Details

2011 Asia and Africa today

 

REVOLT IN THE ARABIAN WORLD: CROPS AND SHOOTS

MOHAMED MURSY: «WE STRUGGLE FOR POWER, BUT WE PREACH PEACE» by D.I.Vinitsky, our staff correspondent in Egypt
Keywords: Egypt, «revolution on January, 25th», Moslem Brothers Association, Freedom and Justice Party
It was only a year ago that in many countries the «Moslem Brothers Association» has been associated with extremism and has been written into the «black» list. As long as it was shamed as a terrorist organization its political activity in Egypt has been banned. However revolutions change the world. «The Arabian spring» in Egypt has destroyed former foundations. «Brothers» have officially created their own Party of Freedom and Justice. Even more than that the new party proved to be the most serious and organized force which claims to the leading role in a new Egypt. This is an interview on the eve of the parliamentary election given by the chairman of the party Mohamed Mursy who has disclosed the political ambitions of Egyptian Moslem Brothers, their idea of what kind of a country a new Egypt should be, how international relations should develop on the world arena.

MANAGING THE PROTEST POTENTIAL IN THE MIDDLE EAST: LESSONS OF THE ARAB REVOLUTIONS by L.L.FITUNI, Dr.Sc. (Economy)
Keywords: Arab countries, promotion of democracy, leaderless technologies, information and propaganda, the revolutionary processes in the Middle East, public opinion manipulation, support of protest movements
The article reveals methods and technologies used by opposition forces and their external allies to mobilize masses for anti-government protests in North Africa and the Middle East, which brought about the change of the political leadership in some Arab countries. Issues such as financing of revolutions, leaderless technologies, information and propaganda are addressed in connection with the revolutionary processes in the region.
Technology of management of social protests are applicable not only in the countries considered by L.L.Fituni
- Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, - but also far beyond the Middle East and North Africa. Consequently, they constitute a valuable experience of revolutionary mobilization of masses.

TURKISH «ECONOMIC MIRACLE»: COULD IT BE A MODEL FOR IMITATION? by N.Yu.ULCHENKO PhD (Economy)
Keywords: Turkey, economic model, financial stabilization, budget deficit, social policy, foreign financial sources
One of the most important reasons for the political success of Justice and Development Party governing in Turkey since 2002 is her obvious achievements in economic sphere. After reaching financial stabilization the Party was able to keep sustainable economic growth. What are the ways which helped Turkey to obtain the economic success? State expenses were cut due to less active investment policy while complete control over the real sector of the economy was given to private business. As the fiscal policy became sounder the expenses on the state debt became less. So staying in the frame of the budget discipline the state was able to increase the social expenses in the interest of marginal voters.
The national entrepreneurial class is fulfilling its new mission - to develop real sector by his own - actively using foreign financial sources which include not only the inflow of foreign direct investment but foreign credits as well, especially from friendly Arabic countries. At the same time its obvious that dependency of economic growth on the inflow of foreign finansal sources is the weak point of the current Turkish economic model.

SOUTH AFRICA: THE LONGEST ROAD TO FREEDOM by V.N.Tetekin. PhD (History)
Keywords: century of the African National Congress (ANC), apartheid, Freedom Charter, the liberation movement
South Africa is one of the most successful countries in the world. South Africa is a member of the «big twenty» - the prestigious «club» of the most developed countries. However, to achieve such impressive results South Africa first had to go along a difficult path of winning independence. The fight for freedom lasted for almost one hundred years. The article analyzes the main stages of that fight under the leadership of the oldest national liberation movement - the African National Congress.

ENERGY: THE PRESENT AND THE FUTURE
ATOMIC ENGINEERING OF CHINA AFTER ACCIDENT FUKUSHIMA by A.V.Goncharuk (Part 2, continued from “Asia and Africa today”, 2011, № 11)
Keywords: the People’s Republic of China, atomic engineering, «Fukushima-1» accident

Due to lack of experience in building nuclear power plants and the low level of technology, the People’s Republic of China is not an active player on the world market of atomic engineering. Nevertheless China is doing it’s best to gain access to foreign markets. Its trump card is low prices.
The author analyzes the nuclear cooperation between China and Pakistan, Iran, Southeast Asian countries and South Africa. He comes to conclusion that China has become a serious competitor to the traditional suppliers of nuclear technology, including the Russian «Rosatom».

