OJSC (Open joint stock company) Nurbank is the seventh largest of Kazakhstan's banks, opening for business in 1992. According to its Web site, it is owned by the largest oil, food, publishing and foreign trade firms operating in Kazakhstan, and also currently lends to oil, food, foreign trade, and publishing & information firms. Already part of many loan syndication networks (where […]
The U.S.-proposed border fence along the Mexican border is facing opposition not only from immigrant rights groups, but also from some environmental organizations. Claiming that hundreds of miles of border fences will keep many animals from the Rio Grande River, their only source of water, wildlife experts fear that some land animals will be killed […]
I’ve posted a couple of isolated reports on the CSTO recently. It now seems that these are part of some new, more comprehensive Central Asian security initiatives. The Secretary-General of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, Nikolai Bordyuzha, was in Kyrgyzstan to attend a working meeting. He inspected Kyrgyz Defense and Interior special forces exercises. Mr. Bordyuzha also spoke at Kyrgyzstan's first Media Conference, on “The […]
At Real Clear Politics Peter Brookes, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation and columnist for The New York Post, diagnosis our acute case of the Niger Delta Blues. We now import more oil than ever from Africa — moreso even than the Middle East, according to Brookes, though such numbers tend to be volatile […]
Mark Seidenfeld is still in prison in Kazakhstan, after an April trial delay that pushes back legal presentations until probably June. In the meantime, according to the Save Mark Seidenfeld blog, both Russian and Kazakhstani press are publishing articles that make Mr. Seidenfeld look guilty, or that he is a spy. If you get a […]
Economic ministers from Mexico and India agreed today on a plan to bolster bilateral trade relations. Indo-Mexican trade has increased by 600 percent in the last 6 years, totaling about $530 million through March in this fiscal year alone. The countries announced in New Delhi today that they would set up a group of senior government […]
Today's RFE/RL has an article on Kyrgyzstan's problems with border control. The Speaker of Parliament, Mr. Marat Sultanov, has sought Russian help via the CIS collective security arrangements now undertaken through the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization. Recently, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan implemented a short-term arrangement of greater access between the two countries, only to have it […]
Last week, Nathan Hamm at Registan.net posted twice on new constitutional reforms in Kazakhstan. In the first, he discussed how new constitutional changes would answer objections that many member states have toward Kazakhstan's OSCE leadership bid. In the second post, Nathan wrote that his earlier post might have been too optimistic, as some of the implications […]
Three notable Mexican film directors have signed a $100 million deal with Universal Pictures in Los Angeles to produce five movies, including Spanish-language films. Guillermo del Toro, Alfonso Cuaron, and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, who individually directed last year's Oscar-recognized Hollywood hits “Pans Labyrinth,” “Babel,” and “Children of Men,” will call their new production company Cha Cha Cha. […]
The U.S. Senate this week will debate an immigration bill supported by President Bush that would provide legal status to approximately 12 million undocumented immigrants currently residing in the U.S. Allowing 600,000 workers into the country without their families, the measure's guest worker provision would grant them 2-year periods of stay for a maximum of 6 years. For further […]
Over at The Boston Globe Derrick Z. Jackson reminds readers that among Jerry Falwell's many loathsome views, the recently departed openly and unrepentantly supported Apartheid South Africa. While it may not be especially edifying to dance on a man's grave, there also are few reasons to celebrate Falwell's life in which hatred was couched in a flatulent and warped version of Christianity. […]
RFE/RL's Daniel Kimmage noted in yesterday's and today's RFE/RL Newsline: May 16: Akmarat Rejepov, Head of Turkmenistan's National Guard, and Geldymurad Ashirmuhammedov, Turkmenistan's Minister of National Security, were dismissed from their posts. Mr. Rejepov was ostensibly going to be ‘reassigned’ to another position. May 17th: Mr. Rejepov was arrested. May 18: Ashirmuhammedov is reported as arrested […]
Three stories from the United Nations News Agency, IRIN, point to Tajikistan's poverty and resulting problems for children, families, migration, and a host of other problems that result from poverty. All three of these articles show how difficult it is to rise from poor circumstances. Furthermore, they show that even responsible choices by virtuous people […]
The first tidal wave In 1996, Martha Brill Olcott wrote an important paper on the pressures for migration in Central Asia during the 1990's: “Demographic upheavals in Central Asia.” In this paper, she discussed the many Central Asian natives, primarily of Russian ethnicity, who picked up stakes and left the five newly-independent Central Asian states […]
In part 1 of this series, I reviewed a joint presentation of The Brookings Institution and UNU on the unequal distribution of wealth under globalizing conditions. Once again, states are charged with redistributing this income through policy planning and the social contract, and courting investment from other states, international organizations, and most of all, transnational […]