In today’s globalized market, where things, or ideas that can eventually produce things, are the only real global currency, the ancient Greek concepts of episteme (systematic knowledge) and sophia (wisdom) hold little value. In the US, both conservatives and liberals alike increasingly view education as merely a means to an end and not as an end in itself, i.e., as the way to deepen, enhance, and “heighten” life through the passionate and life-long pursuit of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty—regardless of their market value. In other words, education, as we have known it in the West now for over 2500 years (called “the liberal arts”), has been reduced from wisdom and the joy of discovery (including self-discovery) to mere job-training and job-seeking. Wisdom has been set aside for the single-minded pursuit of profit and (therefore) power. And in the process, humanity has forsaken its true home in the realm of the sublime, which alone makes life worth living, in order to embrace instead the intellectual vacuity of vocational education. And along with this fundamental change in the purpose and conduct of education goes any chance of forging an ordered, well-regulated, rational society and government: For a people without rationality can never govern itself wisely.

Ever since Socrates, education was meant to counter the nihilism of a person wrongly valuing riches, fame, sensuality, and power in order to rightly value the passionate and life-long search for truth, goodness, and beauty, a quest begun here in this life but continued into the next. From Socrates and the great Greek tragedians (among many others) have come that wisdom which is cathartic in expelling vice and ignorance, and which has been handed down in unbroken succession in the West—until now—for over two and a half millennia.

But with conservatives, foundations, think-tanks, and CEOs stressing education simply for jobs; universities stressing increasing profits; and liberals stressing education merely for the glorification or indulgence of self; the passionate and life-long search for Truth, Goodness, and Beauty, which has given western civilization its Homer and its Sophocles, its Shakespeare and its Dante, its Goethe, Newton and Tolstoy, among others too numerous to mention—these monuments to intellect, goodness and beauty are no longer forming, or informing, our youngest minds. And the result, if finalized, can only be a permanent desiccation of their intellect and soul that cannot but make life even more difficult and more troubling both for them and for society than it already is.

A Liberal Arts education is the one true oasis in the desert of specialization and job-training. It is literally what men live and die for—what makes life worth living. Without it, we become merely obedient and clever dogs—we can (for either government or employer) run on cue, chase our tails, and bark at shadows…but most assuredly we cannot think—not as human beings should think, and were created to think. Humans alone share this ability to think, this capability, with God (“man was created in the imago Dei,” in God’s image), and it is this, the thinking of “divine” thoughts, that separates us humans from all other creatures on earth. For only we can aspire to and sacrifice for truth, give of ourselves to others out of goodness, and create works of indescribable and lasting beauty—that can wring tears from our souls, expressive of life’s deepest and most profound meanings.

But so little does this view of education obtain today that one is tempted to say that it is dead—moribund it most certainly is, but in many places, alas, also dead… and buried. And if this is true in the US, with its long and storied history of liberal arts, that once turned our European barbarian ancestors of earlier ages into more civilized human beings, and along the way gave to humanity (and not just to the West) democracy, the rule of law, justice tempered with mercy, constitutions, the separation of powers, universities, hospitals, the arts, philosophy, the theater, opera, mathematics, literature, science, inter alia—one must expect it to be true a fortiori in Asia where there is no millennia-long history of liberal arts to draw upon, and where technology, and the use of technology, now passes for “culture.” But lap-tops, cell phones, and TV are not, nor can they ever become, the equal of a Shakespeare, a Plato, a Bach, or a Michelangelo.

In Korea, e.g., where I now live and teach, and where the traditions and wisdom of a Confucius or a Buddha seem largely forgotten (or where remembered, so watered down as to be virtually of no help for living), education, as in so many other Asian countries, is merely for the sake of obtaining a well-paying job, period: And test-taking is the sole means to that end. Education in Korea, put in classical Greek terms, is mere, and only, techne (Gk. skill), not a broader search for truth, understanding, or general principles with which to guide one’s life by, let alone a passionate love of and devotion to truth and wisdom in order to bring joy and peace to one’s soul, and to make a contribution to one’s family, community, nation, or the world. As we know from Socrates, education was to reach through the individual to the larger community in which he lived. It was never intended to be an idiosyncratic (private) pursuit which could not help, directly or indirectly, one’s fellow citizens on the path and pilgrimage of Life.

