'alerte pandémique maximale".

"Il est clair que le virus semble se propager au niveau international. Nous savons qu'un certain nombre de pays sont en phase de transition, avec un passage de cas liés à des voyages --dans des pays affectés-- vers un établissement plus marqué --du virus-- au sein de la population", a expliqué le numéro 2 de l'OMS.

Sur les conseils d'experts internationaux consultés lundi, l'OMS a décidé de tenir compte du critère de "gravité" de la maladie pour le passage en phase pandémique maximale. La grippe porcine A(H1N1) est d'une gravité "modérée", a-t-il estimé, en rejetant le terme de "bénin". "Mesurer la gravité d'une maladie est très délicat". (Agences et itw)

Murakami's "1Q84"

Marketing was perfect at publisher Shinchosha. Fans ordering the book knew nothing but the title: "1Q84," it can be read as "1984" in Japanese. Haruki Murakami’s first novel in five years is a two-books work and "1Q84". 500.000 reservations came to bookshops, initial print run of the work is first printing to 480,000 copies. A hint at George Orwell's "1984" everyone said, but I doubt. Still I have to read the books and suspect the author plays imagination as he never did.

Murakami, 60, is one of the most widely translated Japanese writers alive, with bestsellers such as "Norwegian Wood," "Kafka on the Shore" and "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle." But in the case or Murakami born in 1949 in Kyoto and educated at Waseda university of Tokyo, marketing was cleaver enough to release the book before the week end, time for us to dive in Murakami's world of fantasies.

"I’ve been writing a new full-length novel continuously for the last two years – I started writing it right on Christmas two years ago – so for that whole time, I was getting up every day at some time between 2 and 4 in the morning and writing for four or five hours. During that period, I did take time off for vacation, but I think it was only about 10 to 20 days. Sitting there in front of my desk everyday for four to five hours straight, that was pretty tough." 

(Courtesy of the web: howtojaponese.com and Shinchosha publisher)

A literature Nobel price to come?

Well, hard to say. A recent episode rings the bells, when the author visited Israel to get a price. There he did a bit of noise, same as an Orwellian world...  Murakami was named winner of the 2009 Jerusalem Prize for the Freedom of the Individual in Society; it is is a biennial literary award traditionally bestowed upon authors whose work has dealt with human freedom, society, politics, and government. 

But here again Murakami surprised all in his speech: The usual complexity of the author had this to say in an article published in the Bungei Shunju literary journal where he  strongly condemned Israel's attitude towards the Palestinians. 

"Israel has adopted a policy that seals off the Palestinians inside the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, a policy that denies the refugees' right to return to their land in order to protect the interests of the Jewish people; this is unjust," Murakami wrote. He decided to accept the Israeli prize believing this would allow him to speak freely in front of an Israeli audience. While Murakami notes that "Israel isn't a tyrannical state and is founded on free speech, I sense a very strong patriotic approach when I talk to Israelis. The schools instill it in them through the official history, and three years of military service for boys and two years for girls is mandatory."

Murakami's visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum prompted him to come up with the following insight: "I think that the State of Israel suffers from some sort of trauma. The brain tells them that excessive self-defense is not good, but their body spontaneously responds to the slightest of provocations." 

Israeli Foreign Ministry said in response to the article: "The State of Israel is proud for having presented the Jerusalem Prize to Murakami and respects his right to express his opinions on current affairs. "However, Israel regrets the fact that the author, who is highly popular in Israel, preferred to adopt some inaccurate generalizations about the Middle East conflict, without knowing the facts. We would be happy if during his next visit in the country the author would find the time to learn more about Israel and the reality in the region." (Quotes: http://www.ynet.co.il)

Previously during his speech of admittance, about the time of the Gaza confrontation, earlier this year, Murakami compared humans to eggs. "If there is a hard, high wall and an egg that breaks against it, no matter how right the wall or how wrong the egg, I will stand on the side of the egg. Why? Because each of us is an egg, a unique soul enclosed in a fragile egg. Each of us is confronting a high wall. The high wall is the system which forces us to do the things we would not ordinarily see fit to do as individuals..."

"... Like most novelists, I like to do exactly the opposite of what I'm told. It's in my nature as a novelist. Novelists can't trust anything they haven't seen with their own eyes or touched with their own hands. So I chose to see. I chose to speak here rather than say nothing."

CQFD 2009...

Japanese car makers: No cash to host race?

Toyota "may" stop hosting the Formula One Japanese Grand Prix auto race in the face of the auto industry depression, according to today's edition of the Japan Times. Toyota is considering the move as a way to reduce costs as it expects to fall deep into the red in fiscal 2009 for the second straight year, they said. The annual Formula One race in Japan is held alternately between Fuji International Speedway and Suzuka International Racing Course.

