Regions

In last week's entry on Tajikistan, I summarized what I considered to be the potential foreign policy fallout of President Rakhmon's name change and most of all, his directive that others also have their surnames recorded in official documents with the Russianized ending removed.  Some great insights came out of the comments:  First, the issue of the […]

In what has to be among the most disappointing news from southern Africa in a long time, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) has chosen to acquiesce to Robert Mugabe's rule. A meeting that beforehand was hailed as preparing to take a stance against a regional despot instead ended up asking "The West" to ease […]

The poet Rumi, who is celebrated now in American poetry circles for his poems of love, would be 800 this year.  Jalal ad-Din Rumi was born in the year B.C.E. 1207 (that's a politically-correct A.D., more or less) in what is now Afghanistan; his family moved from Afghanistan during the Mongol invasions, travelling through Central Asia to […]

One of the mandates of the New South Africa was to try to Africanize many of the names of places and institutions. After all, in that predominantly African country, why would the new, non-racial democracy want to perpetuate the names of the heroes of the white regime, the very people who had disfranchised Africans, who had […]

The New York Times has a feature on the Democratic Republic of the Congo's adjustment to its election six months ago. Not surprisingly, a half a year has not done much to overcome decades of misrule. Congo has long stood as the emblematic example of African chaos. It is far too early to be optimistic about […]

The Washington Post's travel section recently emphasized Africa. Among the countries featured were Zambia, Namibia, and Angola.

First off, I want to apologize if any of you feel as if I have allowed the crisis in Zimbabwe to hijack the South Africa blog. But all along I have cinceived of this as a blog about Southern Africa, with South Africa at the center. Right now the events in Zimbabwe are arguably the […]

Just a six-month partial review of media and human rights issues in Uzbekistan: March 26, 2007: Ferghana.ru reports that yet another journalist with international ties is being prosecuted in Uzbekistan.  Die Deutsche Welle journalist Natalya Bushuyeva has had criminal charges pressed for income tax evasion over the last five years.   Ms. Bushuyeva is also being charged […]

Almost 500 people have been killed in drug-related violence in Mexico this year, including more than 50 in the past week.  Of the nearly 500 victims this year, 58 have been police officers, according to Mexico City's Police Formation Institute.  President Calderon targeted drug trafficking upon taking office in December 2006 and sent troops earlier […]

Last week, President of Tajikistan Ehmomahli Rakhmonov announced that he wanted to return to the traditional (non-Slavic) spelling and pronunciation of his name.  Today, President Rakhmon dictated that the entire nation will follow him in this move.  New birth certificates, graduation papers, and other official documents will now be issued in non-Slavic spellings, whatever the preference […]

The International Helsinki Federation on Human Rights regularly comments on Central Asia's humanitarian issues.  So far I’ve just glanced through the report and the Country Studies for each state look much more specific and useful than the general pages on Central Asia. One reason the general pages are not as good: domestic policies in the different states really […]

Mexican President Felipe Calderon played host to Chilean President Michelle Bachelet last week in an effort to strengthen relations and encourage regional integration.  The two agreed to form an advisory council for the Strategic Association Agreement, or AAE, which was signed in January 2006 by their predecessors, Vicente Fox and Ricardo Lagos.  In addition to economic […]