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February 23, 2011
The dramatic rise of Arab people against their oppressive rulers reached its climax in Libya. An oil-rich large country, sparsely populated, Libya in the last few days has been the scene of the worst possible violence against pro-democracy demonstrators. Every day, Gaddhafi’s 5,000-strong heavily armed security troops are busy increasing the death toll, which now… » read more
Reuters reports that Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on Monday condemned violence by Libyan forces against civilians as “unacceptable” and said he was “alarmed” over the situation in the North African state, after he was criticised widely for not speaking up earlier on Libya and saying that he did not want to “disturb” Gaddafi during… » read more
More than two months since the second round of elections in Cote d’Ivoire, the international community faces a big dilemma. Technically flawless elections delivered a result which was not accepted by the incumbent Laurent Gbagbo. Three options are now in sight: protracted deadlock, military intervention and power-sharing.
February 16, 2011
Being at the World Social Forum in Dakar last week and listening to people, speeches as well participating at debates I sincerely got the impression that the relationship between Africa and Europe also needs change. Like the North African states, Europe has for too long defended “traditional” cooperation. From the time of independence – 50 […]
February 14, 2011
About two weeks ago, the US Secretary of State still believed that “the Egyptian government is stable”. Not to be outdone, the department’s spokesman, PJ Crowley, proclaimed to the world that Egypt was “an anchor of stability”. These assessments come after a long series of mistakes and blunders that seem to have become the hallmark… » read more
Watching events unfold in Cairo over the last two weeks, towards the dramatic climax of Hosni Mubarak’s resignation, has been an exciting and moving experience, reminiscent of those days when we watched the collapse of communism and the spread of democracy across central and eastern Europe 20 years ago. But it presents a formidable challenge… » read more
‘Islam Awakes!‘ That’s what the news ticker said on the monitors of the press area of the European Council building on 4 February. Mubarak had already announced he was going. The European Council was in its usual secret session, closed to the press and closed to the public. On its agenda the topic of most… » read more
February 11, 2011
While Yasmin Revolution in Tunisia inspired population throughout Arab world and wide support to change regime got decisive role in Egypt it was clear that Tunisia was not an isolated event – some process has started with geopolitical consequences. Mubarak’s ouster in Egypt is one step with process and it is still unclear how far… » read more
Much fuss is currently being made in Austria and elsewhere of latest revelations on fraudulent exploitation of the Common Agricultural Policy. In “The Black Book of Agriculture – the intrigue of agricultural politics”, one Hans Weiss has opened the lid on fraud and misapplication of CAP subsidies in Austria. The book made headlines in Austria,… » read more
February 9, 2011
After almost one week of tribulations, the European Commission has officially announced that it will put together aid packages to help smooth Tunisia’s and Egypt’s transition to democracy. The United States and Israel are still claiming that sticking with the “devil you know” could prove a better option, in spite of evidence to the contrary… » read more
January 31, 2011
At the start of his presidency, Barack Obama spoke about his administration’s intentions to mend fences with the Islamic world. In hindsight, we might be forgiven to think that he meant Kenya’s Islamic community and not the Arab one. The plight of Arabs living in US-backed authoritarian states does not seem to get the same… » read more
January 30, 2011
To the casual observer, Kazakhstan can be a tricky country to get to grips with. In 2010 they scored a major diplomatic coup by becoming the first post-Soviet country to chair the OSCE, where they hosted the stagnant organisation’s first summit in 11 years. While its neighbour Kyrgyzstan descended in chaos, Kazakhstan seemeed an oasis… » read more
January 29, 2011
The biggest leak of confidential documents in the history of the Middle East conflict began on Sunday, 23th January 2011 by the Al-Jazeera website with Britain’s Guardian newspaper. A cache of thousands of pages of confidential Palestinian records covering more than a decade of negotiations with Israel and the US has been […]
December 25, 2009
China’s loss of US export markets has determined Chinese officials to invest huge amounts of money into the construction of a 16,000-km fast train network, to be fully completed by 2020. During the first three quarters of 2009, investment in fixed assets like factories and railroads has amounted to more than 90 percent of China’s… » read more
