A draft law being considered by the Saudi government proposes tight new restrictions and harsh penalties on civil dissent. The law is serious: a minimum of ten years in prison for criticizing the King. “Endangering…national unity”, “halting the basic law or some of its articles”, or “harming the reputation of the state or its position” become terrorist […]
Andrew Sullivan refers us to a paragraph by Pranab Bardan. The graph gets development NGO’s right: they don’t and can’t truly represent the poor. The problems are huge. NGOs are unelected, they are accountable to their funding sources (who are generally based in the advanced democracies) and as Bardan points out they lack the political […]
Yet again the US is trying diplomacy with North Korea. A high ranking diplomat from the Democratic Peoples’ Republic of Korea has been invited to the US for talks about re-starting the six party talks.The Clinton administration tried diplomacy with North Korea. It failed. The Bushies tried the same thing — and had the same […]
Even as relations between the US and Pakistan deteriorate, American fast food continues to worm its way ever deeper into Pakistani affections. Hardee’s recently joined McDonald’s in Islamabad and both are doing well, says the Washington Post.Since McDonald’s is also thriving in India, an IR theory is about to be put to a test. The “McDonald’s […]
Malia Cohen is the only African-American member of the 11 member San Francisco Board of Supervisors. As the Black population of San Francisco continues to plummet, she may be losing her job. Asian immigrants outnumber Blacks in her district, and Cohen is learning Cantonese in hopes of keeping her seat.And why are Blacks leaving the […]
Religious violence is on the upswing in Nigeria — or is it? Reports on religious violence are often inaccurate and biased; governments cover up violence and minimize casualty estimates while religious and advocacy groups often over count victims. Because much of the violence happens away from international journalists and diplomats, reports are sometimes haphazard and […]
Close to ten percent of Egypt’s population remains Christian more than 1400 years after early Muslims drove Byzantine forces out of the country. Relations between the two communities have had their ups and downs and, as both political and economic conditions deteriorated for many Egyptians in the Mubarak era, the spread of radical Islamist ideas […]
At between 12 and 15 million, China’s Roman Catholics are about one tenth of one percent of the population. Since the foundation of the PRC Catholics have been continuously repressed, with the government insisting on appointing and consecrating bishops independent of Vatican control.Hopes for a thaw had grown in recent years, but in the last […]
Liberal protesters in Egypt marched into a nightmare; gangs of “pro-stability” thugs from poor neighborhoods attacked the latest march.Egypt’s liberals have a weak hand. The military and the Islamic parties are better organized and have more money. Liberals have energy and ideals. Unfortunately their ideas don’t include practical ways to raise the living standards of […]
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