Can we Look Around to See How Rich are we?

Three years ago, Japan had a huge earthquake in Tohoku region, which brought catastrophe to its people and economy.

Some politicians, especially those at the left wings, claim that the recovery from the earthquake is poorly conducted by right wing politicians who have control over the Japanese parliament.

I will not say Japan did not face severe consequences from this earthquake, but I really want Japanese people to look outside their own country.

Even though their houses were destroyed by the tsunami, they still receive temporary houses which are way better than normal houses I see here in Hanoi.

Since I was not involved in this earthquake, I cannot say how stressful and mournful it is to lose my own houses; however, I am pretty sure Japanese people will completely realize how prosperous our country is when they look outside their country.

General Assembly opened 69th session

General Assembly recently held a 69th sessioin at which world leaders discussed many world issues such as climate change, Ebola, IS and so on.

I am so impressed by many of the MDGs will be expected to meet their initial goals. However, according to some articles, inequalities, lack of sanitation and AIDS&Malaria have still remained problems.

On the other side, Obama gave an impressive speech about how the US initiated actions for the greater use of renewable resources. Even though the US increases the production of shale gas, I am pretty sure Obama took his leadership to enhance renewable energy productions.

On the other side, many countries have started to involve in intervening Syria and Iraq; I am worried the greater involvement of many countries will lead to long-term conflict with ISIS.

I just threw up several topics, but it should be worthwhile to check out how world leaders give opinions on many world issues which we face right now.

Geopolitics

Everyweek, I watch 30mins TV program called "Ikegami Akira's Economic Lecture". Several days ago, the topic of the lecture was "Geopolitics"

I already knew what geopolitics was from my geography class, but Mr.Ikegami's lecture was even more fascinating.

The story goes on like this...
1-The US relies less on supply of oil from the Middle East due to its increased supply of shale gas.
2-Thus, there is a discussion coming as "Do Americans need to protect Persian Gulf? They can hand over the job to China."
At the same time....
3-There has been increasingly high tensions between Russia and EU, so the supply of natural gas is limited.
4-Instead, EU could import oil from the Middle East.
5-Russia tries to export natural gas to China and Japan(Pipeline has been already constructed between China and Russia)

It is very interesting that the increased supply of shale gas in one country affects many countries!

Media's Manipulation

There has been a movement in Scotland to be independent from the United Kingdom. Prime Minister of the UK asserted that he would follow the result of the vote which will come up next week.

The Japanese TV program said only 10 % of politicians in parliament represent Scottish; thus, Scotland's opinions have been dismissed. As soon as I hear this news, I thought the current movement was understandable.

However, I checked out how much the population of Scotland took up in the entire UK. The population of Scotland was actually only 8%, which indicates that the ratio of Scottish politicians in the British Parliament is almost proportional to that of the Scottish population in the UK.

I do not why the Japanese TV program encourages Japanese people to agree with the Scottish independence, but it is always better to check out the facts behind the news.

American Intervention to Iraq

Yesterday, I had a MUN CCP at my high school. When I brought the topic about current humanitarian interventions to Iraq by the US, everyone said "the US is a liar." or "Obama never keeps a promise".

I found their comments on this topic very biased. Yes, the US brings its army to Iraq, but what it does is actually to push ISIS outside Iraq and to get back an oil supply in NE Iraq.

From knowing the US in more details, I think Obama does try to bring a peace to Iraq by helping to unite several ethnic groups in a political regime.

I am so excited to know how my friends will change their perspectives next week after I talk about the positive aspects of the intervention.

Immigration

Recently President Obama announced that he would postpone the immigration reform.

Immigration is one of the most controversial issues. It can be both right and wrong whether a country allows large immigrants or not. For example, because of a decline in birth rates, Japan is considering to accept a large number of foreigners who can potentially work, and thereby support its economy.

However, at the same time, there might be some people who just want to issue Japanese passports, retire their current jobs in Japan and receive welfare public assistance, which is often given to extremely poor citizens.(which is actually happening nowadays)

Whether welcoming international immigrants really depends on how much a country will benefit from these immigrants. If the economic benefit from immigrant workers outweighs the cost of illegal welfare public assistance, Japan had better issue more passports to those foreigners.

China and Russia Launch Gas Pipeline

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-29011092

Not only European countries but also Japan put severe economic sanctions on Russia, so the Russian government and Chinese government(new importer) agreed on construction of new pipelines from Russia to China.

In history, if countries had a diplomatic issue, they would take out weapons and declare a war. However, I found out that the diplomatic strategy has changed. Now a nation is more likely to take economic sanctions before taking weapons; sanctions have been more effective since a country is economically more dependent on the other.

But in this situation, Russia mitigates its implications of economic sanctions by exporting natural gas to a new buyer(China). What would happen if economic sanctions were no longer effective?