Toyota purchased Fuji International Speedway Co. in 2000 and hosted the grand prix on Fuji speedway in 2007 after winning the right by renovating the race course at a cost of ¥20 billion. The Suzuka circuit, affiliated with Honda Motor Co., is the venue for this year's Japanese grand prix.

If Toyota decides to give up the 2010 grand prix, the Suzuka circuit may host it, the Japan Times writes. Toyota will continue participating in Formula One racing itself.

Let's see in October.

These #"@!??*$# Spams made in Hong-Kong

"You have probably seen an increase in the amount of "junk mail" which shows up in your email box, or on your favorite newsgroup. The activities of a small number of people are becoming a bigger problem for the Internet." This is the message of one company who deals with it... and sells systems to fight spam... Free trial, software anti-spam etc. 

Spam jams the web and it is a major problem to the information highways (Retro) Some are getting mad as this ad shows

How many of those did you get since yesterday?

One of the target is the US made in spams, the other target is China: 

And medias in China are proud about it: "They have reported that Hong Kong earned the highest email spam honour of any country or region in the world, in a report published by computing insecurity firm Symantec. The latest Messagelabs Intelligence Report for May 2009 revealed that the volume of spam increased 5.1 per cent over the previous month to 90.4 per cent worldwide! (Hong Kong email spam levels grew by 2.4 per cent in May to reach 92.3 per cent, according to the report.) In comparison, spam levels were 86.6 per cent in the US and 90.3 per cent in the UK. The report also said that some form of computer virus infected one in every 198.3 emails throughout China overall."

Paul Wood of Symantec indicated that 2009 has seen Captcha-breaking, social networking spam and webmail spam techniques combined. "Today, the bad guys are using the three together as a triple threat to heighten the effectiveness of their spamming". (News link: click the title)

Report, if you think it's worth, to: 

http://spam.abuse.net/  http://www.spamcop.net/

http://scamvictimsunited.wordpress.com/

Yokohama 150th Anniversary

150 years ago, Yokohama was a fishing village with 100 households facing a sandy beach with muddy lands and lots of mosquitoes. Basically a not healthy location. The shogunate chose the desolate site to open a foreign trading port precisely to keep Western merchants from Japanese and their daily business.

On July 29, 1858, Japan and the United States of America signed a Treaty of Amity and Commerce. Similar treaties were later signed with Russia, the Netherlands, Britain and France. These treaties opened the ports of Yokohama, Hakodate, Niigata, Kobe, and Nagasaki to the outside world. The opening of these ports introduced foreign cultures to Japan and helped bring about the modernization of Japan. 

With the arrival of Commodore Perry and his Black Ships in 1853, Japan opened its doors to the world. The following year, Perry and the Edo Shogunate signed the Kanagawa Treaty and Japan officially became an open country. In 1858 the Treaty of Amity and Commerce was signed, allowing for the Port of Yokohama to open in 1859. 2009 marks the 150th anniversary of the opening of the Port of Yokohama. 

A pioneering spirit existed in Yokohama as people from all around Japan and the world moved to the port city. Yokohama was now an important intercultural base that connected Japan to the rest of the world and a symbol of the new and modern Japan. These Pioneers created a unique and international culture while achieving success in various fields. It is no exaggeration to say that the modernization of Japan began with the Port Opening of Yokohama. (Cityhall information)

Today Yokohama has a population of 3.64 million people. Yokohama would like to tell the world that on this 150th Anniversary, the future of Yokohama is filled with hope and that we want to share our dream of the future with the world. This Commemorative Ceremony is to honor the Pioneers who have established the base for today’s prosperity. We will take this opportunity to celebrate this turning point of Japanese history and develop further into the future. (Cityhall information)

Observing the 150th anniversary of the port's opening, Yokohama organizes several activities and today is the first day. Among many beauties of the harbor town, the Yamashita park, the modern Minato-Mirai, and the endless stroll in the town designed with  "un je ne sais quoi d'esprit français." 

Yokohama extended relations with several  sister cities such as Bombay, San Diego, Shanghai, Vancouver and Lyon, France since 1959. The Lyonnais, led by Mayor Gérard Collomb well-known for his fruitful alliance's alchemy from food business to high-technology, are to come to celebrate this 50th anniversary with their Japanese counterparts , end of this month.

