The Cuban Bishops’ Conference has just announced the launch of their own blog, www.creerencuba.org (“Believing in Cuba”), a space for Catholics to “enrich their experience of God” through the Internet. Reverend Jose Felix Perez indicated that this blog was a way for the Church in Cuba to …
“Twas the night before Obama’s Afghanistan Strategy speech and all through the internet, not a pundit was resting, all arguing that they knew what was right. The allies were briefed in hopes that more troops would soon be there. Then down came Obama to West Point with sweet words of …
In February, President Hugo Chávez won a referendum allowing him (and any other public official) to be re-elected indefinitely. A total of 54% of the electorate supported this option, but did this represent a recent peak in the Venezuelan President’s popularity?
Over recent months Chávez provoked a diplomatic row with Colombia …
Diogenes Laertius wrote, “The foundation of every state is the education of its youth.” This simple formula hides behind it much of what is wrong with the socio-political economy of Bangladesh. Humanism has been on the wane in Bangladeshi curricula since the rightist BNP took power in 2001 and …
In a follow-up to last week’s Washington Post On Faith interviews on J Street, the column’s authors took to the other side of the debate, speaking with Weekly Standard editor Michael Goldfarb who is an outspoken critic of the group. Watch the interview here and read the discussion
In late November 2008, 10 armed Pakistani men – little more than boys – went on a killing spree in the Indian city of Mumbai.
Members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, or “Army of the Righteous,” the youths carried out the attacks in order to spur the “liberation” of Muslims living under Indian rule …
If you play poker you know that all the players have to ante up with a stake before each new deal. You have to “feed the kitty” – or you don’t play. Perhaps not coincidentally, parties that have an interest in a particular project, enterprise or, in the case of …
A interesting article from the Brookings Institution’s Latin America Initiative was published online today called Fiscal Policy Rules and Latin America: Lessons from the Crisis. The article makes the point that for much of Latin America, with the exception of Mexico, has fared well despite the latest global …
The Washington Post once again parades its profound ignorance of the European Union in an editorial reacting to the appointment of new EU leaders in Brussels. Starting with the ultra-hackneyed, apocryphal cliché about Henry Kissinger supposedly wanted a single telephone number for Europe (he didn’t), the Post announces …
It is easy to assert that the political negotiations in Zimbabwe have reached crunch time. But it might be more accurate to say that the negotiations that have been fraught from the outset are facing their last best chance of peaceful resolution. This assumes that both parties …
Is the new trend of African nations selling or leasing agricultural land to foreign companies or countries a new form of colonialism (“agri-imperialism”) or a savvy form of investment and partnership? These are the questions raised in recent articles in the New York Times Magazine and
A lot of big things happened over the holiday break. Here are some of them:
1) The Kingdom of Buganda rejected a land law passed by the Ugandan parliament. The law gives tenants more rights to resist potential evictions by landlords. Read about it here.
2) The governments of Mozambique, …
1) Louis Uchitelle, in the New York Times, despairs about the lack of infrastructure superprojects. I’m in firm agreement.
2) Indian business practices are apparently not up to par, according to this piece on Indian-Americans returning to their home country. Money quote: “Some very simple …
Reuters reports fierce fighting instigated by insurgent groups in Somalia has caused the relocation of several expatriate workers, while aid agencies fear a continuing breakdown of security in the country. The workers were part of the UN World Food Programme and
José “Pepe” Mujica was pronounced the victor of Uruguay’s run-off election soon after polls closed on Sunday. With more than 97% of the ballots now tallied Mujica garnered more than 53% of the popular vote, quite a coup for the 74-year-old former guerilla. Mujica served 14 years for his armed opposition …
