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Sri Lankan anti-Muslim bid fuels discord
A hardline Buddhist organization in Sri Lanka is demanding a ban on Muslim dress and the halal food certification process, saying that the former threatens security while the latter is funding militants. Although the discrimination threatens to reawaken conflict of the kind the country suffered with the Tamil minority, the Buddhist-dominated government has stayed silent on the matter. - Munza Mushtaq
(Mar 22, '13)
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Obama stirs the Middle East cauldron
President Barack Obama's visit to Israel, Palestine and Jordan is intended to stir a cauldron red-hot with intrigue and tensions. Urgent issues include the Iranian nuclear crisis, the Syrian civil war, and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Egypt is also in turmoil, and facing financial collapse. The entire region is in a state of chaos. An Israeli attack on Iran is the last thing the United States wants right now.
- Victor Kotsev (Mar 22, '13)
Ocalan signals Kurdish road to peace
An offer by Abdullah Ocalan, leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), to withdraw fighters based beyond Turkey's borders placed the insurgency on a peace footing, yet fell short of the expected call for a ceasefire. Supplying rhetoric and authority is about all Ocalan can do from his prison cell, but he has spoken and the PKK will likely comply. - Caleb Lauer
(Mar 22, '13)
 OBITUARY
Zillur Rahman
Bangladesh's president Mohammad Zillur Rahman, who has died at the age of 84 in a Singapore hospital, will be remembered as one of the country's political immortals, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said, as the South Asian nation mourned a man who led the ruling Awami League for four decades.
- Syed Tashfin Chowdhury
(Mar 22, '13) |
Bangladesh protests evoke liberation
The university students coming out in droves to call for a secular democracy in Bangladesh and a ban on religious fundamentalist groups did not live through the 1971 war for independence, but their protest evokes memories of the past when the people of what was then East Pakistan overthrew an occupying military junta.
- Naimul Haq
(Mar 22, '13)
US disc jockey makes waves in China
American radio host Rick O'Shea has spent two decades in Taipei, Shanghai and Beijing learning that his interactions with his audience prove that when blended, US and Chinese creative energy can lead to something special. As the last lover of San Mao, one of China's most beloved and tragic modern novelists, his insights into today's China make for compelling listening.
- Tamara Treichel
(Mar 22, '13)
BOOK REVIEW
Searching the globe for China Inc
China's Silent Army: The Pioneers, Traders, Fixers and Workers Who Are Remaking the World in Beijing's Image
by Juan Pablo Cardenal and Heriberto Araujo
As Chinese business expands overseas, it is increasingly important to understand how mainland companies and Beijing interact. This book unravels some aspects of how Chinese diplomacy and business cooperate to serve geopolitical goals, but it mistakenly implicates Chinese immigrants in search of a better life in the economic exploitation being orchestrated by their leaders.
- Muhammad Cohen
(Mar 22, '13)
SPEAKING FREELY
China seeks military
friends
Beijing has sent diplomats and top military brass to press official flesh in Central Europe, most likely in an attempt to gain more torque to lift the European Union embargo on the sale of arms to China. Poland is a particular target, with a strong track record supplying other Asian countries with simple technological solutions that the People's Liberation Army also wants. - Paul Behrendt
(Mar 21, '13)
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THE ROVING EYE
Real liars go to Tehran
It was a Back to Future moment, 10 years after the invasion of Iraq on trumped up WMD charges, as Bibi stressed Iran's (non-existent) nuclear weapons posed an existential threat to Israel and Barack Obama was adamant that Bibi was entitled to do anything to defend Israel. Willful ignorance of the facts made their meeting less reality, more trashy reality show.
- Pepe Escobar
(Mar 21, '13)
Palestinians prepare bitter welcome
Many Palestinians seem hostile to the visit to President Barack Obama's visit to the West Bank, with posters of Obama torched and vandalized and shoes thrown at a US diplomatic vehicle during an anti-Obama demonstration. Apparent US blindness to Israel's creeping settlements agenda, backed by personal involvement by government ministers, is a key factor. - Mel Frykberg
(Mar 21, '13)
Legacy of courage rises in Rafah
At somber ceremonies marking the 10th anniversary of the killing of Rachel Corrie by an Israeli bulldozer, young Palestinians remembered the US activist for her attempt to protect their homes. Although an Israeli court rejected a wrongful death suit brought by Corrie’s family last year, her legacy of bravery will easily outlive the verdict.
- Ramzy Baroud
(Mar 21, '13) |
Pakistan sets poll date amid terror threats
Pakistan has set May 11 as voting day for a general election amid threats from the Pakistani Taliban for people to give a wide berth to meetings of of the mainstream political parties in the run up to the vote. As the country gears up for polls, it is also readying for a surge in terror attacks by extremists. - Syed Fazl-e-Haider
(Mar 21, '13)
Mongolia and Russia show military sheen
Military cooperation with Russia, including preparations for joint exercises, gave a distinct sheen to Mongolian Minister of Defense Dashdemberel Bat-Erdene's first official overseas visit last month. Under the surface, Moscow likely gave vent to concerns over a coal and uranium mine project that, though stalled, favored China in a manner that has held up foreign investment in Mongolia.
