Nearly every study of American education points to the middle school years (roughly age 11-14) as the period when young people in the US begin to slip academically behind their international peers.
Coming from India and living in China makes me observe more of the similarities and dissimilarities between the two great nations. To build a cooperative relationship between the two nations, the essence lies in learning from each other.
The successful raid by American forces of Osama bin Laden's hideout in Pakistan will most likely boost President Obama's bid for re-election next year. Therefore, it does appear that the killing of bin Laden represents a personal victory for President Obama.
What bin Laden's death means to me is mainly the clinching of a trend that began under Bush and is continuing under Obama: namely, that the United States is becoming something much uglier than it once was-- even if its beauty were never flawless to begin with.
There is a widely circulated story in the Chinese press this week about the results of a survey conducted in April by the Guangzhou-based, Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Macao Youth Research Institute. But is that an accurate account of what the survey found?
On a theoretical level, war can be classified into two types: first, the just against the unjust; second, the unjust against the unjust. But no sooner do we apply this theoretical clarification into an analysis of a concrete case than we are confused.
Every day we worry about the next food time bomb exploding, we just do not know where the site of the blast will be.
This week in Washington, American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is attending high-level government talks between China and the US on the subject of human rights. The talks are a constructive attempt to improve relations between China and the US.
The death of Bin Laden will indeed result in the chaos among the now leaderless terrorist forces. However, if the roots of terrorism cannot fundamentally be removed, the anti-terrorism methods of using violence to check violence will be unsustainable.
With Chinese market moving head on and forcing fierce competition internationally, many eyebrows are raised and voices of concern put forth. The "China Threat" theory escalated tension among the neighboring countries of China and sent jitters to many across the world.
A roadblock to Americans studying in China has been the perception that Chinese university education is dry- rote learning as opposed to challenging students to think critically. Opening American universities in China will help sweep away the roadblock.
What makes the name Bin Laden so disturbing is not just that he is a ruthless killer but that we lack available conceptual frameworks to understand people such as Bin Laden. And it is such a conceptual framework this article tries to offer.