Here is an interesting roundup of critical commentary on the Mideast peace process from former U.S. statesmen by the Voice of America news service. The report was inspired by President Obama’s meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in the Oval Office last Tuesday and contains excerpts of interviews showcased in a 20-minute film titled New […]
There is something else when you watch American military Humvees plow down unarmed refugees. Like in so many conflicts and wars, the remnants of disaster and chaos never simply disappear. They remain bred in the souls of those who have had to endure eight years of war – day in and day out. So that […]
Back in 2007, Niall Ferguson and Moritz Schularick wrote about “Chimerica” or the “symbiotic economic relationship” developing between China and the United States in International Finance. “Not only has plentiful Chinese and Asian labor increased global returns to capital; Chinese excess savings have also depressed US and global interest rates.” China did the saving and […]
America’s decline is a false prophecy. Writing in the latest issue of Foreign Affairs and yesterday’s International Herald Tribune, Josef Joffe, co-editor of Die Zeit and a fellow at the Hoover Institution, argues that even though it is fashionable again to speak of America’s fall and the rise of others, the United States will remain […]
For Pete’s sake, even the last US President, a man not highly praised for his environmentalism, said America was addicted to fossil fuels. If fossil fuels are an addiction, then Canadian tar sands oil are crack. Put it another way, using the same metaphor: the US causes the massive drug violence and corruption in Mexico […]
Masooma Haq is a foreign correspondent for The Epoch Times, based in Islamabad, Pakistan. She writes on foreign affairs and human interest. Haq is ethnically Pakistani, but was raised in the west, mostly in the U.S. A few years ago, she moved back to Pakistan to live and work. Why did you start writing for […]
A Gallup poll done two weeks ago reveals that of all industries, Americans rated the oil and gas worst, even worse than banking, GM and lawyers. There have been some annoyed, defensive responses from workers in the oil and gas field — understandable since most people in the industry are hard-working, honest and understandably offended at […]
Public opinion is often hard to measure, but it’s a safe bet that assaults on a country’s sovereignty — real or perceived — can quickly inflame that nation’s public opinion. We see it in a whole range of issues this summer, from the health reform debate in the United States, where opponents raise the […]
No matter where you stand on the debate of the commercial sex industry and pornography, children are not willing participants to sex, or sexual advances, nor are children ever anything less than innocent victims. The images of child porn are never truly recovered, the are left to float in the virtual world and continue to […]
I think the U.S. role in the coordinated bombing attacks in Iraq is noteworthy. As this report in The New York Times notes, the U.S. role was remarkable not because the U.S. did too much, but because U.S. troops did nothing, as per our agreement with the Iraqi government: Insurgents struck at the heart of […]
In an unusual and unprecedented move, the Chinese government sent a strong message to its citizens seeking legal redress in Beijing: stay home, or be seriously penalized. Petitioners routinely travel to the capital to seek assistance regarding what they see as the failure of their local system, such as corruption in the courts, land-grabbing by […]
Switzerland’s government said Thursday that it was in the process of selling its stake in the giant bank U.B.S., a transaction that it expects will generate about one billion Swiss francs, or $938 million, in profit for taxpayers.
The new documentary film, Sweet Crude, directed by Sandy Cioffi, offers a rare visceral look at the enormous problems facing the people of Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger River delta. Everyone interested in energy knows the complexity of the problem: massive oil reserves, oil companies only too willing to get into bed with corrupt military dictators (or […]
Army to support Sri Lankan reconciliation, new chief says Sri Lanka’s new army chief is advocating quick resettlement plans for the 250,000 people displaced during the government’s final battle with the Tamil Tigers rebels earlier this year. Lt.-Gen. Jagath Jayasuriya also outlined a new role for the army to help with post-conflict reconciliation and reconstruction […]
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda suffered a major loss this past week with the untimely death of prosecutor Shyamlal Rajapaksa. His body was found in his Arusha home in Tanzania where the international tribunal is located. Mystery surrounds the forty-two year old’s death with explanations proffered from drug overdose to murder. What has been […]