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 USA | UK | Latin America | China | Middle East | India | Blogorama | Energy |
Washington Post
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Economist Christina Romer serves up dismal news at her farewell luncheon
Dana Milbank
9/2/2010
Christina Romer, outgoing chairman of the president's Council of Economic Advisers, gave a sort of farewell address to the National Press Club on Wednesday. While the economic crisis that defined the administration's first two years began before the president took office, Romer's remarks suggest that she, at least, was never fully in control or comprehension of the events as they took place. That reflects a part of the disconnect the American public currently feels with the administration: as the president's top economic adviser, Romer's guidance was consistently insufficient and misdirected, and American jobs and productivity suffered as a result.
Milbank writes the Washington Sketch column about political theater in the capital.
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Sarah's Amazing Race
Gail Collins
9/2/2010
Sarah Palin is on a roll with her own television show, a spot as a Fox news commentator, and a public speaker, including an appearance in Iowa as the headliner for a Republican fundraiser. Yet Palin's persona fits better with reality television than politics, Collins says. She suggests that Palin prove her hunting credibility on a new show titled "Shooting With the Stars."
Collins is a New York Times columnist.
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Cleaning the Henhouse
Nicholas D. Kristof
9/2/2010
Kristof says the salmonella outbreaks in the egg market show that industrial agriculture is unhealthy. Although overcrowding and other practices produce cheaper food, they also produce pollution and antibiotic-resistant diseases. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a study in 2005 noting that in 2000 there were about 182,000 cases of egg-caused salmonella in the United States and 70 deaths. Kristof says the food industry needs a safety overhaul and cage-free eggs are the first step, as has been taken in California and Europe.
Kristof is a New York Times columnist.
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A Dream House After All
Karl E. Case
9/2/2010
Despite the decline in housing values that has substantially reduced home consumption, it still makes sense to own a home, Case says. Owning a home provides "net imputed rent from owner-occupied housing" because it provides an owner with a real flow of valuable services. The second part of the yield on investment is the capital gain if it appreciates and an owner sells the house. Other benefits are tax-deductible interest, low purchase prices, and tax credits for first-time buyers. Despite the fact that houses are only worth what people are willing to pay for them and the economy drives the housing market's performance, the American dream of owning a home is still sound. The market will rebound after taking a rest.
Case is a professor emeritus of economics at Wellesley and co-creator of Standard & Poor's Case-Shiller housing index.
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At the Iraq war's end, a shrug of uncertainty
David Ignatius
9/2/2010
The end of the Iraq war was greeted not with victory but with uncertainty. Until some years pass it will be hard to tell how effective the war was. Former prime minister Ayad Allawi is concerned that American departure will leave a vacuum in Iraq. Iraqis, bravely sacrificing for the cause of democracy in their country, deserve to have a strong leader of their choice who will govern with American engagement but without American dictation.
Ignatius is a twice-weekly columnist for The Post, writing on global politics, economics and international affairs.
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A Rocky Mountain showdown
George F. Will
9/2/2010
Colorado's Senate contest is an interesting one. Tea Party Republicans nominated Ken Buck to run against appointed Senator Michael Bennet. Buck's privileged background may work against him, but the independent gubernatorial candidate, Tom Tancredo, may draw pro-Buck voters to the polls who might otherwise have stayed home. Colorado is a "red state that has recently turned purple," says Will, as Democrats try to win over this western mountain state. A significant majority of Colorado citizens are frustrated with Washington in general, and Buck's overheard comment about questioning Obama's birthplace may hold him in good stead. Ultimately, the dissatisfaction with Washington comes down to Obama's performance, not his birthplace.
Will is a twice-weekly columnist for The Post, writing about foreign and domestic politics and policy.
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The Future Palestinian State Takes Root
Hussein Ibish and Michael Weiss
9/2/2010
While peace talks are making familiar headlines, the real news is economic progress in the West Bank. The West Bank economy grew by 8.5% last year despite the global recession and regional factors inhospitable to foreign investment. Palestinian forces have restored law and order in now-thriving towns and coordinated effectively with Israeli forces. Palestinian state-building also includes institutional and civil society reforms. Palestinians have taken up the responsibilities of self-government while pushing for the right of self-determination. As direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations continue, the US and the rest of the international community have a vital interest in providing the support needed so that this project succeeds.
Ibish is a senior fellow at the American Task Force on Palestine. Weiss is the executive director of Just Journalism, a London-based think tank.
