Word: islanders
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Changing Complexion This influx of Chinese white-collar workers is forcing Japan to rethink its very national identity. Traditionally, the island nation has been inward-looking and xenophobic. Today, however, grappling with a labor shortage caused by decades of declining birth rates, Japan knows it must import workers if it is to remain the world's second-largest economy. And so the deluge of highly educated Chinese is challenging Japan to re-evaluate its attitude toward foreigners - particularly those who hail from what was once dismissed as a communist backwater but today is crucial to Japan's economic prospects...
...mobs killed thousands of ethnic Chinese and Koreans. The aftermath of the 1995 earthquake in Kobe couldn't have been more different. Eager to revitalize a city that was struggling economically even before the massive tremor, the city government began courting Chinese investment. Today, on Kobe's refurbished Port Island, delegations of Chinese businessmen tour a vast technology park where city officials are offering tax breaks in the hopes of creating a new high-tech Chinatown. Chen's company headquarters are already here, as are dozens of other Chinese firms specializing in everything from scrap metal to biotech...
...experiencing rising temperatures and longer rainy seasons are seeing large outbreaks year after year, and what has previously been thought of as a tropical disease is popping up in more temperate regions. Nepal and Bhutan saw their first cases in recent years, as did isolated spots such as Easter Island. Today, an estimated 2.5 billion people live in areas where dengue is endemic. The WHO expects millions more will be added in coming years. "Dengue is an evolving situation," says Dr. Jai Narain, director of communicable diseases for the WHO in Southeast Asia. "A lot of people say climate change...
...operation in combating anti-Indian insurgencies in North-Eastern states. But most importantly, India is jittery at China’s influence over Burma, especially its “string of pearls” policy of establishing bases around the Indian Ocean, including one allegedly on the Burmese island of Great Coco. India has countered this with its own weapon and radar sales, and training for the junta’s military...
Unfortunately, the global political community is a long way from speaking with one voice on anything, and climate change is no exception. We'll know for sure next week, when environment and energy ministers from around the world meet on the Indonesian island of Bali, for the UN's climate change conference. The summit has been held nearly every year since 1992, when the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) - the document that has since guided international work on global warming - was hammered out. It was at the 1997 conference, held in Japan, that the Kyoto Protocol...