International friendlies in the immediate aftermath of the World Cup have to mean the least of all friendlies. Nonetheless, Bafana Bafana defeating Ghana’s Black Stars 1-0 in Pitso Mosimane’s coaching debut has to mean something, right?
International friendlies in the immediate aftermath of the World Cup have to mean the least of all friendlies. Nonetheless, Bafana Bafana defeating Ghana’s Black Stars 1-0 in Pitso Mosimane’s coaching debut has to mean something, right?
At a conference on Wednesday, President Calderón asked prosecutors and judges turned the tables on those used to asking the questions. Why were so few of those arrested for violent crimes in Mexico being punished? Documents obtained by the Associated Press indicate that only about 15 percent of those arrested between December 2006 and September […]
Its been 2 weeks since the floods began and only today, after his lukewarm and somewhat unnecessary European tour, President Asif Ali Zardari came to see the devastation in person. T.V. footage wasn’t quite immediate enough, you see. And though he came to visit, and the state run stations ran the footage, curiously the footage […]
Two grim stories are continuing to develop in Central Africa. In Rwanda, just a couple of days after Paul Kagame’s practically pre-ordained re-election a grenade went off in Kigali, wounding a score of people. It is not yet known if the attack is connected to the election, which observers noted was free of violence, though […]
The latest Gallup poll measuring the American public’s approval/disapproval of President Obama on a series of issues came out today and the Afghan numbers are downright depressing. A strong majority, 57% disapprove of the President’s handling of the situation in Afghanistan, with only 36% approving. These numbers rival the President’s low ratings for health care and […]
If it seems like the pace of events has been accelerating since Hassan Nasrallah announced that he expects Hizballah members to be indicted in the Hariri Tribunal, it has. Immediately, leaders from Saudi Arabia and Syria rushed to Beirut to calm the situation. Shortly after they left town, an Israeli commander was killed by the […]
Politicians generally like to hear themselves talks — and Israeli politicians are generally no different. Instead of cutting to the point (even the “Straight Talk Express” came in through a heavy fog), politicians often cloud what they mean with metaphors, references to local business leaders, allusions to past heroes and other tactics meant to beat […]
I wish that people in Pakistan would wake up and realized that hating Zardari is not going to do any good. What needs to be done is that people from all across Pakistan come together, realistically and honestly look at the problems that the country is facing and trying to find the best answer or […]
Luzhkov, an avid beekeeper, had ordered his prize-winning hives to be evacuated away from the smog. All the while, he has refused to declare a state of emergency for Moscow’s human inhabitants. This is just one stark example of government callousness and incompetence in the face of the fires that led Simon Schuster to ask, […]
General David Petraeus is asking for more time on the ground in Afghanistan to work out his counterinsurgency (COIN) strategy, the one that he used to immense acclaim in Iraq. This is good news, though how excited one might be by this news depends on what exactly one thinks General Petraeus actually did in Afghanistan. […]
Paul Kagame’s landslide victory in Monday’s presidential elections highlights Africa’s multiparty democracy problems. Across the continent elections are predictable, and continue to produce landslides victories for ruling parties. According to media reports, Kagame received 93 per cent of the votes in an election criticized for being marred by political intimidation, repression and violence. But more […]
Brazil’s state-controlled Banco de Brazil and its rival Bradesco have agreed to acquire stakes in BES Africa, a Banco Espirito Santo (BES) holding company that makes investments in the African continent. The joint venture is intended to expand the Brazilian banks’ international operations and benefit Brazilian businesses operating in Africa. The move follows similar steps taken […]
The newest issue of The Georgetown Journal of International Affairs is out, and the theme of its “Forum” section, which leads off each issue and provides the cover stories, is “Match Point: Sports, Nationalism, and Diplomacy.” It includes an article by yours truly, “The Death of Doubt? Sport, Race, and Nationalism in the New South […]
I guess it is understandable that the narrative about Rwandan politics is dominated by the aftermath of the 1994 genocide and that the prevailing narrative ignores most of what happened before and has happened since (hint: violence did not just spring from the ether in April 1994). But the feel-good post-1994 narrative is not the […]
Last week, a massive iceberg four times the size of Manhattan broke off of the Petermann Glacier in West Greenland. It is the largest chunk of ice to calve from the glacier since 1962. It is now floating down the Nares Strait between Greenland and Canada. To give a better idea of the sheer volume […]