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If Saddam Had Stayed
Daniel Henninger
9/2/2010
From the vantage point of history, Obama's prime-time speech announcing the Iraq war's end is less important than the speech he gave in October 2002 as an Illinois state senator. His "dumb war" speech to an anti-Iraq war rally in Chicago's Federal Plaza indicated a more complex view of the stakes in Iraq than he has now. Henninger says it is a mistake to confine the war's significance to the borders of Iraq. If Saddam had stayed in power he would have joined the nuclear bad-boys club with Iran and North Korea. This would have incentivized Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan to enter the nuclear marketplace. Moreover, Pakistan and India would be increasing their nuke-tinged tensions, not trying as now to ease them.
Henninger writes 'Wonder Land' for the Journal.
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Summer of Economic Discontent
Michael Boskin
9/2/2010
The Obama administration's "summer of recovery" has fizzled, morphing into a summer of economic discontent amid anxiety over the weakening economy, says Boskin. America's growth rate is less than half what it was at this stage after the 1974-75 and 1981-82 recessions. And there appear to be serious headwinds to stronger growth: household deleveraging, unresolved toxic assets, and most government economic policies headed in the wrong direction. While the base case outlook is still slow recovery, a double-dip recession or a Japanese-style lost decade is more plausible than a few months ago. This explains why Fed Chair Bernanke reiterated that the Fed will use more of its ammunition should the economy falter further.
Boskin is a professor of economics at Stanford University and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution.
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Things which don't go away. Things the American government and media don't let go of.
William Blum
9/2/2010
As Obama celebrates the end of America's War on Iraq, Blum points out what the war really meant. He says no American should be allowed to forget that the nation and society of Iraq have been destroyed. Iraq is now nothing but a failed state. He also decries the idea that the 9/11 terrorist attacks were religious in nature. Rather, they were merely political acts.
Blum is the author of the book "Rogue State."
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Financial Times
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End the hypocrisy and talk Turkey
Gideon Rachman
8/23/2010
Turkey is a source of increasing anxiety among Western nations, writes Rachman. As a member of NATO, a neighbour of Russia and Iran, and a rare example of a Muslim state that is also a secular democracy, it is a crucial ally. However, its relationship with the West has grown increasingly fractious, and its efforts to join the European Union continue to falter. Many EU citizens are fearful of Turkey joining the union, believing it will lead to large-scale immigration, and Chancellor Merkel of Germany and President Sarkozy of France have voiced their opposition to Turkish membership. Rachman says there could be great benefits for both sides if Turkey were to join, but the issue of immigration has to be addressed if an offer of membership is to be made.
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After shock and awe, Cameron needs a narrative
Bruce Anderson
8/24/2010
UK prime minister David Cameron needs to try harder to explain his beliefs and the government's policies to the public. Cameron may feel that he has already spoken enough, but he has yet to realise that frequently people are not listening and it can often take a great deal of repetition for a politician to truly get his message across to the public. Anderson says no one really understands what the prime minister means when he talks about his vision of a "big society", and his emphasis on responsibility makes him sound like an old-fashioned schoolmaster. Making cuts while promising to improve services is a difficult message to put across, so Cameron needs to start finding the right words.
The writer is a political commentator.
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Fairness should never be a numbers game
Nick Clegg
8/25/2010
Many people who have analyzed the British government's policies to promote fairness in society have adopted a purely numerical view of what fairness is about. This is a result of the previous Labour administration's fixation with statistical tests and shifting people from just below a line on a chart to just above it, even if this made no practical difference to their everyday lives. Statistics tell only part of the story: poverty cannot be measured with a snapshot because people's lives last longer than a second. The UK's new coalition government is seeking to promote fairness by making changes to education and encouraging work and growth. In the end, the government should be judged on the impact of this long-term strategy, rather than numbers.
The writer is deputy prime minister of the UK.
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Iran's new deceptions at sea must be punished
Stuart Levey
8/15/2010
Greater attention should be paid to shipping cargo entering and leaving Iran, writes Levey. The Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) has consistently been used by the Iranian authorities to import military hardware despite UN sanctions. As greater attention is paid to IRISL, the regime will seek to use non-Iranian shippers and freight forwarders to obtain and transport dangerous materials, so increased attention must be paid to third parties as well. Governments around the world must join private companies in translating new sanctions against Iran into action.
The writer is US Treasury under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.
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El Espectador (Colombia)
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The hunt for the Pacific
Alfredo Molano Bravo
8/28/2010
Colombia always used to look towards the North and and Atlantic rather than the West and the Pacific, but that changed significantly twenty years ago. The large-scale development of territories and resources in the Western regions of the country since then has led to conflict in an area where there had previously been little violence. Today Colombia's Congress will make another attempt to bring an end to the territorial disputes. Bravo says the government is opening a Pandora's box that could lead to the emergence of a new type of federalism or to social and environmental reorganization. It is crucial that Congress sticks to the law and prevents the more traditional Pacific region from being turned into a mere servant of the more developed areas of the country.
