Dismantling a Dictatorship – Peacefully
Analysis by Marwaan Macan-Markar
BANGKOK, Jan 23, 2012 (IPS) – As he dismantles a 50-year military dictatorship without a shot being fired, Burmese President Thein Sein is resorting to the political art of compromise.
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Suicidal mood
By: Patricio Navia*
And the challenges Romney faces in coming weeks
The unexpectedly weak second place for Mitt Romney in the South Carolina primaries has brought uncertainty back to the Republican presidential nomination race.
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Why We Went Black
By Tim Karr – ZSpace Page
Wikipedia and Google blacked out? Redditers in an uproar? Thousands of geeks abandoning their cubicles to take to the streets?
What’s happening here?
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Opportunity beckons for Iran’s Guards
By Brian M Downing* – Asia Times
The United States and other powers are seeking to change the government of Iran from the present mullah-centered authoritarianism to a representative government, or at least to a government more acceptable to regional powers. This objective is being pursued amid a program of sanctions and violent attacks including assassinations and bombings. Strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities and perhaps even a protracted air campaign may be in the offing.
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Time is Right for the Human Right to Peace’
By Anwarul K. Chowdhury*
IDN-InDepth NewsViewpoint
No time is more appropriate than now to build the culture of peace. No social responsibility is greater nor task more significant than that of securing peace on our planet on a sustainable foundation. Today’s world with its complexities and challenges is becoming increasingly more interdependent and interconnected. The sheer magnitude of these requires all of us to work together. Recognition of the human right to peace by the international community, particularly the United Nations, will surely generate the inspiration in creating the much-needed culture of peace in each one of us.
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Alan Greenspan’s ship of fools
Dean Baker – guardian.co.uk
The Fed’s FOMC is supposed to steer the US economy to prosperity. As we now see, it was completely rudderless in 2006
In keeping with its policy of releasing transcripts with a five-year lag, the Federal Reserve Board recently released the transcripts from its 2006 Open Market Committee (FOMC) meetings. There is much there to cause pain and amusement.
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Unrest Spread Eastwards
Analysis by Zoltan Dujisin
BUDAPEST, Jan 20, 2012 (IPS) – Protests in Hungary and Romania are the first signs of anti-systemic mobilisation in the Eastern half of the continent. While protests in both countries indicate dissatisfaction with their governments’ authoritarian turn, their origins differ, as does the European Union’s reaction to them.
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Taxes at the Top
By PAUL KRUGMAN -The New York Times
Call me peculiar, but I’m actually enjoying the spectacle of Mitt Romney doing the Dance of the Seven Veils — partly out of voyeurism, of course, but also because it’s about time that we had this discussion.
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How the U.S. Manipulates Key U.N. Appointments
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 19, 2012 (IPS) – When Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announces his new team of senior officials shortly, his appointments will be based not only on merit but also on demands made by the five big powers – the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia – as well as key donors who sustain U.N. agencies through voluntary contributions.
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Islamist Parties to Abide by Camp David – For Now
By Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani
CAIRO, Jan 19, 2012 (IPS) – The Islamist landslide in recently concluded parliamentary polls has led to fears in some quarters of an impending paradigm shift in Egyptian foreign policy. Most local analysts, however, dismiss the likelihood of any sea changes, especially when it comes to the sensitive issues of Palestine and the Camp David peace agreement between Egypt and Israel.
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Business returns to US as Asia loses edge
By Ed Crooks – The Financial Times
New York. Bruce Cochrane’s family furniture business illustrates what may be the start of a US industrial renaissance.
His story also offers insights into the opportunities and the pitfalls facing manufacturers wanting to build up their US production.
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West’s romancing of the Taliban
Praveen Swami – The Hindu
People of Afghanistan will pay the price for the West’s looming deal with the Islamic Emirate it destroyed after 9/11.
In the spring of 1839, the extraordinary Indian adventurer and spy, Mohan Lal Kashmiri, engineered one of the greatest intelligence coups of the 19th century: using nothing more lethal than cash and intrigue, he brought about the fall of Kandahar and secured the Afghan throne for Imperial Britain’s chosen client, Shah Shuja-ul-Mulk.
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Who Will Partner Egypt’s Muslim Brothers?
By Will Kelleher* – Think Africa Press / Human Wrongs Watch
The first democratic elections in Egypt in over 50 years drew to a close on Wednesday, January 11 with the final runoffs held in some of Daqahleya, Qena and South Sinai’s constituencies. Following the regional trend set by last year’s parliamentary elections in Morocco and Tunisia, Egypt’s Islamist parties are emerging as the clear victors of this political contest.
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FSB chief in call to rein in ‘shadow banking’
By Brooke Masters, chief regulation correspondent, FT
“Shadow banking” must be dragged into the harsh light of day and both it and global banks must be forced to serve the real economy, one of the world’s top regulators has warned.
These market-based sources of credit, which include corporate bond sales and direct lending by hedge funds, are now half the size of the traditional banking sector and growing still, even as many banks scale back their lending.
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For S&P, the Emperor has no clothes
Presseurope
For the European press, the ratings downgrade for nine eurozone countries by Standard & Poor’s merely confirms what markets and leaders have known for a long time: that the difficulties of the eurozone are primarily due to rifts between the member countries.
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For the Maya, the World Isn’t Ending – the Environment Is
By Danilo Valladares
GUATEMALA CITY , Jan 2012 (IPS) – The end of the Maya long-count calendar does not predict a global catastrophe, let alone the end of the world, say native activists and elders who spoke to IPS in Guatemala. But what are coming to an end are the world’s natural resources, as a result of human activity, they warn.
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Hungary’s hard-won democracy under threat?
By Pablo Gorondi and Vanessa Gera – Boston Globe
BUDAPEST – He paid youths to attend his speech and clap. He championed laws to silence critical journalists. He rammed through a constitution aimed at remaking Hungary on conservative Christian values.
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Pushing Iran towards a Nuclear Bomb
by Patrick Disney* – Al Jazeera
Western leaders’ current tactics to deter Iran from developing nuclear weapons will likely backfire.
The United States and its Western allies have utilised nearly every tool at their disposal to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, from sanctions and sabotage to cyber attacks and assassinations. In their zeal, however, Western leaders risk hastening the very thing that they seek to prevent: an Iranian bomb.
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“Haitian Women, Girls Trading Sex to Survive”
Human Wrongs Watch*
Two years after the earthquake that devastated Haiti, the drastic increase in sexual violence in displacement camps has been well documented. But another face of the epidemic has emerged as a pressing issue: the sexual exploitation of displaced women and girls, states a new joint report.
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Brussels launches “Operation Dump Orbán”
Edit Inotai – Népszabadság
Budapest. By threatening Budapest with financial sanctions and infringement proceedings if the Hungarian government fails to change its policies on the economy and the judiciary, the EU seems to have begun a process that would allow it to get rid of Hungary’s Prime Minister, as it got rid of Berlusconi and Papandreou. But it won’t be that easy.
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