Jacob Zuma is confident that South Africa will have peaceful elections. I see no reason to doubt him. South Africa has a political culture of liberal democracy and post-Apartheid elections have always gone off largely without a hitch. There is much instability in contemporary South Africa, but I see no reason to fear that this […]
As a general rule, when the military has to intervene in domestic politics, it does not bode well for the country both for the present and for the future. That is the case in Madagascar.
FDI approval process eased In an effort to attract foreign direct investment (FDI), China gave local governments more authority to approve incoming overseas capital. The simplification of the approval process comes after four months of falling FDI to China as U.S., European and Japanese companies cut investments in factories and workers in China. Local governments […]
The Students From Modernage Public School & College Abbottabad, Pakistan wrote a letter to Sri Lanka After The Horrific Attack On Sri Lankan Team In Pakistan. The attack on Sri Lankan Cricket team in Lahore on March 3rd, 2009 has affected almost every peace-loving individual and children are no exception. Therefore, to demonstrate their complete […]
Even though the United States pledged $900 million for Gaza reconstruction and to assist the Palestinian Authority, Congress may not approve the funding unless its recipients acknowledge Israel’s right to exist, a valid concern if Fatah and Hamas reunite. Palestinian reconcilliation talks are “60-percent” complete and may conclude by next Wednesday. Dr. Yasser Al Wadeya, […]
As this blog has been insisting, regional ties are the answer to many of Central Asia’s problems, rather than the West or even Russia. This Radio Liberty article describes how the State Department groups the post-Soviet Central Asian states together with the South Asian states in a long-term effort to promote ties between US-friendly states […]
It looks like one of the battle lines that will be drawn between the African National Congress (ANC) and the Congress of the People (COPE) in the upcoming election will be their takes on Bleck Economic Empowerment (BEE) which is at the heart of South Africa’s private sector affirmative action mandates. COPE has argued that […]
Spencer Ackerman critiques the equation of counterinsurgency with the progressive agenda in Democracy‘s Spring 09 issue. His point – that the military should not be a political organization, and that military strategy and a political agenda (whether progressivism, conservativism, or whatever) should be disaggregated in order for the military to do its job is well […]
The State Department recently released a document titled “Spring Break in Mexico – Know Before You Go.” I’d highly recommend it for anyone with Spring Break plans south of the border.
Massive drop in exports Chinese exports in February fell much steeper than analysts had expected. The drop of 25.7 percent compared with a year ago continues the trend of falling export rates of the last four months, but is significantly steeper than the previous declines. Imports also fell sharply by 24.1 percent in February. China’s […]
Pakistan is going through difficult phase. This is a sentence that has been used one way or the other throughout Pakistan’s history. First, there was not enough stuff right after the patrician. Then, it was the threat of Communism, later the country lost one part, which became Bangladesh, followed by the crisis in Afghanistan. Now, […]
At a press conference yesterday, the Bank of Israel released its policy to mitigate the effects of the global financial crisis on Israel. Bank officials stated that its impossible to reverse the effects of the recession, but only prevent it from worsening. Officials estimated that unemployment would top 8-percent and GDP will drop 1.5-percent. In […]
PAKISTAN has a terrorism problem. It also presently lacks the capacity to defeat that terrorism. This much is clear from the events of the past few years. But even now in the immediate aftermath of a terrorist strike a distressing pattern continues to unfold: officials acknowledge no mistakes or blame other officials for them; fingers […]
ISLAMABAD: A recent report by the US Government Accountability Office accuses Pakistan Navy of submitting duplicative charges for transport facilities it provided in aid of war against terror. The duplicative charges were detected during an audit by the Office of the Defence Reprsentative at the US Embassy which pointed out that Pakistan Navy charged $19,000 […]
TEHRAN: President Asif Ali Zardari, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Iranian President Mehmood Ahmadinejad had a trilateral meeting here on Tuesday on the sidelines of the 10th Economic Coordination Organisation summit meeting. During the meeting, the leaders of the three neighborly countries discussed issues of mutual interest and concern including the security situation in the […]