(I’ve been in an internet free zone the last couple of days, so I am playing some catchup with posts. I am putting this together in the departures lounge of the OR Tambo Airport outside of Joburg where I have the following itinerary: Joburg to Addis Ababa, hour and a half to change planes; Addis […]
Commentators were buzzing over the weekend following the publication of the PT’s ‘radical’ campaign manifesto on Dilma Rousseff’s polished official website. Listing the party’s platform and campaign commitments, the original manifesto included commitments to judge the takeover of lands on a per case basis; socialize information and the private media; and tax the country’s big […]
First of all, a shout-out to the folks at registan.net, for doing everything well. Here is a great post on how sudden and unexpected the violence was for journalists and scholars of the region, as the region is known for for relative peace. Poverty, but peace. What is so interesting is that no one on […]
As I wrote recently the High Court in Bangladesh has deemed fatwas and other extrajudicial punishment illegal. Indeed, it has ruled that those who issue fatwas are now subject to punishment. This is good news. But the results that the ruling might seem to promise may be a long time coming. In the first instance […]
India faces daunting challenges in overcoming its infrastructure deficit.
The High Court of Bangladesh recently declared all forms of extrajudicial punishment illegal. Fatwas, or religious judgments fall under the domain of the ruling. Therefore, fatwas, as a form of extrajudicial punishment have been deemed illegal in Bangladesh. The Daily Star reports; “Anyone involved, present or taking part in or assisting any such conviction or […]
While few countries support Canada’s claim that the Northwest Passage constitutes internal waters, many do support its attempt to promote national sovereignty over its seas. On July 1, Canada made formerly voluntary registration with NORDREG mandatory for all ships 300 tonnes or more passing through its Arctic waters. If a ship is found in the […]
If it wasn’t sufficiently clear before, it should be now: the Pakistani Taliban (Tehrik e- Taliban) are out to bring down the ‘apostate” government in Islamabad, piece, region by region, piece by piece. It were as if the Taliban were only moved to refute the writ and authority of the central government, which it thinks […]
I am sitting at what has to be the world’s slowest internet cafe where, as a glutton for punishment, I have waited ten minutes simply to be able to log in here to write this post. Apparently the dial-up connection is not that strong on a Friday afternoon. I just got done with my special […]
Over the last couple of months, news has been in pouring in about ‘honor killings’ in the northern States of Punjab and Haryana. Numerous couples have been killed mostly by family members on the orders of the ‘khap panchyats’ because they eloped, married outside their caste or within the same ‘gotra’. The problem is not […]
The Turkish-Brazilian brokered fuel swap deal with Iran, and the following “no” to further Iran sanctions, has been the object of much analysis in the past month. Reoccurring themes to these analyses were the ‘rising power’ aspects of the Turkish-Brazilian diplomacy, and of course, whether these developments demonstrated that Turkey has tired of the West, […]
Apropos my last post, a work of art entitled “1945-1998” by Japanese artist Isao Hashimoto. This piece is one part of a larger project of his on nuclear explosions. More on Hashimoto and the project here.
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