So strong is the idea in Asia in general, and Korea in particular, that education is simply for jobs; and so willing and eager are Koreans to pay high fees in order to achieve this positive job-result, that offering to teach education for free, as I have done, simply for the pursuit of truth, goodness, and beauty for their own sakes, is taken to be either a sign of madness or incompetence or else a subterfuge for baser motives. No one here takes the western liberal arts view of education seriously. The life of the mind here (as our great teacher Socrates instructed us as to how it should be) in Korea is a “dangerous idea”, just as it was in Greece for Socrates himself (who was accused of “corrupting the young” and “introducing new gods” and was executed by Athens as a result—he, Socrates, the wisest and best man of his time according to Plato).

There is indeed nothing so dangerous, so revolutionary, so upsetting, both to families and to governments, than an individual’s life-long, single-minded devotion to the pursuit of truth, and the living out, as best one can, of a life of goodness, supported by deep and passionate attachment to beauty (in its various guises of poetry, piety, art, architecture, empathy, self-giving love, literature, etc). Forget the dangers of revolutionaries like Marx. Nothing in history has proven to be more dangerous to the status quo than a person who can think—truly think—for himself. As tyrants like Kim Jong-Il of North Korea know only too well, you can kill the body but you cannot kill an idea—and so it is with ideas—especially ideas of justice, goodness, and righteousness—that make every tyrant’s soul tremble the most. (This trembling, of course, being but a foretaste of divine judgment.)

The whole revolutionary idea of Western culture, of the liberal arts, may be conveniently summed up in the extraordinary words of Jesus: “The truth shall make you free.” (John 8:32) Alas, there are many among us who choose to continue to live in prisons of their own making. And when they do so, they thereby encourage tyrants, like Kim Jong-Il, to make prisons for their bodies as well. For prisons of the mind inevitably and necessarily lead to shackles for the body. Only the Truth can set man free.

Pakistan’s UN envoy in Geneva said on Tuesday that reconstruction in northern areas alone could cost 2.5 billion dollars, after floods stretching to the south ravaged an area “the size of England”.

Zamir Akram, Pakistan’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, said the country had received more immediate multilateral relief aid through the UN and direct bilateral aid totalling about 301 million dollars.

UN agencies have warned that funding for their 460 million dollar multilateral appeal for emergency relief aid launched last week is not coming in fast enough.

Just 35 per cent — 160 million — has been paid in so far, although the pace has accelerated in recent days.

Pakistan hoped for “a greater international commitment” during a special session of the UN General Assembly in New York on Thursday, Akram said, dismissing concerns that aid money could be diverted by corruption or Taliban influence as exaggerated.

“The affected area is about the size of England,” Akram told journalists, also pointing to huge longer term needs to rebuild homes, roads and farming and secure river beds over five years.

“Initial indicators are that just for the northern part of Pakistan, the requirement would be somewhere to the tune of about 2.5 billion dollars, so it’s going to be massive effort for reconstruction and rehabilitation,” he added.

A full damage assessment is likely to take another week to 10 days to complete, said Akram.

Read more here.

Three French nationals, an Italian and a Spaniard were among 23 foreigners killed in cloudburst and flash floods that devastated Leh last Friday even as 73 injured people, including security personnel, were today flown out of the region by IAF for medical help.

The toll in the tragedy rose to 166 with 400 people still missing, official sources said.

Three French citizens — Augavelis Henri, Hellot Jacques and Daniel Hauri, an Italian identified as Riccardo Titton and Maromas Maria Lousdes from Spain have been declared dead, they said.

Sixteen of those killed are from Nepal, namely Nema Zangmo, Tsering Neklal, Bakta Bahadur, Kama Lama, Ajay Raina, Khunchok Gelak, Lakpa Gyalmo, Shekhar, Mahurdin Ansari, Manee Patel, Ramesh Patel, Narai Badur Sume, Santosh Kumar, Nel Badur, Saryanareyan Chaudhary and Anil Chaudhary, they said.

