Dear Readers: Sorry for the lapse in posting. I have been on hiatus for the past month taking care of some personal issue. I have an announcement. From today forward, I will be contributing to the Foreign Policy China Blog, as Chinese related issues are closer to my area of study. It has been fun […]
Those who had hoped the European Commission would resist the decision of the French, Italian Swedish and Danish governments to deport the Roma people were in for a disappointment. Albeit the EU’s chief executive Barroso’s first “state of the union” address included a message to European leaders to steer clear of the racism and discrimination […]
Refreshingly clear insight from the Economist in today’s article about Putin’s legacy: The real problem is not that the state in Russia is too powerful or ambitious, but that it fails in its basic functions of providing adequate health care, security, justice and infrastructure. Indeed, today’s fatal bombings in Vladikavkaz as well as ever increasing […]
The Quran burning event organized by the Rev. Terry Jones of the Gainesville, Florida-based Dove World Outreach Center is by no means an extraordinary act. Let me remind the readers of the events that followed la reconquista. Thousands of Islamic and scientific books were burned in almost a city-event gathering. The Holy Quran was among […]
After much anticipation of negotiations between the Palestinians and the Israelis, the masses of both groups are disappointed. The prospects of the talk’s success are slim, the reason being is the exclusion of Hamas, which controls the Gaza strip and enjoys a wide support among the Palestinians in the West Bank. The Obama administration must […]
The latest Afghanistan and Iraq cost analysis by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) will not sit well with many Americans living on a tight budget. Though the war in Iraq is costing less and less, the US military is basically transferring these saved funds to the Afghan conflict. Between 2009 and 2010, the average monthly cost […]
On September 4, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and Deputy Secretary David J. Hayes wrapped up a three-day trip to Alaska. The two officials met with locals, Inupiat Eskimos, and representatives from the oil industry to discuss both oil drilling and environmental conservation on the North Slope and in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas. […]
An American star not only coaches the Russian national basketball team but also praises the USSR’s controversial 1972 victory over his own country, while Putin claims to be modeling himself on America’s greatest president: After a century of representing humanity’s thesis and antithesis, are the two powers merging into one another in a cute form […]
India’s Home Minister P. Chidambaram during a speech at the conference of State police chiefs and Inspector-Generals of police cautioned against the emerging phenomenon of ‘saffron terror’. The Home Minister’s comments have proved controversial with the Opposition Party, Bharatiya Janata Dal (BJP) demanding an apology. Semantics apart, Home Minister Chidambaram’s comment was not frivolous. [Photo: […]
President Calderón’s PAN party is in a tough spot. Drug violence dominates media headlines, with many Mexican newspapers publishing extended obits of victims. For the most part, Mexico’s president explains the surging violence as proof-positive that the government’s crackdown is working. Regardless, many Mexicans care more about jobs and the economy than the drug gangs. […]
Mozambique’s government has reversed the increase in the price of bread, a decision that directly led to deadly riots in that country last week. It is the right course of action. But it does raise the question: Did officials really not foresee problems with unilaterally raising the price of an essential commodity? We’ll forget for […]
The court case in which the Rally for Democracy Party-led (RDP) opposition coalition is challenging the presidential and parliamentary election results held on November 27 and 28 last year has been sent back to the High Court which struck the case from the court roll on technical merits in March this year. The ruling gives […]
It seems that Evilastus Karonda’s re-election as the Secretary General of Namibia’s largest trade union federation at its fifth Congress which ended on Sunday September 5 in the capital Windhoek is a victory for the Namibian workers. Apparently, Karonda’s championship of bread and butter issues affecting the workers earned him enmity among his colleagues in […]
In recent days and weeks Fidel Castro has reappeared everywhere in Cuba—on television, on the radio, in the news—but he has made it, too, into international exchanges again. Ever the clever statesman, he is proving once more that he knows what to say and when to say it to participate in the most relevant international […]
This week marks the Jewish new year and one of the most important holidays for Israelis and Jews around the world. In honor of the occasion, President Barack Obama recorded a nice note for Israelis and Jews, a large portion of which feel abandoned by the administration for the pressure placed on Israel to halt […]