AFRICA: NATION BUILDING AND ETNO-RACIAL TOLERANCE by D.M.Bondarenko, Dr.Sc. (History)
Keywords: Tanzania, Zambia, tolerance, the nation, students
The article presents the results of a study which shows that Tanzanian and Zambian university students representing the African by origin overwhelming majority of the countries’ population are generally tolerant towards their compatriots of the non-African (European and South Asian) origins.
However, the evidence also gives reason to argue that, on the one hand, in both countries the perception of Europeans is better than of Indians and, on the other hand, the level of tolerance among Zambian students is higher than among Tanzanian. The aim of the article is to find out why it is so; most attention is paid to the second, previously undiscovered phenomenon. The authors examine a number of factors that supposedly could lead to the Zambian educated youth’s higher level of tolerance and arrive at the conclusion that the most significant among them is the existence since pre- colonial time of the Swahili culture and language at minimal number of expansionist centralized polities on the contemporary state’s territory as the background for autochthonous peoples’ unity in Tanzania and lack of such a background till colonial period in Zambia. Among the other factors tested, those that turned out important for defining the respondents’ attitude to the non-autochthonous minorities are their look at colonialism (the Zambian aggregate is characterized by less total rejection of colonialism due to which the European and South Asian diasporas appeared, as it is seen widely as the time when the nation began to form) and degree of concentration on the values of traditional culture (which is lower among Zambian students). In the meantime, the role secularization plays is contradictory, while belonging to the Christian or Muslim faith, to a larger or smaller ethnic group, place of birth (city, town, village, etc.), and probably financial situation proved insignificant.

INDIVIDUAL AND PRIVATE ENTERPRISE IN CHINA’S ECONOMY by V.V.Chuvankova, PhD (Economy)
Keywords: China, economy, entrepreneurship
For more than 30 years of reforms Chinese individual and private enterprises have made impressive progress, have become a viable force in the economic structure of China. They not only stimulate the growth of the country, provide increased tax revenues, expand exports and increase employment, but also make a significant contribution to overcoming the global financial and economic crisis (2008-
2010), and ensure stable socio-economic development.

SOUTH KOREA: ADAPTATION OF MIXED FAMILIES by D.G. Inchol (Surgus State University)
Keywords: Republic of Korea, ethnically mixed families, adaptation
The article analyzes the reasons for which the number of mixed marriages in the Republic of Korea is increasing, the problems members of ethnic families face in the process of adapting to different social and cultural environment, and methods of solving those problems.

VIETNAM. COMMON MEMORY by A.S.Zaitsev, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary (rtd.), PhD (Economy)
Keywords: Vietnam, economic growth, the U.S.A., Russia
The author shares his impressions and observations from his recent trip to Vietnam. Zaitsev, who worked several years in Vietnam as the Soviet Ambassador and repeatedly visited the country with different missions over the past few decades, underlines that for the past 30 years Vietnam has made tremendous socio-economic progress.
The author argues that in a short time the country with 100 million people not only catch up with its neighbors in its socio-economic development, not just get up on a par with its neighbors, no longer a young «new economic tigers» of South-East Asia, but may leave them far behind.

«NICHOLAS BELL IS RINGING» by A.S.Akimov (Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk)
Keywords: the Cathedral of the Resurrection, Nicholas of Japan, art, literature, music, cinema
The article tells of the Orthodox religious tradition ... in Japan. In the Land of the Rising Sun orthodoxy associated with the name of St. Nicholas of Japan (Ivan D. Kasatkin 1836-1912), who has devoted his entire life to spreading Christianity in the Far East. Saint Nicholas is not forgotten, and modern Japanese, many of whom are associated with the Orthodox Cathedral of the Resurrection in Tokyo - the main Orthodox temple in Japan since the beginning of the twentieth century.

RWANDA  LESSONS:  COOPERATION  AND RIVALRY OF THE INTERNATIONAL FORCES by D. Rawson (USA) the U.S.A. Ambassador (rtd.)
Keywords: Rwanda, peacekeeping operation, peacekeeping operation, genocide
The article tells the story of one of the most brutal conflicts of our time - the civil war in Rwanda. D. Rowson is very skeptical about the ability of the international community to influence the elite of separate states which are in a deadly struggle for power. The author regrets that the international peacekeeping forces failed to secure the long- awaited peace in the country which is suffering from horrors of civil war.

LIGHT  AND  SHADOW  POLYNESIAN «PARADISE» by Yu.M.Sokolov, Ambassador Extra- ordinary and Plenipotentiary (rtd), (Part 2)
Keywords: New Zealand, Polynesia, Tonga
The author continues to share his impressions of his stay for several years in New Zealand, where he was ambassador to the USSR. In this chapter Yu.Sokolov tells the story of «the last kingdom in the Pacific» - the Kingdom of Tonga.

WOMEN’S PROSE IN MODERN PERSIAN LITERATURE: THE NAMES AND THE TRENDS by M.Norouz (Iran)
Keywords: Iran, modern women’s fiction
Article gives a brief analysis of women’s prose in modern Persian literature. Women’s fiction has appeared in Iran in the early XX century. Currently, numerous works of writers with actual topic suggest that this phenomenon is constantly developing, and women writers have moved away from the
«diary prose,» they are now interested in other literary trends.

Summary