31 October 2011
Former Moscow Mayor Blasts Medvedev, United Russia
Yuri Luzhkov, who served as mayor of Moscow for 18 years until he was dismissed in 2010 by Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, has accused Medvedev of behaving "like a dictator." Luzhkov, now under investigation for corruption, contends that Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (who is expected to return to the presidency of Russia next year) is actually far more tolerant of dissent than is Medvedev. Luzhkov also predicts that United Russia, originally formed to further Putin's political ambitions, will win a fraudulent victory in Russia's December parliamentary elections. As a former United Russia insider, Luzhkov ought to know:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15531891
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15531891
29 October 2011
Pesimismo
According to a recent Latinobarómetro survey, only about one in five Mexicans thinks that Mexico is making progress. Indeed, Mexicans are less satisfied with how democracy works in their country than are people in the 17 other Latin American countries surveyed. (Mexican democracy may not be more dysfunctional than democracy elsewhere in Latin America; Mexicans may simply be more demanding). Mexicans are also less enthusiastic about democracy in theory than are people in most other Latin American countries, though they are not fond of the idea of authoritarianism:
http://www.economist.com/node/21534798
http://www.economist.com/node/21534798
The Chinese Government Applies the Brakes
While the United States, Japan and the countries of the European Union struggle with economic stagnation, the Chinese economy has grown so rapidly in the past two years that the government has taken strong anti-inflationary measures. The resulting credit crunch has led to a dramatic decline in railroad, highway and building construction, and a sizable increase in the number of employers unable to pay their workers on time:
http://www.economist.com/node/21534838
http://www.economist.com/node/21534838
On Second Thought, I'm Not Really Hungry
In recent years, China has been plagued by a series of food safety scandals. Some of these scandals have involved corruption at high levels of government. China adopted tough food safety legislation in 2009; nonetheless, enforcement of food safety laws appears to be ineffective and selective:
http://www.economist.com/node/21534812
http://www.economist.com/node/21534812
28 October 2011
Seven Billion and Counting
In October 1999, the world's six billionth living person was born. On Monday, the world's seven billionth living person will be born. Despite the fact that it has taken only 12 years for the world's population to grow by one billion, population growth rates are falling in most of the world. Over the next 20 years, there will be rapid population growth in Africa (though it will not be as rapid as in the past twenty years), relative population stability in the US, Latin America and most of Asia, and population decline in Europe and Japan. The Economist recently analyzed the long-term implications of these demographic changes:
http://www.economist.com/node/21533364
http://www.economist.com/node/21533364
23 October 2011
Yes, Minister
According to The Economist, the resignation of Liam Fox as Britain's Defence Secretary, and the introduction of new rules designed to curb the power of lobbyists (who, in Britain, focus their attention on Cabinet members and not on other Members of Parliament), may strengthen the power of senior civil servants relative to Cabinet ministers:
http://www.economist.com/node/21533414
http://www.economist.com/node/21533414
враньё
Last August, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin "discovered" two ancient Greek amphorae on the floor of the Black Sea. When Putin's spokesman admitted earlier this week that the urns had been planted by archaeologists for Putin to find, no one outside Russia was surprised.
