COMING UP: Russia-Georgia Conflict - Guest entry by Brenda Bolgaert

*Picture by PhotoNeil. For more see: http://yawoot.com/post/1112#thumbs

Some of you might know our beloved classmate Brenda from the good ole GSP (Global Studies Programme) days. She's now working in Georgia, but has recently been evacuated to Armenia because of the fight going on in Ossetia.

Hopefully she'll be able to tell us what's happening on the ground over there in a couple of days.


Read below for summary on the conflict.....



Source: BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/country_profiles/1102477.stm)

The fighting in Georgia started last Thursday (Aug 7) when Georgian troops threw the first punch at Russia by launching a surprise attack on (pro-Russia) separatist troops in South Ossetia.

Needless to say, Russia reacted in full force by sending in tanks and troops supported by air attacks on Georgia. Georgian troops were decisively defeated.

Today the two countries declared a truce, brokered by France, but Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili says that Russian attacks on people are still happening and Russian tanks remain present in Gori (in Georgia). An AFP journalist reported that Russian tanks and military trucks are headed in the direction of Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia.

The fighting has left an estimated 100,000 people displaced and scores dead.


Brenda...we're looking forward to hearing from you!!!! :)

Hidden havens in Singapore

I took this video last week when I decided to check out one of the "new" treetop walks that the government's built all over Singapore. I started at the bridge near Alexandra road and finished the walk at Habour Front, just behind the MRT station.


It was truly picturesque, tranquil and calming. It was a nice change to hear the sound of the crickets, smell the damp forest and watch the squirrels munch away at whatever it is they were munching on...


In this concrete jungle of ours, it's easy to forget that there are still little oases around where you can retreat to, take a breath, and listen to your own thoughts.

Is the Western media biased against China because it is a rising global power?

The Olympic's opening ceremony and the build up to the event has been shrouded in both praise and protests from the Western world (in particular).

While this major event has been China's chance to showcase its new prowess to the world, it has also opened China to significant criticism on issues ranging from human rights abuse to pollution.

But the West has been criticising China for decades. Why is this time so significant? And is this another case of western imperialism - an attempt by the West to impose its standards of freedom and democracy on a country that is not ready for such an order, which the Europeans and Anglo-Saxons themselves took centuries to establish?

Everyday I read the news from the region, the US and UK, there is an indelible "us-them" complex, with finger pointing on one side and blame shifting on the other. Yet, I have read other academic journals that have very convincingly argued that the rise of China is not necessarily a threat to the US and its allies, apart from their ego.

And the more they try to defend their egos, that have been failing along with their economies, the more they are actually fanning nationalistic pride in China, that has been rising and spreading like a bush fire, both to the detriment of China and the West.

Still, I think we, as Asians, are over reacting a little to all this criticism, which is good for China. If it were not the Olympics, I dare say we would be much more receptive to Western censure on China.

That said, I do agree with the stance that this is another case of the West trying to impose a one-size-fits-all definition of human rights and civic liberties on a country with a completely different historical path and socio-cultural context, not to mention political structure and ideology.

If history has taught us anything, a sudden change imposed from the top can be catastrophic, often resulting in the opposite of the desired outcome. Russia's Glasnost policy (1985) which opened up freedom of press fully and suddenly, contributed to Gobarchev's fall, and Russia today is none the freer.

China must and will open up freedom of press and civil liberties, but at its own pace, when its people are ready and matured enough to handle these new freedoms. Trying to impose the kind of freedoms and human rights standards that the West enjoys on a people who have not had any experience with such freedoms can only result in abuse, and ultimately a draconian backlash from the communist party and further clampdown on what little freedoms the Chinese people enjoy today.

*The Olympic cartoon is from: http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/politicalcartoons/ig/Olympics-Cartoons/

WE KILLED CHIVALRY! Now we want to bring it back...SOMETIMES

The Guardian reported:

Support for gender equality appears to be declining across Britain and America amid concern that women who play a full role in the workforce do so at the expense of family life.

The sociologist, Jacqueline Scott, who did the survey over the past 3 decades said that the "shine of the supermum" is losing its appeal. In Britain, more men and women now think family life suffers if the woman goes out to work, and that sentiment in the U.S. is even stronger.

Skipping through the boring technical bits of the study, it got me thinking about how I have so often heard my working professional female friends (myself included) lament that chivalry is dead. On the other hand, I've also heard my male friends complain that they're confused about what modern women want. If they open the door for a lady, he might risk coming across as patronising and if he doesn't, he's being a chauvinistic pig.

I think we quite live in a befuddled society today, where gender equality is sometimes taken a bit too far to the extent that women want to be treated like princesses but still call the shots like a king.

Are these roles mutually exclusive? Not always, but we seldom think about the greater implications of how we want to be treated. To be treated like a princess inexorably means you're in a position of weakness and vulnerability. To then suddenly switch to being the master, in the position of domination, brings a whole lot of confusion in the mode of interaction between the sexes.

We modern young women scoff at the idea of boxing the female role to that of a housewife. And yet women who are married and have children scoff at other married women who do not have the 'maternal instinct'. Are we women guilty of selectively interpreting the meaning of "housewife"? Is this more about a class complex than a gender issue?

At the end of the day, we women are run by our neurological swings. Some days we want to be princesses. Others we want to be the boss. I'm just glad I wasn't born a boy.

I think I'm about to be burned on the stake by feminists.

Gangs take over in Nigeria's Universities

When I was in university, gangsters were considered to be people from the bottom of the lot who'd usually never make it through high school, much less university. In high school I used to hear of gangsters pissing on the cars of teachers they didn't like and for a while there was a spate of students scratching the principals' or discipline masters' cars with keys.

In Nigeria though, gangs in university make what the "Ah Bengs" and "Ah Lians" here look like child's play. The Economist reported this week that Nigeria's universities are now festering with "student fraternities turned into powerful well-armed gangs". According to a lobby group called the Exams Ethics Project, inter-cult violence killed 115 students and teachers between 1993 and 2003. What started as harmless student groups in the 1980s and 90s became political and violent when military leaders started exploiting these groups to confront the leftist student unions, often aligned with pro-democracy movements.

The magazine says that Nigeria's university system used to be the finest in west Africa, but languishes in overcrowded classes, deteriorating facilities and an outdated curriculum that hasn't been changed for years. Yet money from politicians has been feeding these university fraternity with cash and arms.

We live in strange times when politicians finance violence instead of vocation in universities. But such is the intrinsic nature of politics and the selfish nature of politicians.