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The Almighty
Jorge Elias
8/29/2010
Elias comments on how Latin American governments, especially Venezuela, seek to censure and influence the press. The absence of a consolidated political opposition in some countries has led to the press assuming that role. The result is that when the press starts to reveal the gruesome details of what is happening in the country or the truth behind how the country is run, the government opens investigations into the press rather against the criminals. Elias says the press cannot be said to be innocent the whole time, but neither is it responsible for the ineffectiveness of the authorities.
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The road to Beijing
Raul Sohr
8/27/2010
Sohr comments on the 60-mile traffic jam that has developed on the Tibet to Beijing freeway. China has been beating all sorts of records recently--its economy has just overtaken that of Japan to become the second largest in the world, and it also now produces more automobiles than any other country--but the traffic jam is perhaps a sign of the true cost of this rapid progress. China's solution to its traffic bottlenecks has been to build more and larger freeways, but this, says Sohr, is like buying baggier pants to deal with the problem of being overweight. The aspirations of the Chinese population to earn more money and buy more cars in order to enjoy greater mobility are understandable, but they are also unsustainable.
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Madness
Antonio Ruiz de Elvira
8/26/2010
Ruiz de Elvira comments that wars ultimately solve nothing. The West may win or it may lose in Afghanistan, but when the war is over, what will it have given us apart from more dead? Nothing. On the other hand, how we respond to climate change is something that really matters: it is a radical new development in the history of the planet. Yet we humans are largely acting with disinterest, and our concern remains only with the present moment. Despite all our pretensions, we continue to be animals when we have the potential to be human beings.
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Russia: a not-so-natural disaster
Raul Sohr
8/16/2010
Nothing uncovers the truth behind how a country is really run quite like a natural disaster, writes Sohr. The task of caring for Russia's forests passed to the regions when the USSR collapsed 20 years ago, but no central money accompanied this transfer of stewardship. As a result, Russia's forests were left like an orphaned child without the help of either the public or the private sector. Now record temperatures have left swathes of Russia's forests in flames. Public anger has deepened upon the discovery that the head of the legal department of Russia's biggest paper producer, Ilam Group, which benefitted more than anyone from the neglect of the forests, was none other than current Russian prime minister Dimitri Medvedev.
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Zapatero and the poster of Fidel
Salvador Sostres
8/16/2010
Sostres discusses the case of a Cuban seeking asylum in Spain, who says he wonders which side Spanish prime minister José Luís Zapatero supports: the victims of Fidel Castro's regime or Castro himself. Sostres says the answer is actually very clear, and if Zapatero doesn't have a poster of Castro on his wall now then he surely must have had one when he was a boy. The Spanish left that Zapatero and his party represent defends Cuba with talk of universal availability of education and medical care and attack the United States over human rights abuses. At the same time, Cuban asylum seekers in Spain are treated like criminals and their asylum status ignored.
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A lost generation
Salvador Sostres
8/11/2010
A record thirteen percent of the world's young people were unemployed in 2009, and the figure looks set to rise. Sostres lays the blame for high youth unemployment with young people themselves, calling them "perhaps the worst (generation) in history." He says they have no sense of duty or purpose and believe they owe nothing to the society in which they live. They have been pampered by permissive parents who treat their children as friends rather than with parental authority. Sostres says we must return to adhering to principals of austerity, respect for one's elders, family values, and fear of God if this situation is to change.
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China Daily
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Profitable Use
China Daily
8/21/2010
The latest data shows that state-owned businesses' aggregate profit in the first seven months of this year was more than 1 trillion yuan, up 50.1 percent year-on-year. Soaring profits will not only cushion the state sector against any uncertainties associated with the recovery at home and abroad, but will also add to the national treasury to finance future government-led stimulus programs if necessary. However, policymakers should pay more attention to the proper use of their ever-growing profits.
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China Sees Ten-Fold More Geological Disasters than 2009
Caijing Magazine
8/20/2010
Landslides triggered by heavy rain have ravaged Gansu, Sichuan, and Yunnan provinces in China since the beginning of August. The disasters are due mostly to a dramatic change in global climate and more severe tectonic activity, an official at the Minister of Land and Resources said. A total of 26,009 geological disasters happened between January and July, during which there were 19,101 landslides, 4,756 collapses, 911 mudslides, 332 ground failures, 161 ground fissures, and three land subsidence.
