Foreign Policy recently published its 2010 Failed States Index. Perhaps not surprisingly Africa on the whole does not do well. Of the bottom 20 slots, Africa has twelve, including the dubious honor of a clean sweep of the worst five, as well as slots 21 through 23. That’s right — Somalia, Chad, Sudan, Zimbabwe, and […]
I’d written earlier about the stultifyingly small (perhaps still-born?) aid packages that have been flowing into Pakistan’s flooded regions. As a result of the widely acknowledged insufficient private donations, the U.N. has asked that its member states double their pledged humanitarian aid packages to Pakistan. To get your head around the latest news on private […]
Per usual, the PBS Newshour with Jim Lehrer has provided, far and away, the best reportage on the flood in Pakistan. Working with Saima Mohsin of the English-language channel Dawn News, the Newshour has aired some of the most arresting stories on Pakistan’s crisis. The piece you will find below is no different. Mohsin lays […]
On its latest cover, Time magazine makes the startling assertion that Israel does not want peace, all in the midst of peace talks in Washington between President Obama, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. On the face of it, this assertion is meant to de-legitimize Israel as not a partner in […]
I suggest, my readers, that you pass on this note to all your friends and loved ones: Please donate the small, though value of $50 to the flood relief effort in Pakistan. Consider that private pledged donations to Pakistan’s flood victims are 1/40th the dollar value pledged for the victims of the Haiti earthquake and […]
Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured. Mark Twain It really is a grueling task to write about Pakistan because there is never anything encouraging to discuss. It is always an angry mob shouting against ‘foreign hands, […]
The National Union of Namibian Workers (NUNW), an umbrella body of affiliated Namibian workers unions in public and private sector, is winding down its national congress in the capital under the theme of “Back to Basics.” Back to basics is a befitting theme because the congress is taking place at a time when Namibia’s largest […]
The government of Bangladesh has made secure moves toward greater equality of opportunity, particular in education of the young children of Bangladesh. This move is partly explained by the fact that the young stand for the greatest–certainly the largest– generation in the country. And the politics of the country will sway in whichever direction the […]
With the global economy struggling to re-surface from a deep and self-inflicted recession, the international geo-political order is locked in a lengthy transformation for what appears to be a multi-polar world. In this new and yet-to-be-shaped global geo-political order, there are emerging economies that aim to leverage their rising economic power and turn them into […]
Calm has followed chaos in Mozambique. Whether it is going to last we don’t know. But the more salient question is whether or not food shortages across the world are going to lead to similar uprisings. Much of the worst of the global economic crisis has actually missed Africa, in part, at least, because of […]
A significant hike in the price of bread and other commodities led to mass protests in Mozambique’s capital, Maputo, which in turn led to trigger-happy police opening fire on crowds of people. The official stance of the state appears to be the the protests were illegal, which in addition to being absurd in and of […]
Perhaps Prime Minister Putin is more attuned to Western criticism than he lets on. For example, two years ago the British motoring show Top Gear rather harshly called the Lada Kalina – the newest model from Russia’s much maligned firm – a poor copy of a mid 90s Fiat, made out of turnips. Yet when […]
I’ve never quite understood the BNP leader’s use of the term oust, when she bleats on about ousting the sitting Awami League government “because its activities go against the interests of the people and the country”. Does Begum Zia mean that she will force Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s resignation from power? Alternatively does she intend […]
U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell said today that Israeli and Palestinian leaders will meet on bi-weekly basis after this week’s peace talks. The first meeting will be held in Egypt, further signalling that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak would like to play a crucial role in these negotiations. I’m guessing that the […]