One of the other numerous assets of the town is... its little China town, and the beautiful sea-view from Yamate Hill with its old houses from the 19th century and an old cemetery for foreigners. Some quiet luxurious properties for rich expatriates founded a new architectural style. A "very chic" area with posh houses and elite schools such as the Saint-Maur International and French school. Yokohama also is a city with a huge suburb, golf courses, welcoming Kanagawa prefecture residents and Tokyo workers at lower cost. Yokohama certainly is of the most pleasant harbor town in Japan with Nagasaki, Kobe or Fukuoka.

The Cuauhtemoc, a training ship of the Mexican Navy enters Yokohama harbor

Superb ship and view but I am not sure that it is the best gesture of friendship these days. Naturally, PR agents may voice their opinions. Still a doubt lingers in my mind. Commemorating the anniversary of the beginning of Japanese-Mexican relations, a 1,800-ton tall ship from the Mexican Navy called at Yokohama port yesterday. The training vessel Cuauhtemoc initially planned to visit the port of Osaka, but the plan was canceled after the swine flu epidemic hit Osaka and surrounding areas, sickening hundreds of residents. The swine flu outbreak started in Mexico in mid-March; the Cuauhtemoc left Mexico in February and all 264 of its crew members are in good health, quarantine officials at Yokohama port said.

Unfortunately, most of the events of this 150 anniversary are  in Japanese languages, a minor flop when one celebrates internationalization, desho? (Click the title to access the festivities agenda)

France's first military base in the Gulf! Rafales Fighters in the pact

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Emirati Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sheikh Saif bin Zayed al-Nahayan inaugurate France's first military base in the Gulf on May 26, 2009 in the United Arab Emirates' capital Abu Dhabi. Sarkozy, on the second day of a visit to the oil-rich Gulf state, declared that Paris plans to submit proposals to world leaders at the G8 summit in July to try to end oil price volatility. France's so-called "Peace Camp" in Abu Dhabi will host up to 500 troops stationed in three sites on the banks of the strategic Strait of Hormuz just across from Iran: a navy and logistical base, a desert air base with three fighter planes and a training camp. France has a handful of military bases mainly in Africa including its largest in Djibouti, which occupies a strategic position on the Gulf of Aden.

France is a leading military supplier to the UAE, and the two countries are linked by a 1995 defense pact under which their armed forces chiefs meet once a year and their forces conduct around 25 joint military maneuvers per year. UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahayan reported progress in talks on the possible purchase of French Rafale warplanes, a deal that could be worth as much as six to eight billion euros (eight to 11 billion dollars). "It was discussed... I can say there has been positive progress on this issue," France hopes the UAE can be persuaded to replace its fleet of French Mirage 2000 combat planes with 60 new multi-role Rafale jets.

Bellicose North Korea

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The equivalent power of Nagasaki nuclear bomb! This is the latest test of bellicose North Korean nuclear scientists, after the quasi failure of the last rocket launch, under the thumbs of Pyongyang's generals, themselves under the nose of the Beijing leaders. Is Beijing going to advise the North junta to adopt an other type of attitude, a more conciliative behavior in line with the expectation of a denuclearization of rogue regimes? China does not broker any peace on the Korean Peninsula so far. China, in spite of her historical tie with the old guard of Pyongyang, is told to condemn such nuclear test. But what sort of action would the China leadership take to influence North Korea to "opt out" the nuclear option? 

Also to whom is the nuclear test aimed at? Is there any struggle coming from the military hard-liners at the top of the Pyongyang regime, probably holding Kim Jong-il 's hand, which is the motive of such radicalization of the DPRK (North Korea)? Is the test aimed at China? I have not yet read any conclusive opinions but it is the viwpoint of a bunch of experts in East Asia that this test is not just running an old movie. The bomb is real, the bomb is a threat. Time to the Pyongyangers to open up and to the nations involved in the 6 party talks to set an honorable end to such crisis. By the way, where is the European Union in this 6 party talks and if EU has her two cents to say in Afghanistan why not in the terrible risks and blackmails motioned by North Korea Stalinian dictatorship? 

Watching pictures of reporters who could set a foot in DPRK and noticing the immense poverty and unhappiness of the people, soldiers, children and families abused and ill treated, (reminder of Burma or Khmer Rouge ordeals and murders that I reported) there is a human tragedy up there in DPRK. There is an urgent need to confront and address with discussions not with bombs, kidnappings, and miserable life. 

Democratic nations cannot confront two aggressions and conflicts in the same time and let Pyongyang play the errant predatory card ,"with its million-strong army, it (DPRK) still has the capacity to inflict horrific damage on any invading force", the Independent writes today. 

Seismologist report of the Kilju, North Korea, underground nuclear test