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China Says Milk Powder Did not Cause Baby Sexual Precocity, Concerns Remain
Caijing Magazine
8/16/2010
Deng, the spokesman for the Ministry of Health, told a news conference on Sunday that the ministry had found no evidence of contamination in Synutra Milk powder after an investigation into reports that it had caused baby girls to show signs of premature sexual development. The three baby girls in Hubei Province that suffered from an alleged premature development of their breasts were fourth months old, nine months old, and 15 months old. Their parents claimed it was caused by the milk powder, as their babies have been eating Synutra's products since born. One of the parents said after the news conference that he was "disappointed, helpless and angry" over the result of the probe, saying there were still many reasonable doubts left.
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I Can't Breathe
Rose Scobie
8/13/2010
In the first four months of 2010, over 250,000 cars were sold, bringing the total number of cars on Beijing roads to 4 million. The crux of the problem is how to balance the desire for economic growth with the need for breathable air. At the moment growth is winning, and as a result, lungs are losing. One out of four deaths in China is due to lung disease. China Daily and The New York Times have both recently run articles on the topic of rich Chinese emigrating to Western countries. One of the emigrants interviewed cited her desire for a "pollution-free environment" as one of her reasons for wanting to leave China.
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Rich Country, Poor People?
Zheng Meng
8/13/2010
Early in June when China's finance ministry released data for the first five months of the year, economists predicted that the country's full-year revenue will reach up to 8 trillion yuan. Concerns over the huge amount of revenue then lead to discussions on the overburden of businesses and people and the concept of a "rich country with poor people." The relative low growth in the income of residents contributed to the gap between state wealth and personal income, said Zhang Hanya, Director of the Investment Association of China. Jia Kang, a senior official with the Ministry of Finance, also admitted that the feeling of unfairness among the public should not be ignored, although the concept of "rich country with poor people" is misleading.
Zheng Meng is the Caijing reporter.
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Death Toll Rises to 1,117 in Gansu Landslides, Human Factors cannot be Ruled out
Caijing Magazine
8/12/2010
Fresh rains hit Zhouqu County in northwestern China's Gansu Province, which was devastated by landslides, as the death toll continues to rise. When asked about the cause of the disaster, an official with China's Ministry of Land and Resources said that the landslides were "natural disasters" due to the extraordinary torrent of rain and the brittle geology of Zhouqu. He added, however, that human factors could not be ruled out completely and that experts sent to the area were looking into the possible role of human activity in damaging the landscape.
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Asharq Al Awsat (English Edition)
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Is There a Way Out of the Iran Crisis?
Tariq Alhomayed
09/30/2009
Alhomayed notes that Israelis took an extreme view of Iranian intentions, contrary to many Western countries. Iran also took an extremist position. President Ahmadinejad has tied nuclear development to Iran's survival. If it wants Iran to give up nuclear development, the West may have to offer Iranian regional hegemony, a condition Arabs would not accept.
Tariq Alhomayed is the Editor-in-Chief of Asharq Al-Awsat.
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Ayoon Wa Azan (Not every Jew is like Lieberman, Sharon and Dagan)
Jihad el-Khazen
9/30/2009
el-Khazen notes that there are alot of Jewish critics of Israel, such as Ilan Pappe, Norman Finkelstein, and Jeff Halper. They criticize Israel because of its policies. Israel is the only remaining neo-Fascistic state in the world, according to el-Khazen.
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The last chance
Eitan Haber
10/1/2009
Haber cautions against overconfidence in facing the Iranian threat. Israel is not invincible. Haber is convinced Iran has or will soon have atomic weapons, and it has demonstrated that it has missiles. An attack on Iran would have disastrous consequences. The only recourse left is tighter sanctions, but these will take a long time to operate.
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A dirty little secret
Moshe Dann
9/30/2009
According to Dann, every time someone uses the word "Palestinians" to refer to Arab refugees from Palestine, a myth is reinforced. The myth was created by money and propaganda because in 1949 the refugees were known simply as Arab refugees. The purpose of the myth is to create a rival claim to Israeli sovereignty. In the same way, the term "West Bank" is used in place of the historic names of this area.
The author, a former assistant professor of History, is a writer and journalist living in Israel.
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Why Israel must become a secular state: a thought for Yom Kippur 5770
Carlo Strenger
9/27/2009
European states became secular many centuries ago, opening the way to scientific inquiry and progress, writes Strenger. Israel was supposed to have been a secular state, but David Ben Gurion made a disastrous bargain with the orthodox establishment, opening the way to unique religious strife between Jews in Israel. Religious Jews should lead the way in pressing for secularization.
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Iran's Secret Nuclear Facility
Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed
9/27/2009
The discovery of Iran's nuclear plant in Qom has isolated the Iranian regime further. Only China now opposed sanctions, writes al-Rashed. He hopes Iran will change its ways and end the nuclear nightmare. We know very well that this nightmare does not threaten the West and fortified Israel, he explains, but threatens itself and us, the Arab neighbors.
Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed is the general manager of Al -Arabiya television and former editor-in-chief of Asharq Al- Awsat.
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Editorial: IAEA and Israel
Arab News
9/28/2009
The editors complain that while Iran has made public its uranium enrichment facility, Israel, with the connivance of the West, continues to conceal its nuclear program. Western double standards are obvious when it comes to nuclear power. The allegations over Iranian nuclear weapons are only an attempt to divert attention from Israel.
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ANALYSIS / How many more secret nuke sites does Iran have?
Yossi Melman
9/27/2009
Iran admitted to the existence of the nuclear centrifuge site in Qom because it was going to be exposed by the Western powers. The site is too small for industrial production and therefore must be for military use. However, since it has been exposed, writes Melman, Iran will need to have a third clandestine enrichment site for military purposes.
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Like I never left
Sayed Kashua
9/25/2009
Kashua describes the similarities between Lucera, Italy, and Tira or Jerusalem in Israel. He wants to live there because there is no strife. Then he discovers some facts about the history of Lucera. It is really "just like home."
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Prepared by the MidEastWeb News Service
www.mideastweb.org
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India and the Sub-Continent >>
The Daily Star (Bangladesh)
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Bureaucrats in the line of fire
Shamsher Chowdhury
8/6/2010
Bureaucrats are the bricks of effective governance whose malfunction affects the overall development and progression of a state. Many time this happen due to conflicts between the ministers and bureaucrats. And many other times the administrative officials are self-serving rather than being the servants of the people. The present government in Bangladesh is not a healthy picture either, says Chowdhury. Corrupted bureaucrats along with other malfunctioning operatives like the police are responsible for a poor performance. The government needs to think of a better strategy to deal with bureaucrats, the only group with the power of failing the government.
Shamsher Chowdhury is a columnist for The Daily Star.
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The US-Pakistan enigma
Mowahid Hussain
8/5/2010
A recent survey in Pakistan shows that the viewpoint of people on the government's relation with the US sharply deviates from that of the ruling class. The public is openly distrustful of the alliance with America while they are silent on American policies in the subcontinent, for they wish for amity with the superpower. The American belief that better diplomacy and marketing will save their image abroad is entirely wrong. Not communication but better policies are what is really needed, says Shah. But the US-Pakistan alliance is a marriage of convenience, which is a hypocritical enigma, bound by mutual needs along with mutual resentment.
The writer is a barrister and a senior political analyst.
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Water through Pakistani eyes
Ramaswamy R. Iyer
8/6/2010
The India-Pakistan water dispute has become a major factor hindering their bilateral talks. Pakistan faces a serious water crisis and it blames India for a reduction in the flows in the western rivers. It is also disturbed by Indian projects on the western rivers. Sadly, the mutual water treaty, with the density of technical details in it, is leading to a constant tug of war instead of a constructive cooperation, says Iyer. A joint study of the reduction in flows, a joint monitoring and review of new projects, and making all data and information available to the public are really needed to negate the apprehensions of people on both sides.
The writer is a former Union Secretary for Water Resources.
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Tainted Common-wealth Games
Srinivasan K. Rangachary
8/4/2010
The exposure of the massive 2000 Crore corruption case done in the name of the Commonwealth Games is a daylight robbery of public money in which everybody in power is getting their share. From Prime Minister to "chief" Kalmadi, everyone is saying all is fine for the kickoff of the games, but everything still seems messy, such as unprepared tracks, unfinished interiors, and collapsed roofs of residential complexes, to name a few. It is a pure case of political classes losing not only their soul but also their hearts to greed, says Rangachary. The prestige of the sports is being compromised by the reports of stinking corruption. More sadly, it brings shame on an India that robs from the poor to fill the abundant reserves of the rich.
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Crises in disaster management
Mahir Ali
8/4/2010
Although Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is flooded and a thousand have already died, Zardari is travelling in Britain. Many asked him to cancel the trip as a protest against David Cameron's remarks in India, but none asked him to stay back in recognition of one of the worst floods to hit Pakistan. Meanwhile, Zardari's popularity has dipped sharply. Pakistan's reaction to Cameron is different from India's diplomatic response to another failure of the India-Pakistan talks. Even relatively mild implications of misbehavior from New Delhi raise Islamabad's hackles. So the Pakistan government is failing in dealing with both international political crises and internal emergency crises such as floods.
