It seems that much of the world is lining up to support the Springboks, or at least to oppose what many, including yours truly, believe to be a somewhat unsightly form of rugby emanating from England. Naturally South Africa has its share of high-profile South African boosters, including Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki. Perhaps somewhat […]
The Council on Foreign Relations has a fantastic interactive map of Africa's conflict zones and areas of UN/African Union intervention past and presence, as well as an option to see the contours of former colonial rule and influence. This is a first-rate resource for those who want to understand Africa's divisions, particularly for students.
South Africa is gearing up for this weekend's clash between the Springboks and the rejuvenated defending World Champions from England in the finals of the rugby World Cup. South Africa should be the heavy favorites, though Springbok coach Jake White, taking a page from the playbook of coaches the world over, insists his team must be […]
According to Gundogar, that retrieved the news from Associated Press: Turkmenistan allows foreign investors to own companies, property The president adopted legislation allowing foreign investors to create companies and own property in Turkmenistan ‚ moving the natural gas-rich country further from the isolation imposed by his autocratic predecessor. An amended law on foreign investment, adopted […]
Every year a couple of stories come out about serf labor in the cotton fields of Central Asia, right about the time that the cotton crop gets harvested. That day has again arrived this year, but with new, tougher problems for Central Asia's agricultural laborers and for the state leaders that have made this choice. […]
Is Thabo Mbeki revealing signs of creeping authoritarianism? Newsweek International fears as much. It is most alarming that Mbeki is showing his Machiavellian side (it certainly is not new; it might now be more brazen, however) as his tenure as President and party head comes to an end and while the whispers that he might consider […]
According to a nurse I know and trust: Medical practitioners in the United States are gearing up for a possible world flu epidemic, and H5N1 is on everyone's mind. A large flu epidemic, on the scale of the 1919 pandemic, would curtail essential services (utilities, fire and police protection, other) in developed states. One is left […]
Now that I’m back from Latin America, I’m catching up on my Central Asia reading, and I found a new great article in the American Political Science Association's Perspectives on Politics. Tucker, J. (2007, September). Enough! Electoral fraud, collective action problems, and post-communist colored revolutions. Perspective on Politics 5 (3), 535-550. This article has a […]
A curious mix of science, publicity, politics, engineering, and Big Bucks: no, not a new Matrix movie. Instead, the latest installment of business/political cooperation into the stratosphere continues to develop, a legend in the making and well worth our attention. Yesterday, a new Russian space flight from Kazakhstan's Baikonur, with a crew of many nations. According to […]
After a long series of events featuring Portugal and the globalization/colonialization of Asia & South America, the Freer/Sackler Gallery is again turning to Rumi, the great poet, and his 800th anniversary of his birth. On the 27th of this month in Washington DC's great museum of Islamic and Asian art, a day-long festival of poetry […]
Let the Games Begin! Actually, the machinations over the African National Congress succession have been under way for quite some time and will continue to be the source of political infighting, manipulation, and polarization well into next year. The latest volleys have come from KwaZulu-Natal, where the Thabo Mbeki wing of the party has put forward a […]
Today at Eurasianet, one of my favorite writers talks about a new but limited openness in Turkmenistan from the vantage of the street, the hotel, the taxicab. I love this article because it points out the difficulties for the state on a psychological level. He writes that government policies are changing slowly and selectively: his phone is probably tapped, […]
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