Black helicopters, U.N. conspiracies and shadowy cabals of all-powerful financiers – this is the stuff that fixates in the feverish imagination of a certain segment of the American populace. In one of those wonders of globalization (and ideological indoctrination), those same shadowy cabals do double duty as the object of much Chinese paranoia. This is […]
As India’s power troubles continue, is it time to think small?
As Iraq enters its post-parliamentary election phase, the situation resembles that which Lebanon faced after its own parliamentary elections last June. The two countries have much in common and it might be useful to compare them. Their Shia Iraq and Lebanon have similar heterogeneous sectarian breakdowns. For Lebanon, the Shia, Sunni, and Christians represent the […]
100 mile per hour winds hit parts of the Indian states of Bihar, Assam and West Bengal and claimed at least 130 lives. Bangladesh wasn’t spared. The raging cyclone hit Rangpur and killed at least five people and injured over 200 people. Meanwhile, over 100,000 houses have been demolished by the storm throughout the effected […]
Recent scuttlebutt around Zimbabwe had the government abandoning its ill-conceived recent laws demanding that at least 51% of all businesses in the country be owned by Zimbabweans. From whence did the scuttlebutt come? A spokesman for Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai. On Wednesday that rumor was squashed. Who did the squashing? President Robert Mugabe. This tells […]
The government of Bangladesh will not register the Rohingya who are currently living in squalor outside the bandustani refugee camps in Cox Bazaar. There are already some 28,000 registered refugees in the two camps that comprise the state sanctioned shelter that has been provided the Rohingya. That space–whatever its hue–has been set aside for […]
Facing the prospect of Greece’s financial woes destabilizing the European economy, EU finance commissioner Olli Rehn proposes that national budgets in the euro zone are to be subjected to a regulatory system akin to the German Finance Planning Council. In this system, German budget policies are co-determined by the federal government and the states. Stating […]
In the past week, there have been announcements from several science agencies regarding projects and missions in the Arctic. On Thursday, April 8, the European Space Agency launched the CryoSat-2 satellite from Kazakhstan. CryoSat-2 cost €140 million to manufacture and was a replica of the first CryoSat, which crashed unspectacularly into the Arctic Ocean in […]
Economic development in the West Bank has largely been used as an indication that rejecting terrorism and accepting Israel’s legitimacy can transform Palestinian society into a viable independent state. The economic situations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip differ substantially, in part because the Gaza Strip has no economy, complicated by the closure of its borders […]
First, please understand that it does not matter if you are pathan or belong to Hazara. It is not a linguistic issue – it has become an ethnic issue. So, not everyone living in Hazara speak Hindko and there is a respectable chunk of population that converses in Pushto, but, these Pushto speaking people too […]
Micro-finance has become the darling of developmental economics—and many charities—over the past few years. But greater awareness doesn’t always translate into greater effectiveness. As reported in today’s New York Times, for nations with a dearth of traditional lenders new operators have begun to step into the fray, offering micro loans with what turns out to […]
Two recent news stories out of Nigeria continue to keep me on edge about the near future of that country. First, the United States has called for the removal of Independent National Election Commission (INEC) chairman Maurice Iwu. Basically, the Obama administration thinks Iwu is incompetent. But more to the point, they worry that he […]
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