Section: The Huffington Post (USA)
What rising protests in South Africa say about attitudes towards local government
Mashupye Herbert Maserumule, Tshwane University of TechnologyThe euphoria of South Africa’s 2016 municipal elections is at its peak, with political parties parading their manifestos, all in competition for a stake in the local sphere of government.The razzmatazz is deafening. But, it blurs a vexing question: what does governing in the...
Candidates’ Commitment to Human Rights Should Play Crucial Role in UN Secretary-General Election
Image: United Nations. Stock Photo. Pixabay.com As the world watches Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump compete for the U.S. presidency, another important election campaign is under way that could have a huge impact on human rights internationally — the jockeying to succeed Ban Ki-moon as head of the United Nations. Over the past few years,...
Using Bread-and-Butter Issues to Try to Foment Political Change in the Former Soviet Union
Image: Map of the Former Soviet Union It hasn’t been a good year for Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev. The country’s petroleum-based economy continues to suffer from the low price of oil. Radical Islamists made international headlines by attacking a gun store and a National Guard facility in the western city of Aktobe early...
7 Countries With Their Own Versions Of Donald Trump
Donald Trump may be a distinctly American figure, but his politics are far from unique to the U.S. He is part of a wave of far-right populists around the world, especially in Europe, that has grown in power in the wake of the mass migration of refugees from the Middle East and Africa, and a number of deadly terror attacks.These demagogues are...
Some Soccer Brass in the Former Soviet Union Yawn Over Fan Violence
Image: Soccer fans. Stock Photo. Pixabay.com Soccer fans around the world were outraged when an official of Russia’s football federation praised Russian thugs who attacked English fans in the stands where Russia and England had fought to a 1-1 tie in the European Championships. But the fact is that some soccer kingpins in the former Soviet...
Russia’s ‘Pivot to China’ Was All Talk and Little Action
MOSCOW — Chinese officials have visited Russia, the Russian government has announced plans to increase trade volume with China by $200 billion in the next few years and the China National Petroleum Corporation has expressed interest in increasing its stake in Russian oil giant Rosneft. So, is Russia pivoting to China or not? This question...
Putin’s Orlando Response Shows Russia Doesn’t Always Want to Be America’s Enemy
The massacre in Orlando is not just a tragedy for America, but a tragedy for the whole world. Leaders of many countries lamented this murder of innocent civilians. Russia did so as well, and I, being Russian, was quite surprised by this gesture, since the killing took place in a gay nightclub. Although he didn’t directly acknowledge the...
The Doomsday Clock
Nuclear Weapons, Climate Change, and the Prospects for SurvivalCross-posted with TomDispatch.com[This essay is excerpted from Noam Chomsky’s new book, Who Rules the World? (Metropolitan Books).] In January 2015, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists advanced its famous Doomsday Clock to three minutes before midnight, a threat level that had...
Brits Should Look to America Before Voting on Brexit
Donald Trump’s success in the U.S. is not unique. Europe is being buffeted by similar populist currents. Illiberal, nationalist governments rule Hungary and Poland. Austria nearly elected a right-wing nationalist as president. Anti-EU leftists share power in Portugal. Swiss voters have targeted immigration and Islam. The Dutch recently...
How Constitutional Revisions Fatten the Already Porky Leaders in the Former Soviet Union
Image: Kremlin. Stock Photo. Pixabay.com Constitutions are supposed to be the ultimate guarantor of citizens’ rights, but cunning leaders in the former Soviet Union often manipulate them for their own ends, not the people’s. The most egregious manipulation of the constitutional-revision process is changing the document to allow a...