But did Russians believe this latest installment in the canon of Putin mythology? (In past summers, we've been treated to Putin stripped to the waist, fishing in Siberia; Putin fighting forest fires; Putin shooting a tiger with a tranquilizer dart; and Putin harpooning a whale to take a sample of its blubber). In a short personal reflection in this morning's New York Times, Elena Gorokhova argues that, in the Soviet era, Putin's Black Sea stunt would have been recognized as an example of vranyo, a lie that everyone knows to be a lie but pretends to believe. Russians today, however, want desperately to believe in a national hero:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/23/magazine/from-russia-with-lies.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&ref=todayspaper&adxnnlx=1319407352-kfUb1KvFfNyWl4/DqU0StQ
But did Russians believe this latest installment in the canon of Putin mythology? (In past summers, we've been treated to Putin stripped to the waist, fishing in Siberia; Putin fighting forest fires; Putin shooting a tiger with a tranquilizer dart; and Putin harpooning a whale to take a sample of its blubber). In a short personal reflection in this morning's New York Times, Elena Gorokhova argues that, in the Soviet era, Putin's Black Sea stunt would have been recognized as an example of vranyo, a lie that everyone knows to be a lie but pretends to believe. Russians today, however, want desperately to believe in a national hero:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/23/magazine/from-russia-with-lies.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&ref=todayspaper&adxnnlx=1319407352-kfUb1KvFfNyWl4/DqU0StQ
15 October 2011
China Increases Public Housing Construction
At the insistence of the central government, Chinese cities have embarked on an ambitious campaign to build public housing for low-income residents. The reports made by Chinese cities of the number of units under construction, however, appear to be highly inflated. Moreover, the people in Chinese cities arguably most in need of decent, affordable housing -- migrants from the Chinese countryside who do not have permits officially allowing them to reside in the cities in which they live -- are ineligible for apartments in the new buildings:
http://www.economist.com/node/21532334
http://www.economist.com/node/21532334
09 October 2011
Student Activist Lashed for Insulting Ahmadinejad
A former Tehran University student, Peyman Aref, was lashed 74 times today, shortly before he was released from prison. Aref was arrested in 2009 for writing a letter to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, criticizing Ahmadinejad for removing politically active students from Iranian universities. Aref was convicted in 2010 of insulting President Ahmadinejad, and sentenced to a year in prison and 74 lashes. While it is not unusual for Iranians to be flogged for such crimes as alcohol consumption or fornication, and while political prisoners are sometimes whipped for "insulting Islam," this was the first case in some time in which an Iranian was flogged for insulting a purely political figure:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/09/iranian-lashed-insult-ahmadinejad
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/09/iranian-lashed-insult-ahmadinejad
Putin's Policies in the North Caucasus Grow Unpopular
Vladimir Putin established himself as the most popular political figure in Russia in 1999 when, as Prime Minister, he launched an invasion of Chechnya, an independence-minded Russian republic in the northern part of the Caucasus mountains. The brutal military phase of the Second Chechen War coincided roughly with Putin's first term as Prime Minister (August 1999 to December 1999), and his first year as Russian president (December 1999 to December 2000). Since then, separatist insurgency campaigns in the North Caucasus (including Chechnya), significant violations of human rights in the North Caucasus by Russian security forces and their local allies, and separatist terrorism (in the North Caucasus and elsewhere in Russia) have marred Putin's tenure as Russia's president (1999-2008) and Prime Minister (2008 to the present).
Since 2000, Russia has relied on pro-Moscow Chechen strongmen to run Chechnya, and has pumped money into the republic, while ignoring widespread corruption and a level of human rights abuses that would be remarkable elsewhere in Russia (at least outside the Caucasus region). But Putin's strategy for maintaining Russian sovereignty in Chechnya, and even the goal of maintaining control of Chechnya, have become increasingly unpopular with the Russian public -- including hard core, xenophobic Russian nationalists:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/09/world/europe/chechnyas-costs-stir-anger-as-russia-approaches-elections.html?_r=1&ref=world
Since 2000, Russia has relied on pro-Moscow Chechen strongmen to run Chechnya, and has pumped money into the republic, while ignoring widespread corruption and a level of human rights abuses that would be remarkable elsewhere in Russia (at least outside the Caucasus region). But Putin's strategy for maintaining Russian sovereignty in Chechnya, and even the goal of maintaining control of Chechnya, have become increasingly unpopular with the Russian public -- including hard core, xenophobic Russian nationalists:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/09/world/europe/chechnyas-costs-stir-anger-as-russia-approaches-elections.html?_r=1&ref=world
08 October 2011
China Marks Centenary of Xinhai Revolution
On Monday, China will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the revolution that ended the Qing dynasty, China's last imperial dynasty. The Chinese government, however, has censored some of the works of art, academia and journalism created to mark the occasion. Apparently, too frank a discussion of a Chinese revolution intended to replace an authoritarian regime with a democratic government would be, well, awkward:
http://www.economist.com/node/21531524
http://www.economist.com/node/21531524
Federalism in Mexico
In 14 Mexican states, containing half of Mexico's population, a resident may acquire a driver's license without taking a road test. (In many states, road tests were abolished to prevent examiners from shaking down residents for bribes). Not surprisingly, perhaps, driving in Mexico is far more dangerous than in most other Latin American countries:
http://www.economist.com/node/21531484
http://www.economist.com/node/21531484
04 October 2011
Banking Scandal Threatens Ahmadinejad's Presidency
Eleven members of Iran's Majles initiated impeachment proceedings today against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in connection with the most serious banking scandal in Iranian history. Twenty-two businessmen, at least one of whom allegedly has ties to Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, Ahmadinejad's controversial Chief-of-Staff, have been accused of embezzling $2.6 billion from Iran's banks. The widening scandal has already drawn criticism from Iran's Leader, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who denounced the government's failure to take proper precautions against corruption. In another development in the scandal, the former Managing Director of Iran's state-owned Bank Melli, Mahmoud Reza Khavari, fled to Toronto. (Khavari has Canadian as well as Iranian citizenship).
