Kenya's Standard reports on how environmental issues, high-level politics and ethnic concerns are merging to create another potential flashpoint in that country's tenuous recovery process. The Mau Forest involves a complex interplay of tensions related to conservation and the country's (indeed the region's) environmental health, the prospects for putatively ethnic clashes over land, and tensions […]
We’ve had a ‘Good News’ blog and another lighthearted one of various links, but the good times are over! Thanks to Freedom House's newly released Freedom of the Press 2007 Survey, we can put the good feelings behind us as our Central Asian states received bleak, down-trending outlooks. The Survey concluded that Press Freedom was […]
Yesterday, Hizballah celebrated the “divine victory” it brought upon Lebanon in 2000. As expected, the state was there to show support for the party. Read Sheikh Nasrallah's speech here. I have nothing against revolutionary minds. That is needed, but who needs hooligans?! Disappointingly, Hizballah is more of a latter. It uses a Lebanese cover, while […]
One issue you never thought about, and neither did I, is the fact that after the post-election violence in Kenya there are a lot of new weapons. I wish I had something more clever to say than: How very frustrating. Yet anything more clever would involve gun control policies that would seem uniliateral, or punishment […]
Happy Memorial Day to all those who have put their lives on the line for their respective nation and people. I was going to discuss the latest Freedom House Media Report, but was having problems accessing their website. Maybe Kazakhstan's government has gotten to them too! Expect this tomorrow or soon after. Kyrg seismic activity […]
Having become increasingly politically sidelined under Putin, the KPRF, the Russian Communist Party, is trying its hand at film criticism. The BBC quotes St. Petersburg Communist Party chief Sergei Malinkovich telling Reuters that the new Indiana Jones movie was “rubbish”. Certainly, he is in good company. The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw was not impressed either. Nor […]
So he's finally done it. Just when you though there could not be anything more frightening than last year's winners, the monster costumed hard/glam Finnish rockers Lordi… behold Dima Bilan's mullet. Last nights win was Russia's first in Eurovision. Moreover, the fact that Britain came in last could also not have escaped unnoticed by the […]
General Michel Suleiman has been elected today as Lebanon's President. Finally! He is the “compromise” candidate. Not very encouraging, however, Lebanon has seen worst. This is his first discourse as President. I call on you all, political forces and citizens, to build a Lebanon we all agree on, setting the interests of Lebanon above […]
Today, minister-cum-democracy activist Mikhail Kasyanov met in Chelyabinsk with supporters of his People's Democratic Union party, part of the Other Russia umbrella movement. They hosted a round table discussion on “The Effects of Political Monopolisation”, it was reported on the Radio Liberty website. But who is Kasyanov and what does he want? Ill be posting […]
Yet another brilliant piece of insight from the Exile. They’re particularly adept at sniffing out power struggles, whether it be between the Siloviki and Liberals or Gopniki vs Hipsters. In this article, they talk about the recent demise of Liveblogging, hunted to extinction by the ironiste brigade and of its improbable rebirth. Russian online culture […]
Let's join the club! Unfortunately, a definitive majority of news I report on and discuss on this blog is of the negative kind. It does them a true adage that good news is not really news people tend to be drawn to. I looked at many of the reports, articles, and other blog topic ideas […]
While oil prices continue to rise, Mexico is debating how to maximize oil profits and modernize its aging oil industry. The oil industry, nationalized in 1938, is one of the pillars of the Mexican economy and an icon in Mexican history. In spite of this, the industry has experienced operative, technological, and financial problems that […]
In yesterday's Guardian, their Moscow correspondent Luke Harding posted an interview with Litvinenko poisoning prime suspect Lugovoi. Unfortunately, far from providing any new revelations or even insights, the piece read like a tired, thrice-removed smorgasbord of conspiracy theories, hyperbole, tired stereotypes and faintly disguised jingoism at Russia's ostensible failure to cooperate with the British authorities. […]
About a month ago we discussed the implications for new Russian presidency of Dmitry Medvedev for Central Asia, Russian domestic politics, and the world in general. Would Medvedev be Putin's puppet? Would he be a liberalizer? What could we expect from him regarding relations between Russia and the Central Asian states? We are about to […]
The ongoing xenophobic violence in South Africa has now spread beyond Johannesburg and may well explode into a national crisis. Metrorail authorities are beefing up security in anticipation that the trains are ripe for attacks on presumed foreigners and others. The recriminations, of course, have already begun, with many pointing fingers at Thabo Mbeki's government. For a […]