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Thank You Democracy
Gowhar Geelani
7/31/2010
India, the world's biggest democracy, has always been undemocratic to Kashmir, and the ongoing protest in Kashmir against the human rights violations of the paramilitary forces is demonstrating it, says Geelani. Eyeing India as a potential commercial market, the international community, including the US and the UK, are silent and hesitant to pressure India to stop the violence in Kashmir. Their silence is a "criminal silence". The Indian media too is misleading the world with bloated stories of how protesters are worsening the violence. A YouTube video titled "Indian soldiers beating Kashmiri children" explains the India government's relationship with Kashmir since 1989.
Gowhar Geelani is a Kashmiri journalist based in Bonn, Germany, since 2006, where he works for Deutsche Welle [Voice of Germany] as an Editor.
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India needs new politics
Sudheendra Kulkarni
7/25/2010
Contemporary, unwise politics is the major cause for India being adrift, in which the two main national parties, Congress and the BJP, are in their worst mutual antagonism. Adding fire to the fuel, the communist parties have lost their charisma and persuasive voice. India's strain with Pakistan is increasing mainly due to the UPA government's overdependence on American mediators. Also, they are failing to deal with the menace of Maoism. Corruption is increasing and morality is at a loss. What India needs is not just new leadership but an ew morality-based politics to create a healthy consensus on all major national challenges.
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Peace cannot be built on Pak's lies
Vir Sanghvi
7/31/2010
While the Indian government believes in a gradual confidence-building process with Pakistan, educated Indians consider cross-border terrorism to be the only issue needing to be discussed. The government's steady approach will be credible only if it could substantiate a reduction in terror, says Sanghvi. But Pakistan's disinterest in tackling terror is a major hindrance even while it also is a victim of self-inflicted internal terrorism. A polite step-by-step Indian approach is nonsensical as long as Pakistan is ready to admit its army's role in extremism and is sensible enough to elaborately discuss the long-term detrimental effects of terror.
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Lessons from Bangladesh
Yasser Latif Hamdani
8/2/2010
Bangladesh's decision to ban Maulana Maududi's hate-filled literature is a lesson for Pakistan on how they could initiate a conversion into a modern democratic state. Pakistan will become a better place to live if it could disengage General Zia's Islamisation policies, says Hamdani. His dictatorial zealotry had marginalized the minorities from mainstream society. And it was against Jinnah who spoke of non-Muslim Pakistanis being equal Pakistanis and having the closest association with the rest of Pakistan. But, unfortunately, after Jinnah the secularism began to wane, and now the constitution protecting religious freedom has become a mere mockery.
Yasser Latif Hamdani is a lawyer.
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Seeking A Special Relationship
Harsh V Pant
7/28/2010
Britain aims to use Asia's economic vitality to recuperate from its lost charisma as a global power and is looking towards India for more bilateral ties. Clearly they are dejected over their relationship with America and cynical about the exceedingly bureaucratic European Union. But as the process seems more complex, the Cameron government will need huge political refinements to manage the present challenges and to repair the damages done by the previous Labour government, says Pant. Also, it depends on Britain's political will to treat India as a rising power outside the prism of Pakistan. On the crucial Kashmir issue, Britain is still a pro-Pakistan nation in the Indian psyche.
The writer teaches at King's College, London.
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Blogorama >>
Blog: The Hill
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Obama: 'The war is ending,' fulfilling campaign pledge
Silla Brush
8/28/2010
President Obama vowed on Saturday that all US troops will return home from Iraq by the end of next year, completing his 2008 campaign promise to end the war. Brush says the end of the combat mission comes as political parties in Iraq continue to clash over the results of the March parliamentary election, which left neither rival coalition with a clear path to forming a new government. So although America's role in the Iraqi civil war is ending, the political battles have just begun.
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Overcoming the 'Legacy of Torture'
Daphne Eviatar
8/28/2010
The National Law Journal has reported that "enhanced interrogation techniques" approved by the Bush Administration and used on suspected terrorists has made it impossible to bring many of those alleged terrorists to justice. Eviatar contends that neither new detention rules nor military commissions can truly overcome torture's legacy. That can only be done by admitting what happened, holding perpetrators accountable, and ultimately, prosecuting terror suspects in our time-tested, world-renowned American justice system.
Eviatar is Senior Associate of HRF Law and Security Program.
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Pincus v. Assange: Who Speaks for You?
Kelley Vlahos
8/27/2010
Vlahos compares the media lives of gaming entrepreneur Mark Pincus and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Pincus made a fortune by designing online games that prey on what is worst in people. Meanwhile, Assange created an online sanctuary for government and corporate whistleblowers in the hopes of "improving civilization." She points out where our values lay, as Pincus is almost a billionaire who cuts deals with the largest companies in the world. Meanwhile Assange is a legally hunted man constantly on the run from the governments he exposes.
Vlahos is a longtime political reporter for FoxNews.com.
