There’s a new brew simmering in Bangladesh. It’s made of allegations, recriminations and excuses. This brew has to do with acts committed by the venerable founder Dr. Mohammad Yunus some fifteen years ago. This brew threatens to irreparably mar microcredit institutions, the poverty alleviation regime that over the last several years has gone private, virally, […]
Israel was just struck by one of the largest disasters in the country’s short history — a fire is sweeping through northern Israel and has already killed dozens. Out of this tragedy, several high points, low points and questions have emerged. The good: Israel’s neighbors are here to help, even the ones that have issued […]
When former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon created the Kadima party, he sought to form a middle ground between the left-leaning Labor movement and the right wing Likud of which he had previously been a part. Sharon — who has been described as a murderer due to his role commanding Israeli troops during the early 1980s […]
The irony of profitability Lately, Haitians have experienced high levels of—what scholars have coined– psychological reactance. It is a reaction caused by the fear of losing something deemed valuable, in this particular case, their very lives. Naturally– when neighbors– friends, and family members—those still alive—keep dying of an invisible, highly contagious and seemingly uncontrollable disease, […]
Well, this does not qualify as good news: Kenya is likely to witness worsening food security, significant disease outbreaks, and further pockets of conflict in 2011, as well as a continuing flow of refugees from Somalia, say aid officials. Of course 2011 will help provide the context for Kenya’s scheduled 2012 elections, which will be […]
Zimbabwe features among the confidential documents released online by WikiLeaks, a whistle blower website, on Sunday. In a 2007 confidential diplomatic cable on Zimbabwe, the then-outgoing American ambassador to Zimbabwe, Christopher Dell, penned about the US policy on Zimbabwe as follows: “Having said my piece repeatedly over the last three years, I won’t offer a […]
I’ve written on this before; now, sadly, I’m writing on this again, so here goes: I could not then, cannot now and will not, ever, defend the jerked, jolting way that every instrument of industry, learning and commerce in Bangladesh has shuttered for the second time this month just because one lady with political pull […]
My apologies for the unexpected little break. Between the end of the turn and the American Thanksgiving holiday and family being in town things got a little hectic. Expect things to pick up here soon. Texas in Africa has a great post about the solipsism of some self-professed advocates as World AIDS Day approaches. When […]
I’ve already said my peace on the shameful acts of the Wikileaks’ group and their enablers in the mainstream media and this latest State Department secret document dump only solidifies my feelings. While the leaders and leakers of Wikileaks are rightly being near universally condemned, major newspapers like the New York Times, The Guardian, etc. […]
The incessant mantra in the Middle East is often that Israel (often called the “Zionist entity” or an “apartheid state”) is an unwelcome gnat hovering around Arab states’ peaceful picnic. In a defiant move, Egypt singed a peace accord with Israel, which was followed approximately a decade and a half later by Jordan. Israel remains, though, unacknowledged and […]
With all of the positive news coming out of Sao Paulo’s stock exchange and the ministries of Brasilia recently, this weekend’s crackdown on organized crime in the Complexo de Alemão and Vila do Cruzeiro favelas reminded the world of the crime-ridden Rio de Janeiro of today, whose parallels can easily be found throughout many of […]
The current bits of news, volatile, mercurial coming out of the latest Wikileaks cache is surprisingly easy to bear. Nothing untoward has happened. All the players have played their parts. International politics between the U.S and Pakistan continues in recognizably similar ways as it did yesterday, and the day before. Of course, strategic politics has […]
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