30 August 2018
Putin Eases Plans to Raise Retirement Age following Widespread Protests
In the wake of nationwide protests, Russian President Vladimir Putin has modified his government's plans to raise the age at which Russian workers may begin to collect old age pensions. The retirement age for men will increase over time from 60 to 65 as originally planned, but the retirement age for women will increase from 55 to 60, and not from 55 to 63 as initially proposed.
The Russian government first proposed raising the age at which workers may collect old age pensions while the country was hosting the World Cup, in the hope that the public's enthusiasm for the tournament would minimize public opposition to the proposal. But protests against raising the retirement age swept the country, and resulted in the first significant drop in Putin's popularity since his popularity soared in 2014 following Russia's annexation of the Crimean Peninsula:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45342721
The Russian government first proposed raising the age at which workers may collect old age pensions while the country was hosting the World Cup, in the hope that the public's enthusiasm for the tournament would minimize public opposition to the proposal. But protests against raising the retirement age swept the country, and resulted in the first significant drop in Putin's popularity since his popularity soared in 2014 following Russia's annexation of the Crimean Peninsula:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45342721
23 August 2018
Nigerian Vice-President Takes Decisive Measures while Serving as Acting President
Nigerian Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo filled in for President Muhammadu Buhari for ten days this summer while Buhari was on vacation. Osinbajo previously served as acting president for seven weeks in early 2017, and for several months in the summer of 2017, while Buhari was being treated in Britain for an undisclosed medical condition.
This summer, as acting president, Osinbajo fired the head of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Nigerian Police Force, ordered the reorganization of the Squad, placed limits on the Squad's future operations, and asked the Nigerian National Human Rights Commission to investigate allegations that Squad officers had engaged in arbitrary arrest, torture, extortion and illegal homicide. Osinbajo also removed the head of Nigeria's leading domestic intelligence agency, the State Security Service (also known as the Department of State Services) following a bizarre incident in which masked DSS agents blockaded the Nigerian National Assembly.
Osinbajo has been praised for his decisiveness as acting president, which contrasts with Buhari's more ponderous governing style. Nonetheless, Buhari will likely remain in the top position on the All Progressives Congress ticket in next year's presidential election:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-45206970
This summer, as acting president, Osinbajo fired the head of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Nigerian Police Force, ordered the reorganization of the Squad, placed limits on the Squad's future operations, and asked the Nigerian National Human Rights Commission to investigate allegations that Squad officers had engaged in arbitrary arrest, torture, extortion and illegal homicide. Osinbajo also removed the head of Nigeria's leading domestic intelligence agency, the State Security Service (also known as the Department of State Services) following a bizarre incident in which masked DSS agents blockaded the Nigerian National Assembly.
Osinbajo has been praised for his decisiveness as acting president, which contrasts with Buhari's more ponderous governing style. Nonetheless, Buhari will likely remain in the top position on the All Progressives Congress ticket in next year's presidential election:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-45206970
16 August 2018
Teenagers Entrapped by Russian Security Services
The Russian authorities have accused six young members of an online chat group, two of them teenagers, for plotting to overthrow the Russian government. The group's activities were fairly innocent until it was infiltrated by agents from several Russian security services; one of the agents then encouraged the group to adopt a manifesto, which he wrote, that contains the extremist language that forms the basis for the prosecution of six of the group's members.
Setting up teenagers with dissident political views for prosecution is certainly one way to discourage students from discussing politics, or becoming involved in political protest movements:
https://themoscowtimes.com/articles/a-russian-teenagers-chat-group-became-fsb-snare-62529
Setting up teenagers with dissident political views for prosecution is certainly one way to discourage students from discussing politics, or becoming involved in political protest movements:
https://themoscowtimes.com/articles/a-russian-teenagers-chat-group-became-fsb-snare-62529
Mexican Official, Due to Start First Term as Member of Congress, Kidnapped at Gunpoint
In July, Norma Azucena Rodríguez Zamora was elected to the Mexican Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of the Mexican Congress. A member of the left-wing Party of the Democratic Revolution (Partido de la Revolución Democrática, or PRD), Rodríguez was due to be inaugurated in September. On Wednesday, however, she was kidnapped at gunpoint, presumably by members of one of Mexico's narco-trafficking gangs.
