For whatever reason, Blake Hounshell at Foreign Policy's “Passport” decided that on Mandela's birthday he needed to write a blog post declaring that “Nelson Mandela is No Saint.” Let's leave aside the fact that no one has actually argued that Mandela is a saint, and so Hounshell is heroically creating a straw man to beat him […]
Over at Registan.net, Nathan is discussing a minor backlash in the blogosphere against Kazakhstan's potential investment in Westinghouse. Toshiba, which currently owns 77% of Westinghouse, will be selling this share for USD 486.3 million to Kazatomprom, the Kazakhstani nuclear agency. This is a good deal for the U.S.–protests notwithstanding–which is why the U.S. approved the sale. […]
Alisher Iminzhanov, a Kyrgyzstani leader of the outcast group Hizb-ut-Tahrir, was detained in Osh on July 17th. His arrest has been cast as a preventive measure for the festivities associated with the annual summer SCO summit, which starts on August 16th. Kyrgyzstan believes that at least 5,000 supporters of HuT within its borders. What is Hizb ut-Tahrir? Hizb-ut-Tahrir […]
Nelson Mandela turned 89 today, birthday gifts pile up, and South Africa celebrates. The still vibrant liberation hero and South Africa's first legitimate president still inspires hope, and continues to grow in popularity, whether dealing with his beloved South Africa, advising African leaders, or drawing the support of global football stars at a ceremony on […]
The hazards of expertise–and listening to experts Articles like this, that call into question what I am doing in my life and in this venue, make me want to turn off the news and go to the closest July barbecue: I can be a witty guest, so please send invite immediately. In a 2005 review of Expert Political Judgement: […]
As I said in my earlier post today, Afghanistan seems to be the afterthought in the U.S. news last week– but not by those Afghanistan-watchers in the blogging community and around the Internet. Here's a round-up: and thanks to all who labor to bring us up to speed. Afghanistan: –At Afghanistan Watch, Tom Perriello gives […]
Over at The New Republic James Kirchick (whose work, frankly, I have little use for most of the time) wonders, based on idle comments from Bulawayo's Archbishop Pius Ncube, whether Great Britain should invade Zimbabwe and remove Mugabe. While Kirchick makes some fundamentally (if somewhat obvious) decent points, I’m not certain that an invasion of […]
For those following the news lately in the U.S. at least, there has been a dearth of reporting on Afghanistan for months and maybe even years. This past week, with so much drama enacted in Washington DC over Iraq, even Iraq news from Iraq was sidelined in favor of who-voted-what and why in the air-conditioned halls of Congress. […]
IRIN has two stories about the movement of human capital in Southern Africa that reveal a region in flux. The first shows how South Africa is trying to stanch the brain drain of skilled and highly educated workers and professionals, particularly in the healthcare profession. The second reveals beleaguered white former Zimbabwean farmers who had lost […]
I wanted to go back to a previous post of last week on Kyrgyzstan's potential hydropower development, because I couldn't consider all the dilemmas in one post. One dilemma I started to set up: much of the discussion concerns what kind of capacity would be needed in order to a. serve Kyrgyzstan; b. serve Central Asia's power needs and develop energy […]
Tajikistan, in partnership with the World Bank, is soliciting investment in its cotton enterprises, and international agricultural concerns have another two weeks to submit bids for investment. The forward, signed by Sharif Rahimov, the Chairman of the State Committee for Investments and State Property Management and attached to the call for bids, is beautifully-expressed: it asserts […]
Louis E.V. Nevaer reports in the San Francisco Chronicle that American guns being smuggled into Mexico are helping fuel drug-related violence there. Mexico's military is searching southbound traffic along the border for shipments of weapons. U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez acknowledged the problem last month in Mexico saying, “We are concerned about the number of weapons coming into […]
FPA's Migration blog includes an entry of interest to those following migration issues that relate to Mexico. The posting, “A Day Without a Mexican?” can be viewed here.
Cape Town has a perception as a racist city, according to Danny Jordaan, South Africa's Local Organizing Committee CEO for the 2010 World Cup. And he believes that the city (and the country in general) will have to shed that image if the 2010 event is to be a success. As a step in that […]
I’ve been reading through poems lately, and found this one about Afghanistan. It was written by reporter Eliza Griswold, who has been a reporter in Afghanistan, Africa, and Guantanamo. She has a book out: Wideawake Field (2007), published by Farrar Straus & Giroux. Buying Rations in Kabul The Uzbek boys on Chicken Street have never had enough […]