After several interruptions, I’ve finally finished the best book to land on my desk this year: “It Happened On The Way To War,” by Rye Barcott, a former Marine who has devoted his life to bringing development to one of the world’s worst slums. The book (published by Bloomsbury) chronicles the creation of Carolina for Kibera (CFK), a …
Human rights
Conflict over Abyei: Why Sudan Stands “Close to the Precipice of War”
In the last year, to visit Sudan has been to undertake an exercise in schizophrenia. In the run-up to a referendum in January on whether to split Africa’s largest country in two, the mostly Christian south was – against all odds – about to pull off a peaceful and credible referendum on independence, despite medieval poverty and barely …
Israel’s Concerns in the Jordan Valley Are Not Just About Security
When he addresses a joint session of Congress next week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is sure to mention the Jordan River Valley. He usually does when the topic is peace talks and Israel’s security. Netanyahu is among those who insist that, as a condition for withdrawing Israeli troops from the high ground that makes up …
South Africa: A Loss for the ANC, a Win for Democracy
Early results in South Africa’s local elections suggest gains for the opposition, indicating a gradual but profound shift of power in Africa’s economic and political powerhouse. The ruling African National Congress (ANC), the party that defeated apartheid in 1990 under Nelson Mandela, will remain the ruling force in South Africa. But a …
Mandela: Is This Any Way To Treat an Icon?
South Africa’s local elections has given the world its first glimpse of Nelson Mandela since he was hospitalized in January. It is not a pretty picture. In this short video released by the South African government, a mass of election officials and other staff crowd an all but inert Mandela at his home in Johannesburg and explain – …
Have Foreigners Unwittingly Adopted Victims of Baby-Selling in China?
In recent years, one of China’s most beloved exports has been babies adopted by overseas individuals eager to complete their families and help needy children. Now an investigation by respected Chinese magazine Caixin has uncovered evidence of Chinese family-planning officials taking children from local couples who supposedly had …
In Talks With China on Human Rights, ‘Stability’ Becomes U.S. Buzzword
U.S. officials seem to have found a new buzzword when talking about human rights in China—stability. As the two countries’ Strategic and Economic Dialogue opened Monday in Washington, both Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton raised the prospect of greater domestic stability in China through improved human …
Global Briefing, May 9, 2011: Socialists, Sellouts and Star Witnesses
Lessons Learned — On Battleland, Mark Thompson mulls the most important lessons of the OBL saga; TIME editors Nancy Gibbs and Bobby Ghosh and political columnist Joe Klein discuss the implications — short-term and long — of the killing.
Open Doors —In the Hindu, Nirupama Subramanian urges India to take advantage of the …
Writing on the Wall: Hong Kong Artists Campaign for Ai Weiwei
My neighborhood has changed. The street’s sole piece of graffiti — a spray-painted picture of Hello Kitty defecating — has vanished. In its place: a portrait of missing Chinese artist, Ai Weiwei.
It’s been more than a month since Ai was seen in mainland China. But, suddenly, he’s everywhere in Hong Kong. I’ve seen his face …
Tightening the Leash on China’s Internet—And a Bubbly Chinese Tech IPO
May 4 is known in Chinese history as the day in 1919 when university students in Beijing began nationalist protests that eventually led to an intellectual movement championing, among other things, democratic reform. So it was rather ironic that Chinese officials chose that day in 2011 to announce the creation of a new agency called the …
In the Country Where the War on Terror Began, bin Laden’s Death offers Cold Comfort
On the corner of Moi and Haile Selassie Avenues in downtown Nairobi, a small, grassy garden favored by office workers on a lunch break, where a takeaway stand sells quarter chickens for 120 Kenyan shillings ($1.40), marks the start of the war on terror. It was here, at 10.30am on August 7, 1998, that Osama bin Laden first made good on …
The Other Shoe? Egypt Moves to Ease Gaza Siege
Egypt’s announcement that it will open its border crossing with the Gaza Strip — loosening the siege of the Palestinian enclave Egypt has helped Israel carry out — has the sound of the other shoe dropping. Coming one day after word that the post-Mubarak government had brokered a tentative unity accord between rival Palestinian …
In Human Rights Talks, U.S. Raises Concerns About China’s Crackdown
After two days of talks in Beijing on human rights, a U.S. representative expressed concern about the recent crackdown in China and the lack of information about several activists being held incommunicado by police. “In recent months we’ve seen a serious backsliding on human rights and a discussion of these negative trends dominated the …