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I know, I know....horrible post title. Apparently the PC police are out with their pitchforks and torches (actually, most Americans don't care- just the pc police hammering out their indignation on keyboards, like mine) over Senator Hatch's use of an "antiquated" term for Asia, deemed "offensive" by those looking to be offended: WASHINGTON -- Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) called Asia “the Orient” while speaking on the Senate floor late Tuesday -- an outdated term considered offensive to Asians. Really? What Asians? Which Asians? I'm Oriental. A Siamese single, to be precise. I don't take offense to the term, "the Orient"...

Just hours after apologizing for using what was perceived as an anti-Semitic slur, Vice President Joe Biden deployed another term Wednesday that some might consider ethnically offensive. Speaking at a campaign finance reform rally in Iowa, Biden recalled a meeting he had with Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore. Biden described Yew as “the wisest man in the Orient.” The terms “orient” and “oriental” are considered widely outdated and offensive to Asians. Earlier in the day, Biden apologized for having recently described opportunistic bankers as “Shylocks,” a reference to a greedy Jewish money loaner in an Shakespearean play.

THE SAMURAI AND THE AINU Findings by American anthropologist C. Loring Brace, University of Michigan, will surely be controversial in race conscious Japan. The eye of the predicted storm will be the Ainu, a "racially different" group of some 18,000 people now living on the northern island of Hokkaido. Pure-blooded Ainu are easy to spot: they have lighter skin, more body hair, and higher-bridged noses than most Japanese. Most Japanese tend to look down on the Ainu. Brace has studied the skeletons of about 1,100 Japanese, Ainu, and other Asian ethnic groups and has concluded that the revered samurai of...

MOSCOW (AFP) - First there was a "rose" revolution, then an "orange" one, but while the "green" or Islamic revolt some see brewing in Uzbekistan may share a basic thirst for democracy, the outcome could be radically -- and tragically -- different, analysts said. ADVERTISEMENT The "people power" revolts in Georgia 18 months ago, then Ukraine last December caught the world's imagination. In both cases, huge, peaceful crowds forced the resignation of corrupt, vote-rigging governments. In came new, younger, Westward-looking leaders who vowed to put their ex-Soviet republics in the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Then in...

4072 Year of the Rooster  

China Reform Monitor No. 574, January 21, 2005 American Foreign Policy Council, Washington, DC http://www.afpc.org Editor: Ilan Berman Associate Editor: Lisa-Marie Shanks JAPAN’S JITTERS OVER CHINESE NAVAL INCURSIONS; BEIJING, OTTAWA INK NEW ENERGY, RESOURCE DEALS [Dear Readers: The American Foreign Policy Council thanks Al Santoli for editing the first 573 issues of the China Reform Monitor, and welcomes AFPC Vice President for Policy Ilan Berman as interim editor] January 16: Amid growing concern for China’s expanding military capabilities, Japan has mapped out a strategic plan to defend a chain of its southern islands in the East China Sea, Agence France...