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Karzai gives Hagel a tour d'horizon
US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel got an early taste of the Afghan political soup at the weekend - with bitterness a predominant flavor and ladled out in strong measure by President Hamid Karzai. Hagel's denial of dealings with the Taliban was thin gruel. If he and the US are really concerned with Afghanistan's post-withdrawal future, they should let Karzai get on with his job. - M K Bhadrakumar
(Mar 11, '13)
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King Kim clutches a nuclear chalice
North Korea's third nuclear test and its provocations since then confirm the bad news of its emerging capability to employ nuclear weapons for defense and diplomatic blackmail. Yet the news is not as frightening as it seems. Kim Jong-eun and the aging lords in his court have no wish to risk nuclear annihilation merely for the pleasure of killing a few ten thousand Americans, Japanese or South Koreans.
- Andrei Lankov
(Mar 11, '13)
For Park, the honeymoon is over
Park Geun-hye is off to a bad start. Now, after electing her as the nation's first-ever female president, South Koreans are scratching their heads about whether they have placed too much hopes on her as warm motherliness displayed in the campaign gives way to an divisive attitude that beats her predecessor, "bulldozer" Lee Myung-bak, for stubbornness. - Sunny Lee
(Mar 11, '13)
THE ROVING EYE
The Fall of the
House of Europe
The great Dante set out for his 14th century Italian (and European) contemporaries the descent that awaited them after they shuffled off life's coil. His modern day descendants, alas, must cope without the wisdom of his Virgil to guide a way through the terrors as the European project belches anger and avarice on its way to (possibly yet more violent) self-destruction.
- Pepe Escobar (Mar 11, '13)
Hong Kong's miser-minister
 For a growing number of his critics, the budgets of Hong Kong Financial Secretary John Tsang are a perennial exercise in miscalculation, predicting deficits but ending up with an embarrassment of riches then stashed away in the city's swollen reserves. As Tsang and miserly officials remain bereft of fresh ideas for the future, surely it's time to wake up and smell the coffee.
- Kent Ewing
(Mar 11, '13)
Afghanistan a minefield for the innocent
At least 45 people on average lose their limbs every month to deadly anti-personnel mines in Afghanistan. Under the UN's Ottawa Convention, the land is supposed to be free of unexploded ordinance by the end of 2013. But as victims being fitted with prosthetics are all too aware, the process of clearing the devices is painfully slow in one of the most mined countries in the world.
- Esmatullah Mayar
(Mar 11, '13)
SPEAKING FREELY
US stuck in deaf dialogue in Korea
Provocations and diplomatic miscommunication of the kind now engaging North Korea and the United States echo throughout America's presence in the Korean peninsula. The Korean conflict is one of war fought with a "dialogue of the deaf" that has no ending. It's time for Washington to change its approach.
- Dallas Darling
(Mar 11, '13)
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Did China execute the wrong pirate?
Western coverage of the execution of Naw Kham focused on whether it would be broadcast - and if not, why not. All good hackwork over a macabre event in far-off China, and totally missing the point. There seems little doubt the Burmese pirate was a baddie on a considerable scale, but whether he had a hand in the massacre of 13 crew members of two ships on the Mekong River is quite another matter. - Peter Lee
(Mar 8, '13)
Land grabbing as big business in Myanmar
Expectations that Myanmar's reforms will generate a foreign investment boom have led to rampant land grabbing by well-connected businessmen, exacerbating evictions in rural areas. Unless better legislation is implemented, already mounting protests in response to the displacements could spread wide enough to imperil the country's democratic steps and its economic potential. - Brian McCartan
(Mar 8, '13)
Reality of Fukushima cleanup hits Japan
The overturned cars still littering the coastline by the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant and scars there from the fight workers put up in failed attempts to prevent its post-tsunami meltdown underline that the task of decommissioning is just beginning. With isolating the remaining nuclear fuel alone expected to take 40 years, it's unlikely the tragedy has claimed its last victim.
- Daniel Leussink
(Mar 8, '13) |
India piles up old promises in Dhaka
Bangladesh keenly anticipated a visit by Indian President Pranab Mukherjee, only the second such visit in 40 years, with high hopes of key issues such as water sharing and border killings. On his departure after three days, Dhaka was left as he arrived, with only promises to show. Meanwhile, the killings of Bangladeshis by Indian border guards continue.
