The international terrorist attack on Kampala, Uganda, by Somalia’s al-Shabaab militants is clearly a wakeup call for the U.S. and its allies in the Eastern Africa region. The militants claimed responsibility for bombs planted in two Kampala venues showing the World Cup final on July 11. The attack killed over 76 people.
The Ides of Berlusconi approach for Italy.
What’s so Islamic about the leadership of the Islamic Republic?
While we applaud the International Monetary Fund’s cancellation of Haiti’s debt, we are alarmed that in the six months since Haiti’s devastating earthquake, the IMF has saddled the country with millions of new loans. Haitians must direct scarce resources to rebuilding — now and into the future, not to debt service payments to international bankers. What’s worse, according to the IMF, these new loans focus on developing “the textiles and tourism industries.”
Clear away, for the moment, the repression, the bombings, the rocket attacks, the fence, the religions, the national aspirations and resentments — and just take a closer look at Israel and the West Bank. It’s not hard to do. Open Google Earth and cruise over this conflicted piece of territory, concentrating your attention on signs of human habitation.
Who would have thought that the evil team bent on destroying the world would be composed entirely of people of color? In the imagination of Hollywood, after all, the bad guys are now white guys like the scientists gone bad in Spiderman or those jokers in Batman or the military privateers of Avatar. Occasionally, scriptwriters will dust off a rogue Russian or sprinkle a few Arab terrorists in the mix or persuade Forest Whitaker to play Idi Amin. But for the most part, post-Arendt, we now associate evil with banality, and there is nothing more banal than plain vanilla.
Hundreds of vibrant panels, contrasting in color and varying in size, collectively comprise a 300-foot long mural. Among the most striking images are giant oil-covered pelicans and helpless fish dying in their contaminated environment. Alongside these paintings are passionate hand-written messages that evoke both curiosity and sympathy. Together, the messages tell a story of corporate irresponsibility, environmental devastation, and a vital need for sustainability. “I am mourning the gulf and pray this is not the beginning of the end,” reads one. Another person has written, “For 200 years we’ve been conquering the nature. Now we are beating it to death.”
On a busy day, Shanghai’s World Expo can usher in crowds on par with the population of Boston. A ticket gets you dazzling oddball architecture, glittering ceremonies, and long, sweat-drenched lines. This is the latest episode in Shanghai’s aspiration to join the top tier of global cities that assert their worldwide political, cultural and economic influence. It is but one phase in China’s tectonic physical transformation, fueled by near-perennial double-digit growth and ethereal land valuations.
A bill that outlaws NGOs that provide information to the likes of the UN further threatens the already shaky foundations of Israeli democracy.
The past colonial possessions of the United States seem to have slipped from public consciousness. Most American troops left Cuba, the Philippines, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic many decades ago, so little more could be expected of a nation that hardly remembers the two wars it is currently fighting.