AHS Comparative Government

In the past decade, Russian troops have fought two campaigns in Chechnya, an oil-rich republic within the Russian Federation, against separatist guerrillas. Chechen rebels have taken their fight to the rest of Russia, with brutal terrorist attacks in Beslan (in which hundreds of schoolchildren were killed) and Moscow. Now, ethnic violence and terrorism are increasing in Ingushetia, a republic within the Russian Federation that borders Chechnya:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6972955.stm

Russian Prosecutor-General Yuri Chaika announced today that ten suspects are in custody in connection with the murder of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya. Ms. Politkovskaya was shot to death last October in the elevator of her Moscow apartment building. Chaika announced, further, that active and retired interior ministry and Federal Security Bureau (FSB) officers were among those arrested. The FSB is the successor to the KGB of the former Soviet Union; Russian President Vladimir Putin is a former KGB agent, as are many of the most important officials in the Russian government. Chaika nonetheless announced that Politkovskaya was the victim of a conspiracy led by a Moscow criminal group of Chechen ethnic origin and argued that "[t]he individuals interested in eliminating Politkovskaya can only be [people] living beyond Russia's borders."

Politkovskaya was an ardent critic of Russia's war against secessionists in Chechnya, of the pro-Moscow Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, and of President Putin. She was one of more than a dozen journalists to have been murdered in Russia in the past several years:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6965253.stm

In October, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will hold its first party congress in five years. At the close of the congress, Chinese President Hu Jintao, who also serves as the Secretary-General of the CCP's Central Committee, will bring several younger men (and, perhaps, women) onto the CCP's Politburo and Central Committee. These men and women will govern China beginning in 2012, when Hu and most of his generation of CCP leaders are expected to retire. Elaborate preparations are now underway for the party congress. These include a new crackdown on press freedom and the imprisonment of a leading pro-democracy dissident:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,2151227,00.html

One pernicious effect of China's one-child policy is a growing gender imbalance in the Chinese population. Chinese parents traditionally prefer sons to daughters; many parents, allowed to have only one child, choose to abort female fetuses. Accordingly, six boys are born for every five girls; in the worst-affected city, Lianyungang (Jiangsu province), there are 165 boys for every 100 girls among children aged 1 to 4. As a result of this gender imbalance, there are already 18 million more Chinese men than Chinese women of marriageable age; that number will increase to 37 million by 2020.

The social problems that can result from such a profound gender imbalance are obvious. While Chinese law already prohibits doctors from telling expectant parents the gender of their child, and prohibits expectant parents from having an abortion for the purpose of selecting their baby's gender, the gender imbalance in China's population continues to increase. Accordingly, China has adopted tougher punishments for violating these laws:

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2156355,00.html

Last April, Nigeria's blatantly rigged state and federal elections provoked widespread domestic and international criticism. On Thursday, President Yar'Adua sought to meet that criticism by creating a committee charged with proposing reforms to Nigeria's electoral system. Whether the committee's recommendations are ultimately enacted into law, and whether the measures -- if adopted -- prove effective, remain to be seen:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6960822.stm

Bear in mind that government leaders often attempt to deflect criticism by setting up a committee to look at an issue; the leaders can then justify their inaction on the issue by claiming that they are waiting for the committee to consider the matter carefully and to issue a report. Of course, the longer the committee takes to consider the issue and prepare its report the better...

China has had a one-child policy for several decades, long enough for only children born under the policy to marry and have only children of their own. While the policy has succeeded in curbing China's population growth, and reducing the resources that China must devote to caring for and educating its children, the policy may pose a risk to the standards of living of the elderly. China does not have a well-developed system of publicly-provided old age pensions (such as Social Security in the US), or of employer-provided pensions; elderly people in China rely on their children and grandchildren to support them. But what happens when one worker must support both of his elderly parents (because she has no siblings) -- and all four of her elderly grandparents (because both of her parents were only children)?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6222586.stm

Haleh Esfandiari, the head of the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, DC, was arrested in Tehran last May and charged with spying for the US and Israel. Ms. Esfandiari had previously been prevented from leaving Iran in December 2006, when she attempted to return to the US following a visit to her mother.

After having been imprisoned for three months, Ms. Esfandiari was released yesterday on bail. Whether she will be allowed to leave Iran is another question: she remains charged with espionage.

