Addressing the rag-tag citizens’ army on the barricades of Madrid in 1936 preparing to face the fascist army massed to storm the city, Dolores Ibarruri — the revolutionary better known as La Pasionaria — laid out the creed of those who would give their lives to defend Spanish democracy: “It is better to die on our feet than to live on …
Libya’s Collateral Damage: Red-Faced Royalty, Shamed Soldiers
“There is no such thing as bad publicity—except your own obituary,” joked the Irish writer Brendan Behan. Since I blogged on Friday about the controversy surrounding Prince Andrew aka the Duke of York and his role as trade envoy for Britain, initially sparked by his contacts with Saif Gaddafi but quickly shifting to his private …
The Political Fallout of India’s Telecom Scandal: Sonia’s Frenemies
India’s simmering telecom scandal has already dented the reputation of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Now, it may soon inflict some political damage to Singh’s Congress Party. At stake is the party’s alliance with a regional partner, the DMK, led for the last 40 years by the charismatic poet-politician M. Karunanidhi. With …
And The Winner Is…Marine Le Pen
French politicians and pundits were in an tizzy Monday following the publication Sunday of a new poll showing extreme-right leader Marine Le Pen winning the first round of presidential voting were it held now. In it, Le Pen—who took over the presidency of the National Front (FN) party in January from her father, Jean-Marie Le …
Why Asia’s Men in Green are Celebrating
It’s budget time in Asia, and the men in uniform (along with their numerous plainclothes colleagues) must be thrilled. In China, where the rubber-stamp National People’s Congress (NPC) has gathered for its annual confab in Beijing, the military was gifted a 12.7% increase in spending, bringing its yearly coffers to $91.5 billion. …
Global Briefing, Mar. 7, 2011: War Crimes, People Power and Governments Behaving Badly
Forgotten Genocide: In the New York Times, New Delhi correspondent Lydia Polgreen reports from Bangladesh about the country’s belated efforts to investigate the massacres that led up to its independence in 1971, when over a million people (up to three million, by some estimates) may have been killed by the Pakistani army and its Bengali …
Rule of Law, the Killer App that Keeps Crashing in China
I read Fareed Zakaria’s cover story this week about the decline of the U.S. first from the perspective of an American, but I couldn’t help thinking about what it had to say about China. China is of course seen as the leading rival to American dominance. He quotes Harvard historian Niall Ferguson on the background of how this came to …
Is the Obama Administration Losing its Fear of Islamists?
Has President Barack Obama, as the old saying goes, stopped worrying and learned to love the Muslim Brotherhood? Not exactly. But the Washington Post reports Friday on the first green shoots of what may turn out to be a maturing of the United States’ response to Islamist movements in the Middle East. In light of the possibility that …
Libya: Talk of Intervention Continues, While Others Look at What May Follow Gaddafi
Massimo Calabresi summarizes President Obama’s thinking on Libya:
Obama clarified the U.S. position today, saying that he wanted to make sure “the United States has full capacity to act — potentially rapidly — if the situation deteriorated in such a way that you had a humanitarian crisis on our hands or a situation in which
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Couch Potato Briefing: Five Movies that Explain the Week’s Events
Compiled by Tony Karon and Ishaan Tharoor
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9pl7IWPx5E&feature=fvst]
Downfall
The movie to watch apropos Libya this week is one you’ve seen before. Well, not the whole movie, but the scene of Hitler berating his generals as they break the news to him that the Red Army is closing in on …
Rebuilding Chile: Harder Than Rescuing Miners?
Chilean President Sebastián Piñera was riding high in the polls last October when he led the globally celebrated rescue of 33 trapped miners. But since then, his 63% approval rating has dropped below 50% as the glow of the rescue fades and Chileans ponder the harder task before them: rebuilding the central swath of the country hit by …
Why Are Some U.S. Politicians Trying to Remove an Iranian ‘Cult’ From the Terror List?
The two leading figures of Iran’s opposition Green Movement – presidential candidates Mir Hossein Moussavi and Mehdi Karroubi are under arrest as the regime cracks down on any effort to emulate the Arab world’s democracy rebellions. But Iran’s opposition may be in store for another blow – this time, at the hands of those in Washington …
Global Briefing, Mar. 4, 2011: Ten World Stories to Inform Your Day
Manifestos — The Daily Beast re-reads the Green Book, a volume published by Gaddafi in 1975. An excerpt: “According to gynecologists women, unlike men, menstruate each month.”
Sorry, Kids — Lt. Gen. David Rodriguez apologizes (via YouTube) for the deaths of nine children in Kunar Province, Afghanistan. But, notes Wired, given …