On the Japan-U.S. summit:
In his first visit to the United States since taking office, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday met with President Bush. Abe offered an apology to the president about the Japanese military’s treatment of wartime “comfort women,” and Bush accepted it. Abe likely sighed in relief. But this exchange is very peculiar. Shouldn’t the prime minister be saying sorry to the former comfort women?
Abe doesn’t exactly have a good track record for making statements sympathetic to the victims. He hardly blinks when criticized at home, yet when things get heated in the United States, he immediately turns around and apologizes.
Perhaps Abe’s apology worked to cool off the current criticism in the United States. But the bigger problem of how Japan should deal with its own history has not been really resolved.
Abe and Bush emphasized the irreplaceable nature of the Japan-U.S. alliance, and at their joint press conference, both wore matching lapel badges symbolizing it.
Such showmanship is fine, but from now on, it is substance that counts.
On the riots in Estonia:
Estonia was always few steps ahead of its Baltic neighbors. In Soviet times, when many Lithuanians used to obey the occupant regime, Estonians disrespected it. They were the first to establish a popular front and declare Estonian laws above Soviet ones.
Estonia is often called a leader among Baltic states, and it proved this again last week when Moscow launched a campaign of hysteria. They have a prime minister who is capable of making decisions during difficult times, and police capable of restoring order even in such extreme situations.
After the riots broke out in Tallinn, Lithuania failed to express support to Estonian people and government. Some Lithuanian politicians even said that Tallinn probably made a mistake by moving the statue.
They probably forget that, in Christian countries, people are buried in cemeteries, not on street squares, where the statue of a Soviet soldier reminded everyone of the occupation and the brutal Soviet regime.
Moscow speaks of respect to those who died in World War II. But what does rioting and looting by a drunken crowd have in common with respect?
The riots in Tallinn were provoked and fueled by Moscow. It was an attempt to test the Estonian government and find out how many Russian speaking Estonian citizens can be manipulated from abroad.
On the political election in Scotland:
May 3 now seems certain to be a day of reckoning for the United Kingdom.
If the opinion polls are correct, and they have consistently pointed to only one outcome, then Scots will this Thursday elect the SNP as the largest party in the devolved Holyrood Parliament for the first time.
No one should be in any doubt: If the separatists seize power in Edinburgh, the consequences for the Union will be seismic. At that point, the very existence of Britain becomes a matter of negotiation.
At this stage, though, let us urge caution: Amid the sound and fury, cool heads are required. Many Scots have decided to support the Nationalists as an alternative devolved government, with the intention of voting against full independence when the option is put to them in a referendum, probably in 2010. This gives the SNP three years in which to wreak constitutional havoc.
Not enough attention has been paid to the party’s plan for the first 100 days of an administration. It sets out a clear course of conflict with Westminster: over oil revenues, a replacement for Trident and other sensitive areas. Whatever he may claim, Mr. Salmond’s aim is to destroy, not build.
The union between England and Scotland has been the most successful in human history. It remains a precious thing. On Thursday, we urge Scots to vote in support of it.
On the evolving automobile industry:
Some significant trends are transforming the passenger car industry worldwide, and India seems to be well placed to take advantage of them.
Global car production is expected to double to 110 million units, with some 180 new production facilities to be commissioned soon.
In a sharp break with the past, most of the new factories will roll out basic cars rather than the premium saloons (sedans) that have crowded the roads of the developed countries. That development will turn the economics of the passenger car business on its head.
Until recently, sales of small cars formed a minuscule part of the global auto sales. However, environmental concerns and higher fuel prices have contributed to a marked shift in favour of the smaller cars even in the West.
But across the industry there has been a thrust on improving cost efficiencies. That is precisely where a truly globalised industry is discovering India.
As Carlos Ghosn, the head of Nissan-Renault remarked recently, no automaker planning to go in for inexpensive cars can ignore India’s low-cost manufacturing abilities and its frugal manufacturing and management practices.
Currently, around 1.4 million passenger cars are sold annually in India, and the smaller version accounts for a bulk of them.
The seismic shift towards smaller cars may turn out to be the most significant development since Henry Ford introduced the Model T a hundred years ago.