Let Berlin inspire world leaders to begin breaking down walls
Curtis Chin says the persistent and growing divide between rich and poor can be the first to go
From celebrations in united Germany marking the 25th anniversary of the Berlin Wall's fall to those in the United States over midterm elections delivering a more evenly divided Washington, what a week it has been for division, past and present.
The people of Hong Kong may well have looked at commemorations of Germany's unification with mixed feelings, given ongoing protests by students and others in the special administrative region over what some perceive as mainland China's heavy hand in Hong Kong affairs following the introduction of "one country, two systems".
How apropos it has been to watch the US midterm election returns from Berlin, the once divided capital of Germany.
And, indeed, perhaps this country that came back together against seemingly insurmountable odds might offer hope for a politically divided Washington or an East and Southeast Asia region increasingly worried about territorial issues in the South China Sea as well as cross-border environmental and migration challenges.
Just a few days after his party lost control of the US Senate in what has been termed a Republican wave sweeping aside numerous incumbent Democratic leaders at national, state and local levels, US President Barack Obama is now in Asia for summit meetings in China, Australia and Myanmar.
Unequal economic growth and sputtering efforts to strengthen cross-Pacific trade are all on the collective agenda of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, and the G20 and East Asia summits.