Soft balancing against the United States is on the rise and the next President will face a myriad of challenges in asserting American influence, so argues Parag Khanna. His article in the New York Time Magazine this week encapsulates a vast swath of recent history and developments in geopolitics, particularly across the second world. In […]
America is already operating in Pakistan covertly, with CIA and Special Forces on the ground and Predator drones in the air. However, whether the US Army itself will cross the border and cut off the insurgent sanctuary as it did in Cambodia in 1970, remains to be seen. President Musharraf has repeatedly warned Bush about the consequences […]
Pranay Gupte isn't so impressed with Bill Gates's “creative capitalism. He rightly points out that Gates isn't being quite so creative as the press corps thinks. But I’m personally not convinced by the reductio ad absurdum that Gupte uses to imagine corporate CEOs tromping through the “mud of Madagasgar” with tins of foie gras strapped […]
Here's a nice video interview with Muhammad Yunus in which he discusses the changes he would make to capitalism. I tried to embed it, but something went wrong. But the link also gives a useful transcription.
China's "One Child" policy has been consistently broken by the country's elites, but this issue is more than one of law braking and population control, it only brings light to the great divide between the countries rich and poor. Many elites ignore the laws and simply pay the hefty fines, which could amount to $130,000, […]
Children truly are the messengers of the future, and it is up to us to ensure that the messages we give them are ones of truth, peace, hope and tolerance. If we give children only images of hate and war, we give them a future of hate and war. Let us not forget the power […]
Bill Gates spoke at the Davos Conference yesterday and made a call for a kinder, more creative form of capitalism that will provide services and products that the poor need. He's absolutely right, the medicines and agricultural technologies needed by those in poor countries don't get the attention they deserve. There are profits to be […]
EPA's Unpopular Decision , I wrote earlier this month, here, about the lawsuit against EPA for denying California's request for a waiver to institute carbon dioxide requirements for motor vehicles sold in that state. Since, the EPA announcement and the lawsuit, there's been a flurry of activity investigating this decision. The final call by the […]
US President George W. Bush famously characterized a nation's position on the war on terror either “with us or against us.” But happens when those who are "with us" are not necessarily "against" those who are "against us?" Such is the case in Pakistan, where with the help of some polling and John Stewart, we […]
A federal judge in Miami sentenced the alleged Islamic terrorist, Jose Padilla, to 17 years and four months for conspiring with terrorist cells around the world. Padilla and two others received convictions in August for conspiracy to kidnap and kill citizens abroad and two lesser charges of material support. Judge Marcia Cooke of the Federal […]
"Child survival is not only a human rights imperative, it is also a development imperative," said Joy Phumaphi, Vice President, Human Development Network at the World Bank. "Investing in the health of children and their mothers is a sound economic decision and one of the surest ways for a country to set its course towards […]
The EU's Thrust on Energy and Climate , Today the EU announced its comprehensive renewables plan. Go here for a wealth of information from them, including releases, video, speeches, key documents etc. I've talked about and will be talking more about the EU's plans. Reuters' very useful "Planet Ark" has this "factbox" on what the EU […]
MSNBC cites a report from a research group “that nearly 71 percent of Army recruits graduated from high school in the 2007 budget year.” MSN goes on to state that “the Army's goal is 90 percent high school graduates, which it hasn't met since 2004. Each year since, the number of recruits with at least […]
The word ‘Freedom’, has been used to wage wars and to stand in honor, yet one rarely thinks of the word ‘Freedom’ as something that the majority of the world is without, but as we dawn a new year that is the case for much of the world. According to a recent report by Freedom […]
The Sudanese government appointed an alleged Janjaweed militia leader to a cabinet post. Human rights officials and observers in Washington accuse the appointee, Musa Hilal, with coordinating the Janjaweed militia during Darfur's bloody campaign. Human Rights Watch called on the U.N. Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, to urge the Sudanese president to revoke the appointment. Hilal denies […]