This Wall Street Journal story by Siobhan Gorman details the influential position of a CIA chief inside of the Karzai administration in Kabul. The piece is worthwhile reading for its insight into the Obama administration’s Afghan teams layout and method for working with the at times, volatile, President Karzai. President Obama’s administration’s relationship with Karzai has seen […]
A few weeks ago, on an any-day sort of day, my grandmother came home to her Los Angeles bungalow and sorted her mail, tossing junk and sorting bills, when she came upon a statement from her bank. The notice she pulled from the envelope indicated that the balance of her 401k, a fund to which […]
Zambia may be Africa’s largest producer of copper, but the impact of this red metal on the country‘s economy still remains a mixed blessing. In the Mail and Guardian article posited on the Zambian Watch website at http://www.zambianwatchdog.com/2010/08/23/zambia-on-red-metal-alert/, it is argued that Zambia’s heavy reliance on copper is exactly what’s wrong with Zambia’s economy. To […]
Public sympathy for the increasingly nasty ongoing public sector strike is starting to lose the sympathy and support of the general populace if it has not done so already. Even in labor-friendly South Africa, where the union movement was a central component of the anti-Apartheid struggle and are a central component of the governing coalition, […]
Palestinian Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad’s infrastructure development took another step forward today in the Gaza Strip to increase supplies of diesel to territory. The Gaza Electricity Distribution Company transferred $2 million to a Ramallah power company, which pays for 320,000 liters of diesel per day for the Strip. The fuel will help support Gaza’s electricity plant, which shut […]
We all know the broad strokes. The state of Iraq has been politically rudderless since March 7 elections for the Council of Representatives failed to produce a clear coalition winner. Although former PM Ayad Allawi’s Iraqiya slate won a two-seat victory over Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s State of Law coalition, they didn’t score with sufficient […]
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has embarked on his second-annual tour of his country’s Arctic region. He began his five-day trip in Churchill, Manitoba, located on Hudson Bay. Here in this small town, Harper announced a new CAN $13.4 million in funding for upgrades to the ramps, taxis, and runways of the local airport. In […]
Interesting. Usually the South African Communist Party (SACP) and Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) stand united as the left flank of the ANC’s Tripartite alliance, usually at an uncomfortable distance from the ANC itself. President Jacob Zuma is following the ANC script by condemning the ongoing public sector strikes that are disrupting the […]
Foreign Policy magazine has published its 2010 Global Cities Index. The methodology is difficult to discern, but the editors claim: the index aims to measure how much sway a city has over what happens beyond its own borders — its influence on and integration with global markets, culture, and innovation. To create this year’s rankings, […]
President Barack Obama’s approval ratings continue to plummet and speculation swirls as to whether the 2012 GOP candidate has a near guaranteed ascent to the Oval Office. The economy is unlikely to substantially improve, the Democrats are expected to lose substantial seats in the upcoming congressional races and Obama may not be able convince voters to stick […]
She has promised to rule as the “mother for her people” while President Lula refers to her as the “mother of the poor”. Following the results of recent public opinion polls, connecting with Brazil’s mothers is proving vital to Ms. Rousseff’s campaign for the presidency. Last week’s Ibope and Datafolha polls showed PT presidential candidate Dilma Rousseff […]
Lost in the nightmare that has been Robert Mugabe’s “land reform” is the fact that while Zimbabwe’s reform has been a nightmare because it was geared toward rewarding or placating the so-called “war veterans” who have made up so much of Mugabe’s ZANU-PF support (and an even greater percentage of its thuggery), land reform in […]
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