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THE ROVING EYE
BRICS go over the wall
Atlanticist, Washington-consensus fanatics who say the BRICS grouping is on its deathbed are blind to the reality that its members - while protecting the global economy from casino capitalism - will increasingly take a political role in a multipolar world. As the North is overtaken by the global South at a dizzying speed, all stagnant and bankrupt Western elites can do is cling on for grim life. - Pepe Escobar
(Mar 26, '13) |
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No clear path to Suu Kyi victory
Democratic steps in Myanmar that have seen Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy rehabilitated politically raise the prospect of her winning general elections set for 2015. In chasing victory, perhaps a bigger challenge for the pro-democracy icon than overcoming constitutional provisions barring her presidential candidacy will be convincing the military-dominated parliament to release its grip on power. - Aung Tun
(Mar 26, '13)
Xi tightens bonds with Moscow
The deepening bond between Beijing and Moscow, highlighted by Xi Jinping making Moscow his first port of call as Chinese president, has immense implications for the world - especially the United States. Indeed, it appears that Washington may have made a failed attempt at a "divide and rule" stratagem before Xi's Russian trip. - Brendan O'Reilly
(Mar 26, '13)
COMMENT
China can defuse North Korea time-bomb
Time is of the essence if an impending nuclear disaster at the hands of North Korea is to be avoided. As China's three most-senior foreign policy officials, including new Foreign Minister Wang Yi, have rich experience with the diplomacy of the issue and appreciate the need to achieve denuclearization peacefully, their intervention is not only desirable, it is necessary. - Joseph R DeTrani
(Mar 25, '13)
Sri Lanka thumbs nose at UN vote
The Sri Lankan government has struck a defiant posture and gained public support for its stand after a United Nations vote last week criticized its human rights record. As President Mahinda Rajapaksa pushes to consolidate his grip on power, his desire to fend off international pressure over war crimes allegations is likely to fuel the authoritarian streak.
- Sudha Ramachandran
(Mar 26, '13)
China's elderly exposed to suicide risk
Suicide rates in China's general population have fallen dramatically amid rapid urbanization and economic growth, but the breakdown of traditional communal structures has exposed the elderly to greater risk, particular after the death of a spouse. Innovative ways to keep suicidal thoughts at bay have been found, yet more needs to be done to increase mental well-being.
- Cameron Frecklington
(Mar 26, '13)
SPEAKING FREELY
The politics of expediency in India
The Indian government is paying more attention these days to policies on crucial matters of national interest, largely with an eye fixed on gaining votes in next year's general election. More than that expediency is required in the world's largest democracy if genuine efforts at social emancipation and welfare are to bear fruit. - Sunil Kumar
(Mar 26, '13)
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US resets Middle East compass
The Barack Obama-mediated phone call between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan last week was historic in being a formal apology for an Israeli sin, even as it was also crude PR. More importantly, Turkish-Israeli reconciliation impacts the overall strategic balance in the Middle East and has profound implications for the Iran question. - M K Bhadrakumar
(Mar 25, '13)
SPENGLER
Obama converts
to neo-realism
With an Israeli-Palestinian agreement as unlikely as at any time in the past two decades, President Obama went to Israel for one simple reason - where else in the Middle East could he go? With the Passover holiday imminent, it was also a useful place to declare his own personal Exodus from idealism (as in Cairo 2009) to neo-realism and recognition of who is the US's only Mid-East ally.
(Mar 25, '13)
Palestine left with despair
Barack Obama's arrival in Israel last week was accompanied by the quick shattering of illusions. As he was showered with accolades and warm embraces of top Israeli officials, a new reality began to sink in: the American leader was no different than his predecessors. He never had been. Which left the Palestinians (including families of arrested school children) wondering - must we have four more years of this?
- Ramzy Baroud
(Mar 25, '13)
Qatari spoiler role in Syria draws Iranian ire
The resignation of Syrian opposition leader Ahmed Moaz al-Khatibi, citing Qatar's attempts to exert control over the movement, damages the prospects of peace talks with Damascus favored by both Iran and the UN. Qatar is showing its complicity in US designs on Syria, and that threatens to strain crucial diplomatic, economic, and energy ties with Iran.
- Kaveh L Afrasiabi
(Mar 25, '13)
 The ever-destructive fantasy of air power
Drone warfare gives a new twist to a story nearly as old as flight itself; the ability of air supremacy to deliver decisive triumph over helpless enemies. Yet as airstrikes on al-Qaeda and its affiliates show, drones are neither surgical nor decisive. The dream of air power remains a capricious and destructive fantasy. - William J Astore
(Mar 25, '13)
Karzai's curious counterblast
Whatever Hamid Karzai's motives for accusing US forces of colluding with the Taliban, then saying he was just trying to improve relations with Washington, the Afghanistan president is clearly exasperated that the Americans don't appear to be taking his requests seriously.
- Hafizullah Gardesh
(Mar 25, '13)
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)
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)
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
(Mar 22, '13) |
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Baku expands role
in Turkish economy
Azerbaijan's State Oil Company (SOCAR) and Denmark's Moeller-Maersk are to develop a giant port near Izmir in Turkey, adding to SOCAR's interests nearby and testifying to Baku's effective use of oil revenues for re-investment in other projects. - Vladimir Socor
THE BEAR'S LAIR
Not a decent banker around
The evidence, from JP Morgan's grilling in the US Senate to the European Union's blundering over the Cyprus bailout, is only too clear: the public and private sectors in Europe and the US cannot produce a decent, competent banker between them. - Martin Hutchinson
CREDIT
BUBBLE BULLETIN
Cyprus and money
Market participants have appeared confident that the German government will talk tough before caving and bit-by-bit backstopping the entire euro zone. Last week's high-stakes drama over Cyprus may have market players rethinking a few things.
Doug Noland looks at the previous week's events each Monday.
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Jim O'Neill upbraids
UPA government
Jim O'Neill of Goldman Sachs who coined the acronym BRICS still remains enthusiastic about the grouping, although lately he began to sense that other new growth markets in the world economy may be stealing a march - Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea and Turkey. Someone even suggested an acronym for the second "up-and-coming" grouping - MIST.
- M K Bhadrakumar
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