1) That it barely made the news when it actually happened (even though it was unknown what sunk the vessel for a while)

2) That many S Koreans including my wife STILL…

I'm surprised yesterday's news still hasn't made headlines in New Zealand:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/18/AR2010051803094.html

Despite her breeding, I think some legitimate concerns are being raised here. but...

When looking at Chinese militarism, half the question is why they're doing it and what their objectives are (the "what" half is a matter of empirical fact). And as I said, I think that China's recent history…

I'm simply angry that the DomPost didn't understand any of the issues surrounding a piece that it gave half a page to, and was just some random piece they pulled off the wires. It's both negligent and ignorant.

But were it written by a non-Japanese citizen, would the feeling be…

Let's acknowledge that there's a lot of places this description could apply to, hmmmm?

There's no need to acknowledge it when I'm talking specifically about Japan.

Try walking round a palace in Korea and reading a few plaques. Seeing how it was burnt to the ground in a Japanese…

And this is precisely why Koike's piece was so offensive – that she is criticising Chinese militarism while willfully ignoring its history with Japan.

Solid point.

Lest we forget, the Jews weren't engaged in a 10 year old civil war amongst themselves, refusing to allign with one another when the holocaust took place. It's easy to play the victim on that one.

No, it's not about China being a blameless victim, it's about China being a…

On the point of revisionism- The day both these countries can make a concerted effort to remove revisionism of their own dark pasts from their history textbooks will be a win for knowledge.

Fair enough. The CCP narrative of its own role during the period is equally fucked. If the…

Japan could do well to get over its neuroses and be more self-critical. Furthermore, the only way forward for the country is to purge the power structures of corruption, nepotism, and inaction.

Especially if the Germans, with a similar history and culture of militarism, can [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Bye_Lenin!|not only face up to…

Oh, so the hypocrisy of the Japanese is justified by bursting of an economic bubble. Good grief. The Japanese love to see themselves as…

I think you're going out on a bit of a limb arguing that the comparison with Kaiser Wilhelm II's Germany is that far off Keith

I don't think that is the point. Sure, China's armament might be a bit like imperial Germany's.

However, given that we are talking…

Even if you didn't notice the large historical revisionism elephant in the room, you should've seen that it was at least a thinly veiled piece of xenophobia.

And presumably because of this not published it – why ever not? Its an op-ed piece, it informs the reader of opinions.

Wellingtonians…

Having Monday watched 1000 Chinese students participating in formative military training on the quad across from where…

Yes there are issues in Japanese…

Most permanent residents of Japan (myself included)…

You skimmed through a wire service you subscribe to and saw something about Chinese naval influence in the Pacific...

Plain ignorance.…

1. A very large number of Chinese move en-masse to this island in the south of Japan. Hmm, island population of 1800, so call it 1500 voters, so they'd need maybe 1000 migrants to get a…

Time to get Ian Wishart on the case I think

Hmm. Before anything else is considered, wasn't this just a really weird opinion piece to be giving half a page to?

Well, yes — since since DomPost seems utterly disintered in covering that corner of the world unless there kinky Loli-goths, whale entrails or a body count involved.

Often there'll be an article with an obvious NZ angle that they don't address at all, because the Independent/Reuters/New York Times hasn't.

That country for all its 'development' and moves away from being a bunch of marauding, murdering maniacs for centuries still has some major issues that it needs to properly acknowledge and properly deal with.

Let's acknowledge that there's a lot of places this description could apply to, hmmmm?

The Dom…

That country for all its 'development'…

An openly racist editorial against the French.

Oxymoron IMHO.

A fully- modern country that not only…

I lie, actually, I did buy some copies during…

Please consider this a submission to your opinion page.

Just call yourself 'Deputy Director, Institute of Global Media Studies', that should do it.

But yeah, how desperately sad. When the newspaper editor doesn't even care enough to – well, edit ... we might as well just give up and leave…