JAPAN
JAPAN
Asahi Shimbun, Tokyo, July 20: Tokyo's relations with Beijing are a worry in the promotion of cooperative ties between Japan and South Korea. If positive links are to be created among major Asian countries in terms of politics and eonomics, it is necessary to incorporate China into such an association.
The bane of the chilly political relations are Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni Shrine. Every time he visits the shrine, Koizumi says the Chinese and South Koreans "will come to show an understanding sooner or later." But there is no indication of change being made in the ties between Japan and China. And there is no sign at all that the prime minister has made any effort at improving the situation.
Abducted Japanese
If Japan can cooperate with China as well as with South Korea in matters concerning North Korea, moreover, there will be increased pressure on Pyongyang to resolve the problems of abducted Japanese and its nuclear and missile development.
Koizumi should face up to China from a broad perspective of Japan's diplomatic policy toward Asia. His visit to South Korea should be the first step toward that end.
KENYA
East Africa Standard, Nairobi, July 19: There are some things the government can not have failed to notice in the storm that erupted over British High Commissioner Edward Clay's stinging criticism of it regarding the return of grand corruption.
Among Kenyans and the donor community, support for Clay's message was overwhelming.
While many people did not like his language, they liked the message, which is that the government must match its promises on fighting graft with punitive action against its corrupt officials.
Accountability
President Mwai Kibaki must have remembered that in his days in the opposition he backed donor demands that the Kenya African National Union regime be accountable and transparent.
When KANU ministers used to argue that Kenya was a sovereign state and should not be dictated by donors, Kibaki reminded the government that those who loan money must have interest in its transparent accountable use.
Now in government, ministers are parroting the same KANU lines they detested when in opposition.
Ladies and Gentlemen of government, the electorate and donors must demand the same standards, which you demanded of KANU when in the opposition.
BRITAIN
The Guardian, London, July 17: The fate of the giant bluefin tuna is another example of the way our oceans are being plundered to satisfy gourmet tastes. This year's harvest of the Atlantic tuna that spawn in the Mediterranean was a disaster for the fishermen of the islands off Sicily ... a result of the massive increase in legal and illegal fishing in the region.
Those that are still caught are located at sea by more advanced technology, in operations sometimes financed by the mafia. Researchers at the University of British Columbia have said that sonar and satellite devices are now being used to identify the areas where the tuna gather. While legitimate international exports of fish have doubled in the last two decades, that of tuna has nearly trebled. The trade in bluefins is especially lucrative.
Disappearing species
Pablo Neruda wrote an ode to "the one and only pure ocean machine, unflawed, navigating the waters of death", but a species of the tuna that inspired him could soon disappear. The common skipjack tuna found in supermarket tins is in no immediate danger, but the bluefin is now threatened in the Pacific as well as the Mediterranean and Atlantic.