Twelve-year-old Chen Le is a typical Chinese kid. He loves flying paper airplanes, plays Ping-Pong and dreams of becoming a scientist. And he aims one day to join the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) so, as Chen puts it, “I can puff out my chest and say I am a party member.” The public school that Chen attends in China’s southwestern …
Democracy
Strauss-Kahn Still Casting Shadows Over French Socialist Presidential Primaries
With expectations high that New York prosecutors may drop their sexual assault case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn prior to their looming Aug. 1 court date, the former International Monetary Fund chief is apparently trying to resume something closer to the normal life he led before his May 14 arrest. On July 15, Strauss-Kahn and wife …
From the Magazine: The Rise of Moderate Islam
As we wait for the Salafi leader Kamal Habib at the Cairo Journalists’ Union, a sudden panic comes over me. I’ve just noticed that my translator, Shahira Amin, an Egyptian journalist, is wearing a sleeveless top and that her hair is uncovered. In my experience, Salafis, adherents of a very strict school of Islam, take a dim view of such …
Envious Of U.S. Debt Ceiling Conflict, France Considers One Of Its Own
Were Paul Krugman to be inhabited by the not-so-kindred soul of Ronald Reagan, the Nobel prize-winning economist and New York Times columnist might be looking towards Europe airing the disapproving lament, “Well, there you go again”. And just who would the culpable “you” up to something iffy again be? French President Nicolas …
Tear Gas Erupts as Malaysia Detains Hundreds of Protesters
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s capital, has always been a city redolent with tropical blooms. In recent weeks, the country’s opposition has been hoping to add a note of jasmine—of the political, not floral variety—to the air by calling for nationwide electoral reform. On Saturday, however, another scent was added to Kuala …
Marx, Bonaparte and the Egyptian Revolution: Another Friday in Tahrir Square
Karl Marx’s 19th century political journalism holds up a lot better than do his general theories of capitalism, socialism and history. Indeed, the father of modern communism may well have nailed the nature of the 2011 revolution in Egypt in The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, a tract written by the German in 1852. And Friday’s …
What Tristane Banon’s Novels Tell Us About DSK’s French Accuser
As the battle between New York prosecutors and Dominique Strauss-Kahn continues to disintegrate into what increasingly looks like a legal paintball war using bazookas and rotten fruit (seemingly paralyzing hits of semi-gelatinous melon and fungoid kumquat being regularly scored by both sides), the French are taking closer look at the …
The Dominique Strauss-Kahn Story: A Cottage Industry For Theme-Seeking Journalists
Though it wasn’t deafening enough to mark the official opening of journalism’s summer Silly Season, a recent chorus of articles improvising on the Dominique Strauss-Kahn topic does merit the momentary elevation of the discerning reader’s eyebrow. Come on colleagues: this caper is sensational and dramatic enough on its own to …
Turkey Inspires Islamists and Liberals, But in Very Different Ways
Everybody wants a piece of Turkey. On my sweep through Egypt and Tunisia, virtually everyone I met invoked the nation that bestrides the Bosphorus as one they’d like their own country to emulate. The Turks had just had a general election, and Arabs had watched it unfold on Al Jazeera and other TV channels. The vote was clean, mostly …
French Military Admits Supplying Arms and Ammo To Libyan Rebels
U.S. President Barack Obama soon won’t be alone in taking flack about the legality of certain moves he’s made on Libya. On Wednesday, French military officials confirmed press reports that France has dropped arms and ammunition to Libyan rebels in what will doubtless spark protests that such action violates limitations the United …
Greece’s Turmoil: A Brief History of the General Strike
As Greece withstands the second day of a 48-hour general strike shutting down much of the country, it’s worth considering the history of this radical, dramatic tactic. The pervasive feeling in the debt-ridden Mediterranean country seems to be a sense that something has altogether broken in their society. One middle-aged Greek told TIME …
France’s Marathon Presidential Campaign Set To Finally Begin–Sort Of
French Socialists hoping to win their party’s presidential primary and qualify for France’s 2012 general election are lined up, throwing elbows, and ready to sprint when the gun for that nomination contest is fired Tuesday. And if that starting line jostling weren’t proof enough that race for the Elysée is about to begin, …
China Pandas to Public Opinion in Britain
He called us his “dear friends from the press” and said he wished “to announce a piece of good news.” Chinese premier Wen Jiabao, on his first trip to London since David Cameron entered Downing Street, appeared in the most cordial of spirits at a June 27 press conference with Britain’s Prime Minister. And Wen’s news, or at least the
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