Tibetan filmmaker Dhondup Wangchen has been languishing in prison because he made a short documentary about how Tibetans felt about the summer Olympics coming to Beijing in 2008. He and his assistant were arrested on charges of inciting separatism shortly after the film was finished in 2008 and were given a six-year sentence. His wife, […]
You hear many words of wisdom traveling through the Mideast, all which offer insightful pondering to events past and present. Watching the tragic escalation of events in Syria and the failing efforts to bring the fighting to a close bring to mind words often spoken by the Kurds of the region, who are well-versed in […]
In the latest twist in the increasingly violent saga of Thailand’s southern problem, last month’s triple bomb blast in the province of Yala highlighted another failure of the administration of Yingluck Shinawatra’s eight-month old government: the campaign vow to grant the three southern provinces of Yala, Pattani, and Narathiwat ‘special administration zone’ status. Much like […]
Alaska Senator Mark Begich (Dem.) hosted a roundtable yesterday at the University of Alaska Anchorage to consider building a deepwater port in Alaska. According to a press release from Senator Begich’s office, among the dozen participants were Rear Admiral Tom Ostebo, Commander of the Seventeenth Coast Guard District (covering Alaska), Colonel Reinhard Koenig, Commander of […]
“It’s all fucked up,” reflected Mads, a Danish soldier posted in Armadillo, a Forward Operating Base located in Afghanistan. One of his comrades had been seriously wounded by an IED. Such a statement was probably the most accurate description of the then-Vietnam war, and is as fitting for today’s in Afghanistan. The violence of the […]
The curious timing of the bounty on Hafiz Saeed raises the issue of whether U.S. policies toward New Delhi and Islamabad are in sync. If anything, the $10 million bounty the Obama administration offered last week for information leading to the capture and arrest of Hafiz Muhammed Saeed, a high-profile jihadi leader in Pakistan, is […]
You can tell a lot about the guilty conscience of a nation’s elite by its photoshopping. During the 1930s, Communist leaders executed in Stalin’s purges were famously airbrushed out of official photographs to cover up the facts of their brutal demise, as well as ensure that they do not become magnets for opposition. An entire […]
Yesterday, I joined Al-Jazeera’s ‘Inside Story’ for a panel discussion on Turkey’s 1980 coup trial. The program offers an introduction to the coup as well as the coup case, so I will not mention them here. Apart from what I had mentioned in my brief comments, I want to expand on my arguments in this blog […]
It’s just so hard to launch an international bash these days. Everyone’s a critic. Just ask Azerbaijan. Preparations for Eurovision, one of Europe’s biggest song contests to be held in May in Baku, are regularly sidetracked either by criticism of the country dismal human rights record, or allegations of the country’s silent involvement in Iran-Israeli […]
Islamabad’s embarrassing rhetoric towards Beijing is a sign of strategic desperation The playing off of two stronger patrons by a smaller or weaker country is a time-honored tactic in international politics. So it is no surprise that Pakistan seeks to create geopolitical leverage by nuzzling up to China whenever a downdraft occurs in its relations with […]
In early March, a few outspoken voices in Iceland, a country not known for its stable economy in recent years, floated the idea of switching from the krona to the Canadian dollar. The leader of the opposition Progressive Party, Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson, said, “If we are going to adopt another currency, then the Canadian dollar looks […]
Iraq’s fugitive vice president, Tariq al-Hashemi, initially fled Baghdad to Kurdistan to avoid capture at the hands of Shi’a forces loyal to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Rumors spread that the vice president’s body-guard had been slaughtered in a bloody attempt to seize the Sunni VP on trumped-up charges of “terrorism.” It is now being reported […]
Four reels of film were discovered in Germany decades after World War II was ended. The film had no credits and no soundtrack. This rough cut showed scenes from the Warsaw ghetto in May 1942. The makers of this movie interviewed the cameraman who took the footage. They also showed survivors of the ghetto the […]
Safe inside his armored motorcade and surrounded by nearly two dozen police motorcycle escorts, Chinese Premier Hu Jintao traversed north along Sothearos Boulevard in Phnom Penh this past Saturday morning, passing a 20 foot portrait of his face as well as one of his wife’s as his entourage made its way towards the Peace Palace […]
A few weeks ago the Syrian National Council (SNC) appeared to be losing traction in its efforts to gain recognition as the legitimate political representative of the Syrian people. Dogged by a few high-profile resignations and accusations that it was undemocratic and unrepresentative, critics dismissed the SNC as a collection of European-based diaspora Syrians who were […]