26 February 2008
Nigerian Panel Dismisses Challenge to Presidential Election Results
This morning, a five-judge tribunal declined to invalidate the results of last April's Nigerian presidential election. The panel, sitting in Abuja, concluded that there was insufficient evidence that the violations of Nigerian law that took place during the election were substantial enough to call the election of Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua into question. The losing presidential candidates who brought the case said that they would appeal the decision to Nigeria's Supreme Court:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7263534.stm
Meanwhile, a new Amnesty International report criticizes Nigeria's criminal justice system. Two-thirds of the prisoners in Nigeria's prisons have never been convicted of a crime, with some prisoners waiting as long as ten years to be tried. Only one in seven prisoners has a lawyer. Torture is widespread in Nigerian prisons; the prisons themselves are so unsanitary and overcrowded that both physical and mental illness are rampant:
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/report/nigerias-prison-system-fails-its-people-20080226
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7263534.stm
Meanwhile, a new Amnesty International report criticizes Nigeria's criminal justice system. Two-thirds of the prisoners in Nigeria's prisons have never been convicted of a crime, with some prisoners waiting as long as ten years to be tried. Only one in seven prisoners has a lawyer. Torture is widespread in Nigerian prisons; the prisons themselves are so unsanitary and overcrowded that both physical and mental illness are rampant:
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/report/nigerias-prison-system-fails-its-people-20080226
24 February 2008
Российская Федерация
This morning's New York Times contains a disturbing look at contemporary Russian politics, arguing that Russia is slowly becoming an autocracy. The article details the means that President Vladimir Putin's party, United Russia, uses to ensure its electoral success, even in parts of the country that have historically supported other parties, and how thoroughly the Russian state, and Putin's allies in the Russian media, have marginalized and silenced dissent:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/24/world/europe/24putin.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/24/world/europe/24putin.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
23 February 2008
Iran Parliamentary Elections to Pit Hardline Conservatives Against Pragmatic Conservatives
Iranians go to the polls on March 14 to elect a new Majles. While local Executive Councils have disqualified nearly one third of the candidates (including most of the reformist candidates backed by former Iranian President Muhammad Khatami), some of the previously disqualified candidates have been reinstated by the Guardian Council. According to The Economist, however, the reformists will not play an important role in the election; instead, the contest will be between ideological conservatives close to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and more pragmatic conservatives allied with Tehran Mayor Muhammad Qalibaf. Qalibaf is expected to take on Ahmadinejad in the 2009 presidential election -- with the tacit support of Iran's Leader, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei:
http://www.economist.com/world/africa/PrinterFriendly.cfm?story_id=10740664
http://www.economist.com/world/africa/PrinterFriendly.cfm?story_id=10740664
Expanding Health Care in China
Nearly sixty years following the Communist victory in its civil war, China is considering the feasibility of adopting universal health coverage:
http://www.economist.com/world/asia/PrinterFriendly.cfm?story_id=10727824
http://www.economist.com/world/asia/PrinterFriendly.cfm?story_id=10727824
Nigerian Tribunal Voids Election of Senate President
Citing election irregularities, a Benue tribunal has annulled the election of Nigerian Senate President David Marks. He will remain in office while he appeals the tribunal's decision. On Tuesday, a tribunal in Abuja, Nigeria's capital, will rule on a legal challenge to last April's election of Umaru Yar'Adua to the Nigerian presidency; international observers reported at the time that the election was marred by blatant vote rigging.
The potential removal of Senator Marks from office could create political confusion; if the election of President Yar'Adua and Vice-President Jonathan were voided, Marks would be next in line to assume the presidency:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7261097.stm
The potential removal of Senator Marks from office could create political confusion; if the election of President Yar'Adua and Vice-President Jonathan were voided, Marks would be next in line to assume the presidency:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7261097.stm
19 February 2008
Mexico's Ineffective National Human Rights Commission
In this week's issue, The Economist examines Mexico's National Human Rights Commission. The Commission was established in 1990 to investigate human rights abuses by Mexican government agencies, and to make "recommendations [to the government about how] to punish and prevent" such abuses. The Economist concludes that the Commission is "[b]ig, expensive and weirdly spineless" (44):
http://www.economist.com/world/la/PrinterFriendly.cfm?story_id=10696136
http://www.economist.com/world/la/PrinterFriendly.cfm?story_id=10696136
Who Will Own and Control China's Land?
In the next five years, China will spend nearly half a trillion dollars expanding its air, rail and highway infrastructure. One of the advantages of political oligarchy is that such important decisions as where to situate a rail line extension, a new highway or a new airport -- or even whether it makes environmental or economic sense to develop an American-style national highway system -- can be made without considering public opinion. As Xu Li, an official in China's Ministry of Communications puts it, "Democracy sacrifices efficiency."