Two other victims were Tibetans. They were identified as Pasang Tsering and Tsering Yangkyid, the sources said.

Meanwhile, 73 people, including 49 security personnel, who were injured at different places following cloudburst, were brought to Udhampur from Leh for treatment in an IL-76 transport aircraft this morning, Group Captain of IAF P M Vithalkar said.

A special control room has been set up in the Ministry of External Affairs to streamline the collation and dissemination of information on foreigners affected by the tragedy.

Read more here.

A passenger plane of a private airliner carrying 152 people crashed in a ball of flames Wednesday into densely wooded hills outside Islamabad amid heavy rain and poor visibility, killing everyone on board.

Rescue officials said pieces of charred flesh and body parts were littered around the smouldering wreckage, partially buried on a remote hillside, in the deadliest crash involving a Pakistani passenger jet in 18 years.

Private airline Airblue’s flight ED 202 from Karachi was being diverted into land at Islamabad’s Benazir Bhutto International airport when witnesses saw it flying at an unusually low altitude before a defeaning boom.

The plane disintegrated into a gorge between two hills, enveloped in cloud and some distance from the road, severely hampering rescue efforts and limiting visibility for helicopters hovering overhead.

“I saw a big ball of smoke and fire everywhere with big pieces of aircraft rolling down the hill,” said police official Haji Taj Gul.

“The plane was flying very low. Then we heard a loud noise,” said Wajih-ur Rehman, a resident of the exclusive E-7 neighbourhood in the Margalla foothills, home to Western expatriates and some of Pakistan’s elite.

“Nobody survived,” Interior Minister Rehman Malik said. Bodies were mostly mutilated and in pieces, and would require identification, he said.

The civil aviation authority and Airblue said there were 152, including six crew, on board the doomed plane.

Zeeshan Haider, a Civil Aviation Authority official said seven children, including two babies, were on the flight manifest.

Reports had said a handful of people survived the disaster, but asked whether all those on board died Malik replied: “Yes, all of them are dead”.

“It’s a big tragedy. It’s really a big tragedy,” the minister said.

The US embassy said two Americans were on the flight.

Read more here.

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The naval and air readiness exercise being staged by the South Korean and U.S. militaries moved into high gear Monday, as the allied forces conducted unprecedented simultaneous drills in the eastern waters of the Korean Peninsula by employing advanced maritime and air assets.

Standing in front of two F-22 stealth fighters, which were first deployed to the peninsula for a training exercise, Lt. Gen. Jeffrey A. Remington, commander of the U.S. 7th Air Force here, reiterated that the ongoing exercise is intended to send a “message” against a North Korean provocation.

The three-day exercise, dubbed “Invincible Spirit,” started Sunday with the involvement of 8,000 personnel, 200 aircraft and 20 vessels from the allied forces. The F-22 Raptor, considered as the world’s most advanced combat aircraft, arrived in South Korea last week for the first time in a show of strong South Korea-U.S. deterrence capability.

“The F-22 Raptor came to us because it is here in the Pacific region right now at Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan, on what we call the theater security package to demonstrate to our alliance partners both Korea and Japan and all of North East Asia, our commitment to peace and stability in this region of the world,” Remington said.

In his opening speech, Remington, who serves as deputy commander of U.S. Forces Korea, said, “The training will increase operational interoperateability and capabilities and demonstrate the United States’ resolve and support to the Republic of Korea and regional partners.”

“Invincible Spirit,” is defensive in nature, and designed to deter further provocations from North Korea, he added, apparently referring to the North’s alleged attack on one of South Korea’s warships in the West Sea in March.

Read more here.

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Germany opens its business gateway into Central Asia.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s presence at the Kazakh-German business forum in Astana on Sunday confirmed the European nation’s growing interest in the developing economy of Kazakhstan but also in that country’s immense energy resources. Merkel, in fact, noted that Kazakhstan was the fourth largest energy supplier in Germany.

