The articles, the opinions, the stories, the poems and the cartoons Ovi magazine covers for Thursday February 2nd, 2023 – World Wetlands Day
Wetlands are ecosystems where water is the primary factor controlling the environment and the associated plant and animal life. A broad definition of wetlands includes both freshwater and marine and coastal ecosystems such as all lakes and rivers, underground aquifers, swamps and marshes, wet grasslands, peatlands, oases, estuaries, deltas and tidal flats, mangroves and other coastal areas, coral reefs, and all human-made sites such as fishponds, rice paddies, reservoirs and saltpans.
These lands are critical to people and nature, given the intrinsic value of these ecosystems, and their benefits and services, including their environmental, climate, ecological, social, economic, scientific, educational, cultural, recreational and aesthetic contributions to sustainable development and human wellbeing.
Tensions in the Asian Trinity: China – Japan – U.S.A. by Rene Wadlow
After five years of growing tensions among China Japan and the U.S.A., U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will make an official visit to Beijing on 5-6 February 2023.
There is a long list of possible issues to discuss although the list of common actions may be much shorter. Probably at the head of the list is the Russian invasion of Ukraine and its geopolitical and economic impact. There follows the status of Taiwan. Some have made a parallel between the Russian intervention in Ukraine and a possible attack on Taiwan. Russian difficulties in Ukraine have no doubt been discussed in Beijing, and the parallel discarded. The role of North Korea and its military potential is a concern to China, to the U.S.A. and also Japan. The economic ties of North Korea to China as well as relations between North and South Korea is as aspect of the same Korean issue. The dramatic growth of Japanese government investment in the military and security sector, no doubt related to its view of Chinese power, will be an aspect of the China-U.S.A. talks. A full two days is ahead of the delegations.
Tensions among China, Japan, and the U.S.A. in the 1930s led to the Asian theatre of World War Two at the start of the 1940s. The war transformed the three countries helping to bring the Communists to power in China, re-structuring power and economic relations within Japan, and establishing the United States as a world power ready and willing to play an active role in world politics. Events in Asia led to the start of the Cold War and even a “Hot War” as the 1950 War in Korea started.
Continue reading HERE!
Blue Curling Waves #poem by Nikos Laios
“The blue curling waves,
The watery crush
With foaming white fingers
That washes the wet sand.”
Continue reading HERE
Worming #58 #cartoon by Thanos Kalamidas
For more Worming HERE!
For more Ovi Cartoons, HERE!
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