Archivo de la categoría: Entrevistas

Technical training key to Yemen’s development

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Abdul Hafez Noman  Abdul Hafez Noman, minister of Technical Education and Vocational Training.

Technical training key to Yemen’s development: Yemeni Minister

Faisal Darem, Al-Shorfa, Sanaa, 2013-05-01

Technical education and vocational training are the key to Yemen’s industrial development, said Abdul Hafez Noman, minister of technical education and vocational training.

For this reason, the ministry has initiated a number of projects to support this type of education, he said.

Al-Shorfa spoke with Noman at his Sanaa office, where he described current programmes and the ministry’s role in safeguarding youth from the influence of groups that seek to exploit them.

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Rafael Poch: entre Pekín y Berlín

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Portada del libro de Rafael Poch: La actualidad de China. Un mundo en crisis, una sociedad en gestación, Ed. Crítica, Barcelona 2009

Rafael Poch: “China, aunque suene fuerte, es de los países mejor gobernados del mundo”

Publicado por  / Jot Down, 24 de abril, 2013

La información internacional sufre dos grandes males. El más de lo mismo y el a ver quién la dice más gorda. Durante muchos años, Rafael Poch-de-Feliu (Barcelona, 1956), corresponsal internacional de La Vanguardia, ha destacado por trabajar en una línea opuesta a estos dos vicios. En sus crónicas, al menos, siempre hemos encontrado otro punto de vista. No el contrario a la propaganda, sencillamente una visión singular, distinta. Poch considera que el periodista no debe leer solo periódicos, sino que tiene que seguir publicaciones más académicas y libros. Se queja de que cada vez conoce más periodistas jóvenes que no leen. Él apuesta por complementar la información con fuentes alternativas de calidad, como profesores de universidad o sociólogos, dada la tendencia a la mentira y el engaño de las fuentes institucionales. El resultado de esta forma de trabajar está en las hemerotecas, pero también en sus libros sobre la URSS (Tres días de agosto, Tres preguntas sobre Rusia y La gran transición, que ha sido traducido al ruso y al chino), China (La actualidad de China, un mundo en crisis, una sociedad en gestación) y Alemania (La quinta Alemania, que aparecerá en mayo editado por Icaria). Obras didácticas, llenas de matices. Versiones de los hechos históricos, de la sociedad de estos países, nutridas con fuentes diversas que pueden ir del político al campesino, del periodista al activista. Ha sido corresponsal en Europa del Este, Moscú, Pekín y Berlín. En todos estos destinos fue y es testigo de las grandes transformaciones del mundo contemporáneo. Repasamos con él su trayectoria para que ofrezca una explicación de todo lo que ha investigado y narrado para sus lectores.

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Repairing U.S.-Russia Relations

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U.S. President Obama laughs while talking with Russian counterpart Putin before the first session of the G20 Summit in Los Cabos

Repairing U.S.-Russia Relations

Interviewee: Jack F. Matlock, Jr., Former U.S. Ambassador to Russia
Interviewer: Bernard Gwertzman, Consulting Editor – Council on Foreign Relations
April 18, 2013

Diplomatic relations between Washington and Moscow have chilled markedly over the past year, beset most recently by U.S. legislation known as the Magnitsky Act, which imposed sanctions on a list of alleged human rights abusers in Russia. Moscow, in turn, retaliated with a series of measures that, among other things, ban U.S. citizens from adopting Russians. Despite these tensions, Jack F. Matlock, Jr., a former envoy to Moscow, says the two powers have many shared interests that require cooperation. “On issues that are extremely important to the United States, like dealing with North Korea, dealing with Afghanistan, and dealing with Iran, our policies are very close and tend to be mutually supportive,” he notes. Presidents Obama and Putin are scheduled to meet twice over the next several months, and Matlock holds hope the pair can reengage on these important topics and others, including the conflict in Syria and arms control.

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NK News: Three experts explain why North Korea keeps ratcheting tensions

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Three experts explain why North Korea keeps ratcheting tensions

Experts look at causes and possible solutions to current tensions on the Korean Peninsula

NK News.org, April 4, 2013

With a seemingly never-ending cycle of threats and counter-threats, North Korea has been in the news at an unusually high frequency in recent weeks.

From the North Korean side, threats of “pre-emptive nuclear strikes”, a severance of military hotlines, and the potential closure of the only joint run inter-Korean industrial complex (Kaesong) have all been on the cards in recent days and weeks.

From the South Korean and U.S. side, B-2 and B-52 nuclear bomber training sorties, missile defense deployments and ongoing  Foal Eagle drills have been detailed to media by military spokespersons in Washington DC and Seoul at unprecedented levels of late.

While the nature of threats made on the Koreas seems to increase by the day, few know what Pyongyang’s over-arching strategy is, how likely it is that a military escalation will take place, or how tensions can possibly be dampened at this point.

To find out answers to these questions and more, NK NEWS spoke to three experts familiar with North Korea:

- Dr. Andrei Lankov – a former student at Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang and Professor at Kookmin University, South Korea
- Dr. Leonid Petrov – a researcher at Australia National University in Melbourne, Australia
- Mr. Michael Madden – a North Korean leadership specialist and author of the excellent NK Leadership Watch blog

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Korean nightmare: worst-case scenario

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Korean nightmare: Experts ponder potential conflict

By Andrew Salmon, for CNN
March 27, 2013

Editor’s note: Andrew Salmon is a South Korea-based freelance journalist and author who has written two books on the Korean war. Below, he envisages a hypothetical, worst-case scenario of potential conflict on the Korean peninsula. CNN is not suggesting that war is imminent or even likely, but the possibility of conflict is one scenario that military strategists must consider given recent heightened tensions.

Seoul (CNN) – It’s Asia’s nightmare scenario: War breaking out on the Korean peninsula.

With Korea lying at the heart of Northeast Asia, the world’s third largest zone of economic activity after Western Europe and North America, experts say global capital markets would suffer devastating collateral damage, but the catastrophic loss of human life — and potential nuclear fallout — would be far, far worse.

Fortunately, no analysts believe “Korean War II” is imminent; the armistice ending the 1950-53 conflict that buried millions continues to hold, despite North Korea’s nullification in March. And with regime maintenance Pyongyang’s paramount policy, few think it would risk an attack.

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