In The Star, Mosibudi Mangene wonders about the state of South Africa's democracy, with Zimbabwe as the looming warning post. The Zimbabwe analogy is, I suppose, a logical one (just as those who wanted to make sense of the Zimbabwe election fiasco looked to Kenya, and those wanting to understand Kenya looked elsewhere as well). […]
An optimistic narrative seems to have taken over the commentary and reporting on Zimbabwe. The Wall Street Journal, for example, trumpets how Robert Mugabe, Morgan Tsvangirai, and the other participants in the ongoing talks are close to a power-sharing agreement. Some of the hardened cynics writing at The Mail & Guardian have even dared to […]
A picture of an Iraqi psychiatric hospital, now in disrepair. (NYTimes.com) (Note: we know that US troops are suffering from psychiatric disorders upon returning to the US, but what about the Iraqi people?) It seems that the US is bearing the brunt of reconstruction expenses in Iraq, even though the Iraqi government is projected to […]
As of this writing, Russia has declared a halt to its military offensive in Georgia, some 24 hours after Georgia declared a ceasefire of its own. The olive branch was waved in Moscow by President Medvedev, who stated that "the aggressor has been punished." If the ceasefire holds, the outside world may have an opportunity […]
Well it looks like I didn't live up to my promise, but better late than never right? The Olympics in China have made quite a splash; in the pool, in the Caucasus's, Bush's speeches and church visit, and in the Xinjiang Province, where on Sunday a multitude of attacks occurred all over the city of […]
Symbolism seems to always precede Russia into war. In the winter of 1994-5, Chechnya's capital, Grozny, bloodily fulfilled its Russian translation as “fierce”: thousands died in the wake of Yeltsin's callous Christmas day invasion. But Gori, the name of the first Georgian city bombed by Russian aircraft this weekend, translates simply as ‘grief’. When, at […]
In the next year, China will edge out the US as the world's largest producer of manufactured goods – an achievement that is coming 4 years earlier than originally expected. A substantial reason behind this premature development is the weakening US economy. Stats from last year showed the US produced one-fifth of all manufactured goods, […]
The European Union's ‘Strategy for a New Partnership with Central Asia‘ has now passed its 1st year of existence and therefore must immediately be judged! Here are its original stated goals and origins and here is a one year assessment by ISN's Robert M Cutler. Now the 'strategy’ is a decade long process that hopefully […]
Its already a tradition to spend few days in Bint Jbeil every time I am in Lebanon. The Bint Jbeil also called Hizballah's stronghold and the capital of liberation. Aside from the connection to the party, Bint Jbeil is a wonderful, calm place and the people truly friendly. You can safely walk everywhere and get […]
As the tragedy in Ossetia unfolds, Mark Almond's sobering and essential antidote to prevailing interpretation cautions against seeing the Russian incursion into Georgia as a replay of Prague 1968. Instead, he suggests a parallel with Britain's role in the Falkland War. Importantly, he also reminds readers that: Unlike in eastern Europe, for instance, today in […]
There is some apparent good news for the South African economy. Business confidence appears to be up marginally since June. Just what impact this will have on the economy at large is far from clear. Nonetheless, since the economic elites outside of government tend to be those who are most pessimistic about South Africa, this […]
The controversy over the role of the elite special investigations unit known as the Scorpions has festered in South Africa since almost the inception of that organization. Because of the way in which the Scorpions have been kept separate from the regular police services there has been considerable tension between the SAPS and the new […]
Is the longstanding animosity between hostile neighbors Ethiopia and Eritrea about to flare again? The Council on Foreign relations fears as much.
Optimists aver that a power sharing agreement might be close in Zimbabwe. I will believe it when I see it. Michael Georgy asks and answers a series of questions speculating about what's next. I hope that the participants can reach an agreement, but the questions that Georgy and no one else has answered are what is […]
On August 7th, Mexican President Felipe Calderon announced that he will propose a new bill to Congress that includes the implementation of life imprisonment for kidnappers. The proposal is a result of a new wave of kidnappings that has shocked Mexican society in the last few weeks. In the most recent case, a 14 year […]