Asia and Young People
Percentage of population below 15 years of age Cambodia 44.9 Pakistan 44.3 Philippines 38.3 Malaysia 38.0 Vietnam 37.5 India 35.2 Indonesia 33.0 Thailand 28.3 China 26.4 So. Korea 23.6 Source: World Resources 1996-97- Asia accounts for 61 percent of the world’s total child labor force (ages 5–14), i.e. 153 million child laborers from Asia.
1980–84 most recent data Thailand 75 80 Philippines 70 80 Indonesia 55 60 South Korea 41 50 Japan 41 41
Source: The World Bank; Review Data _________________________________________________________________________________________________Chinese Military Spending Growth
In early March, China announced plans to boost its annual defense budget by 12.7 percent to 80.6 billion yuan ($9.7 billion). It was the ninth consecutive double-digit year-onyear increase in China’s defense budget. Source: Japan Times Weekly Edition, April 21–27, 1997 _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Traces of the Empire Number of British Citizens in Hong Kong December, 1987 14,100 December, 1996 25,500 Source: Hong Kong Immigration Department _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Asian male life expectancy at birth (in years) Japan 76.8 Hong Kong 76.2 Singapore 73.5 Sri Lanka 70.9 Malaysia 69.9 China 68.2 Philippines 66.6 Thailand 65.2 Indonesia 63.3 Source: United Nations Population Fund _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Dwight D. Eisenhower on Vietnam: “When we talk about Dien Bien Phu, maybe I need to tell you this, but I was the only one here who was against American forces going in. I tell you, the boys were putting the heat on me.” U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower on Vietnam, in a just-released tape of a conversation in February 1955 with a newspaper publisher. Far Eastern Economic Review, July 3, 1997 _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Asian (and U.S.) Economies’ 1996 Rankings for Economic Competitiveness World’s Most Competitive Economies 1. Singapore 2. Hong Kong 3. United States 8. Taiwan 9. Malaysia 14. Japan 15. Indonesia 18. Thailand 21. Korea 29. China 34. Philippines 45. India 49. Vietnam Source: World Economic Forum, 1997 _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Does Katakana Work for the Japanese? In the Japanese language, imported words are written in katakana which is the alphabet used primarily for writing foreign words. Recently, the usage of these words has increased dramatically in newspapers and magazines. However, according to a survey released on April 18, 1997 by the Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japan, nearly 90 percent of Japanese said that they had difficulty grasping the full meaning of imported words when they were written in katakana. Source: Understanding Japan, May 1997 _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Asia Rising from Poverty Poverty has declined faster in Asia than anywhere in the world thanks to strong economic growth. Poverty has been largely eradicated in East Asia and has sharply declined in Indonesia and Thailand. “This decline in poverty is probably completely unprecedented in human history,” said Michael Walton, who helped edit the report. “In the mid-1970s, six out of 10 households in East Asia lived in absolute poverty. In the mid-1990s that (figure) has declined to two out of 10.” Source: Everyone’s Miracle: Revisiting Poverty and Inequality in East Asia, The World Bank, 1997