- Alicia J Campi
(Mar 21, '13)
US maintains pressure on Iran
The United States' tough negotiation strategy in Istanbul shows that Washington is intent on keeping the pressure on Iran at any cost, above all, by deleting the option of serious sanctions' offer as a part of a quid pro quo with Tehran. Some options after all have a tendency to bump off others below the table.
- Kaveh L Afrasiabi
(Mar 21, '13)
Reading into South Korea's nuclear debate
North Korea's third nuclear test, carried out last month, broke a taboo in the South and brought the question of whether it should have an atomic arsenal of its own into mainstream political discourse. Anti-nuclear arguments still seem to dominate, but more people are now willing to argue in favor of nuclear weapons in South Korea. - Toby Dalton and Yoon Ho Jin
(Mar 21, '13)
CHAN AKYA
EU takes sinister path in Cyprus
The European Union's action against banks and (notably Russian) deposits in Cyprus marks a departure from usual EU practices to something more sinister and ''directed''. If in the name of social justice for Europeans, Russian depositors can be targeted today, what next - Muslims tomorrow and Chinese investors the day after? (Mar 21, '13)
Putin has Med opportunity
The Western powers think they have the ordnance required to produce regime change in Syria, as they had in Libya. But they don't appear to have the US$6.5 billion required to do the trick in Cyprus. That creates an opening of historic proportions for Russia in the Mediterranean, if Vladimir Putin grasps opportunity better than his predecessors.
- John Helmer (Mar 21, '13)
THE INVASION OF IRAQ: 10 YEARS ON
Search and Destroy: The rape of Iraq
Despite the harrowing spiral of Iraqi suffering and drift towards balkanization and civil war, 10 years on and even so-called "liberals" are trying to legitimize something, anything, out of the "Iraq project". As the country sits on the brink of fragmentation, resource-rich Kurdish regions turning to Turkey to bypass Baghdad for oil exports and influence could become the last straw. - Pepe Escobar
(Mar 20, '13)
COMMENT
Who did you rape in the war, daddy?
Veterans often tell us it's never okay to ask if a soldier killed somebody "over there" and they almost never offer up accounts of murder, assault, torture, or rape unsolicited. The obscenity of war, in Vietnam, Iraq or Afghanistan, stays buried - and everyone suffers for their silence. But these are questions that need answers, so we can all take part in shouldering the truth.
- Nick Turse
(Mar 20, '13)
Neo-cons shocked by loss of awe
Divides in the Republican Party between defense hawks and those who believe the Pentagon shouldn't be exempt from budget cuts underline growing resistance to the neo-conservative vision of a benevolent US hegemony as favored by the group who sought "regime change" in Iraq a decade ago. That debacle isn't the sole source of the split. - Jim Lobe
(Mar 20, '13)
SINOGRAPH
Surrender is the
best option for Tibet
Self-immolation by Tibetans taints the rule of those in Beijing who are in charge of Tibet, but does not change basic facts and the reluctance of the majority Han Chinese to see it become independent. With autonomy always a distant dream, the best hope for the Tibetan cause is not suicide, but a strategic surrender.
- Francesco Sisci
(Mar 20, '13)
China may wear out African welcome
While many African countries favor Chinese investment that's free from the political strings and human-right lectures attached to Western agreements, growing complaints over labor abuses, poor construction and delays suggest an end to the Sino-African honeymoon. Prospects for future cooperation depend on how Beijing responds to such dissent and how Africa manages expectations of its trading partner.
- Nan Chen
(Mar 20, '13)
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The Battle of Cyprus
The rejection by Cypriot legislators of a proposed levy on bank deposits is a victory for democracy over a confiscation plan that was long in the making by bureaucrats whose concerns range far wider than a small island in the Mediterranean. The push to confiscate savings is a wake-up call to how tiny cadres of elites call the shots and the rest of us pay the price. - Ellen Brown
Ukraine looks to Turkmenistan
Ukraine, burdened by huge debts to Russia for gas supplies, is looking to Turkmenistan for a way out of the political noose this has placed in Moscow's hands. There is no solution to Kiev's problems in the short term, and practical obstacles cloud even the long-term prospects of Ashgabat helping out. - Roman Muzalevsky
CREDIT BUBBLE BULLETIN
Ex-Fed chiefs run to form
Recent comments by former Federal Reserve chairman revealed at least two key points. Paul Volcker is as much on the ball as ever with welcome pertinent insights, while Alan Greenspan, touting an equities valuation model and market undervaluation, is just spouting more nonsense.
Doug Noland looks at the previous week's events each Monday.
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The Italian Marines
are coming back!
On a day when our political class tripped our highly professional diplomats and India in turn fell between the two stools - Chennai and Colombo - over the Sri Lankan Tamil problem, the gloominess and pessimism in the mind that has been accruing over time as to where the country is heading has been somewhat made up…
- M K Bhadrakumar
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WANTED
Representatives, agents to facilitate investment
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