The monolithic over-road monument that one drives under going to or coming from the airport in Harare reminds one clearly of the importance of the country’s 1980 independence. Hard won in the bush and at international negotiating tables the victory over Ian Smith’s ruthlessly racist Rhodesian regime represented — still represents — a triumph over […]
Ironic as it may seem, it is a statement of controversy to assert that a genuine national reconciliation is needed in Somalia. To some, that has already happened; to others, there is no need for it since the country has emerged out of the transitional period and the current government is the officially recognized representative […]
I think I have a new slogan for the Zimbabwe tourism board: Zim: It’s not as Horrible as You Think! But, yeah, some aspects of it seem to be pretty wretched. I should provide the standard caveats, of course. Zimbabwe, despite its politicians, is beautiful, its people are warm, its potential vast. And while my […]
Dozens of protesters from all over Japan turned up for the arrival of a shipment of mixed uranium-plutonium (MOX) at the port of Takahama in Fukui Prefecture after its two-month journey from France. According to a Japan Times article, this was the first shipment of MOX fuel since the March 11, 2011, quake/tsunami-triggered nuclear […]
I arrived in South Africa yesterday after a week in London. Wouldn’t you know, I effectively skirted jetlag in the U.K., then after an overnight flight here on which I was unable to sleep, I arrived yesterday at a bit before seven in the morning. It took a while to skirt traffic and get to […]
The chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, Yu Zhengsheng, visited Finland, Sweden, and Denmark earlier this month. In Finland, the president and CEO of the Confederation of Finnish Industries (E.K.), Jyri Häkämies, expressed that the two countries’ expertises are complementary. Elaborating on this point, he suggested that the two countries should […]
What is Russia playing at by harboring America’s most wanted whistleblower Edward Snowden in a Moscow airport? A brief recap: Over the weekend, Snowden arrived in Moscow from Hong Kong en route to a third country, probably Ecuador (which is already housing Julian Assange in its London embassy). On Sunday, journalists received a number of […]
Growing up in the Indian Sub-Continent, we are taught that British India was partitioned on the basis of differing religious ideologies. Hindus didn’t want to be governed by Muslims and Muslims by Hindus, and the Sikhs, well, they weren’t given too much importance, but they were somewhere in the middle too. As is still the […]
Secretary of State John F. Kerry is in New Delhi for the annual U.S.-India Strategic Dialogue. He’s receiving plenty of good advice (examples here, here and here) on what he and Salman Khurshid, the Indian foreign minister, can do to energize the nascent strategic partnership that just a few years ago looked so promising but which now is stuck […]
At the sound of a whistle, a Cambodian policeman clad in a sweat stained, light blue uniform and gripping a flashing baton in his hand races out into an intersection to abruptly stop traffic in all directions. The identity of the entourage coming down the perpendicular boulevard — with a police escort of at least […]
In 1967, in the wake of the Six-Day War, the Arab League convened in Khartoum and issued their Three Nos: No peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with Israel. Thirty-five years later, in 2002, they met in Beirut and offered their solution to the Israeli-Arab conflict: The Arab Peace Initiative (API). The […]
Recently a peaceful election took place in Iran. While the moderate candidate won this past election and there was not a repeat of the protests that took place in 2009, the reality is that the moderate candidate was part of a group of chosen conservative candidates that were permitted to run by religious officials. The […]
Comparison to Turkey is a bit of stretch: to the extent that the protestors in Brazil have expressed clear objectives, the authoritarianism of their president isn’t one of them. More importantly, the regional context is different. When it comes to Turkey there is at least some reason to associate protests with the Arab Spring, a […]
The 11-member San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously adopted a resolution demanding its sister city’s mayor, Toru Hashimoto, retract his comment that Japan’s wartime system of sexual slavery was necessary at the time, according to a Japan Times article. The Osaka mayor said in May the so-called “comfort women” were a “necessary evil” so […]
The gruesome attack on the U.N. compound in Mogadishu that killed 18 people has shocked the world. Once the “Breaking News” hit the social media, condemnations, condolences, and blame started pouring. This latest bloody attack couldn’t come at a worst time — when security in Mogadishu was rapidly improving, when the country (especially Mogadishu) was […]