The linked Turkish Weekly report about the scandal was first published in The Jerusalem Post, an English-language Israeli newspaper. The Post based its report on an article that appeared in Al-Hayat, a leading pan-Arab publication:
http://www.turkishweekly.net/news/124498/complaint-filed-against-ahmadinejad-over-embezzlement.html
The linked Turkish Weekly report about the scandal was first published in The Jerusalem Post, an English-language Israeli newspaper. The Post based its report on an article that appeared in Al-Hayat, a leading pan-Arab publication:
http://www.turkishweekly.net/news/124498/complaint-filed-against-ahmadinejad-over-embezzlement.html
Medvedev Fires Russian Finance Minister
Russian President Dmitri Medvedev will resume his post as prime minister next year if (as expected) current Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin returns to the presidency. Last week, Medvedev fired Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin. Kudrin had said that he would be unwilling to serve as finance minister under Medvedev, and specifically criticized Medvedev's plans to increase military spending by $66 billion over three years:
http://www.economist.com/node/21531038
http://www.economist.com/node/21531038
Has Barack Obama Started Writing for The Economist?
With the British economy barely growing, the Cameron Government's plans to improve the country's long-term debt position by making further near-term spending cuts has many analysts worried. The Economist -- hardly a left-wing journal -- calls this week for the Government to change tack and enact a modest stimulus package comprised chiefly of increased infrastructure spending. Interestingly, The Economist argues that a stimulus package of tax cuts would likely prove ineffective, since the affected taxpayers would be inclined to save the increase in their take-home earnings, rather than spend that increase in ways that would boost employment in the UK:
http://www.economist.com/node/21531015
The Economist, however, hasn't gone completely soft. According to The Economist, the speech given by Labour Party Leader Ed Miliband to this year's Labour Party Conference suggests that he is too far left to win a general election and too callow to be an effective prime minister:
http://www.economist.com/node/21530990
http://www.economist.com/node/21531015
The Economist, however, hasn't gone completely soft. According to The Economist, the speech given by Labour Party Leader Ed Miliband to this year's Labour Party Conference suggests that he is too far left to win a general election and too callow to be an effective prime minister:
http://www.economist.com/node/21530990
02 October 2011
Mexican Civil Society Group Calls for Change in Drug War Strategy
In an opinion piece in this morning's New York Times, Enrique Krauze, one of Mexico's best-known men of letters, examines his country's Movement for Peace With Justice and Dignity. Krauze argues that the growth of the Movement, which is led by relatives of ordinary Mexicans killed in the "narco war," represents both a critical step in the development of Mexican civil society and a possible way out of the violence that has so far claimed 40,000 lives. Among other things, the Movement calls for a thorough investigation of the relationship between the drug cartels and public officials at all levels, measures to curb human rights abuses by the security forces and further decriminalization of at least some drug trafficking. Krauze, however, emphasizes the significance of the Movement to the growth of Mexican democratic culture:
The movement is significant both for its symbolic value and because, historically, conflict-stricken societies can make meaningful steps toward peace only when their people — not their politicians, but average people — come together in an active movement against the violence. That is what Mexico is seeing today.Krauze, Enrique. "Can This Poet Save Mexico?" The New York Times. 2 Oct. 2011. Web. 2 Oct. 2011. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/02/opinion/sunday/can-this-poet-save-mexico.html?_r=1&scp=5&sq=mexico%20&st=cse
