In the first 6 months of the year, Mexican immigrants sent $11.4 billion to their native country, according to estimates by the Central Bank of Mexico. That is about the same as last year, which is seen as a significant slowdown, since earlier figures grew by 10% each year, reflecting population growth. Overall, 64% of […]
The Foreign Policy Association has published another of my Great Decisions Analysis pieces. “The Vlok Trial and a Reconciliation With the Truth” looks at the recent criminal proceedings against Adriaan Vlok, South Africa's Minister of Law and Order in the 1980s, and four other members of the security apparatus for a bizarre attempted murder that […]
In previous Casual Fridays, we looked at yurts, a kind of nomadic architecture, and the great Islamic architecture in Khiva and other Central Asian heritage sites. I want to turn to some of the newest Central Asian architecture. I picked Astana because the capital of Kazakhstan moved here from Almaty in 1997-1998. Therefore it has been […]
Since almost all the news revolves and resolves around the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit, I’m going to try to hit most of the non-SCO news here in the Central Asia Beat this week. Next week, I’ll try to wrap up SCO developments. . . Kazakhstan: –From RFE/RL Newsline, August 16: The Kazakhstan Today news agency, formerly […]
“If anyone, no matter who, were given the opportunity of choosing from amongst all the nations in the world the set of beliefs which he thought best, he would inevitably, after careful consideration of their relative merits, choose that of his own country. Everyone without exception believes his own native customs, and the religion he […]
For the most part, one of those wait-and-see kind of weeks: Military News: –U.S. troop morale is down, as noted by high rates of suicides . –Now that Britain is pulling out of Iraq, they plan to focus more on Afghanistan. –Germany loses three soldiers; in roadside attack, and discuss their determination and their options. […]
The stars of the critically-acclaimed film “Y Tu Mama Tambien” are turning their attention to social injustices in Mexico. Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna held a gala dinner in Mexico City to raise money for the Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights, and Witness, an organization started by singer Peter Gabriel that promotes […]
According to files recently received by George Washington University's National Security Archive, the U.S. has been pushing Pakistan since the early and mid 1990's to close down its terrorist safe havens, and documents times and places where Pakistani troops trained and/or fought with Taliban or terrorist leaders. Of course this was before 9/11. Here is […]
The African National Congress is dealing with the old Chinese curse of living in interesting times. First there are the natural tensions in a party such as the ANC that has so many varied constituencies. There is the unseemly but unavoidable Jacob Zuma mess. There is the succession struggle, which really is two succession struggles […]
Nick Fick wrote an article in the Washington Post on August 12th is making its way through the Afghanistan-watchers blog-land, and it joins with many who are looking at U.S. tactics of keeping ahead in Afghanistan, the actual-land. It begins with his experience of having a gun aimed at him indiscriminately at a checkpoint. The Article: […]
Itar-Tass reports that the presidents of Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan will be cementing cooperative efforts “on all levels.” A meeting took place between Kyrgyzstan's Mr. Bakiev and Turkmenistan's Mr. Berdymukhamedov as part of unofficial SCO activities. Mr. Berdymukhamedov is an honorary guest at the SCO summit this year. It is his first time attending the event. […]
This week, the Stockholm International Water Institute is celebrating the “World Water Week”. We’re all pretty focused on oil these days, but in reality, water scarcity is more of a challenge. Last year, the UN Development Programme issued a report that highlighted water scarcity and the political and institutional reasons that water remained a tight factor […]
The heads of state of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) nations are meeting this week in Lusaka, Zambia. High on the agenda will be the crisis in Zimbabwe, though observers do not expect much on that front. It will be most interesting to see what, if anything, Thabo Mbeki, whom SADC charged with helping […]
Here is a quick survey of Africa-related news stories that have appeared in the last few days: Sierra Leone's voters went to the polls this past weekend and it appears to have gone off with few allegations of improprieties. Hopefully this marks the first small steps in the country's redemption. Sam Dealey, Time magazine's Africa […]
Well, the war games are now in Chelyabinsk until the 17th. We have to wait a little while longer for the mass press releases that usually attend the political meetings of the Annual SCO Summit. But so far, things are looking quite interesting. President Hu of China arrived in Bishkek today, and it looks like he's […]