I'm a cynic. I see TARA seasons one and two as fitting nicely into
Singapore Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew's vision for ASEAN (Association
of South East Asian Nations) and beyond. The five original members of
ASEAN (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand) are
all countries that pick up TARA through AXN Asia. From 1984 through
1999, five more countries (Brunei Darussalam, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar
and Cambodia) joined ASEAN. In 1997, ASEAN became ASEAN Plus Three
with China, Japan and South Korea sending their own leaders to ASEAN
countries to observe the ASEAN meetings. Lee Kuan Yew, in an
interview with Time Magazine, expressed misgivings about China
possibly wanting to use these meetings as a way to exert its influence
on the region so he suggested leaders from India,...