Monday
Nov082010
A Poem for Iran: Hila Sedighi "It's Green Again"
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Hila Sedighi
Hila Sedighi Monday
Nov082010
Afghanistan Special: How the US Kills Its Allies and Helps a New Taliban Generation (Fitzgerald)
Certainly, the killing of Sahib Jan and the rise of a new generation of more militant Taliban both point to a severe lack of "granular understanding of local circumstances". What is curious is that American officials and observers have been talking about granular understanding in Afghanistan for years. The author of the Times piece, Scott Atran, is an anthropologist, and it was anthropologists such as Montgomery McFate and David Kilcullen who advocated aid to intelligence-gathering by sending social scientists to map the "human terrain" in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Four years into the "human terrain systems" programme, why is it still possible for special forces to target a "reconciled" Taliban? Why is ISAF inadvertently killing off those Taliban with whom it is possible to negotiate?
Monday
Nov082010
Israel Analysis: What is on Netanyahu's Mind as He Visits US?
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in New Orleans for the Jewish Federations of North America General Assembly, asked US Vice President Joe Biden to create a credible threat in the form of a military campaign to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
So, the four rounds of economic sanctions in the last four years against Tehran is insufficient for West Jerusalem, which wants the prospect of US military power days after the Republicans gained the majority in the lower house of Congress. Netanyahu is reportedly prepared to support his argument with intelligence reports saying that Tehran only halted its uranium-enrichment process in 2003 when Washington was still threatening to bomb.
Netanyahu's second subject will be the deadlocked negotiations with the Palestinians.
Sunday
Nov072010
China Economy Weekly: Beijing-ASEAN Trade; Rare Earths “Not Bargaining Instrument”; 12th Five-Year Plan
China and ASEAN Trade: Premier Wen Jiabao, speaking at the 13th China-ASEAN Summit in Hanoi, Vietnam has said China is determined to develop economic ties with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
Wen proposed that bilateral trade be increased to $500 billion by 2015, promising that China will make an effort to buy more from ASEAN countries. He also suggested setting up an Industrial Cooperation Mechanism within the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area framework to handle any problems and differences that arise.
Rare Earths “Not Bargaining Instrument”: Beijing has said that it will not use rare earths as a diplomatic "bargaining tool", in response to challenges against its management of the vital metals.
Sunday
Nov072010
Iran Snapshot: The Subsidy Cuts and the Middle Class (Erdbrink)
Last year, Tehran's writers, doctors and small-business owners formed the backbone of a grass-roots opposition movement against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Now these middle-class urbanites feel they're being singled out by a government plan that will soon cut off state subsidies and boost the prices of a wide array of everyday products.
Members of Iran's middle class are already bearing the brunt of U.S. and European sanctions intended to curtail the country's nuclear weapons program. But in the coming weeks they expect to be hit again, when the cost of gasoline, bread, electricity and other staples are set to increase to market levels, with some prices possibly rising as much as tenfold. While the rural poor will be partly compensated by direct cash handouts from the state, many in Iran's cities will have to fend for themselves.
Sunday
Nov072010
Burma/Myanmar: Elections Begin Amidst Tight Security and Much Skepticism (Al Jazeera)
Polls have opened under tight security in Myanmar's first election in 20 years, but few expect it to bring any real change in power, with the military and its proxies likely to dominate parliament and senior positions.
In the commercial hub of Yangon on Sunday, armed riot police stood guard at near-empty polling booths or patrolled streets in convoys of military trucks, part of a clampdown that includes bans on foreign media and on outside election monitors.
The carefully choreographed end of direct army rule, marred by complex rules that stifled major pro-democracy forces, enters its final stage in a race largely between two powerful military-backed parties running virtually unopposed.
Sunday
Nov072010
China: Top Artist and Architect Ai Weiwei Put Under House Arrest
UPDATE 1315 GMT: The Guardian of London reports, "Hundreds of supporters of Chinese artist Ai Weiwei gathered for a party at his condemned studio in Shanghai today, as he remained under house arrest 650 miles away in Beijing."
Chinese avant-garde artist and architectural designer Ai Weiwei is being kept under house arrest for at least another 24 hours to prevent him from attending a party commemorating the forced demolition of his newly-built studio in Shanghai.
Sunday
Nov072010
The Latest from Iran (7 November): Tearing Down (the Poster of) Ahmadinejad's Men
2100 GMT: Shutting Down Khatami. The head of the Baran Foundation, linked to former President Mohammad Khatami, has declared that its activities are legal and demanded an end to filtering of the website.
He may have a difficult task with that demand: the chair of Parliament's Article 10 Commission says the Baran Foundation has no file in the Ministry of Interior and thus no right to be active.
2000 GMT: The Supreme Leader and the Clerics. Rah-e-Sabz, citing Fars, offers an explanation for Ayatollah Khamenei's follow-up trip to Qom. According to a member of the Seminaries Council, the subjects were President Ahmadinejad's obedience to the Supreme Leader, the behaviour of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, hijab and chastity, and the "Iranian School of thought".
Khamenei defended Ahmadinjead against allegations that he was divisive. The Supreme Leader said that although he did not accept some of the government's behaviours, Ahmadinejad "obeys immediately when he is told so".
Sunday
Nov072010
Obama's Message En Route to Asia: Time to Make Money
President Barack Obama's Asia tour, with stops in India, Indonesia, South Korea and Japan, has started.
As a good-bye wave before his trip, Obama's "Exporting Our Way to Stability" was published in The New York Times. The President set Washington's goal for the next five years: a doubling of exports. He added: "To do that, we need to find new customers in new markets for American-made goods. And some of the fastest-growing markets in the world are in Asia, where I’m traveling this week."
Saturday
Nov062010
Pakistan: More than 70 Killed in Friday's Mosque Bombing (Cole)
Juan Cole summarises the developments yesterday in Pakistan:
The Pakistani Taliban (Tehrik-i Taliban Pakistan) bombed two mosques in Pakistan’s Pashtun northwest on Friday, killing over 70 persons and wounding many others. CSM argues that one of the bombings, in Dara Adam Khel, was a reprisal against the Akhurwal tribe for opposing the Taliban and allying with the Pakistani army. Dara Adam Khel is a picturesque village renowned for its’ blacksmiths’ ability to handcraft rifles and other weaponry.
The Tariq Afridi faction of the Pakistani Taliban had been pushed out of Dara Adam Khel by the Pakistani government, which the Akhurwal tribe supported in this endeavor. But they had only been pushed out to the mountainous environs of the city, and can clearly come back in and wreak havoc.