Piracy in Somalia and Dubai＝what's the next?

The map above shows the area where piracy was active around Somalia from 2005 to 2010.Obviously, the piracy descouraged many countries to transport their products around that area.

What about from Dubai's perspective?
If you hear a word "Dubai", you will probably imagine the huge fancy city with many skyscrapers. However, the Dubai's rapid development is initially attributed to its great location, where Dubai can be a middleperson between Europe and Asia.

Thus, active piracy around Somalia decreases the demand for Dubai's ports, which would be a disadvantage for Dubai, Europe and Asia.

Now, the piracy is dramatically suppressed by African and Middle East countries.

In last April at Counter-Piracy Conference, the world leaders emphasized the significance of Somalia's reconstruction as a country.

Military to Keep the Peace

Yesterday, Mr.Obama annouceed that the government would send about 300 military advisers to Iraq in order to help the quell its raising insurgency and secure the U.S. embassy.

I can see that some media and political parties criticize Mr.Obama's decision since he was the one who said to finish its intervention in Iraq.

In my opinion, however, flexibility in decision makings is necessary. Though Mr.Obama promised to leave Iraq, the US still has to act as the most powerful peacekeeper in the world.

Therefore, I assume he was right that he made the decision that tries to adopt to the changing situation.

Will Mr.Obama's Decision be Successful?

I know it is a bit old topic but last month Mr.Obama announced that by the end of 2014 the U.S. would reduce its troops in Afghanistan to less than 10.000.

His decision to reduce the troops is quite understandable since situation in Afghanistan has been bogged down. Especially for Mr.Obama who has been acclaimed for his commitment to the world security, keeping thounsands of troops in Afghanistan may sound contradictory.

In my opinion, I am concerned about the further terrorism in MIddle East as the U.S. will leave the place where peace is yet ensured. Although we have had the great number of victims in this war, I clearly notice that the U.S. has been taking the responsibility for the peacekeeping measures in Middle East and wonder who will take the responsibility instead of the U.S.

So the point is "Will Mr.Obama's Decision turn out well? or Lead to More Catastrophic Situations in Middle East?"

To me, the latter one is more likely.

Personal Experience in Greece

It seems like demonstrations in Greece are not still alleviated.
I just saw a news article about demonstrations in Greece, that came from depressed state of its economy.

When I stayed in Greece during the Chinese new year, I encountered the demonstration for the first time in my life. The sprays thrown by the demonstraters had hurt my eyes so that I got very scared.

And it is still sad that the demonstrations like what I saw are still going in the beautiful country. Hope there will not be any extreme actions going on.

What can I do for the Future of Korea and Japan?

Yesterday, I had a talk with my Korean friend about history of Japan and Korea.

From that talk, I learned how bad the relation between Korea and Japan has been over the years. However, at my school, Korean and Japanese have similar natures so that they are often good friends and I love Korea.

Though there are still many people who hate each other, what I can do is just to spread a story through my Japanese friends that "Korean and Japanese can be good friends. They are not bad people as you guys think." .

Many countries have favourable and unfavorable countries. But we do not know unless we actually get direct contact with those people.

I hope Korea and Japan will have the best friendship in the future!!

Atomic Bombs in Japan; Atrocities? or Nuclear Deterrents?

Of course, I cannot say that these atomic bombs in Japan were right actions since they made too many victims. However, if I talk about nuclear deterrents, the answer might be different.

Because of these bombs, many countries understood how devastating these atomic bombs were. Therefore, even though there were high possibilities of nuclear wars in the time of Cold War, the US and the Soviet Union could not determine to take these actions because they knew how awful these bombs were!

I know a quote "We Learn From History". As it says, we learned the destructive consequences from these atomic bombs in Japan. Can these atrocities turn out to be "nuclear deterrents" and perhaps "right actions for future generations" ?

US Military Bases in Japan:Remove or Stay?

http://www.stripes.com/news/pacific/japan/anti-war-protesters-start-3-day-march-to-okinawa-military-bases-1.283375


Yes, there are some protesters from all the places of Japan to be against the existence of the American military bases in Okinawa.

However, in my opinion, our country needs the US army bases in Okinawa to protect not only Japan but other East Asian countries.

There is a fact that China aggressively took over the Phillipine island right after the US removed its army base from there. Surprisingly, China has been insisting that Okinawa should be a part of China, which tells us clearly why we need the powerful American bases in Okinawa.

Everything in the world has both positive and negative sides. That is why we need to evaluate every case and decide which option is more benefitial for ourselves.
In this case, the options are:
-Removing the American military bases to stick to the principal of pacifist
-Allowing the bases to secure the peace of Japan and East Asia.

To me, the latter option is more practical and realistic.

Collective Self-Defence in Japan?

http://nationalinterest.org/feature/collective-self-defense-japans-future-10491


This is a very hard topic to decide which one is right.
Traditionally, many Japanese citizens think not involving in any conflict is the idea of pacifist and that idea can be still right even now.

However, to me, the current situation is too unbalanced becase the US can carry out its collective self-defence for Japan but Japan cannot do it for the US. From that perspective, Japan would be so selfish that it cannot create good relations with the U.S..

I hope the Japanese government will do a right choice to protect ourselves and establish trustworthy relations with the US.

China Has Increased Its Trade Surplus

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-27753079

Less imports sound like China produces products by itself within a country and becomes more independent from other countries.

Still, China and other countries must be greatly interdependent each other. How will this tight economic interaction affect other areas such as geography politics?(e.g.China and Vietname)