As the Egyptians continue demonstrating against the government of President Hosni Mubarak, there have been three outcomes posited, although only one of those results would be advantageous for security in the Middle East and Israel’s future. The pro-democracy movement takes hold: the protests began as an economic referendum on the Mubarak government, with pro-democracy activists now leveraging […]
Tunisia was easy. Small country, educated middle-class and a weak Islamist element. For many European heads of state, the toppling of Ben-Ali was irksome (his ties to the continent ran deep — trained at Saint-Cyr, ambassador to Poland), but manageable. Other than the French foreign minister’s disturbing offer to provide the government security support, the […]
On 26th January 1950, India will be an independent country. What would happen to her independence?…What perturbs me greatly is the fact that not only India has once before lost her independence, but she lost it by the infidelity and treachery of some of her own people….This anxiety is deepened by the realisation of the […]
I admire the patience and perseverance of the Iraqi people, but I must wonder how long until they join their fellow Arabs in Egypt, Lebanon and Tunisia to say “Kifaya!”
Probably to my discredit I have not had much to say about events in Tunisia and Egypt. Part of the reason for this is that my own work, with scant exceptions, involves sub-Saharan Africa and in part because with things happening so quickly I wanted to have something worth saying. With regard to Tunisia I […]
There has been much discussion in the Western media as to what effect Chinese President Hu Jingtao’s recent State visit to the U.S. will have on the future trajectory of Sino-U.S. relations, if any. Due to the fact the world economy has been in a slump, with the U.S. at it’s center struggling to recover, […]
Last Friday US Border Patrol observed Mexican smugglers using a catapult to hurl pot from across a small part of the Sonora Desert that included the international border with Arizona. USBP contacted their Mexican colleagues who promptly broke up the operation. In all, law enforcement seized 35 pounds in marijuana, a 10-foot tall catapult, and […]
My South African sources tell me that former South African President Nelson Mandela, the anti-apartheid icon, was discharged from the hospital Friday morning after “undergoing what is being described as a “routine checkup” which stretched into a second day. Mandela’s hospitalization prompted fear at home and abroad that the his health may be failing. Good […]
I find it peculiar that George Clooney is getting credit for “his satellite project” revealing that there are troops lined up in the Abyei border area. Now, I normally think Andrew Meldrum does good work. But this paragraph in his Global Post piece is, to me, telling: An estimated 55,000 Sudan army troops have been […]
The President’s annual State of the Union Address traditionally focuses largely on domestic issues, and this year’s was no exception. But every speech the Executive gives is carefully crafted to touch upon a wide range of issues and, to some extent, to gracefully address contentious issues that are the source of party divisions. Although Cuba […]
I was in the middle of the writing of my latest blog on the 2011 State of the Union, when I had the pleasure to read Finn’s analysis. Finn’s argument of Europe feeling leftover is absolutely valid and has been very popular in Europe, especially since the 2009 EU-US Summit wherein President Obama did not […]
The following piece was written by Donna Hakimian, a researcher and historian focusing on modern Iran and human rights. Ms. Hakimian obtained her MA in Women’s Studies from the University of Toronto. She also holds a BA in Religious and Middle Eastern Studies from McGill University. The experience of living as an Iranian in exile […]
Yesterday, India observed Republic Day, celebrating the 61st anniversary of the date its Constitution came into force. The chief guest at India’s first Republic Day on January 26, 1950 had been the then-Indonesian President Sukarno whom India’s Prime Minister at the time, Jawaharlal Nehru, supported during Indonesia’s struggle for freedom from the Netherlands. In 2011, […]
David Kato, one of the gay men whose picture appeared on the front cover of the Ugandan tabloid Rolling Stone, an anti-gay newspaper, was brutally beaten to death with a harmer in his home in Kampala late Wednesday, 26 January 2011. The Associate Press is reporting that a suspect is in custody, and that the […]
Nelson Mandela has spent the last couple of days in Johannesburg’s Milpark hospital recovering from a collapsed lung. South Africans and many of the rest of us anxiously await confirmation of reports that Madiba will be fine could be released as early as tomorrow.