The Great Firewall of China has switched into high gear. First, Twitter went dark, undoubtedly a consequence of the recently tweeted demonstrations in Iran and Beijing’s subsequent fears that they could be replicated in Urumqi. Then, Twitter’s social networking cousin Facebook got the axe. What are we to do? In the past I’d have likely [...]
In reading this wonderfully erudite and interesting essay about Iran by the British writer Martin Amis, this passage jumped out: In 1997, the regime felt confident enough to sanction the surprise victory of President Muhammad Khatami, who won by the same landslide margin of 69% in a joyous election that no one disputed. Khatami, a [...]
No country in the world conjures up the image of ‘the masses’ quite like China. News stories about China invariably contain stock footage of thousands of black-haired men and women walking on crowded city streets, as if the population were a billion-strong army marching lockstep under the direction of the Chinese Communist Party. Foreigner conversation [...]
I’ve long been skeptical about the role of Twitter in fomenting political change. Skeptical until this Xinjiang uprising, that is. Before the Chinese government blocked the service midday Monday, I read two eyewitness reports, saw several photographs, and read several articles about what had happened. Keep in mind that I follow only about 100 people. [...]
One by one, President Obama’s potential Republican rivals are being dispatched like video game villains. To wit: Bobby Jindal, governor of Louisiana, delivered such a feeble rebuttal to Obama’s quasi-State of the Union speech that he has since shrunk back into anonymity. Mark Sanford, governor of South Carolina, hiked the Appalachian Trail Jon Huntsman, governor [...]
Near the end of an interesting article about Russia’s unpopularity among its neighboring countries, Ellen Barry explains the nub of the problem: Herein lies the problem: Russia’s appeal to them just does not sound very seductive. Ideally, it would present an attractive model for its neighbors, politically and economically. Young generations would learn Russian because [...]