Mar
18
Illicit Small Arms Trade
March 18, 2008 | 1 Comment
By Wanching (Week 6)
Notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout was arrested in Thailand in early March for allegedly supplying the Colombian rebels with arms and explosives. Dubbed the “Merchant of Death” and the “Lord of War”, he has been in his arms “business” for a decade and a half.
His “business” included providing cheap freight routes [...]
Mar
11
Illicit Art and Antiquity Trade
March 11, 2008 | 1 Comment
By Wanching (Week 5)
According to the Houston Journal of International Law, the income generated by illicit trade in art and antiquities was estimated to be as high as six billion US dollars per year. The loot comes mainly from private collectors, public museums, churches and archaeological sites. Only five to ten per cent of the [...]
Mar
9
Being an Afghanistani
March 9, 2008 | 2 Comments
By Violet Wang
Being a young Afghanistani, first of all, it may mean that you could never get a decent job. Secondly, opium poppy is immediately available to you. Thirdly, one can be holding a gun to fight after luring by small gifts like a mobile phone from insurgents.
According to the latest official figure by Central [...]
Mar
9
What does Opium mean to them in Afghanistan
March 9, 2008 | Leave a Comment
By Violet Wang
What Afghanistan doesn’t have, to name a few, include a functional government, health care service, schooling, and jobs for young men. What Afghanistan does have, already notorious in the world, is opium. When people in the country use opium as an alternative to all those
they don’t have, the country suffered,
Good news did come [...]
Mar
5
Music–the language that knows no boundary?
March 5, 2008 | 1 Comment
By Wanching (Week 4)
The New York Philharmonic’s recent performance in North Korea seemed one of the most interesting piece of news since the start of the year, so it might be a good idea to write about this “music diplomacy” for the reading week.
The trip was widely described as an “ice-breaker” by the majority [...]
Feb
28
Opium Economy: How crucial it is towards Afghanistan
February 28, 2008 | 1 Comment
By Violet Wang
Opium has unique meanings in Afghanistan, where it stands for the core of a large drug driven economy and the origin of most of the world supply, which in turn becomes a cash machine for insurgents in the country.
Afghanistan’s narco-economy has grown for more than seven years since the overthrow of the Taliban [...]
Feb
27
Should we Legalize Drugs?
February 27, 2008 | 1 Comment
By wanching
Of course not.
The global drug trade is estimated to be worth around US$ 400 billion, roughly equivalent to the GDP of Australia. Some thus argue that governments worldwide should legalize drugs to cut one of the main revenue sources of criminal syndicates. The rationale goes, when drug revenues are equally distributed by free-market [...]
Feb
20
Clash of Civilizations?
February 20, 2008 | 1 Comment
By Wanching
I have read the articles on Samuel Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations and the following is some of my thoughts on it.
According to Huntington, there are several major civilizations, namely Western, Islamic, Sinic, Hindu, African, Latin American, Orthodox-Russian, Buddhist and Japanese. This categorization is actually the main weakness of his argument as it is very [...]
Feb
18
Some basics on drug production and trafficking
February 18, 2008 | 1 Comment
By Violet Wang
Drug trafficking is continuing a trend of its own globalization, with different countries seeing their roles changed in the chain of illegal drug industry, thus facing new issues to fight the crime.
Traditionally the manufacturing of opium was from the the south-east Asian “Golden Triangle,” once a major center of illicit poppy cultivation, taking [...]
Feb
14
The Internet: Angel and Demon in One
February 14, 2008 | 1 Comment
By Wanching
The internet has brought the world closer together, and the closer human ties and blurred national boundaries it creates are often blamed for the evils of globalization—infringement of privacy; violation of data security and confidentiality, copyright and intellectual property law; spread of pornography and hate sites; online fraud and money laundering; dissemination of rumour; [...]
