“I remember once seeing a photo of Muammar Gaddafi’s master bedroom,” wrote the Canadian novelist Douglas Coupland in the foreword to Dictators’ Homes, a book by cultural commentator Peter York that conclusively demonstrated the link between megalomania and a penchant for leopard skin and other big cat motifs. “It was in TIME or …
Libya’s Revolution, Online
Facebook and Twitter may be playing less of a role in the Libyan uprising right now than more traditional implements of revolution such as the Kalashnikov assault rifle and the RPG-7 rocket launcher, but the Interim Transitional National Council in the rebel capital of Benghazi today introduced itself to the world via a new …
How Bihar Went from Basket Case to Case Study
I visited Bihar for the first time in 1998, when its reputation for lawlessness was well-deserved. Traveling by train from Delhi, you knew exactly when you crossed the border into Bihar. That’s when groups of aggressive, ticket-less riders suddenly jumped onto the train, comfortable in the knowledge that, in Bihar, no one would …
Chinese Writer Loses Facebook Account, While Zuckerberg’s Dog Gets Own Page
He’s known as Michael Anti to Harvard and Hillary Clinton, among others. But in January, Facebook deleted the account of the Chinese media commentator because he didn’t use his legal name, Zhao Jing. Anti says Facebook’s decision cost him a profile with more than 1,000 friends and professional contacts. At first Anti says he …
Global Briefing, Mar. 9, 2011: Imperialism, ‘Experts’ and Insect Plagues
Cheer Up, Mate —Foreign Policy responds to Fareed Zakaria’s cover story on American decline with an essay by Joseph Nye (of ‘soft power’ fame). Nye calls Zakaria’s account “gloomy” and argues that America still has lots to cheer about.
Imperial Expertise — In the National, historian Manan Ahmed argues that an army of overpaid …
China Welcomes Home the New U.S. Envoy
China is a country where grand gestures play well. So when U.S. President Barack Obama appointed Republican pooh-bah Jon Huntsman Jr. as the American Ambassador to China back in 2009, Beijing was pleased to welcome such an august envoy to its shores. The excitement has since died down, particularly in recent days after Huntsman was …
The Logic of Talking and Fighting in Libya
Wait a minute: One minute Libya’s rebels are telling us that Gaddafi is offering to negotiate the terms of his ouster; the next we learn that the rebel offensive is losing momentum and taking a fearsome pounding from regime planes, tanks and artillery in Zawiya and Ras Lanuf. So was the claim that Gaddafi is ready to talk — and reports …
Harvard-Educated Facebook Activist Detained in Azerbaijan
The ripples of the Arab revolutions have reached the Caspian Sea. Inspired by youth-led uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, activists in the oil-rich, former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan used Facebook to announce Azerbaijan’s own “day of rage” on March 11. It’s unclear how many people will heed the call, but, as in other authoritarian …
International Women’s Day: A View From A Broad in London
U.S. TV producer Caryn Mandabach first got the idea for the TV series Nurse Jackie when she visited her goddaughter, who was working as a nurse in hospital in a tough New York neighborhood. On the subway, Mandabach found herself riding next to a woman balancing a basket on her head. The basket began to shudder and a serpent appeared at …
Iran: Rafsanjani Ouster a Defeat for Regime’s anti-Ahmadinejad Camp
Prospects for significant reform within Iran’s regime suffered a serious blow, Tuesday, with the news that former President Hashemi Rafsanjani has been unseated as chairman of the powerful Guardian Council Assembly of Experts, an 86-member body of clerics which has the authority to unseat the country’s Supreme Leader — and which will …
In Shanghai, Barbie’s Dream House Crumbles
To me, it sounded like a nightmare: six-stories of jewel-encrusted plastic, all tied up in pink. But for Mattel, the iconic American toymaker, the opening of Shanghai’s Barbie superstore in Mar. 2009 was a dream come true. Here, in 36,000-square-feet of doll-drenched retail space, Chinese women and girls would fall headlong for the …
Global Briefing, Mar. 8, 2011: Homophobes, Strongmen and Rebellious Women
She-Rebels — “Well-behaved women rarely make history,” Emmeline Pankhurst, the leader of Britain’s womens suffrage movement, once said. In honor of Pankhurst — and International Women’s Day — TIME profiles 16 of history’s most wonderfully rebellious women.
France’s Far Right — A second poll has confirmed that Marine Le Pen, …
New French Poll, Same Result: Marine Le Pen Leads All Presidential Rivals
After the controversy of the first poll comes confirmation in the second. Just 48 hours after a Harris Interactive survey simulating voter intention for the first round of France’s 2012 presidential election found extreme-right leader Marine Le Pen finishing first, a second wave of polling not only reaffirms Le Pen’s domination of …