World View >> Tracking the big debates in China, India, Russia SouthAmerica & the Middle East
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.”
Medvedev or Putin, What's the Difference?: Jeffrey Tayler
In the wake of the Russian diarchy’s decision to swap roles following 2012 presidential elections, President Dmitri Medvedev has become surprisingly candid about the lack of difference between him and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
“We are really not competitors, but have been close comrades and friends for the past twenty years," Medvedev said in remarks carried by the television channel Vesti 24 and reported by the newspaper Vedomosti. "If it had been otherwise, I wouldn’t have had any career in politics in Moscow at all.” He cautioned against expecting much from his upcoming stint as prime minister: “We have to figure out how to change our government, undramatically but firmly.”
China's Netizens Warn U.S. Politicians to Back Off: Adam Minter
On the sultry evening of July 21, 2005, I was having dinner in an American restaurant in Shanghai favored by expats. Shortly after 7:00p.m., over the course of less than five minutes, my four dinner companions' phones buzzed with the same news: China’s central bank had begun to allow the currency to appreciate from its seven-year peg of 8.27 yuan to the U.S. dollar, to 8.11 yuan.
This was a major surprise. Much of China’s export economy has been built on low-cost exports that a depreciated yuan made possible. While U.S. members of Congress advocated for currency revaluation, there was little reason to believe that China's bankers, or powerful manufacturers, would be interested in acceding to their wishes.
In Brazil, A Tale of Two Strikes: Dom Phillips
Brazilian unions conducted two strikes that ended in October, with very different results. Bank workers came out smiling with a generous deal. Postal workers lost a court decision, humiliatingly, in what commentators called their union's worst result in 15 years. The different outcomes said a lot about modern Brazil.
On Oct. 15, following a 21-day strike, Brazilian bank workers got what they wanted: a package of benefits, including increased profit shares, and a salary increase of 9 percent. They didn't have to make up time lost on strike.
The Miracle of India’s 1.2 Billion-Person Census: Choudhury
One Sunday morning a few months ago, there was a knock on the door of my little flat in Bombay. I opened it sleepily to find three officers of the state, who said they wanted to speak to me about something important.
If this were Stalin's Russia, I'd have been off to the gulag for the crime of poking fun at communism in my deeply allegorical novel. If this were a story by Franz Kafka, I'd have been led off for an offense mysterious even to those who had come to seize me. If this were a scenario imagined by my grandfather (a retired bureaucrat profoundly disappointed by my decision to earn my living as a wandering storyteller) then my visitors' intent would have been to persuade me to begin a career, belatedly, with the Indian Civil Service.
Covering D.C. Plot, Saudi Media Avoid Skepticism: Noe & Raad
Oct. 17 -- Almost from the moment the U.S. announced it had broken up a plot by Iranian agents to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington, the global media expressed skepticism about the case.
The Saudi-funded media proved a stark exception. As far as those outlets, which dominate the Arabic-speaking world, were concerned, there was little doubt: Iran had been caught red-handed engaging in terrorism, and the repercussions should be severe.