Going off the rails?
Memo #329 Challenges for small Indian cities planning metro projects By Simon Harding – sharding13 [at] gmail.com India is undergoing a metro boom. The country has spent US$41bn* on urban metro rail projects since 2002: The country’s six largest cities have begun constructing large-scale networks. Now smaller cities are following suit: Akhilesh Yadav, Chief Minister […]
The Future of the Renminbi and Next Steps for Canada
Memo #328 By Grégoire-François Legault – gregoire.legault [at] alumni.ubc.ca Though internationalization of the renminbi (RMB, the “redback”) is far from complete, it is well under way. In 2014, China signed eight new agreements to establish RMB hubs around the globe, and the redback was used to settle almost 25% of payments across China’s borders. The […]
The AAP’s “clean sweep” in Delhi Assembly Elections
Memo #327 What it means for India By Asim Arun – asimup [at] gmail.com The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP, Common Man’s Party) landslide victory in the Delhi Assembly polls this month is a rare instance of a civil society movement succeeding in democracy’s ultimate test: elections. The AAP is the child of the “India Against […]
Nepal’s Citizenship Challenges: Gender and Sovereignty in the Himalayas
Memo #326 By Sara Shneiderman – sara.shneiderman [at] ubc.ca It’s not often that the words “and” and “or” become political slogans, but this has happened in Nepal. A coalition of feminist and rights activists is demanding that the country’s new constitution grant citizenship on the basis of descent through “father or mother,” rather than “father […]
AEC 2015: Stop Talking to Other Governments, Start Talking to Firms
Memo #325 By Cesi Cruz – cesi.cruz [at] gmail.com and Benjamin A.T. Graham – benjamin.a.graham [at] usc.edu How can the governments in ASEAN help businesses prepare for the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) scheduled to start in 2015? Foreign firms operating in the Philippines are preparing for the changes, but what help do they want from […]
Fighting for Myanmar’s Child Soldiers
Memo #324 Efforts to release some 70,000 child soldiers in Myanmar face multiple challenges. By Kai Chen – chenkai [at] zju.edu.cn Since Myanmar’s independence in 1948, the nation’s interest groups—in particular its ethnic minorities and the national military—have been at odds on how to rule Myanmar. The result has been a long simmering armed conflict […]
Pakistani Taliban: The Fault in their Narrative
Memo #323 By Dur-e-Aden – dur-e-aden [at] hotmail.com On December 16, 2014, Pakistani Taliban massacred over 132 children when they attacked a high school in Peshawar. They rationalized this attack as a reaction to the violence perpetrated against them (whether by the Pakistani military or US drones). This narrative attempts to shift blame for the […]
Will the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) transform Southeast Asian economies in 2015?
Memo #322 By Kai Ostwald – kai.ostwald [at] ubc.ca and Krislert Samphantharak – krislert [at] ucsd.edu December 31, 2015 is the launch date of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), possibly the most ambitious undertaking to date of the ten-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Envisioned as the culmination of decades-old economic integration efforts to […]
Integrating Sexual Minorities in South Korea
Memo #321 By Joseph Yi – joyichicago [at] yahoo.com, Joe Phillips – joephillips5 [at] gmail.com, Heather Yang – heatheryang0102 [at] gmail.com The LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) occupy a peculiar place in South Korean society. By maintaining somewhat sexually free, separate social enclaves, they avoid significant public backlash and government oppression. However, they have no […]
In Myanmar, Let’s Make a Deal
Memo #320 Myanmar’s Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement has the potential to end decades of conflict, but a political solution will have to wait. By Brandon Miliate – bmiliate [at] gmail.com Today there is the real possibility that Myanmar’s sixty-year history of ethno-national insurgencies might be coming to an end. After decades of stagnation and intermittent fighting, […]