World View >> Tracking the big debates in China, India, Russia SouthAmerica & the Middle East
The Return of Russian Agent 90-60-90: Jeffrey Tayler
For reasons that remain unclear, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev has intensified his campaign to convince Russians that he is no lame duck, even after dropping his candidacy for a second term in favor of prime minister (and political mentor) Vladimir Putin. It's not going well.
“Perhaps the biggest blunder came last week when Medvedev posted on his blog a video of himself wearing a cerulean T-shirt and swinging a badminton racket to promote the sport," wrote Alexander Bratersky in the Moscow Times. "The outgoing president, who was shown swatting a shuttlecock with Putin, touted badminton as a way to develop managerial skills and called for the sport to be added to school programs. But the stunt, in which Medvedev came across more as a sports commentator than a politician, failed to impress anyone except, perhaps, his fan club Medvedev Girls, who played badminton in honor of the president on Red Square last week.”
Minter: China’s ’Birth Tourism’ Isn’t About the U.S.
Why do wealthy Chinese women fly to the United States to give birth? Last week, this phenomenon known as “birth tourism” became a national topic of discussion in China when a rumor circulated that Wang Baoqiang, a baby-faced A-list movie star who is popular for his comedies, had accompanied his pregnant wife to Los Angeles, where she is to give birth to the couple’s second child.
If one goes by the conventional U.S. wisdom about “birth tourism” featured recently in American news media, the answer is self-evident: Children born in the U.S. are entitled to U.S. passports, free American education and other rights of U.S. citizenship that are not readily available to their Chinese-born parents. This is a neat (if self-flattering) explanation that undoubtedly finds support in the growing number of "birthing centers" in Los Angeles and New York that cater to Mainland Chinese clients.
Sympathy for Lula’s Cancer, Outrage Over Posh Care: Dom Phillips
On Oct. 29, the news broke that Brazil's former president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, had throat cancer. Reaction and counter-reaction quickly roiled blogs and social networks, and it divided Brazilians to a striking degree.
The immediate, overwhelming response was one of support and sympathy. This was to be expected: Lula, as he's universally known, isn't just the most popular president, but also the most popular ex-president in Brazilian history -- a charismatic politician who served through two terms of unprecedented economic growth.
Culture War Ensnares a Beloved Indian Epic: Choudhury
Returning to New Delhi early last month, after two weeks on the road without much exercise, I passed my neighborhood park (where 10 laps every evening provide the reflective state of mind and the adrenalin that lead to columns such as this one) and realized there would be no run for me that day.
It was the festival of Dussehra -- the day on which the victory of the godly king Rama of Ayodhya over his 10-headed antagonist Ravana of Lanka, and indeed of Good over Evil, is celebrated across India. In the middle of my park towered three effigies, each 40 feet high, of the bloodthirsty Ravana, to be burnt to ashes that evening like hundreds of other effigies across the city. As dusk fell, the streets of my neighborhood filled with hundreds of visitors, mostly families resplendent in festival finery, the children wearing red horns and piping on whistles and bugles, rippling with pleasure at the prospect of the shared narrative and spectacle that would soon unfold in front of them.
Islamist Win in Tunisia Sparks Worry About Egypt: Noe & Raad
Oct. 31 -- Since the Arab uprisings began in Tunisia almost one year ago, commentators in the regional media have debated what elections might mean for states liberated from dictatorship.
Tunisia, appropriately enough, spoke first, with national voting last week producing better than expected results for the Islamist party Ennahdha, which took 41% of the seats in the constituent assembly. Among secular commentators, worries about the outcome were muted, given the moderate nature of Ennahdha. Still, concerns were high that more conservative Islamists would do well in parliamentary elections in Egypt, to be held in three rounds starting in November. In the Egyptian daily Al-Masri al-Youm, columnist Dr. Amro az-Zanat wrote:
Even Brazil's Sports Minister Succumbs to Scandal: Dom Phillips
"Ten reasons to be indignant about corruption," proclaimed the Oct. 26 issue of Brazilian news weekly Veja as it hit newsstands. On its cover, the magazine listed what could be done with the 85 billion reais "embezzled by corrupt Brazilians in the last year."
Options included eradicating extreme poverty, constructing 150 miles (241 kilometers) of new subway lines, reducing the interest rate by 1.2 percentage points and funding 2 million scholarships for master's degrees.
A Requiem for Russia's Liberal President: Jeffrey Tayler
Not long ago, many in Russia and abroad perceived Dmitri Medvedev, Russia's current president and likely future prime minister, as a liberal counterweight to Vladimir Putin, the current prime minister and likely future president. Lately, the illusion has faded.
Protesting students awaited Medvedev at a recent visit to the journalism department of Moscow State University. According to news service Lenta.ru, they bore placards with messages such as “Don’t You Regret Spending Budgetary Funds On Such ‘Elections,’” “Why Did You Fire [former Finance Minister Alexei] Kudrin" and “Why Are You On Twitter While Khodorkovsky Sits In Prison,” referring to jailed former oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky. The Federal Guard Service quickly rounded them up and took them to a nearby detention center, not quite the response one would expect from a liberal administration.
Basketball-Crazy China Sees Opportunity in NBA Lockout: Adam Minter
How is China, the world’s largest basketball-loving nation, taking to the National Basketball Association’s ongoing labor strife and the increasingly likely prospect that the 2011–2012 season will be cancelled? Not well.
On Oct. 24, Guan Weijia, vice-director of the basketball department at Titan Sports, China’s leading sports newspaper, wrote a column about the player lockout in the Beijing News titled, “Everybody is a demon.” In it, he said that NBA Commissioner David Stern was “the demon of all demons and he is Satan who is the King of demons in this labor dispute.” Guan was not much kinder to Billy Hunter, the executive director of the NBA Player’s Union, and his role in the fruitless negotiations:
'Paid News' Is Rotting India's Democracy: Choudhury
In a first in India's electoral history, a sitting legislator, Umlesh Yadav, was disqualified from office last week by the Election Commission of India for providing a false account of the expenditures incurred on her election campaign.
At first glance, the disqualification didn't appear to be of great consequence: it applied not to a member of Parliament but rather to a lawmaker in a state legislative assembly; the politician in question belonged to a minor political party; she was disqualified on what appeared to be an accounting technicality; and she had only four months left of her tenure in any case. But the precedent set by the Election Commission's decision had enormous implications for India's rambunctious and rule-bending electoral politics, where the stakes are so high and money flows so freely that politicians (many of whom own or control media outlets themselves) have succeeded in buying out sections of the fourth estate at elections, guaranteeing masses of propaganda that are published in newspapers as reporting.
In the Mideast, Spinning Qaddafi's Death However it Suits: Noe & Raad
Oct. 24 -- Almost every dramatic turn in this year's Arab uprisings has provided the Mideast's main actors a chance to indulge in utter hypocrisy. The demise of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi proved no exception.
From Lebanon, the militant Shiite movement Hezbollah congratulated “the Libyan people for turning the page on a regime that has delivered oppression and tyranny to the country for more than four decades.”