A second Iranian-American academic accused of espionage, Kian Tajbakhsh, remains in prison:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6956946.stm

Iran loses 150,00 of its best-educated young workers each year to emigration -- and the number has increased dramatically over the past few years. (Neither Iran's current economic crisis nor the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the presidency has made staying in Iran especially attractive to well-educated Iranians). Iran has one of the highest rates of "brain drain" in the world; the Iranian government estimates that the emigration of well-educated Iranians costs the country $40 billion each year:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6240287.stm

The Russian government has ordered the BBC's Russian-language service off Russian FM radio. Almost all broadcast media in Russia are in the hands of the government or its private-sector supporters; the move eliminates one of the last broadcast sources of information in Russia that is critical of both President Vladimir Putin and his (increasingly irrelevant) political opponents:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6951710.stm

The move also signals a new low in post-Cold War British-Russian relations. Russia has refused to extradite former FSB (the successor to the KGB) agent Andrei Lugovoi to stand trial in Britain for the murder of Putin critic Alexander Litvinenko. Litvinenko, also a former FSB agent, died in November 2006 of polonium-210 poisoning. He had been living in London under a grant of political asylum from the British government after incurring Putin's disfavor in the late 1990s, when Putin headed the FSB.

Britain, on the other hand, has refused to extradite Russian "oligarch" Boris Berezovsky to Russia, where he faces trial on fraud and political corruption charges. (The term "oligarch" is used in Russia to describe a man who became fabulously wealthy in the years following the end of communism, while the living standards of most Russians were plummeting, by taking advantage of contacts within the Yeltsin government). Berezovsky lives in exile in Britain where he raised headlines earlier this year by announcing that he is plotting to bring down Putin by "force." (Following this outburst, the British government reminded Berezovsky that he is a guest in Britain and that plotting the violent overthrow of a foreign government violates British law; Berezovsky then announced that he seeks only to oust Putin through a bloodless revolution).

Many of the senior ministers in Putin's government served with him in the KGB and the FSB. (Putin served in the KGB in the former East Germany during the Cold War). Please follow this link to learn more about the FSB:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6169414.stm

A recent Institute for Public Policy Research study has concluded that more than 5.5 million people born in Britain are living outside the United Kingdom. In other words, a tenth of the British population is living abroad. The number of people leaving the country, which has increased significantly in the past decade, is more than matched by the number of people immigrating to the United Kingdom. In 2005, for example, just over 100,000 Britons left the country to live abroad, while 300,000 people from other countries moved to the United Kingdom. While significant flows of people across borders may be an inevitable consequence of globalization (a citizen of an EU member country -- such as Britain -- may live and work in any other EU member country without obtaining any sort of residence or work permit from the country to which she has emigrated), the significant migration of people to and from Britain has obvious long-term implications for British culture and society:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6210358.stm

Britain's rate of emigration is high but hardly unique. Approximately 11 million people born in Mexico, or more than a tenth of all people born in that country, live in the United States.

On Monday night, a bomb exploded on an express train travelling at more than 100 miles per hour between Moscow and St. Petersburg. The train derailed, injuring 60 passengers; fortunately, no one was killed. This was the third bomb attack on a Russian passenger train in the past several years:

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/n/a/2007/08/14/international/i081734D44.DTL&type=printable

Russia has suffered a number of horrifying terrorist attacks in recent years, the most infamous being the 2004 mass kidnapping of 1000 schoolchildren and their families in Beslan; 300 people -- most of them children -- were killed when Russian troops attempted to free the hostages. Most of these recent acts of terrorism appear linked to Russia's efforts to put down a secessionist rebellion in the Republic of Chechnya, one of the Russian Federation's 89 constituent sub-units.

Russia itself may not be above attempting to intimidate its neighbors through the calculated use of terror; on Monday, August 7, a Russian guided missile landed in the neighboring country of Georgia. (Like Russia, Georgia is a former Soviet republic). Russia denies that it launched the missile, claiming that the Georgians launched it themselves in an effort to embarrass Russia. Relations between Georgia and Russia are tense. Georgia is strongly pro-Western and wants to join NATO; ironically, Russia supports two secessionist movements in tiny Georgia:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6934354.stm

Mexican drug cartels supply 90% of the cocaine consumed each year in the US. It is a lucrative business -- estimates of annual revenues range from $8 billion to $25 billion. The business is thus profitable enough to allow the drug cartels to hire a lot of muscle, acquire sophisticated weapons, and buy off a lot of cops (especially in Mexico, where police officers make far less than they do in the US).

