A June 26, 2007 video from Jason Motlagh for World Politics Review shows the difficulties for Afghanistan's domestic security forces. It's about 4 minutes long. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=6080795202067592791 ” width=”400″ height=”326″ wmode=”transparent” /] The training program takes three years, and has been seriously underfunded. Police work, as one of the interviewees on this video assert, means that […]
The Economist recently profiled Elba Esther Gordillo (“'the teacher’ holds back the pupils“), the head of Mexico's National Educational Workers’ Union, Latin America's largest union with a membership of 1.4 million teachers across the country. Ms. Gordillo's political power, due in large part to the size of the teachers’ union, leads the Economist to claim […]
In this week's New York Times Book Review, John Donnelly, who covers global health and the environment for The Boston Globe, has written a favorable review of Helen Epstein's The Invisible Cure: Africa, the West, and the Fight Against AIDS. An important book on a vital topic, The Invisible Cure posits that the best solutions to the […]
There's so much news and so many who report it well, it's difficult to hit all of the high points without a round-up. Afghanistan: –One of the South Korean hostages has been killed. Negotiations continue for the other 22 hostages, who are, according to the ROK government, safe for the moment. Reuters builds a Timeline […]
Yesterday, Stephen Blank of the US Army War College wrote at Eurasianet that U.S. aid and relations in Central Asia are likely to scale back further. Though U.S. interest in the region is high, financial constraints are appearing to dictate a lessening of aid and assistance to Central Asian states. For Central Asia watchers, there […]
Two months after taking office after a disputed election fraught with irregularities, Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua finally announced the formation of his cabinet yesterday after weeks of horse trading with the Senate, which has to approve the selections. It is difficult to discern whether this represents good news or bad in oft-troubled Nigeria. On the plus side, […]
Mohammed Zahir Shah, Afghanistan's last king, was interred today. At al-Jazeera, the obituary notes that the King, who abdicated in 1973, presided over a forty-year period of stability and peace in Afghanistan. After the U.S. invaded Afghanistan, he returned briefly to his home state as a figure of unity. Not everyone found the king to be an […]
I was so sad to hear that the Kazakhstan-sponsored cyclists at the Tour de France, Team Astana, dropped out of the race. The team was led by Kazakhstani cyclist Alexander Vinokourov, was hit with charges of steroid abuse. (This picture is not of Mr. Vinokourov, but Mr. Bazaev). It looks as if the team's investors (or perhaps […]
The International AIDS Society (IAS) conference, the biggest of its kind in the world, just closed in Australia. Its most significant conclusion is that the world must find a way to develop and deliver child-specific, side-effect-free (or limited) drugs to allow children with the disease to survive into adulthood (and perhaps to live to see […]
On Sunday former United Nations Secretary general Kofi Annan gave the fifth annual Nelson Mandela lecture at Madiba's foundation. In his talk Annan entreated African leaders to promote democracy and good governance and to disavow tyranny. It turns out that throughout much of the continent, Africans are already heeding the call for democracy and away from […]
China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) has signed a 30-year natural gas import contract with Turkmenistan. 30 billion cubic meters (cum) of gas will be exported from Turkmenistan via a newly-planned natural gas pipeline. Let's hope that CNPC trains and hires local Turkmenistani workers for this multi-million dollar infrastructure project, which should begin in 2009. Almost […]
President Berdymukhamedov announced that USD one billion will be invested in a vacation resort on the Caspian, in the city of Turkmenbashi. It will contain sixty hotels, a stadium, restaurants, sports facilities, and shopping centers. This idea first surfaced in May of this year, and developed further after a meeting between Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. At the time, […]
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