In reporting the kidnapping, the BBC noted that at least 48 candidates for public office were murdered in the run-up to this year's Mexican general election:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-45195184
In reporting the kidnapping, the BBC noted that at least 48 candidates for public office were murdered in the run-up to this year's Mexican general election:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-45195184
Central American Asylum Seekers Will Pose Challenge for Mexico's Incoming President
With the United States increasingly unsympathetic to asylum claims made by immigrants from Central America, the number of Central Americans seeking asylum in Mexico is rising rapidly. Mexican President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador would like both the United States and Mexico to increase spending on economic development programs in Central America, in order to address the conditions that lead so many Central Americans to emigrate. US President Donald Trump, however, believes that both the United States and Mexico should focus on building walls on their southern borders:
https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2018/08/18/donald-trump-makes-migration-mexicos-problem
https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2018/08/18/donald-trump-makes-migration-mexicos-problem
UN: Hundreds of Thousands of Uyghurs Held in Re-Education Camps
11.3 million Uyghurs live in China. They comprise the largest ethnic group in China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (see blog post of 5 June 2018). This week, the United Nations reported that as many as 1 million Uyghurs are being held in re-education camps in Xinjiang:
https://www.economist.com/china/2018/08/18/china-suggests-its-camps-for-uighurs-are-just-vocational-schools
https://www.economist.com/china/2018/08/18/china-suggests-its-camps-for-uighurs-are-just-vocational-schools
04 August 2018
Google Wants to Return to China, Will Censor its Search Engine
The Economist reported this week that
Google [is] developing a censored version of its search engine for China. It [is] said to have been working in secret on a censored-search app since last year, and to have demonstrated it to Chinese officials. Google left China in 2010 to uphold its old motto, “Don’t be evil”."Politics This Week." The Economist, 4 Aug. 2018, p. 5.
03 August 2018
The Two-Child Policy
For nearly 40 years, China had a one-child policy: most couples
were allowed to have only one child. (This policy never applied to members of the
country’s ethnic minority groups). The policy led to a dramatic gender
imbalance in the Chinese population (couples expecting their first child would
abort female fetuses but not male fetuses) and the “4-2-1 Problem” (one young adult
having to support and take care of two ageing parents and four ageing grandparents).
Moreover, by 2014 the number of Chinese of working age had started to decrease.
In recent years, China has moved to a two-child policy:
most couples are allowed to have two children. (Again, members of ethnic minorities are exempt from the policy). The Chinese birth rate has not changed. The end of the one-child policy, however, has led to an
increase in discrimination against women in employment:
https://www.economist.com/china/2018/07/26/chinas-two-child-policy-is-having-unintended-consequences
New US Sanctions Undermine Moderates in the Iranian Government
In May, President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the agreement reached in 2015 between Iran and the international community concerning Iran's nuclear fuel enrichment program. (See blog post of 12 May 2018). Since then, the United States has imposed new economic sanctions on Iran. These sanctions target not only Iran but banks and companies in Europe and Asia that do business with Iran; they seek to force those banks and businesses to stop investing in and trading with Iran.
The establishment of the new sanctions has strengthened the position of hardliners within the Iranian régime and forced Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who has long favored improved relations with the West, to take a more hostile position towards the United States. In short, Trump has undermined the position of moderates in the Iranian government:
https://www.npr.org/2018/08/02/634823759/trump-s-war-of-words-with-iran-comes-at-a-bad-time-for-rouhani
The establishment of the new sanctions has strengthened the position of hardliners within the Iranian régime and forced Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who has long favored improved relations with the West, to take a more hostile position towards the United States. In short, Trump has undermined the position of moderates in the Iranian government:
https://www.npr.org/2018/08/02/634823759/trump-s-war-of-words-with-iran-comes-at-a-bad-time-for-rouhani
The Future of the Welfare State
After World War II, many countries in Western Europe established
“welfare state” programs designed to reduce income inequality and to ensure
that all citizens had food, adequate housing and access to medical care. (The
United States also adopted such programs, but they were never as generous as
those established in Europe, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Canada). Today, welfare states across the globe are under increasing pressure -- from ageing populations (workers tend to be net contributors to social program funding while the elderly tend to be program beneficiaries), immigration (voters are less enthusiastic
about welfare state programs if many of the beneficiaries are immigrants)
and declining labor force participation. In an article published last month, The Economist examines how the welfare state
can survive:
https://www.economist.com/international/2018/07/12/the-welfare-state-needs-updating
https://www.economist.com/international/2018/07/12/the-welfare-state-needs-updating