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Harper on Arctic Tour; Ottawa Releases New Arctic Foreign Policy Statement
Mia Bennett
8/27/2010
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has embarked on his second annual tour of his country's Arctic region. Although there have been disputes between Canada and its Arctic neighbors over land and rights, the Beaufort Sea, which could someday be the site of shipping lanes, is now seen as a growing dispute as well. However, the Prime Minister believes the Arctic states are best equipped to decide what is best for the region and not an international body.
Bennett freelances for the magazine ReNew Canada.
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Wikileaks CIA Release - Say What?
Michael Collins
8/26/2010
Wikileaks released a new document by the CIA that explores how the rest of the world sees the US. Collins says the report assumes there's a rule book that allows other nations to behave toward the US as the US does toward them if somehow US citizens leave the country and commit terrorist acts. In reality, there's no referee or rule book, just a one-sided power equation in favor of US power and dominance. The rest of the world already knows this, but apparently the CIA didn't realize it.
Collins is a contributing editor.
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The Perfect Iranian Storm on the Horizon
Michael Totten
8/26/2010
Totten interviews Israeli journalist Jonathan Spyer, who fought as a soldier in the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah War. Spyer describes what it was like to fight as a mechanized infantryman and says that during the last couple of decades after the failure of so many secular nationalist projects in the Middle East, people have turned back to religion. He also notes that the three most powerful countries in the Middle East right now--Israel, Turkey, and Iran--are not Arab.
Totten is a reader-funded foreign correspondent and foreign policy analyst who has reported from the Middle East, the Balkans, and the Caucasus.
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American National Interest and the Stoning of Women
Peter Berger
8/25/2010
Berger analyzes the moral costs of both staying in Afghanistan and leaving. He says if the US comes to an accommodation with the Taliban, this might separate the group from Al Qaeda, but it will certainly lead to an implementation of Sharia Law on the population. The strategic implications are good for the US but bad for Afghan women. This is a moral and political dilemma that has to be taken into account in the discussion of Afghanistan.
Berger is Professor Emeritus of Religion, Sociology and Theology.
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U.S. military brings scientists closer to Ebola cure
Elizabeth Dickinson
8/24/2010
Dickinson describes the horror of what the Ebola disease does to the body before the person dies. She says the US military feared that it could be used as a biological warfare weapon and so began trying to find a cure for it. Yesterday, the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases and a private firm, AVI BioPharma, published the results of studies that show that their treatment does have a helpful effect in monkeys.
Dickinson is Assistant Managing Editor of FP.
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Beyond Toleration: George Washington's View of Liberty
David Boaz
8/24/2010
Boaz joins the discussion over the mosque that is being built near the former World Trade Center by invoking the words of George Washington on what freedom really is. The author says that equal freedom under the law is not something extended by some as "toleration" of others. It took 200 years for blacks and women to achieve the freedom Washington spoke of. Gays and Muslims should not have to be tolerated, but rather accepted as full citizens entitled to "the exercise of their inherent natural rights."
Boaz is the author of the book "Libertarianism: A Primer."
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Over the Range
Jim Hruska
8/23/2010
Hruska compares present-day Vietnam with Afghanistan. He says the communist country of Vietnam has an expanisve economy today despite the US supporting and waging war upon it for 30 years. The author remembers from his time in Vietnam how American soldiers felt like they were nowhere but failed to realize it was somewhere to the Vietnamese and worth dying for. Americans fail to understand the reality beyond our borders. We cannot control our own destiny and yet we keep trying to impose our chaos upon others, like Vietnam and Afghanistan.
Hruska is a Vietnam Veteran.
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Iran's Ambassador of Death an envoy of annoyance
Noah Shachtman
8/23/2010
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran unveiled a new armed drone plane with a wider range and payload than before. What this tells us is that Iran is getting better at building its own weapons. This makes the regime less susceptible to foreign sanctions.
Shachtman is a contributing editor at WIRED magazine.
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Houston Chronicle
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Deep troubles
Houston Chronicle
8/19/2010
According to the Shallow Water Energy Coalition, the industry's advocacy group, a grand total of 15 barrels of oil has been spilled in the past 15 years. The worst spill, they say, was 10 barrels offshore Louisiana in March, 2003. For all their troubles, the shallow-water industry is supposed to be exempt from the Obama administration's moratorium on offshore drilling, but it isn't turning out that way. Industry leaders say they're facing a de facto moratorium on new drilling from a drastic slowdown of approval of new permits by the Interior Department's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. Since new rules were issued in June, only two drilling permits have been approved. That's down from an average of 10 to 15 per week before the BP spill. We should hold the industry leadership to its word that it is willing to have a full-time government inspector aboard each of their rigs, but they do not deserve to be caught in the middle as decisions are made about deepwater drilling. This poses a threat to the survival of an industry that plays an important role in the nation's energy supply chain.
