The Following piece is written by a Yemeni-based journalist who writes for the Foreign Policy Blogs network and, due to serious security concerns, remains anonymous. The Joint Meeting Parties, a coalition of various political factions united in their opposition to the Saleh regime, has extended an invitation to the government to discuss the transition of […]
(Author’s Note: The following is a selected passage from a chapter that will hopefully appear in a compendium on neoliberal globalization in the Fall/Winter 2011). In many ways, the implementation and subsequent repudiation of neoliberal policies in Thailand is emblematic of the bitter divide along class lines that has afflicted the country for years and […]
Rising food prices globally coupled with a sustained drought locally spells potential disaster in East Africa.
It bullied rivers over their banks, invaded roads, paralyzed cities and collapsed many houses, sending thousands of people seeking shelter, but it was not done. The week-long rain caused landslides and massive floods; still, it swamped vulnerable camps, trapped many people and, as of Tuesday, tallied 23 bodies for Haitian families to collect while six […]
Rumors that Robert Mugabe’s health might be faltering notwithstanding, Mugabe himself claims that he is going to live to be 100. So the myriad conflicts and problems plaguing the country in its recent past are probably not going anywhere soon. Indeed recent days have shown the gamut of Zimbabwean problems ranging from fresh threats against […]
The Finance Minister of Bangladesh, AMA Muhith recently angrily thrashed out the Center for Policy Dialogue, a well-respected think tank, for questioning the official government sponsored GDP projected numbers for fiscal year 2011-2012. GDP, the gross domestic product, is a measure of a country’s economic growth and as such is a bet of how politics […]
In politics “who’s now” is never as exciting a topic as “who’s next.” Thus at Business Day Peter Bruce argues (not at all convincingly) that South Africa is looking at another Polokwane moment when the current leadership is bound to be overthrown for someone else. Of course the ANC will not choose its next president […]
Obviously the situation across what I’ll call Greater Sudan is not good. Civilians are increasingly caught up in violence over the increasingly fraught border(s) between Sudan and South Sudan, which is supposed to gain autonomy in a matter of days, with Abyei the key flashpoint. Here are some assessments from people who know a lot […]
The Russian military has finally achieved a quantitative edge over its erstwhile Cold War enemy. While America’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have claimed the lives of some 6000 troops over 7 years, Russia has managed to lose nearly double that number of soldiers, in peacetime! According to NGOs cited in a distressing recent BBC […]
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he would seek a second term in the top post at the international agency, with another five year tenure spelling possible disaster for Israel. The Middle East has been in the throes of a so-called Arab Spring, with some governments — such as the Syrian regime — conducting countless […]
I question the wisdom of the African Union (AU) to send the South African President Jacob Zuma, who is also the SADC mediator and facilitator on the Zimbabwean crisis, to Libya in an attempt to revive the AU “roadmap” (another AU loaded word) for ending the conflict between Muammar Gaddafi and the anti-Gaddafi uprising. Zuma’s […]
This past Sunday’s New York Times Magazine had the harrowing tale of mob vigilantism that targeted the wrong person in Diepsloot, one of Johannesburg’s townships. The story captures many of the issues that envelop South Africa today — issues of crime and punishment and vigilantism; of victims and poverty and despair; of hopelessness and hope […]
Japan’s largest business lobby, Nippon Keidanren, is urging Prime Minister Naoto Kan to step down in order to pave the way for his Democratic Party of Japan to form a grand coalition with the opposition Liberal Democratic Party. Nippon Keidanren chairman Hiromasa Yonekura said, “I would like the prime minister to sacrifice himself for reconstruction […]
I’m exhausted from 100+ degree weather and hosting family, but to hold you over, I point you to Zunguzungu, which had a massive “Sunday Reading” post on, well, Sunday.
On Friday I mentioned the now completed “Conference for Change” held by the Syrian opposition in Antalya, Turkey. The conference was very important for a variety of reasons. Today I want to expand a bit on why that conference was so important, who exactly was there, dissect the final statement issued by the conference, and […]