Focusing mostly on the one-year anniversary of the Mumbai attacks (Nov. 26-29): 1) Interview with Fareed Zakaria in the Hindustan Times. 2) This headline in the Wall Street Journal says it all, doesn’t it? 3) The last thing South Asia needs is a war of words between India and China. India defense minister A.K. Antony: […]
Over the next 20 years, Pakistan’s population will grow by 85 million people. This raises a multitude of questions regarding the future of Pakistan as not just a stable country—it is clearly not that already—but as a country at all. Pakistan is already overpopulated, with 180 million people—two thirds of which are under 30. The […]
Last year this time I was busy planning my first Thanksgiving when terror struck Mumbai once again. Earlier that year there was a chain of explosions across various cities, and I thought this was a continuation of the same. But it was much more than crude bombs planted in rickshaws and cycles. So instead of […]
Bangladesh is becoming enmeshed in the broader regional strategy by which political Islamists in Bangladesh and Pakistan might bring down secular governments and establish a wider Islamic emirate. I want to propose that Bangladesh has been chosen as the alternative ground from which Pakistani militants will launch attacks into India. Before I get to […]
Returning from two weeks in India – with my mind full of thoughts, I came across Hans Rosling’s video from Ted India. I adore how excited Rosling is about statistics (b/c I’m not), and think GapMinder is quite clever (b/c helps people like me to “get it”). Since my mind tends probe the non-Western experience, […]
I’ve been following reports that three Bangladeshi men affiliated with Lashkar E Taiyeba and Harkatul Jihad al Islam have been implicated in a plot to attack the U.S. Embassy and Indian High Commission in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. This story just got a lot more interesting and puzzlingly complicated. Even though the piece is […]
1) Speculation in Pakistan is increasing over whether President Asif Ali Zardari will survive in office much longer. The constant threat of military coups is the elephant in the room, especially after Zardari attempted to place the ISI under civilian control. Moreover, Pakistani politics are riddled with ever-shifting alliances and corrupt political actors lacking any […]
Despite the global recession, the number of Indian billionaires has nearly doubled in just a year. Political science and democratic theorists have long held that the more unequal distribution of wealth, the harder it is to sustain democratic government. Indeed, the Guardian writes that .00001% of India’s population account for a full quarter of its […]
This blog has spoken about the situation with the Myanmar minority group, the Rohingya before. Colby Pacheco has a more detailed piece at OpinionAsia.com on the not oft spoke about conflict on the 200 mile long eastern Burmese (Myanmar) border with Bangladesh. In the last several months, Bangladesh and the Burmese junta, also known as […]
To the Pakistani military and Internal Services Intelligence: You are reaping what you sowed. But it is not too late to give up the obsessed, crazed determination to retain ‘strategic depth’ vis-a-vis India that has wrought such terrible destruction upon the peoples of South Asia. As I’ve mentioned several times before, the continuation of the […]
1) The Congress Party’s hold on India, and its determination to protect (censor?) the legacies of its leaders, is examined here. 2) Some wealthy Germans want a bigger tax burden. 3) A horrific weapon is being used in the now fifteen year struggle in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. (I’ve never quite understood […]
As I hinted at in my last post, the spate of violence in Pakistan can actually be seen as a good thing (the wanton death and destruction aside). This piece in today’s New York Times demonstrates that Pakistan is facing the prospect that “the Taliban, Al Qaeda and militant groups once nurtured by the government […]
In exactly a year India will host one of the biggest international sports event in its history. The 19th Commonwealth Games will be held in New Delhi from Oct 3-14, 2010. A total of 71 countries are expected to participate in 17 different events. Not only are the Games a matter of pride for India, […]
Countries within the Southern Hemisphere are on the move. This past weekend member states of UNASUR and the African Union met on Margarita Island, Venezuela, in order to strengthen ties between their countries and continents. One of the ideas proposed by President Hugo Chávez, as well as Moammar Gadhafi, of Libya, is an alliance among […]
Pakistan has a lot of problems. (How’s that for an understated opening?) One of the major problems in the country, however, is the lack of credible state institutions. In fact, the only state institution that is universally recognized and respected is the Pakistani Army. So it comes as a bit of good news that the […]