The world's eyes are now fastened on the Korean Peninsula as the two Koreas, North and South Korea, is determined to make history. As to whether this will result to a third world war, a regional instability brought about by a war or it ending in a peaceful resolution of the conflict will be remain to be seen in the coming days. North Korea has been taunting South Korea and other countries for the past decades. For several years now North Korea has been accused of abducting Japanese and South Koreans alike. North Korea has been under repeated sanctions by the United Nations Security council, for developing nuclear weapons, weapons of mass destruction and continuing on their nuclear testing. Despite this the North Koreans won’t budge and continues to defy the world’s super powers. There seems to be a lot of indication that the tension between the two Koreas will escalate into a conflict. Last March 2010, a North Korean submarine sinks a South Korean Navy ship killing several of … [Read more...]

This is a continuation of my on solving Asia’s poverty problem which is my official entry to the Asia Challenge 2010. Click here to view Solving Asia’s Poverty Problem – Part 1 and click here to view Part 2. Poverty is a world wide problem no doubt, and it should be solved at a world wide scale. However it is important to focus our solution in Asia since Asia encompasses half of the world's population. Solving Asia’s poverty problem would help solve the poverty problem of the world. But what is the solution to the poverty problem? The United Nations, the World bank and various non-government organizations as well as governments all over the world has been trying to solve the poverty problem for several decades now. Billions of dollars has been spent in trying to do research on how to solve the poverty problem. The greatest minds in the world have tried to solve the problem, but it seems we are making a little progress after decades of research and after spending billions of … [Read more...]

This is a continuation of my on solving Asia's poverty problem which is my official entry to the Asia Challenge 2010.  Click here to view  Solving Asia’s Poverty Problem – Part 1. Because of poverty Asia has the highest rate of human trafficking. Asians are lured into false hopes of having a good paying job in other countries only to find out that they have been trafficked into force labor. Trafficked women and children are often forced into prostitution and sexual exploitation. Statistics released by the International Labor Organization as reported by the United Nation’s Global initiative shows that an estimated 2.5 million people are in forced labor (including sexual exploitation) at any given time as a result of trafficking. A staggering, 1.4 million (56%), which is more than half are from the Asia Pacific region. 5 Poverty is also the cause behind Asia’s high illiteracy rate. There are estimated to be 625 million illiterates in Asia. This comprises 71% of the world’s total.6 … [Read more...]

This is my official entry to the Asia Challengee 2010 essay writing contest. Unfortunately I did not win this contest so I am posting it in my blog. Otherwise you would be reading it at Time Magazine, so be happy that you read it first here at www.zdiaz.com. hehehehehe :-) What is the most important challenge facing Asia over the next decade? Why? and what should be done about it ? These words stuck with me while I read the last page of the August 2010 issue of Times Magazine on the 29th of August. I usually do not read ads, but somehow for some reason I read this one and found out that the deadline for this essay contest is on the 31st. I quickly researched about Asia in the internet and realized that there are a lot of things to write on. Issues that affect Asia ranging from the most popular such as global warming to corrupt governments to birth control flooded my mind. I am in a quandary as to what to write on. Amongst all of these issues which is the most important? Having an … [Read more...]