http://www.economist.com/world/asia/PrinterFriendly.cfm?story_id=10697210
In part because land use decisions in China have become politically charged, there is a growing movement in China to privatize land ownership in rural areas. The Chinese Government is opposed to the idea -- but agrees that steps must be taken to prevent family farmers from being thrown off the land they farm by corrupt local officials:
http://www.economist.com/world/asia/PrinterFriendly.cfm?story_id=10696084
http://www.economist.com/world/asia/PrinterFriendly.cfm?story_id=10697210
In part because land use decisions in China have become politically charged, there is a growing movement in China to privatize land ownership in rural areas. The Chinese Government is opposed to the idea -- but agrees that steps must be taken to prevent family farmers from being thrown off the land they farm by corrupt local officials:
http://www.economist.com/world/asia/PrinterFriendly.cfm?story_id=10696084
British Government Nationalizes Northern Rock
The British Government announced Sunday that it would take troubled mortgage lender Northern Rock PLC into public ownership. The Government had lent Northern Rock nearly $50 billion to keep the bank from collapsing. It had also rejected offers from two potential Northern Rock purchasers because, in the Government's view, neither offer was likely to result in British taxpayers recovering the sums lent to Northern Rock by the Government:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120333565998274891.html?mod=todays_us_nonsub_page_one
Prior to the takeover, The Economist noted that the Conservative Party has failed to make significant inroads on the strong support that the Labour Party enjoys in the English Midlands and in Northern England:
http://www.economist.com/world/britain/PrinterFriendly.cfm?story_id=10697975
The Labour Government has now nationalized the Newcastle-based Northern Rock, a major lender and employer in Northern England. If the Government forecloses on unpaid Northern Rock mortgages, or lays off Northern Rock employees, in order to make enough profit to secure repayment of its $50 billion loan, will traditional Labour Party voters in Northern England desert the party for the Liberals -- or even the Tories?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120333565998274891.html?mod=todays_us_nonsub_page_one
Prior to the takeover, The Economist noted that the Conservative Party has failed to make significant inroads on the strong support that the Labour Party enjoys in the English Midlands and in Northern England:
http://www.economist.com/world/britain/PrinterFriendly.cfm?story_id=10697975
The Labour Government has now nationalized the Newcastle-based Northern Rock, a major lender and employer in Northern England. If the Government forecloses on unpaid Northern Rock mortgages, or lays off Northern Rock employees, in order to make enough profit to secure repayment of its $50 billion loan, will traditional Labour Party voters in Northern England desert the party for the Liberals -- or even the Tories?
13 February 2008
Is the Transfer of Power from One Generation to Another Behind the "Crackdown" on Reformism in Iran?
According to Monday's Washington Post, the 2005 election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as President of Iran, and the disqualification earlier this year of a majority of the reformist candidates for the Majlis, represents a change in the generation that dominates Iran politically. According to the Post, power in Iran is slowly shifting from the clerics who took power after the Revolution of 1978-79 -- many of whom have mellowed since the Revolution -- to younger and more hardline men who were military commanders during the Revolution and the War with Iraq:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/10/AR2008021002698_pf.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/10/AR2008021002698_pf.html
07 February 2008
Mexico: A Dispatch from the Front
A year ago, Mexican President Felipe Calderón called out the army to take on Mexico's narco-traffickers. Now Calderón is prodding the Mexican Congress to enact judicial reform and to expand the powers of the police. But critics argue that neither of these things will address the greatest weapon that the narco-traffickers have in battling the Mexican state: rampant corruption among Mexican police, judges and government officials:
http://www.economist.com/world/la/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10608676
http://www.economist.com/world/la/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10608676
04 February 2008
Nigerian Court Considers Challenge to Yar'Adua's Election
In Nigeria, the losers of many of last April's blatantly rigged elections have filed court challenges to the validity of the election results. According to the January 26th issue of The Economist, "[e]lection tribunals ... have so far [removed from office] six governors, over a dozen senators, and scores of local-government officials..."(47). On January 28th, a Presidential Election Tribunal in Abjua began to hear the case filed by defeated presidential candidates Muhammadu Buhari and Atiku Abubakar; the action seeks annulment of the election of President Umaru Yar'Adua on the grounds that his election was fixed:
http://www.economist.com/world/africa/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10567560
Today, however, the start of the second week of the trial was delayed by a court employees' strike:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7226344.stm
http://www.economist.com/world/africa/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10567560
Today, however, the start of the second week of the trial was delayed by a court employees' strike:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7226344.stm
China's Feeble Environmental Watchdog Agency
China's State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) is a weak agency within the Chinese government. It is chronically underfunded, and typically loses bureaucratic battles to other state agencies. But, according to the January 26th issue of The Economist, this may be about to change:
http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10566907#top
http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10566907#top
Has Free Trade With the US Perpetuated Rural Poverty in Mexico?
January 1, 2008 marked the end of the 14-year period established in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) for the transition to duty-free trade among Mexico, the US and Canada. On January 1, Mexico lifted its last tariffs on goods produced in the US -- including its last tariffs on corn, beans, sugar and milk. In its January 26th issue, The Economist argues that free trade has benefitted both Mexico and the US, and that the persistence of rural poverty in Mexico does not result from that country's increased food imports from the US and Canada:
http://www.economist.com/world/la/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10566845
http://www.economist.com/world/la/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10566845
03 February 2008
Chilly Days in Iran
Iran is having a hard winter: shortages of natural gas are causing frequent interruptions of electricity and home heating services. According to this morning's New York Times, Iran's energy crisis is putting pressure on the government of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to focus less on ideology and more on restoring the country's economy. Despite these pressures, President Ahmadinejad's government is continuing to increase the level of political and social repression in Iran. 70% of the reformist candidates for the Majlis have been thrown off the ballot, a feminist magazine has been shuttered, students protesting conditions in a university dormitory have been arrested, and women are getting in trouble for wearing warm hats over their head scarves:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/03/world/middleeast/03iran.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=world&pagewanted=print
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/03/world/middleeast/03iran.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=world&pagewanted=print
