Yearbook 2008 Syria. Syria’s relations with the western world thinned slightly during the year. President Bashar al-Asad visited France July 12-14. He met his colleague Nicolas Sarkozy and also negotiated with Lebanon’s new president Michel Suleiman. Sarkozy repaid the visit to Damascus in September, thus becoming the first Western leader to visit Syria since the…
Category: Asia
GROWTH FORECASTS AND DEVELOPMENT PROBLEMS
Since South and Southeast Asia are among the growth centers of the world economy, the trend towards urbanization will continue. China, still an underdeveloped country in the 1980s and now the second largest economy in the world (after the USA), slowed its explosive population growth through the one-child policy from 1979 onwards. In a few years, according to UN estimates, the country will lose its status as the most populous country in the world to India. China’s age structure is currently changing dramatically. The country is facing major demographic and social challenges: despite the abandonment of the one-child policy, the number of young people is falling, while the number of old people is increasing; China’s population could even decline from 2040 onwards. There is a serious disproportion between the sexes. For example, in 2011 there were 118 births of a boy for every 100 births of a girl, since the birth of a boy is considered more socially desirable and targeted abortions are not uncommon. It is economically significant that the expenditure for pensions will rise sharply in the future, but the number of workers will decrease. For more information about the continent of Asia, please check physicscat.com.
Sri Lanka 2008
Yearbook 2008 Sri Lanka. In January, the government announced that it was suspending the ceasefire from 2002, which has in practice failed long ago. Hard fighting broke out immediately in the northern part of the country between the army and the Tamil guerrilla LTTE. The guerrillas, in their home districts, increasingly responded with a series…
South Sudan 2008
The Second Civil War The war broke out again when an army battalion stationed in Bor rebelled and sought refuge in Ethiopia. Several followed, and the SPLA organized their resistance match from there. The reason for the war resumed was not least the introduction of Shari’a legislation also in the south, as well as a…
South Korea 2008
Yearbook 2008 South Korea. South Korea’s perhaps biggest cultural treasure, Namdaemunporten, was totally destroyed in February in a created fire. The gate, which was built in 1398, was made of wood and constituted a remnant of the old city wall that surrounded Seoul. The country’s newly elected president Lee Myung Bak quickly took a much…
Singapore 2008
Yearbook 2008 Singapore. Mas Selamat Kastari, former leader of the Singaporean branch of the radical Islamist terrorist network Jemaa Islamiyya, fled in February from the prison he has been in since 2006. He managed to escape in connection with a family visit. Kastari was arrested in 2003 in Indonesia, from where he was subsequently extradited…
Saudi Arabia 2008
Yearbook 2008 Saudi Arabia. The Ministry of the Interior reported at the end of June that during the first six months of the year, security forces had arrested 701 people suspected of involvement in militant Islamism. 181 had been released but 520 were still arrested. The value of the Saudi stock exchange, the largest in…
Qatar 2008
Yearbook 2008 Qatar. The first church in Qatar opened on March 14. The Roman Catholic St. Mary’s Church in the capital Doha is primarily aimed at the country’s guest workers from the Philippines and other southern Asian countries. A new law was voted on in June to protect guest working maids. Under the new law,…
Philippines 2008
Yearbook 2008 Philippines. The House Speaker, Jose de Venecia, was dismissed in February after a majority of the House members voted for it. The measure was seen as a way for President Gloria Arroyo to protect himself from corruption charges. Jose de Venecia had been in the post for twelve years and was previously an…
Pakistan 2008
Yearbook 2008 Pakistan. In 2008, Pakistan was a country in deep crisis characterized by extremist violence, political instability and severe economic problems. For long periods, bloody suicide attacks were carried out with frightening regularity, at least once a week. They were directed at civilian politicians and elections, clan leaders who formed self-defense groups against extremists,…
Oman 2008
Yearbook 2008 Oman. During April’s Democratic Forum in Qatar’s capital Doha, Foreign Minister Yousef bin Alawi spoke with his Israeli counterpart Tzipi Livni. It was the first public meeting at such a high level between the countries. See thenailmythology.com for best time to travel to Oman. During the year, Oman made several efforts to protect the…