“Germany can contribute a lot in Kazakhstan’s industrial modernization. Germany supports Kazakhstan’s intention to diversify economy and develop infrastructure as well as promote small and medium businesses”, Angela Merkel emphasized.

Kazakhstan and Germany have signed 34 agreements to the amount of 2 billion euros. First Vice Minister of Industry and New Technologies Albert Rau has made it public at Kazakh-German business forum in Astana today.

According to him, 700 enterprises with German capital operate in Kazakhstan presently. More than 300 businessmen from Kazakhstan and Germany took part in the forum.

Read more here.

At least 60 people were killed and over 90 passengers injured when a train in high speed tore through the rear of another at the Sainthia station in Bhirbhum district of West Bengal, after it apparently overshot the signal in the small hours of Monday.

Driver M C Dey and assistant driver N K Mandal of the Sealdah-bound Uttarbanga Express, which collided with the Ranchi-bound Vananchal Express, were among the dead in the accident for which railways are not ruling out sabotage as the cause.

The guard of the Vananchal Express A Mukherjee also died in the mishap which was so severe that the roof and the sides of one of the compartments mounted the road overbridge across the tracks in the station, 191 kms from Kolkata, in Eastern Railway.

A part of another compartment of the Vananchal Express split and fell on the road along the tracks after being thrown over the bridge.

“A total of 60 persons, including three railway employees, have lost their lives in the accident when three rear coaches including one luggage van and two unreserved general second class coaches of the Vananchal Express were affected,” an Eastern Railway release said here.

Read more here.

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A tenuous sense of stability seems to be returning to southern Kyrgyzstan, just weeks after the region experienced the worst bout of violence since independence. But, below the surface, Uzbeks are still seething, and some experts worry that prevailing conditions may represent only a temporary lull.

The surprisingly large turnout of Uzbeks in Kyrgyzstan’s June 27 constitutional referendum prompted provisional government leaders to sound an upbeat note about the process of reconciling the Kyrgyz and Uzbek communities in southern Kyrgyzstan, following five days of violence in mid-June that left hundreds dead and hundreds of thousands displaced.

et even though Uzbeks voted in higher-than-expected numbers, it doesn’t mean that they have forgotten the recent past. Observers note that many Uzbeks — who appear to have suffered disproportionately in terms of both casualties and property damage – are thinking about revenge. These feelings are fueled in part by a widespread perception among Uzbeks that Kyrgyz provisional leaders are trying to cover-up the June 10-14 violence. Uzbeks also believe that authorities are conducting follow-up operations designed to neutralize the Uzbek community’s ability to exert influence over the political process. Under current circumstances, then, genuine reconciliation between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks would seem a long way off.

It could get worse before things get better, observers fear. The key, they say, is whether Uzbeks act on their desire for revenge by obtaining guns in large quantities. Because of the sensitive topic, many sources for this story requested anonymity, citing fears of violent reprisals.

Nazira Satyvaldiyeva, an expert in conflict resolution and head of the Eurasia Foundation’s Osh field office, suggested that lingering fear is prompting both Uzbeks and Kyrgyz to seek arms. “Both Kyrgyz and Uzbek friends tell me, ‘I am scared, I have to buy a gun. I have to defend my family and my house.’ Uzbeks and Kyrgyz, and even Russians, are saying this,” Satyvaldiyeva said.

“Now we have clear divisions between people with guns and those who want to continue living a peaceful life,” she continued. “I think the main thing we have now is that people are scared and fear brings more problems.”

To address the fear factor among Uzbeks, Satyvaldiyeva expressed support for an independent investigation into southern Kyrgyzstan’s violence. The provisional government has thus far resisted such an idea, saying it intends to conduct its own investigation. The problem is many Uzbeks doubt the provisional government is committed to uncovering the root causes of the violence.

To skeptical Uzbeks the arrests of some Uzbek leaders offers proof that the provisional government is not intent on justice, but instead is using the violence to enhance its political position.

Read more here.

Six movie theaters on Saturday started screening the Oscar-winning U.S. documentary “The Cove,” about a controversial dolphin hunt in Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture, despite protests that caused earlier screenings to be canceled.

