28 March 2011
Labour Leader Criticizes Coalition's Austerity Policies
In opposition, Britain's Labour Party continues to oppose the austerity measures now being implemented by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government. The Leader of the Opposition, Ed Miliband, argues that the measures are too severe, and may lead to renewed recession. The Economist, however, contends that Miliband has yet to articulate alternative policies that will protect Britain's fragile economic recovery while balancing the budget in the middle-term. (As you read the article, please bear in mind that The Economist is a pro-business newspaper with limited enthusiasm for the Labour Party).
http://www.economist.com/node/18443549?story_id=18443549
http://www.economist.com/node/18443549?story_id=18443549
27 March 2011
Net Censorship Tightened in China
Chinese censors have made it more difficult for internet users to evade that country's internet firewalls:
http://www.economist.com/node/18446976
http://www.economist.com/node/18446976
26 March 2011
Crackdown on Dissent in China Expands
Following online calls for pro-democracy demonstrations in Chinese cities, Chinese authorities have aggressively cracked down on dissent. In the past several weeks, 33 people have been taken into police custody; 22 of them have been formally detained. Liu Xianbin, a dissident in Sichuan province, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison; Liu previously served a 9 year sentence for trying to organize an unauthorized political party:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/03/26/MN7K1IJPK3.DTL&type=printable
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/03/26/MN7K1IJPK3.DTL&type=printable
22 March 2011
Mexican Economy Set for Robust Growth Despite War on Drug Trafficking
Mexican Finance Minister Ernesto Cordero announced today that the Mexican economy will grow 4-5% in 2011, after growing 5.5% in 2010. Cordero, who is widely expected to be the 2012 presidential candidate of the governing, center-right Partido Acción Nacional (PAN), noted that Mexico's bitter war against narco-trafficking has not reduced foreign investment or tourism in Mexico; instead, it has channeled investment and tourism to parts of Mexico relatively unaffected by the violence:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12818647
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12818647
21 March 2011
Predictable Results in Russian Regional Elections
Twelve Russian regions held regional legislative elections on 13 March. The results were predictable: though its share of the vote declined, the United Russia Party led by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin won 70% of the seats at stake. The previously unknown Patriots of Russia Party also did well. Patriots of Russia appears to be another in a long series of pretend opposition parties, which mimic the rhetoric of actual opposition parties (in order to draw electoral support from those parties) but which, once in office, support Kremlin policies. The Economist predicts that Patriots of Russia will serve a similar spoiler role in the December elections for the State Duma:
http://www.economist.com/node/18400554?story_id=18400554
According to The Economist, Just Russia, the party that previously functioned as an "opposition" party while consistently supporting the Kremlin, has grown increasingly independent of Prime Minister Putin. Party Chairman Sergei Mironov announced in February that Just Russia would field its own candidate in the 2012 Russian Presidential election, rather than supporting the candidate of the United Russia Party (expected to be either Putin or incumbent Russian President Dmitri Medvedev) as it did in 2008. The extent to which Just Russia is truly independent of the Kremlin is the matter of some debate:
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/mobile/article/431625.html
http://www.economist.com/node/18400554?story_id=18400554
According to The Economist, Just Russia, the party that previously functioned as an "opposition" party while consistently supporting the Kremlin, has grown increasingly independent of Prime Minister Putin. Party Chairman Sergei Mironov announced in February that Just Russia would field its own candidate in the 2012 Russian Presidential election, rather than supporting the candidate of the United Russia Party (expected to be either Putin or incumbent Russian President Dmitri Medvedev) as it did in 2008. The extent to which Just Russia is truly independent of the Kremlin is the matter of some debate:
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/mobile/article/431625.html
20 March 2011
Morozov Debunks Cyber-Utopianism
Evgeny Morozov, currently a visiting scholar at Stanford, has created an excellent video in which he argues that the advent of the internet will not necessarily lead to the growth of human rights and pro-democracy movements in authoritarian countries. Indeed, Morozov contends that the growth of the internet may actually inhibit democratization:
http://www.youtube.com/user/theRSAorg?blend=1&ob=5
I would like to thank AHS sophomore Spencer Perry for sending me the link to this video.
http://www.youtube.com/user/theRSAorg?blend=1&ob=5
I would like to thank AHS sophomore Spencer Perry for sending me the link to this video.
19 March 2011
The Siloviki and the State
An article in the 13 January issue of The New York Review of Books examines the extent to which the Russian state is dominated by the Federal Security Service (FSB) and reveals the brutal conflict within the FSB for power and money:
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/jan/13/concealed-battle-run-russia/?pagination=false&printpage=true
I am indebted to Joseph Schottland of Acalanes High School in Lafayette, California for calling this article to my attention.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/jan/13/concealed-battle-run-russia/?pagination=false&printpage=true
I am indebted to Joseph Schottland of Acalanes High School in Lafayette, California for calling this article to my attention.
