Oxfam, the international relief and development organization, issued a deeply investigated report today detailing the effects of nearly a decade of land grabs in some of the poorest parts of the world. “Land and Power” claims that many of these large-scale land …
Human rights
Palestinian Official: Bid for U.N. Recognition Will “Salvage the Peace Process”
Slowly and possibly surely, the Palestinian approach to the United Nations endgame is emerging. And it sizes up as a relatively moderate strategy, one that suggests holding back on any attempt to charge Israel in newly available international courts as long as Israel stops expanding its settlements on Palestinian territory.
That, …
Chinese Dissidents’ Stories of Abuse in Detention Emerge
One of the great surprises about the widespread crackdown on dissent in China this spring was how many of those who were detained and later released have remained quiet. While the experiences of a few who were detained, such as the artist Ai Weiwei, did emerge, little is known about what was endured by many of the more than 100 …
Pakistan’s Floods: Deja Vu, All Over Again
These days when it rains in South Asia, it doesn’t just pour — it floods. A month of monsoon squalls has deluged hundreds of towns and villages in northwest India and Pakistan. The latter has seen the most acute flooding, and, on all evidence, has been the least prepared for it. At least 233 people have already died and 300,000 …
How John Galliano’s Criminal Conviction Sets a Poor Example for the Developing World
Few would disagree that disgraced British fashion designer John Galliano was acting like a drug- and alcohol-addled jerk. On two separate occasions at the same Paris bar last October and February, he unleashed anti-Semitic insults and was caught on video saying he loved Hitler. But if Galliano’s tirades were socially disturbing, a …
Another Slavery Scandal Uncovered in Central China
Four years after China’s last major slave labor scandal, a group of disabled men has been freed from a brick kiln in the central province of Henan after an investigation by an undercover television reporter. Some of the men had been forced to work for years without pay, enduring beatings and poor food and living conditions, the …
Dagestan: As an Insurgency Rages, a Soccer Team Rises
The Washington Post ran a lengthy feature Tuesday on the violence in Dagestan, the restive Muslim-majority republic in Russia’s North Caucasus region whose troubles have long hovered under the radar as the world fretted over the Chechen insurgency and Moscow’s tensions with independent Georgia to the south. Yet, as this 2009 U.S. …
Looking to Invest? How About China’s New Frontier?
Looking for a place to invest in China? How about Xinjiang, or the “New Frontier,” as the northwestern autonomous region is known in Mandarin? Home to the Uighur people—a Turkic group that briefly helmed two self-proclaimed republics called East Turkestan in the 1930s and ‘40s—Xinjiang seethes with resentment toward the …
China’s Latest Crackdown Targets the Internet—and Katy Perry
Another day, another crackdown in China. This time the country’s raucous virtual community, with 485 million Internet users, is feeling the heat. State censors have always policed what appears on the domestic social media sites that have flourished even as Western sites like Facebook and Twitter have been blocked. But various new rules
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Old Man vs Rude Kid: South Africa’s (Poor) Substitute Democracy
If ever proof was needed that competition – and its political manifestation, democracy – is as humanly innate as Darwin claimed, it is in the constant, sometimes violent challenges that confront one-party states. The Arab world is experiencing the ultimate expression of the universal opposition to a life without choice and the desire …
China’s Security Chief Goes on Tour—How Is Asia Reacting?
Over the past week, as I’ve traveled across Asia, I’ve discovered an unlikely partner in my continental peregrinations: China’s security chief Zhou Yongkang. The senior Chinese envoy’s travels have taken him to Nepal, Laos, Cambodia and Tajikistan. The final stop is Mongolia, where Zhou is expected to head on Tuesday.
In …
South Sudan? Where? Don’t ask Google Maps.
An excellent guest blog on how technology can struggle to keep up with giant human events, from TIME’s East Africa correspondent and Sudan specialist, Alan Boswell.
If a new country is born, and no one sees it online, does it really exist? More than a month after South Sudan’s independence, the new African nation is still not on …
Prime Minister Obama: Would the U.S. Be Better Served by a Parliament?
Over at the GPS Blog, Fareed Zakaria asks a pointed and valuable question: “Does America need a Prime Minister?” Given the paralysis and farce that has gripped Washington in recent months, it’s worth considering. As Zakaria observes, presidential systems never resolve the “basic contest for legitimacy” between the power of the …