With police officers patrolling outside the theaters in Sendai, Tokyo, Yokohama, Kyoto, Osaka and Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture, there were no reports of disruption. Eighteen other cinemas in 16 prefectures plan to screen the film in the coming days.

A 24-year-old graduate school student from Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, said after watching the film in Yokohama: “It was really cruel to see the seawater turn so red with the dolphins’ blood. . . . The film will provide opportunities to consider the rights and wrongs of dolphin hunting.”

He added, however, “I thought it focuses only on what its producers wanted to say, while paying less attention to fishermen’s views.”

The film, which depicts the traditional dolphin hunt in Taiji, was originally scheduled to be screened at 26 theaters nationwide starting June 26.

But it has drawn criticism from some rightwing groups that claim it is anti-Japanese. Rightist groups have intimidated theaters planning to show the film and led three theaters in Tokyo and Osaka to cancel screenings.

According to its distributor, Unplugged Inc., four of the six theaters showing the film on Saturday were the targets of street protests or intimidation. Of the four, two in Tokyo and Yokohama successfully applied for a court injunction against citizens groups staging protests around the theaters.

On Saturday, security was tight at Yokohama New Theatre, with about a dozen police officers outside when the film was first screened at 10 a.m., drawing roughly 50 spectators.

“I just wanted to watch this film before thinking about the controversy over it,” a 64-year-old woman said.

The people of Taiji have also objected to the documentary, which was mostly shot in the town with hidden cameras. They claim the film is based on misinformation and infringes on individual rights because the people were filmed without their permission.

Taiji Mayor Kazutaka Sangen said Saturday he is disappointed that the film is finally being shown.

Read more here.

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In the decade before Pearl Harbor the political process of the Rising Sun was dominated both by the competition for influence of the great ‘zaibatsu’, the giant business conglomerates, and by the infighting among activist military groups. Most  men in the armed forces were demanding wars, especially against China, so that Japan, Asia’s most dynamic player, would acquire territories and resources. In 1931, the high command of the Japanese divisions in Manchuria acted on his own and conquered most of the Manchu region, belonging to China.

When, on May 15 1932, a group of officers killed the prime minister who had not approved the conquest, it became clear that the military were now dominant, that the upper echelons of the civil service supported the insubordinate officers, that the parliamentary parties had lost whatever clout they had slowly acquired. From that moment to the catastrophic end of the war against the United States, the military (not only generals, also forceful lieutenants who were willing to use their weapons against political adversaries) did control the government. A few additional killings confirmed the trend.

Today, some observers love to explain the unusual vulnerability of the Japanese cabinets with the aggressiveness of the press, the modern successor to the officer corps. Not many days ago prime minister Yukio Hatoyama resigned, eight months after an historic victory over the Liberals. Hatoyama’s Democratic party was expected to change the erratic ways of the national politics. Now Hatoyama is just another head of government who was ousted from office by press attacks. Exactly as several of his disgraced peers, he has been the target of allegations of financial misdeeds -accepting money from business people or groups. However, Hatoyama confessed an additional fault: he had won the general elections, in part, on the promise of getting back the air base of Okinawa from the US; he was unable to win the American assent. So, Hatoyama accepted the charge of having obtained votes on an empty promise. Possibly ethics still matters.

A number of observers conclude that Japan’s political scene is unduly perturbed by emotions on scandals. They argue, in particular, that corruption is so common in rich nations that the latter don’t usually topple presidents and ministers because of allegations concerning money. The Japanese opinion, they add, takes scandals too seriously. Top politicians should be judged on their management, not on their moral behaviours.

Possibly said observers have a point. But the opposite may be true -that a large enough section of the Japanese society do not accept unethical actions as a normal feature of public life. Once upon a time Japanese samurai took their life for not serving well enough their feudal masters, so violating their code of honor. How can we assert that the disgust at the venality of party politicians is excessive, when such venality is the malignant evil of most political systems of the world? Perhaps we should imitate Japan in not forgiving robber politicians.

Of course only one method is available to delete career politicians -putting an end to a representative democracy which perpetuates the prone-to-corruption professionals of politics.