In an otherwise perceptive article in The New York Times, Michael Wines seems somewhat nonplussed by the possibility that Thabo Mbeki appears to be entering a lame duck phase as the South African President. With that status comes more vocal complaints from within the ANC coalition ranks than we may have seen before, especially from […]
In the margins of the SCO conference, a bilateral agreement between China and Kazakhstan has furthered Kazakhstan's trade relations and may potentially regularize Central Asia's energy market. Here's the trade portion of the Central Asia NewsNet article, (somewhat edited here). Note that higher energy prices increased the dollar volume: A. In 2006 [China-Kazakhstani] bilateral trade volume hit […]
Africans North-to-South, East-to-West are hyper-wary of foreign encroachments. This should come as no surprise after the dual destabilizing phenomena of western imperialism and the Cold War threw Africa into paroxysms of chaos from which it has not ever fully recovered. So despite (or perhaps because of) the myriad examples of China's increased chumminess with Africa (which I have written […]
News? What news? Kazakhstan had elections this Saturday after a short campaign season. President Nazarbaev's Nur-Otan party won over 80% of the legislative seats, and handily. The OSCE sent observers, who again found the elections to be ‘not free and not fair’. The observers noted that ballot-boxes were allegedly stuffed; that the short election season put Kazakhstan's minority […]
The party's over: The SCO Summit in Bishkek this past week wrapped up with barely a stir in the Western news, and after seeking in vain for a keynote sentence to sum it up, I learned there wasn't one. Joshua Kucera at his blog Istanbul – Beijing was able to cover the summit: his first […]
In the first 6 months of the year, Mexican immigrants sent $11.4 billion to their native country, according to estimates by the Central Bank of Mexico. That is about the same as last year, which is seen as a significant slowdown, since earlier figures grew by 10% each year, reflecting population growth. Overall, 64% of […]
The Foreign Policy Association has published another of my Great Decisions Analysis pieces. “The Vlok Trial and a Reconciliation With the Truth” looks at the recent criminal proceedings against Adriaan Vlok, South Africa's Minister of Law and Order in the 1980s, and four other members of the security apparatus for a bizarre attempted murder that […]
In previous Casual Fridays, we looked at yurts, a kind of nomadic architecture, and the great Islamic architecture in Khiva and other Central Asian heritage sites. I want to turn to some of the newest Central Asian architecture. I picked Astana because the capital of Kazakhstan moved here from Almaty in 1997-1998. Therefore it has been […]
Since almost all the news revolves and resolves around the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit, I’m going to try to hit most of the non-SCO news here in the Central Asia Beat this week. Next week, I’ll try to wrap up SCO developments. . . Kazakhstan: –From RFE/RL Newsline, August 16: The Kazakhstan Today news agency, formerly […]
“If anyone, no matter who, were given the opportunity of choosing from amongst all the nations in the world the set of beliefs which he thought best, he would inevitably, after careful consideration of their relative merits, choose that of his own country. Everyone without exception believes his own native customs, and the religion he […]
For the most part, one of those wait-and-see kind of weeks: Military News: –U.S. troop morale is down, as noted by high rates of suicides . –Now that Britain is pulling out of Iraq, they plan to focus more on Afghanistan. –Germany loses three soldiers; in roadside attack, and discuss their determination and their options. […]
The stars of the critically-acclaimed film “Y Tu Mama Tambien” are turning their attention to social injustices in Mexico. Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna held a gala dinner in Mexico City to raise money for the Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights, and Witness, an organization started by singer Peter Gabriel that promotes […]
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