- Syed Tashfin Chowdhury
(Mar 8, '13)
The alchemy of transition in South Asia
The failure of Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal must not diminish attempts to create a robust transitional justice mechanism in Nepal. Blood on the streets in Dhaka may be used to undermine reparative measures in Nepal's transition to justice, but it is imperative that political classes are prevented from turning Bangladeshi "lead" into the pernicious "gold" of a general amnesty. -
Michael Van Es
(Mar 8, '13)
CHAN AKYA
Of mutton and lamb
Britain has been rocked by the scandal of liberal portions of horsemeat being found in what consumers thought was beef. It has been less shocked by a health scandal involving hundreds of negligent hospital deaths. The different levels of apparent concern could be down to a media conspiracy - or just a preference for juvenile jokes over grim facts of healthcare.
(Mar 8, '13)
UK's war on terror targets the vulnerable
The post-9/11 dragnet for Muslims in Great Britain has silently evolved into a hidden war of continual harassment against the largely helpless relatives of suspects or former detainees. Exploiting the stigma of "terrorism" and the specter of security threats, the British government has used experimental perversions of the legal system to dehumanize families and isolate them from the outside world.
- Victoria Brittain
(Mar 8, '13)
India squeezed by financial repression
India's recent budget showed the extent to which the government resorts to financial repression of its citizens, companies and financial corporations, distorting savings and investment and damaging growth. Yet its extortion and profligacy leaves health and education spending trailing that of many poorer countries. - Kunal Kumar Kundu
(Mar 8, '13)
THE POST-CRASH AUTOPSY
Bank critics miss relative value
The financial crash is widely attributed to failures of international investment banks (with various other "culprits" also held up for castigation). Yet the problem might lie deeper, in the roots of outdated but still over-popular economic theory espoused by Adam Smith (and even Karl Marx). The way out of the mess is even deeper - and it is all relative. - Friedrich Hansen
(Mar 8, '13)
Who saw the economic
crisis coming and why?
You have heard the widespread thesis that no one saw the current financial crisis coming. That thesis is simply wrong. However, it makes sure that those are not seen and heard, who a) did see it coming, who b) could have prevented it, and who c) have the knowledge of how we can get out of the schemozzle we're in. - Lars Schall
(Mar 8, '13)
<IT WORLD>
Android alarm bells in China
China is taking aim at the dominance of Google's Android in the country's smartphone market, urging local companies to prioritize development of a rival operating system. The real concern may not be commercial, but a desire to ratchet up censorship of phone users. (Mar 8, '13)
Martin J Young surveys the week's developments in computing, science, gaming and gizmos.
THE ROVING EYE
El Comandante has left the building
Unfortunately for turbo-capitalists in Washington and Brussels, the death of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez from cancer does not signal an end to the spirit of Chavism. With his "socialism of the 21st century" and defiance of centuries-old patterns of subjugation in Latin America, El Comandante struck a chord with the Global South that's now resonating in crumbling European structures.
- Pepe Escobar
(Mar 6, '13) |
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Central Asia's ECO
wants
energy ties,
just not on oil, gas
The latest gathering in Tehran of the Economic Co-operation Organization of Central Asian states plus neighbors to the south and west had, unusually, a full-house in attendance. They failed to sign up to Iran's "ECO Energy Charter", but agreement elsewhere bodes well for pursuing a more sustainable energy future.
- Chris Cook
CREDIT BUBBLE BULLETIN
Q4 2012 Flow Of Funds
The US Federal Reserve's latest ''flow of funds'' report confirms that policymakers have painted themselves into a corner. The Fed may wish to change its quantitive easing policy, yet the liquidity backdrop has so unsettled global markets that central bankers will seek any excuse to avoid watering down the punch.
Doug Noland looks at the previous week's events each Monday.
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Let Male keep its
tryst with destiny
The arrest of the former president of Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed is an event that could easily have been foretold. Like in the Gabriel Garcia Marquez novella, where everyone except Santiago Nasar could foretell what the two Vicario brothers were up to, only Nasheed seemed unaware that the president and a former president would go to any extent to disqualify him from the forthcoming September election.
- M K Bhadrakumar
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