Blog

6. Jan 2011

The assassination of the Punjab Governor by Ishtiaq Ahmed

InFocus, Islam, Law, Pakistan

January 6,
2011 

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9. Dec 2010

Pushing China further away – giving the Nobel to regime change

China, InFocus

By way of
introduction, let me affirm that of course Liu Xiaobo should not be in prison
for peacefully publishing his opinions on China’s system of government. He
has a long history of conducting a non-violent personal fight against the Party
leadership, the last time I met him was on Tiananmen. He has also guest-lectured here in Aarhus

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30. Nov 2010

The waiting

Burma, InFocus, Myanmar, refugees

Ang San Suu Kyi was released. And there was an election. And
that’s about as concrete as this post is going to get – of course there are
more to be said, but as is always the case with Burma
and her elusive leadership, there are no answers to be found in Rangoon.

As always, details are sketchy, indecipherable and
insufficient and what is really the situation for the average Burmese citizen
is unclear. Getting more concrete than just stating the two above things is not
an easy task.

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18. Nov 2010

Is this what they call momentum? by Anya Palm

Burma, InFocus, Myanmar

The Lady is free. She speaks to her people and what comes
out of her mouth is the definition of grace and dignity – listen to some of her
words here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11752918

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10. Nov 2010

The Pursuit of Happiness – The Ninth Millennium Development Goal by Nicol Foulkes, NIAS

Bhutan, GDP, GNH, InFocus

A couple of months ago I attended a lecture
here in Copenhagen given by the charismatic
Prime Minister of the Kingdom
of Bhutan, the Honorable
Jigmi Y. Thinley. Bhutan is
a small country in South Asia nestled between north east India and Tibet
in the Himalayas. With Buddism as the dominant
religion (75%) and Hinduism as the second (25%), it may not come as such a
surprise that Bhutan
is the only country in the world to measure the well-being of its country by
gross national happiness rather than the more widely recognized, gross domestic

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25. Oct 2010

Send in the clowns – Burma election Nov. 7 2010 by Anya Palm

Burma, Elections, In Focus blog 2010 week 43, InFocus

The spotlight is brightly
lit, while the preparations take place behind stage. The stage itself is empty
– for now – but every single seat in the audience is taken. All the VIP-guests
are in place – the UN, the ambassadors, the human rights defenders, the
experts. But despite a packed crowd, the theater is silent. The focus on the
empty stage is so intense that the spectators are not even exhaling. They are
waiting. They do not know what the show will be about and that is what makes
the waiting so tense. All they know is that it is a performance of utmost

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29. Sep 2010

Danish media and Pakistani Islam by Uzma Rehman

InFocus, Islam, Pakistan

Which
Pakistani Islam do you know about? The answer to this question would most
likely depend on the kind of news and information about Pakistan that has reached the majority of people
in Denmark
through the print and electronic media during the past decade i.e. especially
after 11 September 2001. However, this is how it is in most modern societies
where information about the world reaches us through the media. Only those few
who venture out to distant geographical areas are themselves able to experience
the ground reality of these societies.

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6. Sep 2010

In the aftermath of the Pakistan floods disaster by Ishtiaq Ahmed

floods, InFocus, Pakistan

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon who
visited Pakistan a week
after the unprecedented monsoon rains that started in July 2010 described the
scenes that he saw as far worse than the havoc unleashed by the recent Haiti earthquake and the infamous tsunami of
2004 that hit Southeast and South Asia. To
some casual listeners that may sound strange because in terms of loss of life
the floods in Pakistan
claimed much fewer lives: some 2000 as against the hundreds of thousands of deaths
that took place at the time of the Haiti earthquake and the Asian
tsunami.

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18. Aug 2010

Abandon decency. Abandon morals. Put in the guns and get the TEMPLE! by Anya Palm

cambodia, InFocus, Thailand

Preah Vihear is an unimaginably beautiful place. It is a
province, but it takes it’s name after an 11th Century Khmer
Temple, which towers over
the landscape on a 525-metre high mountain. The temple is stunningly
well-preserved – there are still carvings of dancing Apsaras, Buddha statues
and stone stair cases leading up to a perhaps even more breathtaking view over
unspoiled nature.

That is utterly unimportant, though.

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27. Jul 2010

In Cambodia, the prize for peace is justice

cambodia, InFocus

35 years of prison time for Kaeng Kek Iev – better known as
Duch – is strange.  Iev, a prison chief
in Cambodia’s
notorious torture prison S-21 during the reign of the Khmer Rouge, is
responsible for the violent and untimely death of about 14000 people.  

He is the first person ever to stand trial and receive
verdict for his crimes during the genocide in 1975-79.

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