asia

August 12, 2011

Is the world economy about to change?

Graeme Codrington, “Why the entire world economy is about to change.” Another post, from August 5. Interesting statistical comparison. Thought 1: China is going big into Africa–why isn’t it making an equally big splash into other places? Thought 2: The center of Christianity now is Africa. What are the possible future scenarios when China and Africa become tightly interrelated? What happens if/when Africans are heading to China rather than to Europe?

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July 29, 2011

On men working at home in Asia: women say, not so fast.

“In Iran, Working Remotely Is a National Controversy,” in the Atlantic, discusses the Iranian government’s plan to allow 20% of government workers to work from home. The interesting twist: the women, who have a certain amount of freedom at home when the men are off at work, may not be overly keen on having their husbands right over their shoulders day in and day out. Compares this to a trend in Japan where women end up divorcing their husbands once they retire and come home and begin scrutinizing everything their wives do. This gets to the root of gender roles, [...]

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July 13, 2011

Beating the odds in Afghanistan’s orphanages

“Afghanistan has been called the worst place to be a child,” leads off this article about a woman who was a former refugee and is now creating safe places for Afghani orphanages. The dismal statistics: 1 in 5 will die before their 5th birthday, more than 600,000 sleep on the streets, and 2 million are orphans. But this lady is working to beat the odds. With vision and hard work, it is possible. What is your vision?

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July 13, 2011

People who send aid to North Korea

Due to the sensitive nature of work in North Korea, there are many things being done which cannot be talked about. However, there is some more public humanitarian aid work being done which deserves mention. Surely, if nothing else can be done, bringing “a cup of cold water” as the bare minimum is something worthy of being involved in. One such group is the Lighthouse Foundation. See this article, “The people behind the aid trickle to the North.” (H/T to the UK Council of World Mission, who you can follow on Twitter.)

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July 13, 2011

Saudi girls prefer careers to marriage

A new survey cited in ArabNews.com: 200 Saudi women between the ages of 17 and 35 took part in an online survey, and 87% of them said they would choose to work over having a wealthy husband. A further 13% said they agreed to marry into wealth because they wanted to use the wealth to start a business, or felt that spending his money was a job in and of itself. The attitudes illustrated here are interesting. The big question: will these girls be able to perpetuate their ideas and thoughts and feelings to the next generation of Saudi men? [...]

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July 13, 2011

Mumbai attacks: July 13, 2011

Curated links on unfolding story. _bundleWidget({ bundle_id:4698, title:’Mumbai terror attacks’, subtitle:’curated.by/justindlong’, scrolling:true, update:true, shell:true, auto_width:false, per_page:20, font_size:’11px’, border_color:’666666′, heading_text_color:’ffffff’, heading_bg_color:’666666′, link_color:’666666′, text_color:’333333′, content_bg_color:’ffffff’, content_divider_color:’cccccc’, width:300, height:450 });

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July 11, 2011

Relatives of Islamic leaders attracted to Christianity

It’s long been whispered, and this is one of the first public articles I’ve seen on the subject: The Iranian Christian News Agency on “Family members of the Islamic Leaders are attracted to Chrsitainity“: “One of the greatest concerns of the Islamic Republic leaders is the ever-increasing interest of the Iranian population, inside and outside of Iran, to Christianity and this interest has reached the family members of these leaders.” H/T Karen Hatley.

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July 8, 2011

Scenarios on the short-term future of ministry in China

Once, China was fairly open. No longer. If we are watched, how shall we then minister?

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July 8, 2011

Nightmare Scenario: Chongqing: a surveillance society powered by HP

This is likely to make things very “interesting” in China. Engadget is reporting that Cisco and HP have provided over a half million surveillance cameras for the Public Chongqing project, which will “give the government unprecedented views of its citizens.” One might think a half million cameras are far too much to keep up with – will Chongqing hire 500,000 people to watch them? It wouldn’t be the first time when China has tried that kind of manual labor. However, China is not all that far behind the world in technological know-how (or the ability to buy it) – and [...]

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July 7, 2011

Filipinos “could lose jobs in Saudi Arabia”

GulfNews.com is reporting that up to 140,000 Filipino workers could lose their jobs in Saudi Arabia due to a domestic helper ban coupled with a program to hire more locals. Not every Filipino would be affected, but tens of thousands would. This could have a significant impact on the missionary task of the church, because it’s well known (if not often discussed) that many Filipinos in the Middle East are Christians and quietly share their faith. Many have been imprisoned for this. This process is also impacting Indonesian maids in Saudi Arabia as well.

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June 22, 2011

Asian Urbanization Increasing Speed

via The China Post. Some pretty amazing statistics: 1 billion people will migrate into Asia’s cities. India has to build the equivalent of Chicago every year to accomodate migrates. 100 new cities from China will join the list of the top 600 urban centers which generate 60% of global GDP in the next decade. These are huge, major trends. It doesn’t mean rural ministry must stop. But it does mean that more and more, “unreached” is not some outback tribal person with a stake through their nose, but rather an urbane, well-educated, mass-transit-riding, Western-dressing, iPod-toting, Mandarin/Bahasa/Hindi-speaking, still-Asian-Religion-participating young man or woman. [...]

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June 3, 2011

Can China be Christian by 2035?

Could it happen by 2035, given current growth patterns?

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May 23, 2011

Western Asia: Spring 2011

The peace in Iraq is tenuous, in Israel is uncertain, and the Arab Spring has met an early frost.

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May 20, 2011

Who is China cracking down on?

It’s not just protesters or Christians drawing Beijing’s ire–those who are well-connected seem to be drawing the most pressure.

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May 16, 2011

Status of Central Asia 2011

Life as it presently is will likely continue–poor, harsh, and oppressive–but China will likely have a bigger role in the region.

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August 3, 2010

The future of China is not Communism

McClatchy blog: China Rises: there are 78 million members of the Party, with a 2 million increase in membership from 2008-2009. However, China is adding 17 million new babies per year. The Party is not keeping up: and as a consequence it is aging. The latest estimates I have on Christianity are that it exceeds 100 million–and it is much younger. The future of China is not with Communism. But it is unclear that it is with Christianity either: even at 100 million Christianity still makes up less than 10% of the overall population, and it’s unclear just how fast [...]

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June 3, 2010

3 million Moses babies in China?

http://bit.ly/9B2WAT – A researcher has discovered Chinese parents are hiding 3 million babies each year to get around the country’s one-child policy.

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May 17, 2010

Culture Shock: Trains & Markets

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RClyvdhsGs - Check out this market somewhere in Asia – held right over a train track – and what happens when the train comes by.

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April 22, 2010

Effort to change blasphemy law in Indonesia halted

Indonesia blocks faith law change, offending rights activists. In BBC.

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April 22, 2010

Internet testing limits of debate in Indonesia

The New York Times notes how Indonesia is trying to regulate content on the Internet and a scrap is developing between it and Indonesia’s news media.

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