Regions

Drug violence in Mexico has decreased this year, though gruesome narratives still dominate headlines.  In the first quarter of 2009 deaths from drug violence dropped 25% compared the same period in 2008, thanks to the deployment of 50,000 troops to 18 anomic locales by President Calderón in February. The violence is shocking, but instructive—while the vast […]

Tomorrow I depart for a (nearly) three-week trip to South Africa. My blogging for the next few weeks will therefore involve some combination of reportage, essays, and something of a travel diary. I will try to post an essay daily, but of course this promise comes with the caveat that I need to have the […]

As Jon Stewart of the Daily Show said, the unwritten understanding between the US  & Europe during the US elections was: We elect Obama, you love us again. A survey today in the Wall Street Journal shows that though this has generally true, the view of Europeans regarding the dominance of US culture is somewhat more nuanced. For example almost […]

In order to understand the influence of religion in legislation considered by the Knesset, take a look at an anti fur-importation bill intended to promote humane treatment of animals. The legislation would mandate one year prison sentences for any individual caught importing dog, cat, and rabbit fur. Proponents of the bill claim that some animals […]

Alaska Senator Mark Begich – the Democrat who defeated Ted Stevens in November 2008 – has devised a list of five initiatives to usher in what he calls the “Second Arctic Century,” a reference to the discovery of the North Pole 100 years ago. He discussed some of his proposals in a radio interview recently […]

Check out my review of the latest Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit in Yekaterinburg, Russia over at FPA’s Central Asia blog.  I’m not cheating on you Afghanistan, I just think we should see other regions once in a while.

First off, my friends at Rising Powers beat me to a SCO Summit report. In the shadow of the Iranian election drama and the first real BRIC get together, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (Don’t know what the SCO is?) held their annual Heads of State Summit in the Russian Ural city of Yekaterinburg. The Heads […]

Amidst the economic collapse, something is blooming in Russia: Potatoes! In yet another unmissable tidbit of post-Soviet life from Laurie Taylor’s excellent Thinking Allowed show on BBC Radio 4, he interviews a Syracuse university professor who claims that a boom in potato cultivation since 1991 reflects Russia’s spiralling poverty and social stratification since the collapse […]

Why would a shrewd Russian oligarch want to buy two notoriously loss making English newspapers? According to billionaire Alexander Lebedev, it was his fond memories of scouring the London dailies for information as a young Soviet spy, as well as being a “good way to waste money”. But really he just wanted to hang out […]

According to President Obama’s special envoy to Sudan, retired Air Force Maj. Gen. J. Scott Gration, the Sudanese government is no longer engaging in a “coordinated” campaign of mass murder in Darfur. This is a change from previous characterizations of the violence there as an “ongoing genocide.” I suppose it is possible to try to […]

Bafana Bafana yesterday defeated New Zealand 2-0 in a Confederations Cup match that was even more lopsided than the score suggests. The South Africans dominated in most every way imaginable, and at times looked as if they were fielding fifteen men on the pitch. The narrative still is that the hosts blew it against Iraq […]

It appears that tensions are already brewing between the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and President Jacob Zuma. Who could have seen this coming? Other than me, and plenty of others, I mean. (Pardon the self indulgence.) COSATU feels as if it catapulted Jacob Zuma to the presidency, not only by its support […]