Mexico's cocaine cartels do not compete with each other by lowering the prices they charge their customers, or by launching slick advertising campaigns. Instead, they try to kill each other. Last year, more than 2000 Mexicans were murdered execution-style in inter-cartel warfare; so far this year, more than 1400 Mexicans have been killed in Mexico's drug wars.

Over the past seven years, the US has given Colombia $5 billion to fight its cocaine cartels. Now that the American market is supplied from Mexico, the Bush Administration plans to propose helping fund the Mexican government's efforts to stamp out the cocaine trade. Bush also intends to propose supplying Mexico with airplanes, radar, and surveillance equipment, and training Mexican law enforcement personnel:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2145731,00.html

Last week, Russia dramatized its claim to a vast stretch of the Arctic Ocean, and the oil and natural gas reserves buried beneath it, by planting a Russian flag on the floor of that ocean. (The area is currently within international waters under treaties signed by Russia and several of the other countries bordering the Arctic Ocean). Russia's bold move -- just months before national parliamentary and presidential elections -- has set off a scramble for the Arctic reminiscent of the late 19th century scramble for Africa. Denmark (which "owns" Greenland) has sent a scientific expedition to the North Pole to try to disprove the Russian claim, or to find evidence supporting an equally broad Danish claim:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6941134.stm

Canada, not to be outdone, has announced that it will build two new military bases above the Arctic Circle:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6941426.stm

Should we expect similar measures from the two other "Arctic powers" -- the US and Norway?

Umaru Yar'Adua, who became president of Nigeria in June, has suspended a contract approved by his predecessor, Olusegun Obasanjo. Obasanjo, who remains the de facto head of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) to which Yar'Adua belongs, chose Yar'Adua to run as the PDP's candidate in last April's presidential election.

The suspended $145 million contract would have built health clinics across Nigeria; it was awarded to a company which, according to the BBC, is "believed to be owned by a former aide to [former president] Obasanjo." Yar'Adua's suspension of the contract has been interpreted by many analysts as an attempt to distance himself from his political mentor:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6934794.stm

The baiji, known in English as the Yangtze river dolphin, has become extinct. The baiji, a freshwater marine mammal found only in the Yangtze, was the last remaining species in the Lipotidae family; the baiji had evolved separately from all other marine mammals for the past 20 million years. According to the BBC, the extinction of the Yangtze river dolphin is the first extinction of a large vertebrate species in half a century.

The baiji has long held an honored place in Chinese folklore. The animal biologists who reported the extinction ascribed the demise of the baiji primarily to modern methods used to fish for other species; baiji were incidentally killed in large numbers as by-catch:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6935343.stm

The BBC has created an interactive chart explaining how China is governed. Similar to the BBC's interactive chart explaining Iran's complex governance structure (see Blog post dated 17 April 2006), "How China is Ruled" is a relatively entertaining way to learn about Chinese government and politics:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/in_depth/china_politics/government/html/1.stm

On Thursday, two Russian mini-submarines planted the Russian flag on the bottom of the Arctic Ocean -- two and a half miles beneath the surface -- in an effort to dramatize Russia's claim to 460,000 square miles of what the UN, and most other nations, contend are international waters. With global warming rapidly melting the Arctic ice cap, it will soon be feasible for human beings to exploit the substantial natural gas and oil deposits beneath the Arctic Ocean. Russia, which has regained economic stability and international clout by developing its existing gas and oil reserves, has claimed vast sections of the Arctic reserves in an attempt to extend its wealth and power:

http://news.independent.co.uk/sci_tech/article2831111.ece

Iran frequently imprisons journalists and academics who criticize that country's system of government, but has generally refrained from executing dissident intellectuals since the 1980s. On Tuesday, however, a spokesman for Iran's judiciary confirmed that two reporters had been sentenced to death for being "enemies of God." Both men are members of Iran's Kurdish minority:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6925016.stm