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Math Lesson for Locavores
Stephen Budiansky
8/19/2010
The statistics brandished by local-food advocates to support such doctrinaire assertions are always selective, usually misleading, and often bogus. This is particularly the case with respect to the energy costs of transporting food. Overall, transportation accounts for about 14 percent of the total energy consumed by the American food system. Other favorite targets of sustainability advocates include the fertilizers and chemicals used in modern farming, but their share of the food system's energy use is even lower, about 8 percent. The real energy hog, it turns out, is not industrial agriculture at all, but you and me. Home preparation and storage account for 32 percent of all energy use in our food system, the largest component by far. Accounting for just 2% of our nation's energy usage, the total land area of American farms remains almost unchanged from a century ago, at a little under a billion acres, even though those farms now feed three times as many Americans and export more than ten times as much as they did in 1910.
Stephen Budiansky is the author of the blog liberalcurmudgeon.com.
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The Gulf's bird toll
Washington Times
8/17/2010
According to the latest figures, cleanup crews have collected 6,286 birds impacted by the spill. A total of 4,359 were found dead and 1,927 were alive but covered in oil. A good deal of luck kept these numbers far below those seen in the wake of the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster. This pales in comparison to the carnage wrought in the name of environmentalism. For example, the Altamont Pass, Calif., wind farm's cruel blades pulverize 4,700 birds each year, according to the National Audubon Society. Victims of this green power plant include golden eagles, red-tailed hawks, American kestrels and burrowing owls.
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Talking Green in Yellowstone
Roger Meiners
8/21/2010
US Fish and Wildlife Service's Ennis National Fish Hatchery received $179,000 in stimulus money for solar panels, its share of last year's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The solar panels, we are assured, will generate 75% of the hatchery's electricity at zero cents per kwh. Assuming so, the annual electric bill will fall by $2,550. Applying that sum to the cost, the recovery period for the solar panels (ignoring interest rates) is 70 years. Solar panel experts say that panels have about a 25-year life, but the latest models, which no doubt are used in Ennis, may have a 40-year life. Taking that estimate, the panels leave us in the financial dark by 30 years. There is no reason to think that other stimulus money is spent better than the money at the Ennis National Fish Hatchery. The $179,000 spent on the solar panels means that some people at a panel factory got paid, as did the folks who installed the panels. But the bang for those bucks is less than the bang you get for your buck.
Mr. Meiners is a senior fellow at the Property and Environmental Center in Bozeman, Mont., and a professor of economics at the University of Texas, Arlington.
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Obama Follows Nixon On Oil Spills
Alex Epstein
8/18/2010
This parallel is important to keep in mind because Nixon's reaction to the three million gallon Santa Barbara spill of 1969 helped cause the worst energy crisis in American history. It was only after the Arab oil embargo hit in late 1973 that Nixon signed legislation to let the 1.5 million barrels per day Alaska pipeline go forward. But it was too late to avoid devastation; Alaska oil didn't come onto the market until 1977. The lesson of Santa Barbara is that stopping oil development and shackling oil markets is disastrous. For Americans, this means extremely scarce, more expensive oil. For American companies, it means the inability to adapt to any disruptions in the oil market, such as the embargo. Unfortunately, we have not yet learned the lesson. Even before the BP disaster, some of America's most promising oil deposits, such as in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and much of the outer continental shelf, remained untouched due to anti-development policies. Unless Obama reverses course, his response to the spill will, like Nixon's, be worse than the spill itself.
Mr. Epstein is a fellow at the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights.
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Raising bar for deepwater drilling
Ken Salazar
8/22/2010
The goal is to raise the bar on safety and environmental protections so that deepwater drilling can safely resume, writes Salazar. To achieve this objective, he says we must eliminate the gap between the technology that allows oil and gas companies to tap reserves beneath 5,000 feet of water and the laws, regulations, and tools needed to ensure that energy companies are operating safely and responsibly. Now we are raising the bar on industry's safety practices and equipment and are requiring companies that want to drill to prove they are prepared to deal with catastrophic blowouts and oil spills like the Deepwater Horizon. The oil and gas industry's inadequate preparedness is also one of the reasons the current deepwater drilling pause is so important: we need to put effective strategies in place for containing blowouts and responding to major spills. In March--before the BP oil spill--the writer canceled the previous administration's plans to hold four oil and gas lease sales in the Arctic Ocean because we need to develop more information about the risks and impacts of drilling in that sensitive landscape. We will hold the industry accountable, he promises. And we will build the strongest and safest offshore energy development program in the world.
Ken Salazar is secretary of the Interior.
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