17 March 2011
China's National People's Congress Concludes Annual Meeting
The annual nine-day meeting of China's national legislature, the National People's Congress, concluded Monday. During the session, Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao announced the state budget for 2011. Spending will increase significantly on education, health care, social security and housing. Military spending, and spending on internal security, will also increase dramatically; the rise in security spending may have been prompted, in part, by on-line calls for pro-democracy protests in Chinese cities:
http://www.economist.com/node/18335099?story_id=18335099
Prime Minister Wen also announced plans to liberalize China's economy further by allowing more private investment in many areas:
http://www.economist.com/node/18335081
In China, however, increased private investment in an industry does not always result in decreased political control. The thesis of Richard McGregor's excellent book, The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers, is that the Chinese Communist Party dominates most major enterprises in China, whether they are state-owned, privately owned or in mixed public and private ownership.
http://www.economist.com/node/18335099?story_id=18335099
Prime Minister Wen also announced plans to liberalize China's economy further by allowing more private investment in many areas:
http://www.economist.com/node/18335081
In China, however, increased private investment in an industry does not always result in decreased political control. The thesis of Richard McGregor's excellent book, The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers, is that the Chinese Communist Party dominates most major enterprises in China, whether they are state-owned, privately owned or in mixed public and private ownership.
Nigerian Elections in Three Weeks
Nigeria will hold national and state elections in April. Elections for the National Assembly will take place on 2 April; presidential elections will follow on 9 April. In the presidential race, incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan has won the nomination of the People's Democratic Party even though he is from southern Nigeria and his nomination is seen by many northern Nigerian PDP members as a violation of the party's "zoning" agreement. Jonathan faces two challengers, Muhammadu Buhari (a former military dictator and two-time presidential candidate of the All Nigeria People's Party) of the Congress for Progressive Change and Nuhu Ribadu (the former head of Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the country's anti-corruption agency) of the Action Congress of Nigeria. Buhari and Ribadu are both from northern Nigeria:
http://www.economist.com/node/18340499?story_id=18340499
http://www.economist.com/node/18340499?story_id=18340499
10 March 2011
No Jasmine Please (We're Chinese)
Following January's "Jasmine Revolution" in Tunisia, and the mass protests that followed in Egypt, messages calling for peaceful pro-democracy demonstrations in Chinese cities have circulated on the internet. Most Chinese citizens are unaware of these messages, as they are blocked by China's extensive censorship of the web. Indeed, China's pervasive media censorship ensures that Chinese citizens have a limited and somewhat skewed view of the developments shaking the Middle East:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO1103/S00268/china-reports-of-protests-censored.htm
Nonetheless, Chinese authorities are taking no chances. While mass demonstrations have not materialized, foreign correspondents based in Beijing who have turned up at the times and places appointed for protests have been beaten, harassed and threatened with loss of their visas and work permits:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/03/02/501364/main20038591.shtml
The official rules that govern foreign journalists working in China have also been tightened:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/01/china-foreign-journalists
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO1103/S00268/china-reports-of-protests-censored.htm
Nonetheless, Chinese authorities are taking no chances. While mass demonstrations have not materialized, foreign correspondents based in Beijing who have turned up at the times and places appointed for protests have been beaten, harassed and threatened with loss of their visas and work permits:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/03/02/501364/main20038591.shtml
The official rules that govern foreign journalists working in China have also been tightened:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/01/china-foreign-journalists
Rafsanjani Ousted as Head of Iran's Assembly of Experts
The Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who served as Iran's president from 1989 to 1997, has lost his position as Chairman of Iran's Assembly of Religious Experts. The Assembly, which is popularly elected, chooses Iran's Leader in the event that the position is vacated by the death or incapacity of the incumbent. Rafsanjani is a moderate by Iranian standards; he criticized the harsh crackdown on the protests that followed the announcement of the disputed results of the 2009 presidential election while taking pains not to condemn those results as fraudulent. (Members of Rafsanjani's family, however, did participate in those demonstrations). Some observers believe that Rafsanjani's removal as head of the Assembly of Religious Experts may foreshadow his removal as head of Iran's Expediency Council. In any event, Rafsanjani's removal is universally seen as a victory for hardline conservatives in Iran, including Iran's Leader, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei; Iran's President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad; and the leadership of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps and Basij militia:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iran-rafsanjani-20110309,0,149591.story
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iran-rafsanjani-20110309,0,149591.story
